Speaker 1: This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, we welcome to the Almost Famous Podcast. Today
Speaker 2: we welcome Ben back from his paternity leave. Wasn't long enough, right, Ben, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, it fell not long enough for me.
Speaker 4: But then when I look back on all the great
Speaker 4: content that you put out here and that you had
Speaker 4: your guest host help this is a mad then it
Speaker 4: does feel like a long time. A lot happened. I
Speaker 4: mean I watched The Bachelor this week and realized the
Speaker 4: last time I did a Bachelor breakdown with you on
Speaker 4: the Almost Famous Podcast, I think was like week two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was like twenty girls left, and now we're
Speaker 2: at hometowns. You missed like the whole boring chunk of
Speaker 2: the middle that you and I always try to get through,
Speaker 2: and you joined us in the episode that I always
Speaker 2: feel like it rams up, which is the one in
Speaker 2: which we eliminate the girls down to the hometown girls.
Speaker 4: You're right, You're right. I stuck in at the right moment.
Speaker 4: You know that's we did this on purpose nine months ago,
Speaker 4: that we'd say let's have baby at the perfect time.
Speaker 3: You know what.
Speaker 2: This is a little side comment about birthing times. I
Speaker 2: have now had a baby in the summer and a
Speaker 2: baby in the winter July and January. And if I
Speaker 2: had to choose, I do like the baby being born
Speaker 2: in the winter better because it's so much harder to
Speaker 2: with like well, especially with two, have the bundling, the
Speaker 2: transferring from the house to the car and the car
Speaker 2: to like the store and all that when you can't
Speaker 2: have them bundled up in the car seat. I know,
Speaker 2: it's so ridiculous. I think you will soon understand what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. All I'm saying is that with the
Speaker 2: newborn phase, it's a cocoon phase, right, So like all
Speaker 2: you're doing with that baby is sitting in the house
Speaker 2: and being cozy, and that's a winter thing.
Speaker 4: We have started family walks, so three days ago we
Speaker 4: started to do walks around the neighborhood.
Speaker 3: It will be.
Speaker 4: It's something that we were doing fairly consistently now. It's
Speaker 4: fun for Jess, it's fun for our dog, it's fun
Speaker 4: for Winny. But yes, I agree, we've talked about it.
Speaker 4: It was nice the week that when he was born,
Speaker 4: it was like five degrees in Colorados. We just stayed
Speaker 4: inside and had nothing else to do. It was wonderful.
Speaker 4: It's weird after like, what are we about? Two weeks
Speaker 4: into parenthood? Now we kind of feel like we're in
Speaker 4: the groove, right, let's get her outside. Just just went
Speaker 4: to the grocery store for the first time today, very
Speaker 4: nerve wracking experience.
Speaker 2: Oh she did, but the first time buy her with
Speaker 2: the baby? No, okay, just by yourself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're ripping the band aids off of the like
Speaker 4: new parent freak out mode, and we're trying to figure
Speaker 4: out slowly but surely not too fast, how to get
Speaker 4: into life, uh, and how to keep things going. It's
Speaker 4: been a blast. I'm loving every second of it. And
Speaker 4: then you know what I found out, and I don't
Speaker 4: know how you do it.
Speaker 3: Ashley.
Speaker 4: Obviously, this week was me catching up with The Bachelor,
Speaker 4: going back through some episodes, going back through some notes,
Speaker 4: making sure I was up to speed on everything.
Speaker 3: Even with a newborn.
Speaker 5: Finding some time to sit down and watch The Bachelor
Speaker 5: is not as easy as you would think.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because when you have like your little time,
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, what am I going to watch? It's like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, that's what I have. The Bachelor episode and
Speaker 2: I have to like study it. Yeah, so, and you
Speaker 2: need to full attention for the hour and a half.
Speaker 2: Bravo to also Jess for taking walks at this point,
Speaker 2: because like, yeah, she's a she got torn apart a
Speaker 2: little bit and she's back at it. She's she's an
Speaker 2: athletic girl.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's got drive.
Speaker 4: Actually, we are here to talk about The Bachelor today,
Speaker 4: though this is obviously the week leading into hometowns. When
Speaker 4: I caught up some episodes, you did have some of
Speaker 4: these disagreements. You told me just a second ago that
Speaker 4: this season you thought was kind of the boring parts
Speaker 4: in the middle. I know that when you and I talked,
Speaker 4: this wasn't a season that you were ecstatic about, kind
Speaker 4: of maybe two weeks ago, but you did have Zachary
Speaker 4: Reality as a co host and a guest. They disagreed
Speaker 4: with you that this season actually has been really good
Speaker 4: and has been something.
Speaker 3: To engage within.
Speaker 4: Has your opinion changed at all after this last episode?
Speaker 2: Well, not as a whole, because like I thought that
Speaker 2: those few episodes the past couple weeks were so draggy
Speaker 2: that like that like doesn't compare to any prior season.
Speaker 2: I've never felt such a drag before, and now that
Speaker 2: we're on this episode. I'm like, Okay, now we're like
Speaker 2: a back on track to feeling like sit in the episode.
Speaker 2: You know, it's not like the most exhilarating thing. It's
Speaker 2: not like other seasons past are, but like, you know,
Speaker 2: cannot wait till next week. I have to get my screener,
Speaker 2: you know, like is it Friday yet? Is in my
Speaker 2: back in bucks? I'm not gonna feel like that, but
Speaker 2: I'm like at least like engaged while watching the episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: This was Yeah, so this was my favorite episode thus far.
Speaker 2: And this has nothing to do with Grant. Like Grant
Speaker 2: like every week proves that he's like so incredibly sweet
Speaker 2: and he seems like he's gonna be the greatest husband.
