And then there were four. Seven weeks in and Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay has winnowed the original 31 suitors down to Bryan, Dean, Eric — and Madison’s own Peter. This means, as we previously spoiled for some folks, roughly one-quarter of the next episode will take place right here in town.
Since we last updated everyone on Peter’s “journey," the drama on the show has (regrettably) focused on Lee baiting Kenny with racially charged attacks. That back-and-forth resulted in Lee being left in the middle of the Norwegian wilderness, coming to a realization we all already know — that he’s the turd floating in this season’s punchbowl. Kenny took himself out of the running not long after, citing how much he missed his daughter, thus tying up the loose ends of a narrative that dominated the episode-capping previews since the beginning. With those two out of the way, we can get back into the mix and put the spotlight back where it belongs: our sweet, sweet boy Peter and the lovely Rachel.
Other than Kenny vs. Lee coming to a head, the show’s Norwegian swing featured a group-date game of handball which will live in infamy, and I’m not just talking about Dean’s inexplicable preference of wearing his protective cup over his shorts. As interesting as that was, the highlight of the game was Peter’s unorthodox approach to picking Rachel up, a move that un/fortunately involved him grabbing a big handful of her posterior. Some may say that this was an opportunistic grope, but after reviewing the tape (thoroughly) I think that we should chalk it up to the fact that people are cumbersome objects, lacking in tasteful handholds below the torso. This is what happens when you improvise: sometimes you’re gonna grab a little bit of butt. Fortunately for Peter, though, Rachel didn’t seem to mind his unexpected impropriety.
After the group date, there’s a cocktail party. Ostensibly intended to be a mixer for the remaining guys to get some fleeting moments of face time with the object of their affection, Peter and Rachel drift towards her hotel room, where they decide to explore her hot tub. Cut to quite some time later, when Peter and Rachel finally return to the room full of less-than-enthused fellow suitors. Peter thinks he’s got that evening’s rose locked and loaded, going so far as to see it as a confirmation that Rachel feels as good about their forward momentum as he does. But, alas and alack, Will gets the rose — because Rachel “saw a different side of him.” A seed of doubt germinates in Peter, but they’re off to Denmark before it can put its roots down too deep.
In Denmark, the guys are subjected to yet another regionally-specific feat of strength: a series of Viking-inspired games. Does Peter find a way to physically lift Rachel off her feet somewhere in there? You better believe he does! Rachel apparently likes this prehistoric approach, or is righting the wrong of playing down their hot-tub excursion, and gives Peter the group date rose. Rachel uses the remaining time in Denmark to thin the herd a little more, sending Will and Alex packing.
We’re heading into the homestretch now, with only one more cut that will lock in the fellas who get to introduce Rachel to their parents. Four of the remaining six will go on one-on-one dates, and the other two will duke it out with each other head-to-head. Peter is selected for a coveted one-on-one, and the duo are off to explore the Swiss alps via dogsled (lot of dog-related dates for these two, huh?). Peter’s psyched — even though he was the first to get a date way back in episode two, he hasn’t had any official face-to-face time with Rachel since then. That dearth of quality time has clearly been eating away at his self esteem bit by bit in the the intervening weeks.
Here’s the reason I like Peter the most out of this crop of dudes: He keeps finding ways to break the stereotypical boundaries of reality dating shows. When asked about his previous relationship, he frankly lays it out for Rachel, blaming himself and sincerely professing feelings of guilt over abandoning his ex. “I truly hurt her, and I hurt myself,” he says. It’s not the most complex sentiment, sure. But by Bachelor/ette standards it stands as a pinnacle of emotional maturity, and a fairly profound testament to the progress he’s made, presumably thanks to the therapy he and Rachel bonded over during that first date. Is he ready to take the plunge if he ends up making it all the way to the end with her? “I can only say that I think that I am” is his statement on the matter — which prompts Rachel to confide during a confessional “His honesty scares me!”
Thankfully, their time together in Switzerland isn’t just nonstop rifling through emotional baggage. The always-entertaining credits sequence reveals an outtake from the duo's time spent as dogsled cargo, when both watch in disbelief as one of the dogs, mid-mush, takes a dump like it’s nothing. It just plops one out there on the snow in front of them without missing a step. Peter immediately admits he can relate to the plight of this pup, since he himself usually has to stop a mile into his runs and answer a similar call of the wild, giving the explanation “It moves things around a little bit.” Rachel meets his overshare more than halfway, volunteering that she poops with the door open “all the time.” When she says that some relationships are progressing faster than others, this is what she means.
So that’s where things stand as we head into the hometown episode. As has already been reported elsewhere, Peter and Rachel will make a lap around the Farmer’s Market before finding their way down State Street to Cask & Ale. It looks like it will get pretty heavy — the previews for the episode feature Peter telling his mother “I have walls up with Rachel for sure, I haven’t figured out when they’ll come down,” and his mother answering Rachel’s question of “Is he emotionally ready for marriage?” with “Not necessarily.” Mom! C’mon! You’re supposed to be helping!