The Bachelor Season 24, episode 9 spoiled recap: Intimacy issues

Well, we’re here, for lack of a more eloquent term. Peter and his final three on finally made it to fantasy suites on this week’s The Bachelor, and it’s safe to say Peter went… down under.

**WARNING: The Bachelor seasons SPOILERS ahead.

The following recap contains references to The Bachelor SEASON 24 SPOILERS. Articles on the site are unspoiled unless indicated. STOP READING If you do not read Reality Steve and want to avoid season spoilers.**

Final Four rose ceremony

We kick off ‘fantasy’ suite week with…well, not quite the fantasy suites. We are indeed still in the States, and pick up outside the hangar with Madi and Peter draped across one another on a bench. Twenty seconds go by, and we are still at square one of this conversation, which is zero progress since last week’s episode of The Bachelor. Madi (eventually) reveals to Peter that if he were to “sleep with anybody else,” it would be really hard for her to move forward.

Peter very logically articulates (to the audience) that he’s still dating two other women, and asks Madi to clarify if she would leave if he were to be intimate with them, to which she says yes-no. Nothing is resolved here, and we get up like nothing happened – just like Peter’s conversation went with Victoria! If clarity is what Pete sought, a fully-informed Pete he is not.

Madi later says that she couldn’t have been more clear with Peter and that he did not listen to what she said, but, we really feel for Peter here (literally, this season on The Twilight Zone). Her statement when she pulls him aside merely conveys general anxiety about Fantasy Suites week and did not provide necessary context, nor convey how strongly she feels about sex. Peter had no way of knowing this was anything more than her being uncomfortable with him potentially sleeping with the other women, which is normal.

You would probably be hard-pressed to find a contestant that is not uncomfortable with this situation. However, Peter isn’t a mind reader, and, since Madi has not brought up her convictions explicitly (and, presumably, was conscious for the 4793107503170 windmill references), he has no reason to think she would expect him to remain celibate. We digress.

When we finally arrive in Gold Coast/Sanctuary Cove, Australia, the three musketeers sit down for the worst slumber party since Scream. Madi welcomes Hannah Ann and Victoria to their suite. Yes, “their” suite. This whole conversation is so awkward we want to die.

Peter comes in to take Hannah Ann on her date, and apparently does not either notice or take issue with the classic camp bunkbed mix-up (seriously, did it occur to no one that when one of the girls does not come home for curfew, 2+2 = what’d you expect, condoms?)