Speaker 2: There's just something about this season that just like hasn't
Speaker 2: collicked with me, and I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: out there, but I don't think it was it's Grant.
Speaker 2: It might have to do a storytelling, It just might
Speaker 2: be a combination of things. But like I just if
Speaker 2: he's out there listening, like I think he is such
Speaker 2: a kind man and he seems to have just the
Speaker 2: sweetest heart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Sure that you kind of took that away with some
Speaker 2: of his conversations this week too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think my read on Grant I've
Speaker 4: been able to share it in a while is I
Speaker 4: think you said everything.
Speaker 3: He's kind, he has a sweetheart.
Speaker 4: I do think conflict is maybe an uncomfortable position for him. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and sometimes as the lead of the show Bachelor or
Speaker 4: a bachelor, most of like a lot of the role
Speaker 4: is navigating conflict and kind of being the mediator amongst
Speaker 4: the house and amongst your relationships. And it does feel
Speaker 4: like he kind of wants to take the nice route
Speaker 4: out of that and just tell people how great they
Speaker 4: are and that everything's fine, when I don't know if
Speaker 4: that's helping. I also don't know if it's helping build
Speaker 4: deeper relationships. However, there has been some conversations, especially this episode,
Speaker 4: that I think we did get the rawness of Grant,
Speaker 4: and I think that shines. I want to start, though,
Speaker 4: breaking down this episode with asking our producer to pull
Speaker 4: up because now we're down to the final four, to
Speaker 4: pull up Ashley myself, our final four. When we broke
Speaker 4: down the women at the very beginning, We're going to
Speaker 4: talk about that at the end, kind of revisit who
Speaker 4: we thought would be here.
Speaker 2: He's not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't do good.
Speaker 4: I'll start out Ashley my first out of this episode,
Speaker 4: and it's hilarious. We see a scene with Jesse and
Speaker 4: Grant golfing in Scotland, a dream for many golfers. Grant
Speaker 4: swing is not terrible, but goodness gracious, you know what
Speaker 4: it reminds me of. It reminds me of those Disney
Speaker 4: movies when they used to like play basketball, and you
Speaker 4: would watch it because you're a basketball player yourself, you'd
Speaker 4: be super excited for it. And then you're watching, You're like,
Speaker 4: these people have never shot a basketball in their life. No,
Speaker 4: Grant isn't to that level.
Speaker 3: He does.
Speaker 4: He is able to make contact, but you can tell
Speaker 4: this dude has not golf many times and they're trying
Speaker 4: to make it look like he has. I mean, this
Speaker 4: dude is what we call in the golf world like
Speaker 4: he's raw dog in it. He has no gloves on,
Speaker 4: so he's like he has no golfing glove on. He
Speaker 4: has a very nice, wide, unbalanced swing. He swings out
Speaker 4: of his shoes. You can see it. His short game
Speaker 4: is is questionable, and I love that that's what they
Speaker 4: chose for him to do because I bet they gave him.
Speaker 4: They're like, tomorrow you're gonna go golf with Jesse and
Speaker 4: he's like, I've got five times in my life, and.
Speaker 3: I goold, it's gonna look awesome.
Speaker 2: Do you think that they like really did much then
Speaker 2: just hit one ball?
Speaker 3: They played one hole.
Speaker 4: It rained the whole time, and they weren't that well
Speaker 4: at the end of it, and then they're like, great round.
Speaker 2: And I guess I just don't like when they do
Speaker 2: a scene like that with Jesse from your Bachelor experience,
Speaker 2: do you actually play a whole game?
Speaker 3: No, goodness, no, there's no way.
Speaker 5: The show's like, hey, you know what, Jesse and Grant
Speaker 5: take three and a half hours and go play.
Speaker 3: I know, okay, go enjoy yourself. We're just gonna feel it.
Speaker 3: It's a scene, Cetter. It was. It's wild. It was hilarious.
Speaker 4: I enjoyed watching it because I was like, poor Grant
Speaker 4: obviously doesn't play this game and Jesse does. Jesse's a
Speaker 4: good golfer, he has a good swing, he's a lefty,
Speaker 4: he's just.
Speaker 2: A well I was gonna say he's just an athlete,
Speaker 2: but actually so it was grand so professionally both of them.
Speaker 2: Did you guys go to Scotland on your season with
Speaker 2: Kid Ireland? Ireland? Okay, it's just Ireland. I wasn't stributed
Speaker 2: to Ireland in Scotland.
Speaker 3: No, just Ireland.
Speaker 4: Well, that was my big takeaway at the beginning of
Speaker 4: this episode because as a golfer, I just thought it's funny.
Speaker 4: We can move on from that conversation because not anybody listening.
Speaker 4: There's not one person that was like interested in what
Speaker 4: I just talked about. So let's start breaking down the episode.
Speaker 4: And obviously the date cards this week are very meaningful
Speaker 4: because we still have some people who have not had
Speaker 4: a one on one date, which means if they don't
Speaker 4: get a one on one date this week, they really
Speaker 4: won't have a one on one date for the whole season.
Speaker 4: Because yes, the final three all get one on one dates,
Speaker 4: but those are not they're meaningful, maybe more meaningful than
Speaker 4: but they're not actual one on ones. They're kind of
Speaker 4: just the format of the show. You know you're going
Speaker 4: to get a date if you're down to the final three.
Speaker 4: This is the last time Grant can show Zoe, specifically
Speaker 4: that he cares to have some time with her by
Speaker 4: giving her a one on one and what happens Ashley,
Speaker 4: she does not get one. But Juliana also didn't have
Speaker 4: a one on one yet either.
