‘The Bachelor’, Season 21, Episode 7 Recap: The Calm After The Storm

This week’s episode of The Bachelor promised the conclusion of last week’s teary meltdown. Unfortunately, the end of the freak-out was not the explosion we all were hoping for. Instead, bachelor Nick Viall sat down with host Chris Harrison and had a sobering conversation about overcoming the fear of love and loss. Nick took a few deep breaths and went to tell the remaining six women that he was ready to soldier on.

The Bachelor, Season 21, Episode 7 Recap

Now in a cheery mood, Nick announced that the cocktail party and rose ceremony would be canceled. He howled out that instead they should pack their bags and head with him to Bimini – an island in the Bahamas that all the women pretended to be familiar with.

The women arrived at their beach-side villa and brought with them their typical squeals and squawks as they trampled through their new home for the week. Beds, check. Large couch to fit all of them at once, check. A gorgeous view, check. One would imagine their excitement would tapper off the more hotel rooms they see but instead, it grows every episode. If only we all loved life the way these women love a good hotel room.

Vanessa Grimaldi, the woman with arguably the strongest relationship with Nick, was awarded the first one-on-one date of the trip. The two of them got onto a boat and headed towards an old shipwreck sight. On the way, they talked about the drama from last week and the trials of The Bachelor. The show is very meta.

At their dinner, Vanessa told Nick that she was falling in love with him. His face quickly hardened as he feared he might regress into the panicked state that crushed him last week. But he quickly got over it and told her that he didn’t want to say that he loves her yet. Vanessa, disappointed by his response, wondered why she admitted her feelings to Nick knowing that he has turned away every woman that has done the same so far. Still, Nick left dinner with a favorable view of Vanessa.

Corinne Olympios, Raven Gates, and Kristina Schulman were picked for the group date after Nick returned. Corinne, the villain everyone seems to be warming up to, worried that Nick hadn’t noticed her much recently and began to plot her audacious return. On the boat, Nick whipped out sunscreen, an interesting factor in the complicated equation the three women were living in. Nick put sunscreen on Kristina, Corinne put sunscreen on Nick, Corinne also put sunscreen on Corinne (she also referred to herself in the third person five times over the course of the episode) and Raven, without a partner, presumably got sunburned.

After intimately kissing all three women over the course of the date, Nick awarded Raven with the group date rose. The next day, Nick invited Danielle Maltby on a one-on-one date. Like all of the dates in Bimini, this one was calm, relaxed, and mind-numbingly boring. While sitting on a boardwalk, Nick and Daniella had, or more accurately, didn’t have, a conversation. They talked about the weather, the view, and at some point Nick told her that her “face is pretty great.” Safe to say, Nick broke up with her by the end of it.

Rachel Lindsay, who was recently announced to be the next lead on The Bachelorette, went on the final one-on-one date with Nick. The lovers, bound for failure per the announcement above, went to a bar for locals only, according to Nick. They both enjoyed themselves. The audience, again forced to watch a date with little to no drama, pined for the days when Nick’s sanity was a fleeting beast.

But soon, we would be saved.

Having fully developed her plot, Corinne snuck out of the villa and headed towards Nick’s hotel room. Donned in a tiny dress and heels that made every step of hers potentially fatal, Corinne knocked on the bachelor’s door. Nick welcomed her in an offered her some champagne. After a brief conversation, Corinne pulled Nick into his bedroom. The cameras fixed on the closed bedroom door as the microphones picked up the sounds of heavy breathing, rustling sheets, and something Corinne said about massages.

It was all getting to be a little much when Nick said that they should wait. “Oh my god,” said Corinne, somehow shocked that her plan hadn’t been fully executed. She went home worried that her time may be coming to an end.

Instead, Nick came to the contestant’s villa the next day to break up with Kristina. Sitting her down on the porch, Nick’s break up speech was sloppy and teary. He claimed to know more about love than Kristina. She claimed he hadn’t given her a fair shake. Undoubtably the master of stringing his rejected women along, Nick claimed that right now wasn’t the right time for his heart. If history repeats itself, he may be right.

Next week: Someone important comes back to haunt Nick, multiple dates in hometowns, Nick climbs a snowy mountain in search of himself.