The Bachelorette Recap Season 16, Episode 6: Guys Fight for Tayshia

The whole vibe in “The Bachelorette” resort changed almost immediately after Clare Crawley departed with her insta-fiance Dale Moss, leaving 16 guys without a common enemy or target for their frustration.

While the arrival of new Bachelorette Tayshia Adams and four new men shook things up last week, the bubbling tension began to boil over almost immediately this week. In particular, Ed took issue with Chasen for using similar phrases to describe Tayshia as he did for Clare.

Now, to be fair to Chasen, Ed and Bennett also had a lot of fun mocking his limited vocabulary, so is this really a testament to his lack of genuine interest in this process or Tayshia, or just indicative of how few words he can think of to describe a woman.

This may be our new favorite line on the show, and it quickly became Chasen’s catch-phrase. It sounds as if he might not have used it in front of the guys much after debuting it for them and getting rightfully laughed about it.

This was his comeback to Ed calling him out for using the same words. This was the new way to describe Tayshia that he came up with and though to himself, yup, this is it. This is the one that will win her heart.

Yikes!

And then, for the remainder of the episode, the viewers were treated to him describing her as a “smokeshow” over and over again in his talking-head interviews. We’re not sure how long Chasen is going to last on the show, but we definitely want a “smokeshow” montage during the “Men Tell All” special.

After dealing with all the ups and downs of this ride, don’t we deserve something nice, too?

Honestly, we found ourselves growing more and more frustrated with both Ed and Chasen, who handled their escalating feud like real babies. First, Ed would not let his accusations go, even as they were largely unfounded and just his own gut feelings.

But when pushed — and Ed never let up — Chasen kept reacting with physical aggression and that kind of energy that’s generally suited for the kinds of young guys who think their fists are the answers to life’s problems.

It was embarrassing for both of them, and we were half hoping that Tayshia would boot them both at the mid-show Rose Ceremony. Alas, she decided to let her own instincts dictate what to do — plus, producers love drama, ifyouknowwhatwe’resayinghere!

The reality is, though, that Ed’s tunnel vision about Chasen is going to sabotage his own chances with Tayshia. And it didn’t help that he became a rabble-rouser again on the night’s second group date when Noah crashed it.

First of all, Noah only got that opportunity because Ed backed out (at the last second) of a physical wrestling match with Chasen. The guys fought, literally, for time with Tayshia, but when Ed ran to Chris Harrison to say his shoulders might get dislocated if he got in there, it sounded like a lot of whining and chickening out.

Certainly that’s how Chasen took it. And just like Ed doesn’t know Chasen’s real intentions, we don’t know if Ed really has those injuries. We’re assuming, just like he did. But the moment gave Noah a huge opportunity, and his aggressiveness paid off.

We’re not going to defend Noah in general, as he seems like a real shit disturber, but he wasn’t entirely out of his rights at the evening portion of the group date. Tayshia invited him for stepping up after Ed stood back and stood by.

Then, after he snatched her up for the first one-on-one moment, she’s the one who suggested he finally shave off that awful mustache. So when he returned later and stole a little more time with her, it was to follow up on her request, and allow her to do it right then and there.

From that perspective, the whole thing was rather adorable, and we’re glad Tayshia did for us all what we were thinking needed to happen.

We don’t like Noah any better, but we do like Tayshia for standing up for common decency on the airwaves.

The only real loser in this situation was Ben, who opted for strategy over just following his heart and fighting for what he believed in. Did he miss the metaphor with the wrestling meet?

Tayshia was feeling a real connection with him earlier in the episode, but when he never got time to speak with her, it was clear she was hurt that he didn’t seem to be fighting for her. He was angling for the group date rose, but is that really more important than connecting? This isn’t a game — okay, it is a game — but also it’s not.

Except when it is.

We’d be remiss if we let Bennett off the hook. The guy is easily one of the most entertaining personalities on the show, even when the joke is on him. He carries so much confidence and “boujee” charm with him, you find yourself kind of hating his smarminess and loving him at the same time.

He was the absolute highlight of the first group date of the night: Taysia’s quest for a “Grown-Ass Man” because this Harvard graduate, who will gladly tell you over and over again (and he does) that he went to Harvard, hilariously bombed the question-and-answer portion of the date.

Then, he pulled an Ed (or perhaps Ed pulled a Bennett, as this date happened first) and cited an old injury as the reason he could not participate in the tug-of-war. And yet, he rebounded with an impressively over-the-top (Harvard) presentation for breakfast in bed.

