Emily Maynard visits the Polish, Dutch, a family ranch & an armadillo

Ahhh, the infamous hometown dates episode.  This is always one of the best episodes of the season because learning about where each of the final 4 comes from is always an eye-opening experience which helps us learn so much more about these guys.  Remember last season when we met Kacie B’s very traditional family who didn’t want her to live with Ben Flajnik before marrying him?  Let’s not forget when Ali Fedotowsky went to visit Kirk’s (who I loved) family and learned that his father is a taxidermist.  And who could forget Jason Mesnick’s visit to Naomi’s family where they had a funeral for a dead bird?  Hometown dates can make or break you.

But this season, we didn’t really have anything dramatic or out of the ordinary take place at any of the hometown dates.  Which is making the decisions even harder for Emily.  That said, you can clearly see the difference in how Emily is with Chris than how she is with the other 3 remaining guys.  When you watch Emily’s facial expressions when Jef reads her the love letter, or in how she kisses Arie as he is walking her out, his arm always around her back – it’s in a different world than what she has going on with Chris.  Sean is borderline here.  He seems to love telling her how excited and confident he is in what they have between her, but I don’t know that they’ve reached the level of deepness (deepness for Bachelorette land) that is necessary for him to make it past Jef or Arie at this point.

To summarize where Emily stands now for the remaining 3, it’s something like this:

Arie: Fun and excitement. Attraction.  Bad boy edge.

Prediction: Lots of passion, love and fun between these too, but their tumultuous relationship to date may reflect that it won’t be all fun and games when this is over.  Plus, does Emily really want a guy who’s traveling all the time when she’s interested in busting out babies when this thing is over?  Staying power is questionable.

Sean: Safety guy, makes her feel confident and taken care of.  He’s like the golden or yellow lab retriever of guys left.  A gentleman.  Mr. Perfect.  Questionable as to whether Emily feels he’s too vanilla for her and that her feelings are as strong for him as his are for her.

Prediction: If Emily wants the perfect family life, committed, doting husband, Sean’s her guy.  Whether Emily’s interest in him can compare with that of Arie and Jef is hard to say.

Jef: Adventurous, has an edge, is WEALTHY, romantic, wants a family life with the right girl.

Prediction: Emily is smitten with this guy and has been since early on.  Even though she kind of looks like his mom when they’re hanging out together sometimes, he’s definitely grown on me and the momentum of his relationship with Emily is going at full speed.  This guy could be “our” guy, but it will depend on how much they’re not showing us about Arie and Emily at this point.

Chris didn’t really have a chance here.  When Emily says, “I think (Chris) would be a great husband,” I thought this was said as something to soften the blow later on.  The Husband commented, that Chris would make a GREAT husband for someone else.  Also, when we saw Chris’s sister tell Emily to send Chris home as soon as she knew he wasn’t THE ONE, that was called foreshadowing in Bachelorette speak.  The whole “Do I sense some love?” question from Chris’s dad was an unfortunate miscommunication.   Even the Polish dancers that came in on the end couldn’t make me feel secure that Chris would make it another round.

Best Quotes:

Chris: “On a scale from 1 to Polish, we’re Polish.”

Emily: Who knew that Jef in his skinny jeans had such a good shot?”

Jef: As his family had just been introduced to Emily and they’re walking off together to have a meal, he says about his sister, “Julia’s mean, don’t talk to her.”   [This was kind of random, and perhaps a nervous thing said to break the ice, but just seemed odd]

Jef’s Brother Steve: “Love is not an investment, it’s an adventure.”  Oooh, I like that one!

Jef to his brother Steve: “I’m totally falling for her dude. She’s the coolest thing in the world.”  Almost as cool as a shot gun and Jef’s hair gel.

Jef’s love letter (all of it, I loved, but one of my favorite parts): “I’ve realized that I am completely in love with everything about you…I love that you want a cute little family, hopefully with me…I will love you forever…”

When Emily finds out that Sean still lives at home, he takes her to his messy room and Emily’s reaction, “Oh cool.”

So in summary, I’m still thinking Arie and Jef have to be our Final 2.  I’d give Jef the slight edge going into next week’s exotic overnights in Curacao simply because who wouldn’t want to hang out at the Holmstead Ranch and vacation on a few 100 acres surrounded by reserve land?  And yes, let’s clarify that the LDS does NOT practice polygamy, so any compound, sister wives, brother husband comments are of course only in jest and probably not funny to the members of the LDS.  I’m still a bit weirded out that Arie’s mother took Emily for a very deep private conversation in a bedroom and while sitting on a bed together.  Couldn’t they have found a couch somewhere to talk or go outside?  She very slightly reminded me of Stiffler’s mom on American Pie. Still, I think that date went very well and we’re not seeing the full story.

What do you guys think? Who will be the final two?  Curacao is supposed to be fantastic so I’m looking forward to that!

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