Speaker 2: And technically Letia had a one on one of sorts
Speaker 2: because you miss this week, but she had a three
Speaker 2: on one date and then he took her on the
Speaker 2: dinner portion, so I think they had on one on
Speaker 2: one date. They had that intimacy, but this was her
Speaker 2: like first full day date. Juliana getting the date was
Speaker 2: not shocking to me.
Speaker 4: That why this season has there been so many people
Speaker 4: not have one on ones? Is the season cuts shorter?
Speaker 3: This is a good question because this is weird. There's
Speaker 3: always one.
Speaker 2: He didn't dump anybody on a date either. He didn't
Speaker 2: dumb any one on a one on one.
Speaker 4: If if you go back through past seasons, if the
Speaker 4: format of the show works, and if the lead agrees
Speaker 4: to it, and I said I've said this before, when
Speaker 4: it comes down to deciding who's going on one on one,
Speaker 4: you sit down with the producers before the week starts
Speaker 4: and you said I'd like to bring them in them
Speaker 4: on like so and so and so and so on
Speaker 4: on one on one. The producers will say, hey, you
Speaker 4: brought so and so on one on one two weeks ago.
Speaker 4: That's going to be their second one on one and
Speaker 4: these people don't even haven't even had one yet. Would
Speaker 4: you like to bring one of the people that haven't
Speaker 4: had one yet? Or would you like to give this
Speaker 4: person their second one on one? And you, as the lead,
Speaker 4: get to say, now I want to bring them on
Speaker 4: another one on one, and those other people I don't
Speaker 4: really care to go on one on one with them
Speaker 4: right now. But if everybody kind of gets one and
Speaker 4: one person gets two, there should still only be one
Speaker 4: person this week that hasn't been on a one on
Speaker 4: one yet.
Speaker 3: So why three?
Speaker 2: Things get crazier when you say that. When when Latilla
Speaker 2: got her you know, one on one date night thing,
Speaker 2: that was because Beverly whent Home was an appendicitis, So
Speaker 2: Beverly was even supposed to have that date and Latia
Speaker 2: wasn't supposed to have it. So then that would mean
Speaker 2: that would mean that Litia, Juliana, and Zoe all wouldn't
Speaker 2: have had a one on one going into this week.
Speaker 3: So very interesting.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't necessarily know if the filming was
Speaker 4: cut short by a week, that would make sense. I
Speaker 4: would answer everything. If there was one week less of filming,
Speaker 4: then producers, can you check this out for us?
Speaker 2: The season did start later than usual too, it was
Speaker 2: the end of January.
Speaker 3: The math just ain't mathing anyways.
Speaker 4: We we did get Juliana on on one on one
Speaker 4: this week. We also are going to see Latian on
Speaker 4: one on one this week. Zoe is not going to
Speaker 4: get one this week. It is a very uncomfortable spot
Speaker 4: for Zoe to be in, and I understand it. I
Speaker 4: understand why should be questioning everything. I would be understand.
Speaker 4: I'm understanding why she's going why am I still here?
Speaker 4: If this is how we're going to play this out.
Speaker 4: I'd also so understand how she takes it very personally.
Speaker 4: In fact, Ashley, I would say Zoe handled this better
Speaker 4: than really anybody else I've seen. Yes, she brought up
Speaker 4: the concerns, and she kind of communicated to Grant that
Speaker 4: she felt pushed aside. But she didn't make it all
Speaker 4: about herself, even though she really could have.
Speaker 2: She could have, and she was supposedly like villainous earlier
Speaker 2: in the season, and now she's really backed off. The
Speaker 2: girls are accepting her, and she's not creating any drama.
Speaker 2: She's not even being very dramatic about this, which is
Speaker 2: very nice and I'm sure very appealing to him.
Speaker 3: Maybe it was a test.
Speaker 2: Maybe it was like Zoe, I like you enough to
Speaker 2: bring you to hometowns, let's see how you react and
Speaker 2: not getting what.
Speaker 3: A while away to test?
Speaker 2: Yeah, should we just jump into the Juliana date.
Speaker 4: I would love to jump into the Juliana one on
Speaker 4: one date. The card says this Ashley, and I'll let
Speaker 4: you take it away from here.
Speaker 3: Juliana, our love is a.
Speaker 2: Fairy tale, so she's gonna get the Cinderella date of
Speaker 2: her season has one and every season, I am jealous
Speaker 2: this sea. This year they take a private was a
Speaker 2: plane in our helicopter and they go to a castle
Speaker 2: and she gets to pick out a gorgeous gown. He
Speaker 2: gets fitted for a tucks and I am even more
Speaker 2: jealous than usual here because then they go to a
Speaker 2: Bridgerton ball where she gets announced like miss Juliana is
Speaker 2: something her big debut. I'm like, oh, this is amazing.
Speaker 2: They have like the formal dancing. I love this, and
Speaker 2: there's not much to mention, like obviously they have good chemistry,
Speaker 2: like this was not like something we were worried about
Speaker 2: that I was gonna be awkward or anything between them everything,
Speaker 2: because even he says up front of the date, he's like,
Speaker 2: I'm really physically attracted tour, just needing to see if
Speaker 2: there's like more depth there, and yes there is. She
Speaker 2: reveals at dinner that there was some there was somebody
Speaker 2: who had an addiction problem when she was She doesn't
Speaker 2: really give a date rain though. We don't know if
Speaker 2: this is like with her childhood or this is current,
Speaker 2: because the way she acts seems like it's more current
Speaker 2: than in her deep past. Do you agree with.
Speaker 3: Me, I don't.
