By: Rebecca Capozzi | Staff Writer
“What’s in the box?” was the last thing we heard in Week 8’s episode of The Bachelorette. Tayshia was having her talk with Bennett and Noah over their drama, and Bennett had given Noah a “present.” When Tayshia asked this question, Bennett just said, “It was a gift for Noah.” She did not ask any questions, and just continued the conversation.
During Tayshia’s one-on-one conversation with Bennett, she asked him, “Have you ever questioned my integrity?” He denied that he had, but she fired back at him. She told Bennett that “he does not have the right to tell someone that they don’t have a chance with me.” She does not believe that Bennett trusts who she gives roses to, and thinks that Bennett believes that she is not making good decisions. Bennett then tells Tayshia that he does not see Tayshia ending up with someone with such low emotional intelligence. Tayshia seems very fed up with Bennett throughout this conversation, and I think that comment made it even worse. Despite Tayshia being short with Bennett during the entire conversation and obviously being bothered by what he was saying, he is still very confident that he is going to get a rose. I think that Tayshia has made very good decisions so far as the bachelorette, but one thing that I do not agree with her on is not getting rid of Bennett right away.
I was surprised to see Noah getting emotional, because if I am completely honest, I did not think he had much of a heart. Well, I guess I was wrong!
When Tayshia pulls Noah aside, she is just as fed up with him as she was with Bennett. She says, “There’s a lot of drama in the house, and you are the common denominator in it.” Noah then tries to make himself look better by telling Tayshia about the gifts that Bennett gave him, and gets emotional while doing so. He said that he hated that Bennett was questioning his emotional intelligence. I was surprised to see Noah getting emotional, because if I am completely honest, I did not think he had much of a heart. Well, I guess I was wrong!
After talking with both of the men, Tayshia decides to send Bennett home. “FINALLY!”, I screamed at my TV. She tells him that she did not like the fact that he was questioning her integrity and her decision making. He is taken back, but ultimately gets into the vehicle. As he is leaving, Tayshia says, “Sending Bennett home did not feel right.” I wished I could talk to her in that moment and say, “No, Tayshia! You made the right decision!”
When Tayshia goes back to Noah, he has the biggest grin on his face. Tayshia immediately shuts him down by saying, “That was not a victory for you by any means.” She tells Noah that she had feelings for Bennett and that she is upset that she had to send him home like that. She also tells Noah that she is still upset with him and that she needs a while before she can decide whether or not to give him a rose. She does not feel that Noah is ready for marriage, and tells him that to his face. He is taken back by this. Honestly, I was thinking the exact same thing.
She said, “The way that Ben made me feel tonight is how I want to feel with my future husband.”
When the rest of the men show up for the rose ceremony, they are relieved to see Noah there without Bennett. I thought that this was funny since Noah was the guy that all of the men hated originally! Noah tells them that he was nervous about whether or not he was going to get a rose because of her doubts about his readiness for marriage. Well, Noah does get a rose at the rose ceremony. Unfortunately, Spencer, Ed, and Demar get sent home. I think it was about time that Tayshia sent Ed home.
Tayshia’s one-on-one during this episode was with our beloved Ben! They got to go on a scavenger hunt around the resort, which they had a lot of fun doing. While they were at dinner, Tayshia encourages Ben to open up to her. He says that he normally does not open up to people because he does not want to burden them, but Tayshia wants to hear what he has to say. He shares that when he was growing up, he was expected to be perfect. This caused him to be very unhappy. However, he did not want to open up to anyone because he did not want to be a burden. So, he attempted suicide once in 2018 and once in 2019. He thought that the easiest way to not burden anyone was to just not be around anymore. He said that his lifesaver was his sister, but she does not know that she saved his life. Tayshia really appreciates Ben opening up to her and gives him a rose. She said, “The way that Ben made me feel tonight is how I want to feel with my future husband.”
The group date in this episode was the last group date before deciding who went to hometowns. So, it is a pretty big deal. Tayshia decided to have the men take polygraph tests. During Tayshia’s polygraph test, she admitted to falling in love with some of the men and thinking her future husband was among the group of men left. However, she got an inconclusive answer when she was asked whether or not she regretted sending anyone home. All of the men figured that she was talking about Bennett.
During Brendan’s polygraph test, he got an inconclusive answer when he was asked whether or not he was ready to meet Tayshia’s family and if he was ready for her to meet his family. Riley got an inconclusive answer when asked what his name was and said that he does not know if he is ready to meet Tayshia’s family. When Zac gets asked if he cheated, he instantly says “yes” and it came up as true. But, he also admitted to falling in love with Tayshia. Many of these answers, especially Zac’s, did not sit well with Tayshia.
During the after party, Tayshia pulled Zac aside. She told him, “Cheating does not sit well with me and it is not something that I will tolerate.” It is essentially the reason that her marriage ended, so she does not want to go through that again. She asked Zac to tell his cheating story, and it was basically that he cheated on his 6th grade girlfriend. Tayshia is instantly relieved and starts laughing hysterically. He also told Tayshia that he hated that one of the polygraph questions was whether or not he was falling in love with her because he wanted to tell her in a more intimate setting. Then, she said that she was falling in love with him too. That conversation took a complete 360! It started off with Tayshia thinking that Zac was a cheater, and it ended with her telling him that she’s in love with him! Am I the only one who kind of thinks Zac was lying when he said that he cheated in 6th grade? He answered “yes” too quickly when he was asked if he had cheated in the past. Why did he instantly remember that insignificant moment from middle school? I think that the 6th grade story was made up.
When Tayshia confronted Brendan about him being nervous to meet Tayshia’s family and him being nervous for her to meet his family, he said that it was because of his past. He said that he is divorced, and so he does not want to bring someone home to his family unless he knows that it’s the real deal. Tayshia understood this, as she had been divorced as well.
Why did he instantly remember that insignificant moment from middle school? I think that the 6th grade story was made up.
Also during the after party, she talked to Riley about his polygraph results. He said that his name came up as inconclusive because he had a name change. He was originally named after his father, but once him and his father began to have a rocky relationship, he decided to change his name. He wanted the name of his mother rather than his father. Tayshia really appreciated Riley opening up to her.
At the end of the after party, Tayshia decided that she could not give out a group date rose. This is not like when Clare did this because she thought that she deserved it over the men. Tayshia simply could not think of one man to give it to since she had such great conversations with all of them.
When she got back to her suite after the after party, guess who was there waiting for her?! Bennett! Yes, Bennett! Tayshia was completely shocked. He asked to speak to her inside, and she said yes. He said that he spent all day thinking about his departure, and how he could not settle with it. He apologized for making it seem as though he was questioning her integrity and her decision-making. He also told Tayshia that he loves her. Tayshia is completely speechless. She told him that she was not planning on sending him home that night. She said that she does not know what to think and that she needs time to think about whether or not she is going to bring him back. In her interview, she said, “If I ask Bennett to come back, I don’t know how the other guys would react.”
Am I the only one who really is not too hot on Bennett? I find him very cocky and honestly really annoying. I am really hoping that Tayshia just tells him to go home!
Cover Image: Rose by Robert Glaser on Flickr is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)
