Atlanta's Andi Dorfman has done quick work paring down 25 guys to a quartet. In Belgium in Monday's episode, she dispatched with sweet basketball coach Brian Osborne and nondescript accountant Dylan Petit Monday night on "The Bachelorette."
Andi rejecting Brian was a bit of a surprise given his likable, puppy-dog demeanor. "I poured my heart out to that girl," he said. "She was the girl of my dreams." Dylan had trouble opening up and faded into the woodwork.
She gave roses to Atlanta's jock Josh Murray, farmer Chris Soules, sports medicine manager Marcus Grodd and unlikable software executive Nick Viall, who "snuck out" to her hotel room to get extra time with her. She somehow finds his attitude sexy while the other guys see him as arrogant.
She will travel to their hometowns and meet their families. For Murray, she'll get to go home, too, since they both live here.
Yawn: In his one on one date, Marcus tried to explain away his recent desire to want to leave. He says he simply felt scared. "It's full throttle from here," he says. Andi finds him romantic. I find him incredibly boring.
Marcus returns with confidence. Nick pouts. "I have no interest in hearing about anyone's date," he says.
Josh gets the second one on one. Nick pouts.
Slick Nick? So Nick decides to take matters into his own hands by pretending to be Andi's wife and getting a room key at her hotel. That trickster! It works. Andi is happy to see him.
"If there's one word to describe my relationship with Nick, it's passion," Andi said. "When I kiss him, I can feel what he's thinking. It's soooo hot."
Tell her, for God's sake! She isn't sure about how the Josh one on one in Ghent will go. "Other guys are definitely more open and progressing more with telling me how they're feeling," she said. "Part of me wants him to catch up with that."
She wants more depth from Josh and worries he's going to cheat on her like past athletes she's dated.
He tells her how hard it is for him to be vulnerable. He is having difficulty expressing his feelings in a terribly poetic way.
While Nick and Marcus had said they were open to marriage, Josh isn't as forthcoming and it creates doubts in Andi's mind. So he finally says it:
"I am falling in love with you," he says. "I love the way it feels. That's why it's important that you meet my family."
"Very comforting for me to just like know how you feel about it," she says.
Nick, being himself: Later, when the group date featuring the four guys not getting a one on one is announced, Nick crabbily states, "I cannot wait to never have to do this." Later, Brian notes: "I don't respect Nick because he's fake." Chris' assessment of Nick's constant belly aching and strategizing: "It's hard for me to stomach." That obnoxious grin hardly helps. Nick's take on Dylan, Brian and Chris: "They don't matter."
"It's me and everyone else," Nick declares. "There is no second." His statements would work even more effectively if he twirled a handlebar mustache.
Unchained melody: The four guys on the group date check out a monastery and peddle Andi down a train track on a quadricycle of some sort. She gets some alone time with Chris, where they do pottery a la the scene from "Ghost." Charming her with clay solidifies his final four slot following his recent "secret admirer" gambit.
Watch Nick get more full of himself: Andi gives the man she gave the first impression rose the group hometown rose. "I've had confidence before but it's at his peak," he says. On their date, they kiss and there are (shocking!) literal fireworks in the background.
Nick hate at full blast: Chris, Dylan and Marcus walk away, bummed and packed with curses. When they arrive home, Josh and Marcus looked equally bummed. "He knows every season in and out," says Josh. "He's going to be one of the last two and walk away," Marcus predicts. "He has other intentions." Dylan: "I don't know if Andi sees that." Chris calls him a good "salesman." Brian: "He's playing the right games to get to the end."
Nick returns to the bachelor pad to... awkward silence: What do you do after slamming someone and they arrive in the room? You say nothing. What is there to say? Brian shows some balls and breaks the silence first. "You like to get in our heads and prey on people who are insecure at times," Marcus tells Nick. "We all feel this way." "You're making s*** up," Nick says. He says he did watch the past couple of seasons in depth to just know what he was getting into.
"Is she the priority or the game?" Chris says. He says Nick obsesses over who is going to go on what date, what Andi is going to do next, who is going to stay, who is going to go.
"What's more on my mind is my relationship with Andi," Nick says. He later says he cannot wait to get away from the other guys. Can you blame him?
He even cuts off Brian's final pitch to Andi to talk to her even though he already has a rose. Classy! He starts whining to Andi. "It's tough," he says about the other guys bitching about him, he says without any real emotion.
Chris broaches the L word: He is yet another guy to say he's falling in love with Andi. He does a solid sell job. She does not return the favor. But he isn't done. He later grabs her one more time and kisses her. Another great move! He ultimately earns a rose.
Pickle is the devil! The final comedy clip features Brian's hatred of pickles. That is not a euphemism. He really hates them.
Next week: it's hometown visit week! The visit with Josh ends up being a bit about Aaron Murray, his brother. Andi wonders if being a farm girl would work for her. Then they learn that Eric Hill died that threw off the entire situation.
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