Speaker 4: I think it's been a lifelong journey for her. I
Speaker 4: also I had to really like respect this moment. And
Speaker 4: people can obviously speak of these things in any way
Speaker 4: they want, but sometimes you have these kind of conversations
Speaker 4: come out and you can tell that the person doesn't
Speaker 4: really want to be talking about what they're talking about
Speaker 4: and naming the people that you know they're naming, and
Speaker 4: you can tell that the producer are like, Hey, you
Speaker 4: should talk to Grant about this. This is a huge
Speaker 4: part of your life. This is a very difficult like
Speaker 4: season for you. He needs to know about it if
Speaker 4: you're going to be engaged at the end, And I
Speaker 4: get why all those conversations are had, so they're not
Speaker 4: like saying anything that's not true. If you're going to
Speaker 4: get engaged in the end to this guy, he should
Speaker 4: probably know about this this season of your life, that's
Speaker 4: been such a marker on you. However, some people have
Speaker 4: a lot of discomfort and talking about say it was
Speaker 4: her mom, her dad, her grandma and uncle, a friend,
Speaker 4: whatever it be. They're like, I don't really they didn't
Speaker 4: sign up for the show, so I don't really want
Speaker 4: to call them out here. She obviously put her foot
Speaker 4: in the ground with the producers. Got to respect her
Speaker 4: for this, and she said, I'll talk about it. I
Speaker 4: do agree that it's important for me to speak of,
Speaker 4: but I'm not going to mention who it was. You're
Speaker 4: just going to talk about somebody close to me and
Speaker 4: he's going to be able to get through it. And
Speaker 4: I got to respect that because I always I love
Speaker 4: when people own the decisions they make, because a lot
Speaker 4: of times, you know, we come back afterwards and they're
Speaker 4: like it was all editing or the producers made me
Speaker 4: do it. I'm like, you had every right to stick
Speaker 4: your foot in the ground and say I'm not going
Speaker 4: to do it that way. And Juliana obviously did, and
Speaker 4: I gotta just give her credit for that.
Speaker 2: Good job, Ben, That is a good nuanced pick up,
Speaker 2: because I think like, as an audience, you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: but who with it? But who is it? And you're
Speaker 2: not thinking like she would really fought to protect the
Speaker 2: whole family.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she loves this person obviously still and she cares
Speaker 4: about him and she doesn't want to, like, you know,
Speaker 4: crush him. And that that's just something that I think
Speaker 4: is admirable. Not that when you mentioned somebody's name, it's
Speaker 4: not because again, this is your own personal decisions to make.
Speaker 4: But I'm glad that she obviously felt strongly that she
Speaker 4: didn't want to call it person out and she said, nope, guys,
Speaker 4: I'll tell him what I need to tell him, and
Speaker 4: then anything else we can talk about afterwards.
Speaker 2: And then she said that her bubbly personality, all the laughing,
Speaker 2: all the smiling, is often a mask, like something that
Speaker 2: she's put on to have like a strong, tough front,
Speaker 2: when she's actually like very sad inside. And we'll go
Speaker 2: and retreat by herself and to be honest, I'm like, Okay, well,
Speaker 2: I thought that you're like smiling, overly happy, even smiling
Speaker 2: when you were tittling on a girl last week was weird.
Speaker 2: And now you kind of know why this is.
Speaker 3: This is actually an act.
Speaker 2: And that makes me realize that I probably like her
Speaker 2: more than I thought, because I was just like, she
Speaker 2: just seemed too phony last week to me, And now
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, okay, well she acknowledges it's phony, and
Speaker 2: it's a protection mechanism, yeah.
Speaker 3: And it's also another.
Speaker 4: I want her to have the space to be real
Speaker 4: and share where she's actually at. And if she's not
Speaker 4: feeling great, she doesn't have to. This is a hard
Speaker 4: environment to not feel great with it. It's kind of
Speaker 4: like being a radio morning host every day, right. You
Speaker 4: can't have a bad day, even if last night was
Speaker 4: the worst day of your life. You can't jump on
Speaker 4: air and just kind of be downtrodden and out. You
Speaker 4: have to pick it up because m it's life, it's
Speaker 4: your job, and so I want her to be able
Speaker 4: to have that space. I also, though, again have to
Speaker 4: give her credit that she saw this and said, well,
Speaker 4: I'm not I don't want to be a burden to
Speaker 4: this experience or to anybody else. Even though I'm not
Speaker 4: feeling great, I'm going to try to turn it on
Speaker 4: to keep this thing as fun for Grant, fun for me,
Speaker 4: fun for others as possible. That's a big it's a
Speaker 4: big decision she's making, which makes me actually say this,
Speaker 4: she's my front runner after this date going into hometowns.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's just obvious to me that it's between
Speaker 2: her and Latia. Yeah, like that's just who he's going
Speaker 2: to have that extremely hard time deciding between and leaving
Speaker 2: this episode, I think that it's Latia, Like to me
Speaker 2: that that seems like the connection that's stronger. But yeah,
Speaker 2: obviously in a few weeks he's completely paralleled out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well we see that coming up.
Speaker 4: For the sake of this conversation, ashually, we obviously have
Speaker 4: a big group date that sits in the middle of
Speaker 4: this with a lot of drama. But let's jump to
Speaker 4: the Latia one on one to kind of compare the two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's bad to the group date.
Speaker 4: I will say this again, a great date, the most
Speaker 4: honest conversation that I've seen the two of them have,
Speaker 4: or any I really have. Seeden Grant have all seasons.