And we kind of loved how salty Chasen was here as well, considering Bennett bombed the first round, sat out the second round and then rebounded and won the whole date.

With Noah scoring that group date rose and Bennett circling back to win the first date with his ham-fisted charm, it’s clear that Tayshia appreciates risk takers. That’s also why she was so upset Ben didn’t make sure he found her at the group date that night.

He took a risk with his elaborate be-last-get-the-group-date-rose strategy, but to her it just looked like he didn’t really care all that much if he got time with her or not. Was it enough to doom his chances? Time will tell.

Oh, there were a few guys eliminated tonight, but they were so forgettable we almost forgot to mention them. Two of them were among the four newcomers (Montel and Peter), leaving only Noah and Spencer to rile up Clare’s original suitors. The other was Jay, who just never really connected with her.

• “I did go to Harvard … I think I’m in the upper echelons in terms of being a grown-ass man. I’m certainly the smartest.” –Bennett (before getting the first question wrong)
• “I was really excited about Bennett at first, but I’m not sure about that math test.” –Tayshia (to Ashley)
• “It’s kind of a pearly-worded question.” –Bennett (before getting the second question wrong)
• “Harvard might have to drop its prices after seeing Bennett’s performance today.” –Ed
• “I’m really excited to show her how grown my ass is — as a man.” –Joe
• “I just thought that I could be the main course for breakfast.” Chasen (not making an actual breakfast)
• “What are you doing?” –Tayshia (as Bennett crawls into bed with her)
• “It’s breakfast in bed.” –Bennett
• “When Bennett kissed her, the whole room cringed. That’s just classless. He has no respect for the other guys. He’s wearing a f–king robe in front of everyone thinking he rules the world because he’s from Harvard.” –Chasen
• “Does a grown-ass man not compete in a physical competition and has to sit out?” –Chasen
• “If you want to go down that route, I got the award and didn’t compete in one of the competitions. So how does that make you feel?” –Bennett
• “You’re trouble; I’m leaving, I’m leaving.” –Tayshia (after passionate kiss with Ben)
• “Those guys can come at me all they want, Batman and Robin, I’ll be Superman. Actually, I’ll be Wolverine because that’s kind of my nickname.” –Chase (about Bennett and Ed)
• “I can’t cheers you. You crossed it.” –Chasen (refusing to toast with Ed)
• “Bottom line, this shit needs to stop, dude.” –Chasen (looming over Ed after talkign with Tayshia)
• “Alright, well, take your smedium shirt and sit down.” –Ed (to Chasen)
• “It’s unfortunate that there’s this weird arguing thing that’s going on. Because in my mind, grown-ass men don’t do that thing. The grown-ass man is somebody who is kind, they’re humble, they protect those that cannot protect themselves. They don’t bullshit on national TV about some stuff.” –Ben
• “Hi, hello, I’m Ben. I didn’t get a rose again.” –Ben (after missing out on group date rose)
• “Let me take Carlos from you. He doesn’t need to hear this.” –Bennett (taking Ed’s fake baby as he fights with Chasen)
• “My new word, she’s a smokeshow. Tayshia’s a smokeshow.” –Chasen (all the guys laughed at this attempt to find a new word)
• “I, like, blacked out. I’m not usually at a loss for words.” –Ben (after kissing Tayshia)
• “Send him home. Chasen is already late for his first club appearance with his 6,000 followerse he gained tonight.” –Ed
• “Chasen’s gonna be fired up. And I think Ed is just glamour muscles” –Spencer (at wrestling meet)
• “Between Ed and I, it’s gonna get bloody.” –Chasen (ignoring Tayshia asking him to not take it to that next level)
• “Ed has forfeited. But, he’s just super-scared. I hope Tayshia sees that. Let’s go!” —
• “Is there anybody here that wants to fight for Tayshia’s heart?” –Chris (Noah jumps in)
• “The only thing more embarrassing than him actually doing this is that mustache. I’m actually very excited about it.” –Wells (about Noah’s ring antics)
• “I don’t think Tayshia will choose a 25-year-old guy who walked in the house with a f–king mustache.” –Ed
• “I wonder what you’d look like without that thing, if you shaved it off.” –Tayshia
• “Tonight?’ –Noah
• “I don’t know. There’s no rules.” –Tayshia
• “Sometimes you just like to ramble.” –Tayshia (interrupting Brendan with a kiss)

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