Recap: The Bachelorette Season 16 episode 8

We began episode 8 finding out that Chris Harrison was going to take a little bit of time off to take his son to college and his stand-in would be non-other than Bachelorette royalty, Joelle “Jojo” Fletcher.

Jojo’s first order of business is to hand out a one-on-one card for Zac C. Tayshia and Zac go on an interesting date in which they are going to do a wedding photoshoot in a bunch of different wedding dresses and tuxes. It was very odd, but honestly if she chooses him in the end they will have a really nice souvenir from this season.

After the day portion of the date, Zac and Tayshia have dinner. We finally get to see what Zac is all about. He told us all about how he wasn’t feeling well after graduating college and finding out he had a brain tumor. He told us about addiction with pain medication and alcohol. How he was just floating through life doing what he thought was supposed to do and it ultimately cost him his marriage. He hit rock bottom and was able to turn it around. Needless to say, this kind of conversation was connection forming for Tayshia and Zac and he received the rose.

I really can’t say enough about how open and honest this season has been. There have been some serious conversations about the real struggles people go through. The men and Tayshia have handled both with grace and I’m grateful to ABC for airing such honest content for once. It was the refresher we all needed.

After the one-on-one Tayshia goes on a group date with Spencer, Ivan, Ed, Blake, Brandon, Riley, Demar, Bennett, Ben, and Noah. They are in a room with a pair of nude models and are asked to draw them. Then they are given clay and asked to make something that represents their time with Tayshia. Lastly, they are given materials to make a self-portrait. All activities were in hopes of the men opening up and showing Tayshia who they really are.

Unfortunately, there was an undeniable awkwardness between Bennett and Noah. They continuned to make snide remarks to each other and Tayshia noticed.

During the self-portrait time, the men shared some very personal things about their lives such as parental divorces, personal struggles, and overcoming hardship. Ben decides at the last minute that his painting is garbage and he is not sure how to really express his feelings. He runs out of the room and changes into just a robe. He decides to completely disrobe and show Tayshia his true self.

This sent Tayshia into tears seeing how vulnerable the guys were willing to be with her. Instead of allowing just one man to spend time with her, she decides to reward their vulnerablility by hanging out with all of them. She takes time to talk to the men more about their personal struggles. The Ben disrobing seemed a bit weird until he explained to Tayshia during their private time that he was bigger growing up and ended up developing an eating disorder. Tayshia ends up giving Ben the group date rose.

The last date of the evening is a one-on-one with Eazy. They go on a “haunted house” excursion through La Quinta and bond over being scared. At dinner Tayshia and Eazy try to make connections but ultimately Tayshia could not give him the rose and sent him home.

It’s now time for the rose ceremony but Tayshia addresses the group. She lets them all know that she is aware that something is up between Noah and Bennett and they will be getting to the bottom of it before the rose ceremony.

She invites them on a 2-on-1 date in which she leaves them to talk for a few minutes. Bennett gifts Noah a condescending gift of mustache socks and a book about emotional intelligence and proceeds to tell Noah he is deficient in 3 of the 4 areas. They argue a bit and then …TBD.

Overall, I just can’t say enough about heartwarming it is to see real men sharing real stories. Keep it up ABC and men!

Group date. Redrew nude artists. Clay structure that is symbolic of time with tayshia. Self portrait opening up yourself to get time with tayshia. Obvious tension between bennet and noah making tayshia uncomfortable

Ben got group date rose.