There were first dates, first kisses and intentions questioned during last night's The Bachelorette fifth-season episode -- and when it was over, Jillian Harris sent four more bachelors packing in her journey to find true love via the ABC reality dating series.
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"You can't dispute someone's taste... she feels the way she feels," Julien said following his elimination. "Being in love, it's one of the best feelings in the world."
"You know obviously I'm disappointed. I could have stayed here longer and seen how it'd gone," Simon said. "Looking back, I should have maybe made more of an effort to speak to Jillian . I don't even know if we'd have clicked if we'd have spent more time. Looking at the silver lining, it might be better to leave now rather than fall in love and get heartbroken then."
The Bachelorette's second fifth-season episode began with the 20 remaining bachelors moving into a bunkhouse down the hill from Jillian's mansion. The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison then met with the men and explained that Jillian would be going on three dates -- two group dates and an individual one-on-one date -- before the next Rose Ceremony.
Jillian would be presenting a rose during each of the two group dates and the bachelors who received them would automatically be safe from elimination at the upcoming Rose Ceremony. She would also be able to present a rose during the individual date, however if the bachelor failed to receive it he would be eliminated immediately.
Chris also explained that similar to the show's fourth season, the men who received the date roses would be able to move out of the bunkhouse and into their own rooms in Jillian's mansion. In addition, Chris also had one final surprise for the men.
"Unfortunately, not everyone will be going on a date this week," he told the men.
Jillian's first group date featured eight bachelors: Brian; Michael, a 25-year-old break dance instructor from Astoria, NY; Brad, a 27-year-old financial advisor from Chicago, IL; Sasha, a 27-year-old oil and gas consultant from Tiki Island, TX; Tanner P., a 30-year-old financial analyst from Dallas, TX; Wes, a 32-year-old musician from Austin, TX; Ed, a 29-year-old technology consultant from Chicago, IL; and Mathue.
The date started with a pool party at Jillian's mansion, however shortly after it began, Jillian snuck out of the mansion and Chris informed the bachelors they'd have to team up in pairs of two and embark on a small The Amazing Race-like "Where's Jillian?" road trip to find her. After driving across Los Angeles and following a series of cryptic clues, the men would eventually find Jillian at a private restaurant. However once the winning team found her, Jillian would have decide which member would get to spend the evening with her.
Despite getting off to a rough start and bickering with each other during their hunt for her, Brad and Wes were the first team to correctly find Jillian in the Crocker Club, an old Los Angeles bank that has been transformed into a cocktail lounge.
Once they arrived, Jillian crushed Brad -- who felt he "was the brains of the operation" -- by announcing that she was picking Wes to have a private dinner with her inside the club's old bank vault.
"This is bulls--t right now," Brad told the cameras afterwards. "I won the race and Wes is having dinner with her. This is complete bulls--t... he's not here for the right reasons. I hope she can see through that."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWJillian seemed to enjoy her dinner with Wes despite Brad's opinion of him.
"There's something about Wes I'm really attracted to," Jillian said after their dinner. "He is that total, honky-tonk, Austin country-singing boy and he makes me laugh. There's all those certain things that I'm looking for in somebody and he's got them... but for some reason, there's something about him that I feel I need to protect myself from him a little bit."
After concluding her dinner with Wes with a kiss, Jillian presented him with the group date's rose.
"I think you have a lot going on, and I imagine there are a lot of girls that are interested in you... that scares me a little bit but not enough to let you go," Jillian told the musician. "You'll move into the house with me tonight. Of course you'll have your own bed but you'll hang out with me tonight and I think we'll have fun."
Jillian and Wes then rejoined the rest of the men -- who had gotten to watch security camera video of Jillian's dinner with Wes -- back outside the vault and they returned to back to the mansion and bunkhouse, where some of the other men continued to be skeptical of Wes' motives.
"I was definitely shocked he got the rose," Tanner P. said. "You always have to question somebody when they have a career and are throwing out CD's. You have to question 'Is his mind in the right place.'"
Meanwhile, Brad continued to fume over Jillian's decision to not select him for the private dinner.
"It's not fair that she chose Wes for the mansion and not myself. If it wasn't for me Wes would probably still be on the road right now," he told the cameras.
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After arriving at the bunkhouse wearing a country-western outfit, Jillian took Jake to a clothing store to outfit him in a matching outfit of his own. Once he was properly outfitted, the pair traveled to the House of Blues, where Jake took the initiative and kissed Jillian as they enjoyed a private dinner with the entire club at their disposal.
Later, the pair were surprised to learn that country star Martina McBride would be giving them a private concert.
"It is an absolute dream for me to watch Martina McBride, she a a country music legend," Jillian gushed.
After enjoying a few dances as Martina serenaded them, Jillian presented Jake with the date's rose, allowing him to remain in the competition and also join Wes in moving into The Bachelorette mansion.
"Tonight when I was dancing with Jake I imagined what my grandma and grandpa would have been like when they were our age and looked at him and I thought 'This is somebody I could spend a lot of time with,'" Jillian said afterwards. "It was perfect."
The following day, Jillian took seven more bachelors -- Jesse, a 27-year-old wine maker from Carmel Valley, CA; Mark, a 26-year-old pizza entrepreneur from Denver, CO; David, a 27-year-old trucking contractor from Dayton, OH; Mike, a 28-year-old baseball camp owner from New York, NY; Simon; Kiptyn, a 31-year-old business developer from Encinitas, CA; and Juan, a 35-year-old general contractor from Santa Monica, CA -- on a group date to Venice Beach.
After beginning the date with a pick-up basketball game in which the men tried to impress Jillian with their ball skills, Jillian surprised the bachelors by revealing they'd actually be playing against her and several Harlem Globetrotters members.