Speaker 2: And like the best conversation we've seen on The Bachelor,
Speaker 2: like for sure all year, but like a memorable one,
Speaker 2: like one that I might like remember from seasons from
Speaker 2: now is the one about her Mormon faith exactly.
Speaker 4: It's a It's one that feels like it transcends the show.
Speaker 4: It opens up.
Speaker 3: Life outs to life outside of this show.
Speaker 4: They both dug deep within this conversation to pull out
Speaker 4: things about their lives personally. There was emotions brought in.
Speaker 4: As much as we love to know that these conversations
Speaker 4: exist throughout the whole season, they don't, and honestly, sometimes
Speaker 4: they do. Some seasons we feel like every conversation that's
Speaker 4: had is intentional, it's meaningful, the right questions are asked,
Speaker 4: both people are opening up, and some seasons we don't
Speaker 4: get it at all. Right, Some of the Bachelor seasons
Speaker 4: that we've talked about that maybe didn't hit the mark
Speaker 4: for us were because we never felt like there was
Speaker 4: a real conversation from start to finish. We don't know
Speaker 4: anybody any better. Everything was surface level. This was not
Speaker 4: surface level. This was a good conversation. The date itself
Speaker 4: was a beautiful date. The two of them obviously have
Speaker 4: a great connection. They're very comfortable with each other. I
Speaker 4: agree with you that she would be the other person
Speaker 4: right now, that would be at the top. But I
Speaker 4: will say this, for as healthy as that conversation was
Speaker 4: between the two of them, I would not put her
Speaker 4: over Juliana, because they will become a thing.
Speaker 3: A thing, Okay, it has to. I mean, if your family, well.
Speaker 2: It may not from his point of view, become like
Speaker 2: the point of view, it might not from her point
Speaker 2: of view, but it will become a thing with the family.
Speaker 3: If she's giving us these hints of how her family
Speaker 3: dynamic is, I'm not saying right or wrong. And in
Speaker 3: the past, if she's traditionally dated people within her faith
Speaker 3: tradition consistently and now she's stepping outside of that and
Speaker 3: now she's coming to hometowns, the family is not I'm
Speaker 3: not going to say it's they're even gonna have a
Speaker 3: problem with it. They're just gonna have a lot of
Speaker 3: questions that will that will not help this relationship have
Speaker 3: a sturdy foundation. Things will be questionable from that point on. Okay,
Speaker 3: So I have.
Speaker 2: Some questions for you, But before that, I want to
Speaker 2: make just a few little things I noticed. So one
Speaker 2: of the things that we get asked about a lot, like,
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, Ben, but if I ask,
Speaker 2: are my Instagram following for behind the scenes questions from
Speaker 2: the from the show? A lot of them want to know,
Speaker 2: do you guys talk politics or religion before you know,
Speaker 2: getting down on one knee, And I said that I
Speaker 2: think usually it's probably a fantasy, sweet type of thing.
Speaker 2: But from your point of view, especially since you do
Speaker 2: have a great faith, is that something that you brought
Speaker 2: up on dates during the show or is that something
Speaker 2: that kind of steered you away from.
Speaker 4: First off, I love that politics and your faith get
Speaker 4: thrown into the same bucket.
Speaker 2: They're both private conversations that you don't want to air
Speaker 2: out to.
Speaker 3: Sometimes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, faith was a huge conversation within the season
Speaker 4: that I was a part of. We always talked about
Speaker 4: it because nothing makes sense within my life without my faith.
Speaker 4: So if you take my faith away, there's just a
Speaker 4: lot of like open questions and open holes on like why.
Speaker 3: Do you do what you do? And yeah, why do
Speaker 3: you say what you say?
Speaker 4: And the I mean so like it had to be
Speaker 4: I don't want to say it's a part of my personality.
Speaker 4: But it's one hundred percent a part of like my
Speaker 4: every breath moment, like my value system, like my morals,
Speaker 4: how I view others people even in breakups, like I
Speaker 4: wanted them. I wanted the woman to know, like I
Speaker 4: still believe they are a child of God.
Speaker 3: And so that.
Speaker 5: Doesn't mean I'm just dismissing them or that I think
Speaker 5: they're unattractive. I just am not feeling it romantically. Faith
Speaker 5: was a huge part. It just was never shown, and
Speaker 5: I don't really know why. Maybe to the producers it
Speaker 5: wasn't a story they wanted, or it wasn't as interesting
Speaker 5: as other conversations that we're having politics because of my
Speaker 5: I think political like fire was, I was less interesting.
Speaker 5: I mean I would talk about it. If somebody asked me,
Speaker 5: like what do you believe about X y Z? I
Speaker 5: would tell them because they asked. But it's not like
Speaker 5: my driving force, Like my faith oftentimes is the catalyst
Speaker 5: to why I believe politically what I believe, And so
Speaker 5: if you understand my faith, yeah, you're probably gonna understand me,
Speaker 5: which probably helps you understand that like how I'm you know,
Speaker 5: what I believe politically, Yeah, so I don't remember having like, hey,
Speaker 5: what do you think about this guy or this girl,
Speaker 5: or you know, what do you think about that wall.
Speaker 5: I don't remember those conversations, but I do remember talking
Speaker 5: about like my belief in humans often.
Speaker 2: Okay, So when she tells him that she's Mormon, I
Speaker 2: had two things. Actually, I knew that this conversation was
Speaker 2: going to come up, but I didn't remember that until
Speaker 2: like she was like I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: that's right, she's Mormon, and this conversation was coming. I
Speaker 2: have two questions for you. How much do you know
Speaker 2: about Mormon's dating outside of their faith?
Speaker 3: I mean, I know quite a bit about the Mormon Church.
Speaker 2: So do they typically date outside not typic Definitely not typically?
