Bachelorette 17 - Katie Thurston - July 19 - *Sleuthing Spoilers*

Sprite wrote:Oh, I guess we had to see this heartfelt goodbye. I guess producers have to keep their Bachelor options open if Michael doesn't want it.

So true!

So do we have HTDs, mikes goodbye AND MTA in one epi??? Or is there an episode on Tuesday?

Greg really does have resting sad face.  He does light up when he smiles, though.  Not surprising he's finding the long gap between 1 on 1s hard to take.  But there's not much joy there.  

Katie did a LOT of reassuring of all the guys tonight.  Yes, I'll be a great mom to James.  Yes we can live in two places and delay kids to Andrew.  Does she worry some of the guys will bail?  

No focus on Blake tonight.  Except for showing his one comment about how Katie must be broken up after she eliminated Mike P.  To show us Blake "gets her" and puts her feelings first?  No explanation for why Blake gets the rose quickly and before she is torn between Justin and Andrew.   We also got the context for Blake's comment about not being in love with her--ie that it's inevitably going that way.  

I agree this episode shows us that Greg is her F1 and she is chasing, reassuring him.  Is the fight next week?  Most of the preview was MTA

ETA. Andrew's note--if you change your mind....--was written with the same black Sharpie and handwriting that the date cards are written in. So did a production person transcribe it or did tptb come up with the entire idea?

Well I think she has checked out. She says she wants love and won't settle for less, we shall see if she keeps her word. I have enjoyed this episode.

Sprite wrote:I can't believe she is so awkward with this guy. She acts as if he is her first high school boyfriend and she is so girly/giddy with him. I expected more of a bad a** from her, but she is only that way with the mot guys who she doesn't give a rat's a** about.

My 22 year old daughter was watching with me tonight, hasn't watched any of the season so far and her comments about Greg were "he acts like he's in High School"

Katie impressed me more with this episode than she has all season. Her heartfelt comments to both Mike P and Andrew were sincere and let both men know how much she treasured them. And kudos to Andrew for staying he wants his future wife to choose him as much as he chooses her. I agree that production wrote that note!

@GuardianAngel Thank you for posting all of the F4 screen shots. I think I saw one F4 shot where the F1 was on the left, in all the other cases the F1 was on the right. Does that suggest to you that at this point Katie knew that Blake was F1?

Katie chose a very nice bunch of guys to take to the F7. I have been really impressed by her choices.

The "Seattle" 1-on-1 date was cute. However during the day portion, watching her with Greg was cringe-inducing for me. At one point he said, "I feel like I'm in high school." That's what it looked like to me -- two high-schoolers dating. This isn't the first time that I've felt this way while watching this series (Matt and Rachael K. come to mind,) so obviously the rather juvenile interaction doesn't count for much one way or another. I just didn't enjoy watching them together.

The night portion was a lot better. Greg talking about being bullied, and his father's death, put his hesitancy into context. The rain segment was wonderfully romantic. And yet... I'm just not a fan. I don't hate Greg, I just don't enjoy watching him with Katie. I don't want him for the Bachelor. I don't get his appeal.

Michael A. -- It was so cute to watch him being gaga over his sweet little son.

At one point, Brendan asked, "Why am I still here?" The camera then panned to Blake. Every season, there are one or two cast members carried to nearly the end without getting 1-on-1s. It must be a horrible position to be in. I find myself agreeing with Brendan, who wants a lead to meet your family if they have not granted you a 1-on-1? That feels disrespectful to one's family members. I know that it's happened before -- Corinne, maybe? -- but I did feel for him, and didn't mind him taking the situation into his own hands.

I loved the joking interaction of the men on the art group date. Every season, I long to see more of that. What was with Blake's painting? I didn't realize it was censored, I thought he had actually painted the canvas black! I don't think Blake was portrayed in the most flattering light last night. Katie looked disappointed when Blake told her that he was not yet in love with her.

Mike P.'s cuddle date was cute, and perfect for the both of them. It was definitely time for him to go home, but I'm left with the impression of a lovely, classy guy.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why Katie kept Justin over Andrew S., since she seemed to have a closer connection to Andrew S. I think the one thing I ask of the editing is that I can understand why the lead makes the decisions that s/he does, but in this case it was far from apparent.

Overall, it was an engaging episode that held my interest. I'm looking forward to seeing how the end of the season plays out.

@mbl I think those RCs are from the HTD episode as nobody has a rose yet. So it tells us nothing at this point.

Though I will say it's very interesting and used to be quite telling.

https://youtu.be/ug7FzmS3d_w

It was pretty clear to me who her F1 was last night and it definitely wasn't Blake, matter of fact he wasn't even relevant last night, which makes me go hmmmm, the end ain't what we think. They focused on Greg and Andrew which I think are the 2 she is saying she fell in love with. Seems like to me she's trying to hurry up and get to the end for Greg sake. I think she sent Andrew home because she doesn't want to take him to the end and hurt him. I like that he said he doesn't want to be second choice (smart) but he's willing to wait and let her mend her heart if it doesn't work out. Right now for me the editing is not pointing to Blake. I'm thinking she's with Greg or nobody...or some other option.

@pbmax  Unpopular opinion here, but I also think it's Greg or no one.   I won't beat a dead horse (too much) BUT, with Blake it's always his entitled view of how Katie needs to be for him.  He hasn't yet told her he loves her but has expectations galore.  I cannot warm up to him.  I got some more insight into Greg last night.  I think they have an easy grace about them.  He talked about some real, serious feelings.  Neither he nor Katie are "smooth" about it, but I think they are in love with each other.  I'm so wondering how this all goes away.