'The Bachelor' Week 3 Recap: Peter & His Pageant Queens
Last week, we left off with a confused and distraught Peter being told two different things by two different women — and this week, we picked up with more of the same. On Week 3 of The Bachelor, we’re leaving Champagne-Gate behind and jumping right into the Battle of the Pageant Queens. While Kelsey or Hannah Ann seemed like a clear contestant for house villain last week, this week is all about Alayah, a former Miss Texas who has more than one woman doubting her motivations.
The episode kicks off with a reminder that the wounds of Champagne-Gate — in which Hannah Ann popped a bottle of champagne Kelsey had been saving to open with Peter — are still fresh. But we don’t dwell on these weeping women long: It’s off to Victoria P.’s one-on-one with Peter, the woman you might remember from recounting her motion sickness trauma on the flying group date.
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The date itself takes place in Peter’s hometown in California, where he says he’s taking Victoria to do one of his favorite activities. That turns out to be line dancing, so of course he first teaches her how to line dance in a store filled with cowboy boots. (Could they not have just picked a Bachelor from a Southern hometown if this was the scene they wanted?)
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Peter makes a lot of comments about how they would do this “all the time” if things work out between them. Personally, I would consider that a deal breaker, but Victoria’s heart seems to be in it.
Back at the house, Hannah Ann and Kelsey have had some time to reflect on Champagne-Gate, and they’re sitting back down to discuss. Progress! For Kelsey, it’s not about the champagne anymore — “I don’t even really like champagne,”she boldly confesses. But Kelsey still insists that the bullying accusation was unforgivable.
Hannah Ann, on the other hand, is focused on clearing her name as a champagne thief. “I’m not a champagne stealer,” she tells Kelsey. Later, she breaks down in tears: “I would never steal someone’s champagne.” She also refers to it as the Champagne “Finasco” early on. All around, she loses a little credibility.
Back on Peter’s date, Victoria P. is suddenly getting very deep. She opens up about her father’s death and her mother’s struggles with addiction. “I’m very sorry to hear that,” Peter tells her. “I didn’t know if my sister and I would even have food,” she tells him. Peter is moved. He gives her the rose, and tells her this feels “insanely right.”
Victoria P. tells the producers that she’s starting to believe a life with Peter is “a life that [she’s] worthy of,” echoing earlier comments that it was “the nicest she’d ever been treated” when Peter brought her a bottle of water on their last group date. I’m generally happy to believe these two are forming a connection — but I’m more concerned with Victoria learning to love herself than I am with her finding a boyfriend at this point.
Another group date is announced at the house, and we get our first peek at Alayah the villain. Sydney tells the producers that she’s felt like Alayah was fake since Day 1, and the editors have obligingly cut together footage of Alayah smirking threateningly at the other women in the house. It’s pretty convincing.
The group date turns out to be set up by former Bachelor contestant Demi Burnett, who — for some reason — gets all the girls dressed up in lingerie and has them pillow fight each other for Peter’s attention. “I think it’s going to be pretty hot to watch too,” Demi tells the crowd. God knows I love Demi, but I’m not into this at all — though it’s almost worth it to hear Kiarra pronounce lingerie as “linger-y.”
The pillow fights begin, and — surprise, surprise — Alayah wins. But when the women talk to Peter after, Sydney warns him that Alayah has a different face in front of the cameras. “Alayah is manipulative, she’s fake,” she tells Peter. “She thinks this is a game.” Heavy accusations in the world of Bachelor Nation.
Peter is deeply bothered by what Sydney says, and decides to out her to the other women, having her repeat her accusations to the group. He begs the other women to just be honest with him, and talks to Alayah privately: “I guess I’m just blindsided because I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Alayah says. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel something for you.”
Once again, Peter is getting two different messages, and he doesn’t know which woman is lying to him. The group date rose goes to Sydney, an early indication that Peter isn’t nearly done spiraling out about this.
Later that day (week? month?), Chris Harrison comes by and informs them there will be no cocktail party before the rose ceremony, only a pool party. Apparently, this is fundamentally different, and the women are accordingly ruffled.
When Peter comes by, it’s clear this will be no ordinary pool party. “Doubt is creeping in,” he tells them. He asks to talk to Sydney again, and hear more about why she said what she said. It’s not looking good for Alayah. One by one, more women come forward: “There’s a certain, ‘oh, the cameras are here,’” Natasha tells him. “Some people just kind of turn it on a little bit,” Lexi adds.
Meanwhile, Alayah is holding court with her terrifying girl squad of Mykenna and Hannah Ann, three of the most confident and widely disliked women in the house. Alayah is complaining that none of the women have had an issue with her to her face — and to be fair, the exchanges she’s had with Sydney haven’t made Sydney seem the most rational. “Do you work at all?” she asks Alayah on the group date. “Do you have feelings? Do you have emotions?” she asks at the pool party.
After sharing a sweet moment with Kelley, Peter’s sucked right back into the Alayah Diaries. He talks with Victoria P. again, who tells him she knows Alayah from their pageant past. “I did know Alayah a little bit before getting into this,” she admits. “I had maybe spent three hours with her. I do know that she asked that I not tell producers that we knew one another and I didn’t really understand why.”
This revelation is devastating to Peter. He talks to Alayah again, who says she didn’t want them to say they knew each other because she was “worried for both of them,” and didn’t want them to get kicked off the show because they knew each other. That’s literally not how anything works, but okay. Peter is frustrated: he’s “drawn to” Alayah, but he wishes he wasn’t.
Before you know it (just kidding — this episode felt between four and five hours long), it’s rose ceremony time. With two roses left, Mykenna and Alayah are both sweating bullets. Peter, just to be dramatic, decides to only give out one of those roses, and it goes to Mykenna. Wow, finally a Bachelor who actually listens when every single woman in the house agrees that one contestant is bad news…
…But of course, I spoke too soon, and the preview for next week’s episode shows Alayah coming back already. “I don’t feel good,” Peter tells a producer backstage. “I don’t know right now. I just hope I made the right decision.” Next week, Alayah is sweeping back in to the dismay of the other women. Will Peter give her another chance? And is there any chance he actually should?
See you next week to find out.
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