The Bachelor: Season 24, episode 8 spoiled recap: Virginia is not for lovers

Victoria

Lastly, we…head to Virginia Beach where we meet up with Victoria and her dog. We’ve never been to Virginia Beach, but it seems like there’s a boardwalk situation; Pete and Victoria get vintage-y photos taken dressed in Antebellum costumes. Weird ~Victorian flex but ok.

They head to lunch and then a bar, The Shack, where Hunter Hayes is playing. It appears he isn’t one of Victoria’s exes and the date goes very well. They seem to be having lots of fun dancing and have good chemistry.

At the end of the daytime portion, for lack of a better term, s**t goes south. Merissa Pence, a Virginia Beach resident who has had negative encounters with Victoria and also happens to be Peter’s ex, approaches Peter to let him know Victoria is not who he thinks she is.

Their seven-minute conversation is effectively whittled down to one minute of airtime and exclusively vague statements. We can confirm that Merissa indeed explicitly told Peter that Victoria had *allegedly* broken up several marriages.

Still, for the unspoiled, that was probably insufficient context for the resulting confrontation. Their talk hits Peter pretty hard, so when he gets to Victoria’s family’s home, he understandably wants to talk to her before heading inside.

Peter asks Victoria about the accusations relayed by Merissa, and Victoria’s response was nothing short of alarming. The truth is in the micro-expressions. If you watch closely (we recommend not), her eyes subtly shift approximately 45 times per sentence. Victoria immediately shuts him down, and not only does she refuse to explain herself whatsoever or allow Peter to complete his thoughts, but she also throws the onus on Peter.

She immediately started attacking him when he could not have been calmer and seemingly open-minded. He never once accused her of anything and was trying to have a rational conversation and work through a roadblock. Unfortunately, Victoria’s response was to gaslight Peter and make it seem like he was in the wrong. Sadly, it was the best we’ve seen of Peter this season on The Bachelor– he was tremendously more emotionally-intelligent and articulate than usual – and we really felt for him.

Victoria just isn’t having it. She goes from acting as she will calmly work through a conversation with him, to gaslighting him in less than two minutes. At first, she denies the accusation, then deflects by complaining about the drama and accusing Peter of not fighting for her. There’s not much more we can say than what’s depicted in the literal transcription:

“I’m just asking for the truth.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore, Peter.”

“So you’re just giving up on this?”

“You literally just came in here to act like that, are you kidding me?”

“Excuse me?”

“Excuse you, what?”

“I just walked up here, I did not accuse you of anything. I simply told you what happened bec-”

“You’re supposed to meet my family tonight. You decided what Merissa told you is more important than meeting my entire family.”

“What is this right now?”

It was so frustrating to watch our dear Bachelor, Peter, be the most reasonable person in the world and her to completely attack him and get up mid-conversation (let’s just note this was immediately after he expressed she hadn’t been fighting for them and consistently bailed out of difficult topics, to which she scoffed and vehemently denied.)

Please, Victoria. She flippantly excuses herself and walks down the street (did she think she could simply…escape?), and they proceed to play sitcom music(???) while Peter stands emotionally distraught in the bushes. At least we can definitively say our Plant Pete theory has exited the chat. Peter eventually approaches her, and the conversation is the same as before except 10x worse – wash, rinse, gaslight, repeat.

He eventually succumbs to being absolutely befumbled. Victoria somehow turns this into HIM comforting her, holding her, and saying she deserves to be loved. This is honestly just f**ked up to watch. We really just feel bad for Peter at this moment. He leaves without meeting her hired-from-Craigslist family (shoutout to @iHarshallWatts on Twitter for this comparison).

The next day, Victoria visits Peter in his hotel room. This is honestly tough to recap, because Peter legitimately doesn’t deserve to be treated this way – nor does anyone.

“You don’t even want me to love you the way I want to love you.” Peter, you should not feel this way.

🙁

They decide to keep trying – it seems Victoria has successfully dodged the conversation that catalyzed the argument in the first place. Congratulations!

Rose ceremony

While somewhat jarring after what transpired for the past hour, we’re glad the final four rose ceremony is included in this episode of The Bachelor so we can get a fresh start next week at Fantasy Suite dates. The rose ceremony is in an airplane hangar, obviously, because Peter is a pilot, who flies planes. Pretty cut and dry here, Peter eliminates Kelsey over Victoria (duh) and now we’re heading to the eastern coast of Australia! Until next week, mates.

Are you as emotionally exhausted as we are after that episode of The Bachelor? Do you now have a new level of understanding for Perplexed Pete? Until next week – Xoxo.