Speaker 3: But is it does it?
Speaker 2: Is it usually an issue with the family if they do?
Speaker 4: Okay, it would be a it would be issue would
Speaker 4: probably be the best word to use. Yes, it would
Speaker 4: be a conversation.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: And then are you surprised that someone of the Mormon
Speaker 2: faith would go on the show?
Speaker 4: You know you have this kind of like, I mean,
Speaker 4: obviously I know enough about the Mormon church to uh
Speaker 4: speak to it. Incredibly generous people, an insanely close community,
Speaker 4: like the very tight knit community, and the Church of
Speaker 4: Latter day Saints is the one of the biggest givers
Speaker 4: of funds too in g o's around the world, like
Speaker 4: just insanely generous. And so, you know, I think I'll
Speaker 4: say this, I'm going to make an assumption. This would
Speaker 4: this would be like a really big topic that like
Speaker 4: like religious studies would have to like go into.
Speaker 3: I would say, with this.
Speaker 4: Kind of new era of this new generation coming up
Speaker 4: within the Mormon Church, I think we've seen them be
Speaker 4: more accepting of being in the social scene, right. We
Speaker 4: just we're seeing more and more people put their faith
Speaker 4: out there, talk about it and go on shows or
Speaker 4: have shows.
Speaker 3: You know. So I don't know, I am.
Speaker 4: I would say the one thing here that is interesting
Speaker 4: to me that I would have probably asked if I
Speaker 4: was grant just because of my lack of knowledge, would
Speaker 4: have been that question, well.
Speaker 3: Would I have to convert to Well, no, it would
Speaker 3: be the question.
Speaker 4: Of you would have been you obviously know that I'm
Speaker 4: not a you know, a practicing Mormon, and so for
Speaker 4: you to come on this show, like what was your
Speaker 4: expectations of me and our relationship when you came on
Speaker 4: the show, knowing that I didn't practice this same faith.
Speaker 2: So obviously she has to be okay with the thought.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be my assumption.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm getting to is like, I'm assuming that
Speaker 4: she thought about this, that she walked through this. Maybe
Speaker 4: she never knew how far she would go, and so
Speaker 4: she's like, I'll just confront it when I need to
Speaker 4: confront it. And this seemed like a good time. But
Speaker 4: I would have asked that conversation if I was Grant,
Speaker 4: like what were you thinking?
Speaker 3: Then? I mean, this is a big deal, right, Also.
Speaker 2: We get from this conversation that, I mean, the standout
Speaker 2: moment to me was that he has a faith in
Speaker 2: God for sure, and just so emotional. He gets so emotional.
Speaker 2: I feel so emotional when he says that, you know,
Speaker 2: he really wants to have dinner at the table with
Speaker 2: his family and that he didn't really have this when
Speaker 2: he grew up. He would take his dinner to his
Speaker 2: bedroom and eat alone and then talk to God in
Speaker 2: those moments, and I was like, I'm destroyed.
Speaker 3: How beautiful is he?
Speaker 2: Well, it's beautiful that he has a relationship with God
Speaker 2: and that that's what and you know that in those
Speaker 2: moments he wasn't like I'm going to go and like
Speaker 2: play a video game and seclude myself further into like
Speaker 2: all this whole life, but that he reached out and
Speaker 2: it was so faithful still like and I mean faithful
Speaker 2: about like his future and his belief in God and
Speaker 2: all that, and that he craved connection.
Speaker 4: I mean some would say that God speaks the loudest
Speaker 4: in the quietest of moments, and it sounds like Grant
Speaker 4: spent a lot of time in quiet, And I think
Speaker 4: when you slow down and spend some time in quiet,
Speaker 4: I think God shows up, or at least you can
Speaker 4: hear it. And so there's probably even though Grant didn't
Speaker 4: really speak of his strong like I wake up every day,
Speaker 4: like he kind of like spoke to this checklist that
Speaker 4: he would have to do to say that he had
Speaker 4: a strong faith.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he said, I don't have my nine PM prayers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, from my perspective, his you know what, Like from
Speaker 4: what I've heard from there, his faith is so strong, yeah,
Speaker 4: And that the checklist isn't at all, at least within
Speaker 4: the Christian tradition, something that is a marker of how
Speaker 4: strong or how weak your faith is. It's those quiet
Speaker 4: moments that you've spend with God. And so I'm listening
Speaker 4: to Grant there and I'm like, dude, like you've had
Speaker 4: you have had this, Like there's a reason that you're kind,
Speaker 4: that you're considerate, that your introspective, that you seem to
Speaker 4: be caring so deeply for the women that are involved
Speaker 4: in this process, even though this process is so goofy.
Speaker 4: You you recognize the humanity that exists with than these
Speaker 4: women and as a result, like we're seeing that as
Speaker 4: as a lead, and like that's what's making you a
Speaker 4: good lead because I can tell you care, which I will.
Speaker 5: Also say is probably why the ending is so bad.
Speaker 5: Hard for him, like a man o man. He doesn't
Speaker 5: realize how much he's going to care, and that could.
Speaker 3: Be a problem.
Speaker 2: Ben Ben Ben. It was like in that moment, I
Speaker 2: was like, I'm so glad this guy's the bachelor, and
Speaker 2: then in the back of my mind, I was like,
Speaker 2: how could he?
Speaker 3: How could he?
Speaker 2: How does he go from this conversation too? I don't
Speaker 2: know if I'm going to pick her and it's not
Speaker 2: like just her, Like how do you go from like
Speaker 2: this is this beautiful moment? This is beautiful moment. I
Speaker 2: can't say it any other way to being like I'm
Speaker 2: going to make a decision so frivolously, like just so.
