The Bachelor Season 17 Premiere Recap: Meeting The Bachelor & The Girls Part One
January 8, 2013 by Coco Liberty
Sean Lowe is painted as a humble, heartbroken, family man with good intentions and different than every guy out there. He’s 29-years-old and let’s not pretend he doesn’t get the opportunity to be the king of a female harem. Between the flashbacks of Emily and the breakup, the Texan is shown as a Christian and looking for a family of his own. During his various monologues to fill up a two hour series premiere, Lowe says things like, “I want to love my woman, honor her, be her rock, and be the best man possible. When I get down on one knee I’m committed to spending the rest of my life in love with her.” Does he really believe all these things or have the producers of ABC given him lines to read? It’s as though he has read the diaries of every woman in American and verbalizes all our white knight fantasies. As with all the previous bachelors and bachelorettes, ABC has set Sean Lowe up to either prove his white knight intentions or come crashing down by failing to meet all of the American viewer’s expectations.
Let’s get started with an awkward meet up with Arie Luyendyk Jr, whom he battled for the same woman just last year. What advice would he be able to give since he’s currently romancing Courtney the crazy winner from Ben’s season? It’s crazy that they can talk about their different relationships with Emily. They talk about how Sean is going to ask “will you accept this rose?” and break up techniques, which range from it’s not you it’s me to I just don’t see that long term connection with you. Sean asks for pointers with kissing. Arie suggests eye contact, using your hands, playing with her hair, and playing with the face. He says, you have to kiss with your whole body. At this point, my boyfriend interjects that no guy talks like this and you definitely wouldn’t discuss your emotions, but I think American women find this whole conversation endearing yet awkward. ABC is trying to humanize Sean by showing his emotions, fears, and apprehensions and it might be working.
Before the introductions, Chris Harrison has to make his own introductions vouching for Sean Lowe’s sincerity in being the bachelor on a reality TV show. Then to continue filling up their air time, ABC introduces Desiree, Robin, Diana, Ashley, Lesley, Kristy, and Ashlee F separately from the general introductions with Sean. Desiree is a bridal stylist, which makes her perfect for the show, and is “waiting for a person to complete me.” Robin is a sales engineer account manager and she’s a “hopeless romantic” who learns Spanish with sticky notes all over her house. Diana is a single mom with two kids from Utah. Ashley is a single hairstylist that looks all kinds of crazy while reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Will Sean be able to compare to Christian Grey? Ashley has already practiced her lip biting. Is this too much for the Christian Texan? Tierra screams when she finds out Sean is the bachelor and it’s a little too rehearsed. Lesley is a political consultant and she doesn’t like nerds or politicians in DC. Kristy is the best from the mid west (that’s her non-generic slogan) who is a model therefore better than all the other girls. Ashlee F is introduced as an orphan who jumped from foster home to foster home looking for real love. It’ll take more than one man to fix all of her emotional issues.
On to the best part of this two hour premiere, the general introductions: As an audience and for your enjoyment, pay attention to the cheesy introductions made by the women to stand out and also to their occupations. For some odd reason, ABC decided to add sound bites in between every introduction, like “he is sooooo hottt!!!,” or “awwwww,” which got particularly annoying, yet could have been good for a drinking game. The stand out introductions:
* Jackie kisses Sean on the cheek with red lip stick to make her mark,
* Selma pulls out a tissue from her cleavage so staged,
* Daniella creates a parent trap handshake with Sean,
* Kelly (Cruise ship entertainer) writes him a song,
* Ashley P(our crazy fifty shades of grey/honorary cat lady) gives him the most awkward hug and then pulls a tie out of her dress to signify her need for a Christian Grey,
* Robyn does back flips and embarrassingly falls,
* Tierra (our projected villain in the previews) shows him her open heart tattoo on her finger and says hopefully you’ll be able to complete it. Sean thinks she has sweet exciting energy and gives her the first rose of the night, which makes the other women jealous instantly,
* Paige with the best occupation ever as Jumbotron operator has been on bachelor pad 3 and is strategically wearing a cross,
* Lindsay shows up wearing a wedding dress as a “prank.” Even though the show is geared towards Sean finding a wife, he is even stunned by this overly obvious display.
After the 25 girls are introduced coming out of the limo, Chris Harrison tells Sean that there is one more lady who requested to be here. Kacie B from Ben’s season steps out of the limo. She says that she doesn’t deserve a second chance, but wants to see if anything will happen between them. They apparently have history with other Bachelor events. With this being her second time around, she knows the girls won’t be happy, but he is apparently worth the risk.