Well, in case there were any doubts that The Bachelorette's Lee is an actual nightmare, he did his best to confirm it on tonight's episode, which picked up right where the last episode left off.
Lee was still intent on stirring any and all pots, and after he got done arguing with Eric, he turned his sights on Kenny and admitted to the cameras that he had no trouble making the other guys angry and doing whatever he felt he had to do to win.
His "I gotta do what I gotta do" attitude and his qualification of men like Kenny and Eric as "angry men" were so off-putting and aggravating that we were close to the point of turning the episode off, or at least waiting until we could fast forward to fun times, but what Lee's horrible behavior did do was force the show and contestants to begin to address the racial aspect of this season, which hasn't really been discussed on screen so far.
Dean awkwardly acknowledged Lee's racism by saying, "The only person I've seen Lee pick fights with have been not the people that he's used to seeing on a daily basis from a cultural perspective." He refused to say exactly what he meant by that, but he did correctly say we knew exactly what he meant.
Rachel didn't witness a lot of the arguing first hand, but she could hear it from the other room, and she did see Lee obnoxiously interrupt her moment with Kenny. She started crying in front of the camera, lamenting the fact that there was so much pressure on her as a black woman on this show (which she didn't even want to talk about right now) and she knew that all of her decisions would be questioned.
Then it came time for the rose ceremony, where we proceeded to question the f--k out of her decisions. She still gave Lee a rose, sending Diggy home (and Bryce, but who cares?)! No wonder our favorite glasses-clad sneaker lover barely got any screen time. RIP Team Diggy.
It was a surprising choice, just because so far, Rachel has been pretty clear in her refusal to deal with any bulls--t. She kicked DeMario out with barely a second thought, but then after being driven to tears due to arguments tonight, she didn't even want to take a second to figure out if there was something she could do to prevent any further arguments?
It's not even like Lee was creating "fun" drama. It was uncomfortable drama, and while it did force the start of an inevitable conversation, we didn't need Lee to start that conversation. If Lee was cast on this show for that purpose, that's incredibly disappointing and disheartening, and it kind of ruins the show. Lees exist in real life, but that doesn't mean he had to exist in the mansion.
Hopefully, he's gone soon.
Anyway, the whole gang headed to Hilton Head, South Carolina (the perfect place to fall in love) to look at the ocean and yell Rachel's name from balconies.
Bryan, who did some serious charming at the cocktail party, really wanted a one-on-one. Kenny also really wanted a one-on-one. Eric was sure he was getting a one-on-one. Dean ended up getting the one-on-one, and he was super excited to prove to Rachel that he's more than just a "smiley guy."
He and Rachel hung out in a jeep, drinking and laughing, and then the Goodyear blimp showed up. Rachel LOVES blimps, so she was absolutely thrilled to ride in the blimp while Dean suddenly began imagining himself puking all over the potential love of his life.
While that worked for Vanessa last season on The Bachelor, Dean didn't want to risk it, so it was mostly a lot of Rachel squealing with blimpy delight while Dean sat quietly.
During their emotional dinner time, Dean filled Rachel in on his mother's death due to breast cancer when he was just a young teen. While it was a classic "Thank you for sharing that story" conversation, it also felt genuine (and very, very sad), and suddenly Dean and Rachel started to seem like a real possibility.
Then, Dean and Rachel danced awkwardly on a platform at the concert of someone we've never heard of, and it was Bachelorette business as usual.
At the night's big group date, there was some boat partying before all the guys except for Dean and Jack were forced to participate in a spelling bee. Most of them were not thrilled, but Josiah wasn't worried because apparently his vocabulary is so intricate, it's on another level.
The guys were fine at words like "squirt" and "passion," but Kenny was the first guy out after struggling with "champagne." Iggy screwed up "boudoir." Eric spelled "facade" as "physde." Peter then lost a whole bunch of his many, many points in our hearts by trying to spell "coitus" by starting with "quicui," which makes us wonder if he genuinely has a problem with letters.
Josiah, whose over-confidence is super annoying, got the word "stunning," which just seems unfair. He then asked if he could use it in a sentence,. He then won by correctly spelling "polyamorous" after going on about how he'd never want to be polyamorous with Rachel and it was all just very irritating.
If we were Rachel, we probably would have walked off set immediately following that bee. What an upsetting display.
Up next, Rachel had some time with each of the guys, and as usual, they used it badly.
Iggy tried to throw Josiah under the bus for no reason at all when Rachel asked who was the reason for the tension, and either the editing is wrong or Iggy is straight up lying, because we would have said that the tension was coming from Lee.
And why did Iggy immediately go and tell Josiah what he told Rachel? What is this guy's game? Has Rachel ever had a conversation with him that wasn't about one of the other guys? Can we send Iggy home and replace him with Diggy?
Then, Rachel talked to Lee, and all he could do was talk about how aggressive Kenny apparently is. Kenny then swooped in with a freestyle rap before Rachel confronted him about what Lee said. Kenny tried to defend himself, but he also worried that Rachel fully believed Lee over him.
While Kenny stressed out about Lee, Lee talked himself up at the bar, and then Kenny confronted Lee at the bar. Then, of course, we got a goddamn To Be Continued.
Probably this episode's only saving grace was the tag, which consisted of Will being horrified by the less-than-passable accents in which Kenny and Josiah were making Game of Thrones jokes as they drank out of the spelling bee trophy.
More Game of Thrones references, less talk from racists, please!
Anyway, vote in the poll below to share your thoughts on The Bachelorette in relation to the Bachelor in Paradise scandal, then head to the comments to weigh in on all this nonsense.
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The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.