Speaker 3: I think we see a lot.
Speaker 4: I'll tease this for the rest of this season and
Speaker 4: and hopefully the Bachelor's producers are listening to this and
Speaker 4: can like give us a little high five. And I
Speaker 4: mean it when I say this. I think the last
Speaker 4: few episodes of this season are going to be memorable, captivating,
Speaker 4: incredible storytelling and really like where you're on the edge
Speaker 4: of your seat hoping for that episode to drop next
Speaker 4: week because you want to know what happens. I think
Speaker 4: we're about to get a really raw version of Grant
Speaker 4: that I am excited to see.
Speaker 3: He's going to be so uncomfortable. He hasn't really been
Speaker 3: uncomfortable yet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's about to get out of this like kind
Speaker 4: of like smooth from good looking guy like he's he's
Speaker 4: had that the whole season and it's been great. I
Speaker 4: think we're about to see Grant break and that's I mean,
Speaker 4: I've been there. That's when the season gets real, and
Speaker 4: I think we're about to see it.
Speaker 3: Ashlely, for the.
Speaker 4: Sake of time, we got to jump to this group
Speaker 4: day Now, there's obviously some drama that comes up at
Speaker 4: this group date, circling around a topic that's been the.
Speaker 3: Topic for the last few weeks here.
Speaker 5: Zoe doesn't have a one on one this week, so
Speaker 5: we come into this group day kind of expecting her
Speaker 5: to be the main focus of this group day. However,
Speaker 5: to everybody's disappointment, at least the cast, she wasn't because
Speaker 5: there's one other person that's feeling pushed aside. Actually, after
Speaker 5: weeks of engaging in this show, and after weeks of
Speaker 5: talking through this with co hosts and fans of the show,
Speaker 5: at any point during this group.
Speaker 4: Day, did you feel like Carolina was doing one anything wrong?
Speaker 4: That's the best way I know how to describe it.
Speaker 4: And two are you annoyed by her?
Speaker 3: Or do you get it? Well?
Speaker 2: I've defended her a lot, thinking that like the girls
Speaker 2: were to a certain extent like ganging up on her,
Speaker 2: especially when like a lot of the issues started with
Speaker 2: her relationship with Rose and Rose telling her something weird
Speaker 2: and them saying that she was monopolizing time when I
Speaker 2: actually thought that she needed to use the time to
Speaker 2: get some answers. This is probably the episode in which
Speaker 2: I'm like Okay, Carolyn, I you probably do need to
Speaker 2: chill the hell out. I still think that there might
Speaker 2: be a little of reaction. The only overreaction I really
Speaker 2: felt was Dina was like, do you not have free will?
Speaker 2: And like because she wanted her to admit that she
Speaker 2: had the free will to tell Grant, Hey, I'm just
Speaker 2: having a sad moment, but please don't don't give your
Speaker 2: time to me, because I want you to give your
Speaker 2: time to the other girls. We should all be having time.
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, well, like Carolina says, not in
Speaker 2: the history of the Bachelor, has anybody said, oh, please
Speaker 2: don't give me your time. I would much prefer all
Speaker 2: our time to be equally divided. Please go back to
Speaker 2: the other girls while I'm having this sad moment. Like,
Speaker 2: that's the kind of thing where I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: I still can see I understand Carolina's point. If he's
Speaker 2: coming to her, he's going she's going to take advantage
Speaker 2: of the time. Now. I didn't care for Carolina in
Speaker 2: this episode because I think this was like the first
Speaker 2: time where she wasn't a She really wasn't a team player.
Speaker 2: There's a difference between getting more time with the lead
Speaker 2: because of like this and that, but like for you
Speaker 2: to be like, oh, you know, I'm just down and out,
Speaker 2: So I'm just gonna sit out on the activities. That
Speaker 2: is kind of begging for that's just begging for special treatment.
Speaker 2: And Grant is kind of too nice not to give
Speaker 2: into it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I think he has to give into it.
Speaker 4: I mean one of the fears is the lead, and
Speaker 4: it's been this way. I've talked almost every lead is
Speaker 4: these group dates at the end get really awkward because
Speaker 4: there's only five people on them, and all five of
Speaker 4: these women you've probably other than this.
Speaker 2: Is four and was there four but four or five,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You have a one on one with all of them.
Speaker 4: So you have these close relationships and now you're like
Speaker 4: at the end and you're like, let's still have a
Speaker 4: group date. It's very awkward. It's a very weird environment.
Speaker 4: Uh and it and it just feels tough. And so
Speaker 4: one of the hopes I remember, at this exact date
Speaker 4: during my season, all of us were standing together and
Speaker 4: I said, here's a deal. This is awkward and this
Speaker 4: is weird for all of us. Yeah, this is going
Speaker 4: to be so much easier if we just slap on
Speaker 4: our good attitudes and try to have the best time possible,
Speaker 4: because if not, this could be like rough. We all
Speaker 4: know that, we all we all know we're walking on
Speaker 4: this like fine line between all of us getting mad
Speaker 4: at each other and falling into the deep end. And
Speaker 4: so can we just put on our good attitudes for
Speaker 4: this thing and have the best time possible. Yeah, And
Speaker 4: that's kind of what your hope is as the lead
Speaker 4: for this date specifically, is can we just get through
Speaker 4: this because none of us really want to be here
Speaker 4: doing what we're doing today. Well, so for Carolina to
Speaker 4: pull this kind of sit aside, I get it from
Speaker 4: her perspective. She's just down, like she doesn't want to
Speaker 4: be there. She's making it very well known. She's kind
Speaker 4: of like this is pointless.
