On the Bachelor, Brad Comes to Life During Embalming Conversation

Last night on The Bachelor, I really started to like Brad and to see him as human. He seems very nice and polite always, but a little controlled. He speaks carefully, usually using Bachelor-speak or therapy-speak, and the only times he lets go are when he's doing man stuff-action movie sequences, race-car driving, rappelling--adventurous physical stuff.

But last night he was caught off guard for a few precious moments when Funeral Director Shawntel was telling him, at dinner, about the embalming process. She thought it was important that she tell him about her profession-what it is and what it involves, and she got very detailed. Brad stopped eating as she talked about blood and fluids as if she were relating the plot of a book she was reading.

And then, he told the camera how he was going to describe this wonderful date. But every time he started to explain the conversation between him and Shawntel, he cracked up. He couldn't finish a sentence. I found that funny, and real, and actually very endearing.

Then he gave her the rose and they watched fireworks on the roof of their building, and that was the end of the date that started earlier in the day as a gigantic shopping spree. But I liked Brad for laughing.

The next thing that really caught him off guard and left him speechless was when Michelle took him off alone. She told him he couldn't talk at all, and then she gave him something I'll politely call the geisha treatment. She ran her hand slowly down the side of his face, to his neck, all the while telling him that she was really the only woman for him out of all the women there. Then she kissed him, and kissed him. Whew, it was really sensuous, the way she controlled the situation and Brad; she just had her way with him, and he let her do it. Even if he had been allowed (!) to talk, I don't think he could have spoken a coherent sentence. What a scene. Brad was not in control at that moment.

Brad, like many men, does not seem to like it when a woman gets emotional with and about him. A lot of the girls were whining and crying last night to him, about how much they care about him and how angry they feel when he goes off with one woman over and over.

The woman last night was Emily, the beautiful blonde whose fiance was killed in a plane crash right before she found out she was pregnant with his child-a little girl now. When Brad brought a group of women on a date to the car races, he included Emily. Now, it's hard enough to believe Brad didn't know that Emily's ex Ricky (Have you seen Talladega Nights? Terrible coincidence) was a car racer, and his last race was at this very track, and that Emily just might be a little upset here. But did the producers not realize it? Really hard to believe they didn't know, or even that they did know, and staged the scene anyway.

As might be expected, Emily did have a hard time at the race track, prompting Brad to give her extra attention and a second rose. And, as also might be expected, the other women were jealous. Chantal, who often takes the role of narrator/observer, was understanding, though, when she said maybe it just shows what a good guy Brad is, that he took the time to comfort Emily.

But later we see Chantal crying to Brad for the exact same reason-too much time with Emily; what about her? I think Chantal almost pushed it to the point of turning him off-but then pulled back in time. She got her rose at the end of the night.

The first girl who went home was Ashley S., on a two-Ashley date that involved rehearshing for Cirque du Soleil, then going home when Ashley H. was chosen to perform with Brad. (Hard to keep Ashleys straight. The one who went home was the sweet one who got the first-impression rose and told Brad she was there if he needed to talk. The one who stayed is the dentist he went to the amusement park with.)

I don't think Brad is that into Ashley H. either-but she may have a good chance for Dancing with the Stars later on; she's quite lively. For now though, she remains. At the Rose Ceremony, Marissa (we hardly knew ya') and Lisa left. If what we see is a true indication, these two had very little time with Brad.

"No, it's totally fine," Lisa says to him as he rejects her, then cries all the way to the car.

Chantal accepts her rose from Brad, then adds, "You're killing me."

Now there are eight.