Several of the men seemed to have some decent basketball skills, but it was mild-mannered Juan -- the only group date bachelor who hadn't been a college athlete -- who seemed to impress Jillian the most when he "rescued" her when a Globetrotter left her dangling from one of the court's basketball rims.
However David didn't react well to Juan's move.
"If I got to hit somebody it would definitely be Juan, we've just been rubbing each other the wrong way the whole time, our personalities are just different," David told the cameras afterwards.
Afterward, Jillian walked the men over to the beach -- and the process, noted that she could "see the best assets" of a male beach-goer who was wearing a skimpy swimsuit.
After sitting down on the beach, Jillian joked that one of the bachelors could impress her by daring to borrow the man's swimsuit.
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Mike -- desperate to impress Jillian and upset that he had let Juan "rescue" her earlier -- then decided to follow through on her joking suggestion.
"You only live once boys!" he shouted as he streaked by and jumped into the ocean.
"I hadn't had an opportunity to talk to [Mike], but when he ran out onto the beach with the Speedo [it] melted my heart," Jillian said afterwards.
The date then continued with a poolside party at a nearby hotel, however Juan once again drew David's ire when David told the other men he was certain that Juan had only pretended to drink his liquor shot after the group toasted the evening.
"Juan poured his shot out, covered it with his hand," David said afterwards. "Who does that? That was like the fifth thing he's did like that. I can't respect that kind of thing, you're a clown."
"Some people don't know 'mancode.' I'm so pissed right now, I lost all respect [for him] tonight," David told the rest of the men as Juan spent some personal time with Jillian.
However some of the men seemed skeptical of David's claims.
"I didn't see it... no, I didn't see it, I [only] saw your eyes look at him," Jesse told David.
"You saw it... he faked it!" David shouted. "It's so disrespectful, just say you don't want a shot. Guy's like that should get beat up. There's no reason we shouldn't tie him to a tree and beat the [expletive]."
"Tie him to a tree?" a shocked Jesse replied.
"Yes, it's 'mancode,'" David responded.
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"I think a couple of guys have issues with Juan just because it seems like he puts on a show," Jesse told the cameras afterwards.
Before the date ended, Jillian presented the group date to Mike, allowing him to remain in the competition and join Wes and Jake in The Bachelorette mansion with her.
"I have to give it to the one person who has really been so spontaneous today," Jillian said as she presented the rose to him.
Before the next cocktail party and Rose Ceremony began, Wes told Jake and Mike that he wouldn't hesitate to try and spend more time with Jillian despite already having received his rose.
"I'm not here for the guys, I didn't come here to date one of them," Wes said. "I came here to get a rose from her and just because we got a rose this time doesn't mean we're safe next time."
Once the party began, Wes soon made good on his word and interrupted Robby, a 25-year-old bartender from Spring, TX who was one of the four bachelors who hadn't gotten to go on a date with Jillian, as he attempted to spend a few minutes with her.
Afterward, Robby politely confronted Wes -- who several of the men had also come to resent and continued to suspect had only come on the show to promote his music -- about cutting in on his brief one-on-one time with Jillian.
"I didn't come here to date you, at all," Wes told Robby. "Just because I have a rose doesn't mean I'm going to slow down. If anything you're going to have to step it up."
Chris then surprised Jillian and the bachelors by announcing that it was time for them to vote for "the one man you want sent home tonight." In addition, he announced that the three men who had already received roses would be excluded from the vote.
However similar to last season's The Bachelor edition, Chris stopped short of guaranteeing that the bachelor which received votes would actually be eliminated from the competition.
As the men voted, Brian -- presumably emboldened by Jillian's decision to reward Mark's earlier crazy behavior with a rose -- decided to try and impress her by stripping naked and taking a dive in the mansion's swimming pool.
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After letting the men vote and tabulating the results, Chris announced that Julien and David had received the third and second-most votes respectively and Juan had received the most votes. But, rather than being immediately eliminated, Jillian could save Juan by (just like every other bachelor at the party) choosing to give him one of her remaining Rose Ceremony roses.
Jillian then presented a rose to Juan.
"I appreciate your opinions but I'm going to give Juan the rose," Jillian told the men. "I know I've been here before and not everybody gets along and not everybody is perceived the way that maybe the way they want to be perceived."
"I really didn't want Juan to leave," Jillian told the cameras later. "Him and I have had some really great conversation. Him and I have had a great connection and I want to keep him around to see if there is something more."
The Rose Ceremony then began and Jillian proceeded to present roses to 12 additional bachelors: Jesse; David; Ed; Sasha; Mark; Michael; Tanner P.; Kiptyn; Reid, a 30-year-old realtor from Philadelphia, PA; Robby; Tanner F., a 28-year-old sales representative from Derby, KS; and Brad.
"I'm feeling disappointed," Brian said afterwards. "You feel like you're got it down pat, you're on top of the world. But then the next thing you know you're getting booted. I was bold and she apparently didn't like what she saw. Me jumping in the pool naked had a little something to do with it. I'm fairly confident, when I stripped it off, I was pretty much hung like a light switch, so maybe that killed it, because it was a little chilly out here. That could have been it, I don't know."
"I didn't see this coming, it stinks," Mathne said. "This is definitely one of the hardest rejections I've ever had. Not used to it, definitely don't want to get used to it. Just wish I could have another chance. Just wish I could show her the real me and more time with her, but obviously that's not going to happen and there's nothing else I can do."
"I've been hurt in past relationships with caused me to be kind of reserved about my feelings, kind of hold my feelings in and not let them out, but that's who I am. I think that hurt me in the long run. It hurts."
About The Author: Steven Rogers