Speaker 3: I'm watching it, no, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean. She does the opposite of Juliana,
Speaker 2: like she can't put on the happy face.
Speaker 3: She can't put on the happy face.
Speaker 4: And she says this thing to Grant where she says,
Speaker 4: I just see all these other relationships far past ours,
Speaker 4: and so I'm wondering what I'm doing here. And I
Speaker 4: think that's what she's really feeling, is she's sitting there going,
Speaker 4: am I just sticking around for a Row ceremony because
Speaker 4: maybe it's just better for me to leave now in
Speaker 4: this moment because he obviously cares more about some other
Speaker 4: people that are on this show right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The issue with her is that she's always needing validation.
Speaker 2: Every week, she needs a new solo moment with him
Speaker 2: to get validation, and she's just constantly feeling like, are
Speaker 2: we not up to par? Are we not up to part?
Speaker 2: I was like, I just like, maybe you're you Just
Speaker 2: if that's how you're feeling, you're just not connecting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, maybe you're not at the par and you
Speaker 4: should go home, which from me watching it this week,
Speaker 4: I felt like she wanted to go home. I think she,
Speaker 4: in a sense wanted Grant to tell her, Hey, you're right,
Speaker 4: let's just call it here. You're good, Like pack the bags,
Speaker 4: get out.
Speaker 3: Of here, okay.
Speaker 2: But I don't think her ego can handle wanted to
Speaker 2: handle getting eliminated at a Rose ceremony, which is maybe
Speaker 2: why she wanted to continuously have one on one time
Speaker 2: with him. Be Like, if it's gonna end, it's gonna
Speaker 2: end with us too. Right here, I am not getting
Speaker 2: eliminated at a rose.
Speaker 3: That's fair too.
Speaker 5: Then yeah, then show off and say no, I'm out, Like, hey,
Speaker 5: this is this is it for me?
Speaker 3: Peace out, everybody. I'm sending myself home.
Speaker 4: The rest of the conversation around this drama, it did
Speaker 4: feel like the girls are over. They're exhausting themselves on
Speaker 4: a topic that is not worth focusing on too much. Yes,
Speaker 4: she's taking up some time. However, it feels it did
Speaker 4: feel like, at least from what we saw on the show,
Speaker 4: they are isolating her. They're not really letting her say
Speaker 4: anything without it being the wrong thing to say. I
Speaker 4: think they're frustrated with her. And then the argument of
Speaker 4: that somebody will give up their time for somebody else
Speaker 4: out of fairness is absolutely ridiculous. That's never happened, it
Speaker 4: never will happen, and you don't think of stuff that way.
Speaker 2: Now I understand the crux of what Dina was trying
Speaker 2: to say, which is like I stood up for you.
Speaker 2: I didn't understand while the other girls had an issue.
Speaker 2: I was trying to be understanding of you, and now
Speaker 2: like you've crossed my line, like you have been absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 2: And then it's nice to see them makeup in the
Speaker 2: final you know scenes of the show in which we
Speaker 2: can we can quickly go through who gets eliminated. We
Speaker 2: would have said that we were shocked to see Alex
Speaker 2: leave a couple weeks ago. She's the classic had the
Speaker 2: first one on one situation where we get like very
Speaker 2: tied up with the person who goes first, and we're like,
Speaker 2: that's the one that sets the precedent right, and it
Speaker 2: feels so strong because we haven't seen him really have
Speaker 2: a one on one with anyone else, any like sort
Speaker 2: of long term, in depth conversation with anyone else, so
Speaker 2: we immediately think that that person is gonna they've got
Speaker 2: it right, but she has fallen down the steps, so
Speaker 2: to speak, over the past few weeks. And then Sarah
Speaker 2: Fina I always kind of knew last week. It was like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is a date, they're gonna have fun, but she's
Speaker 2: not getting to hometowns. And then Carolina, you know, she
Speaker 2: that's it. It was it was time, and I think
Speaker 2: that he did take some of the warnings from the
Speaker 2: other girls to heart when it came to.
Speaker 3: Her final thoughts.
Speaker 5: As we close out this episode, Ashley's top four was
Speaker 5: Zoe Alex, Carolina, and Nissi, so she had one of four.
Speaker 5: My final four was Zoe, Alex, Alisha, Rebecca, so Zoe
Speaker 5: is the one that got us into the final four
Speaker 5: for both of us. Finally, this season has been rushed.
Speaker 5: There was only twenty five women, seven of them sent
Speaker 5: home on the first night, four in the second. This
Speaker 5: is an unusual situation because historically the Bachelor is nine
Speaker 5: to thirteen episodes. Joey had eleven, Grant will only have nine.
Speaker 5: Thirty women are usually standard.
Speaker 4: So, yes, we were right, there is a unique The
Speaker 4: math is mathing because it's a unique season.
Speaker 3: For the Bachelor. Shorter, less women, less women being eliminated.
Speaker 2: You know what, you guys, you should have had an
Speaker 2: extra episode and not given us a women tell all.
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's a woman tell all coming our way
Speaker 2: and we're gonna be annoyed by it. Also, last thought, Zoe,
Speaker 2: she's got to be one of the very few people
Speaker 2: in Bachelor history you get to hometowns without having a
Speaker 2: one on one date. Should be the first. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't think she's the first, but she's one of few.
Speaker 2: All Right, well, guys, we are going to go to
Speaker 2: an episode with Alicia. If you remember her, she was
Speaker 2: a shock elimination week two, so stay tuned for that
Speaker 2: episode and we'll be back with more this week.
Speaker 3: Until then, I've been Ben and I've been Ashley. Bye.
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