"I said I'd follow my gut, but I've been following my heart"

This season looks to be the South American tour, as the guys head to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  JoJo and Chris sit on a bench and discuss feelings.

The guys are then informed by a distant Chris that there will be a one-on-one date, a group date and ANOTHER two-on-one date.  Oh shit.

Why is Chris Harrison standing so far away?
Were the guys not allowed to shower or something?

Wells gets the one-on-one date with the date card not so subtly telling him to kiss JoJo.  "I'll be frank here.  I'm the one guy here who hasn't kissed her," Wells says to a silent room.  The guys seem more concerned with the fact that Wells hasn't kissed her than the fact that the six other guys they live with have all been macking on her.  JoJo comes to pick up poor, nervous Wells, and Luke straight up asks "are you guys going to kiss today?"  To which JoJo says, dryly, "that's funny. Isn't it."

Their date starts off wandering through a street market in Buenos Aires, where Wells "buys" JoJo a bracelet.  They then go to this performance called Fuerza Bruta which consists of strange performance art involving a suspended pool and fake shooting a guy on a treadmill.  I can't help but note how tall Wells seems, but then I realize we usually see him amongst ripped, tall, jock-bros with enormous hair.

Unsurprisingly, JoJo and Wells have to learn this performance art and end up kissing in a shallow pool.  "That was the moment, Wells, that was the moment!  We did it!" yes JoJo, because apparently she judges everyone by kissing alone.

It seems to be going swell for Wells who has "a little tingle in [his] heart," until he talks about realism in relationships and is skeptical about JoJo's belief in unicorns.  He does't get the rose; both Wells and JoJo cry; the guys are surprised when Wells' suitcase gets taken.  JoJo inexplicably goes to a rave to sadly think about her choices.

A weird place to go after a break-up...

On to the group date!  Luke, Robby, Jordan, James Taylor, and Alex go play soccer with some local folk.  Luke says this is "the best Sunday afternoon I could ask for," and I worry about him, because the best Sunday afternoon I could ask for does not include four other competitors for my boyfriend's affection, but maybe things are different in Texas.  The guys are total jocks except James Taylor who is being all modest about how the other guys are HAWT and he just doesn't see himself "as this sexy dude."  So of course he's the only one to score a penalty shot and win a kiss from JoJo.  In true, dorky, James Taylor fashion, he says he's "on a train to ILoveJoJoville."

Aside from a very steamy-get-a-room-make-out with Luke, the big story of the evening portion of the group date is James Taylor snitching on Jordan to JoJo.  Apparently, Jordan is a gorgeous entitled d-bag, and James Taylor just had to tell JoJo.  JoJo confronts Jordan about this and he is so defensive, he doesn't even know what entitled means.

Worst confrontation ever: JoJo's body language clearly indicated
she was going to forgive whatever Jordan may have done.

Things are awkward, to say the least.  Jordan swirls his wine ominously, and the other guys are like, WTF mate???  The best part (the worst part?) is that this all came out of a rules of poker fight.  Anyway, Luke gets a rose, and Jordan is pissed because he still doesn't know what entitled means.

awkward turtle much?

Now on to the two-on-one!  Guaranteed drama!  Or, just an awkward learn to tango date with one too many guys...  JoJo exclaims that "there are three of us, but it only takes two to tango," right before it is announced they are doing a three person tango.  It's weird and Derek and Chase both look stoically uncomfortable.  That evening, JoJo kisses both of them, but chooses Chase because he attempts to open up after she basically told him he had to.   She also told him that she wishes she had opened up to Ben sooner... because... then maybe she'd be with him and not with these losers?  It was a weird feelings pep talk.

Derek cries and talks in the third person in the back of a van, while Chase and JoJo kiss to "Don't cry for me Argentina;" and if that's not good editing, I don't know what is.

Don't cry, Derek, you'll find your Pam in the end.

We actually get a cocktail party this week, where everyone who hadn't smooched JoJo this week got to.  Jordan wants "to do life with [JoJo]" and is also "glad [they] can go through tough stuff like that;"  "that" being James Taylor calling him entitled and if being called entitled is "tough," how are you not entitled?

Let's move on to the rose ceremony, when, in a huge plot twist, JoJo offers Chris Harrison a rose!!!

Like, who are these bozos?  You are the only real man here,
Chris Harrison.  Will you accept this rose?

Just kidding.  JoJo freaks out and decides not to send anymore dudes home tonight.  Alex is upset he got a "pity rose" and no one understands why he got any rose at all.

Everyone hates Chad

We start this episode with a JoJo-staring-pensively-off-a-balcony shot while we hear her monologue about how she's ready for  love like Ben and Lauren found.  Maybe aim a little higher than love found on TV show that statistically won't last?

Then the show wastes no time in getting to the main event: The Chad.
"To a beautiful girl, a beautiful life, fuck you guys, I'm going to make her my wife," Chad toasts.  Then we get the first of many speeches from Chad about how he thinks he's so much better than these other men because these other men act like they've never seen a beautiful woman before and none of them are man enough for JoJo and Chad clearly suffers from gross over confidence.

Time for the first group date of the season!  The guys hear an explosion and run outside to see a limo on fire.  They laugh and look confused and are generally useless in an emergency, so good thing JoJo shows up in a fire truck to safe the day!  And she's smokin' hot! And we hear more "hot" puns because fire and do you think this date is going to be fire themed yet?

Luke, Grant, Will, Evan, Daniel, Vinny, Ali, James F., Wells, and Robby (JoJo's "B-team" per Chad) get to go to firefighter camp today.  Wells basically gets heat stroke and the other guys are bitter because JoJo is concerned about him and he gets some precious one-on-one time with her.  Somehow the nerd won out here in the Jock contest.  But then the real competition begins, and to no one's surprise, the real firefighter wins the firefighter contest.  In the evening portion, Luke and Grant get smooches but Wells gets the group date rose for managing not to die.

Back at Bachelor Mansion, the guys are writing a song for JoJo, and it appears the lyrics are just JoJo's name over and over again followed by a "yeah!" Doesn't one of these men write songs for a living and somehow that's the best they could do?  Chad is having none of this though and does pull-ups with a suitcase of protein powder hanging from his waist.

"There's nothing that can give you the gift of watching a man, in this case a Chad, use a weight belt in such a revolutionary way.   It's a gift from above."  I have to agree with James S.- Chad really is a gift from above.  He's just the worst ("a meathead in the max," the "highest level of d-bag"), but that makes him the best.

Next up, Derek gets the one-on-one date where he and JoJo have a "choose your own adventure"  that really only consists of three "choices:" sea or sky, north or south, and Lombard Street or Golden Gate Bridge.  They have a boring date drinking wine in San Francisco, he gets a rose, and let's get back to Chad.  The guys are still having a sing-a-long and Chad is still unimpressed, but now has an admirer.  Daniel and Chad sit around talk about protein powder and how they're just a couple of cool bros.

Group date number two takes Jordan, Christian, Nick, James Taylor, Alex, and Chad to ESPN.  JoJo is "on air" with Sportsnation debating whether Stephen Curry is the greatest player of all time.  JoJo says he's not, which makes me kind of glad that when this episode was airing, I was actually watching Steph Curry be pretty great at basketball instead of watching this.

Anyway, the men get to do some "fun" competition while the hosts of the show power rank them.   The first event is "Strike a Rose" where the guys have to do an end zone dance with a giant rose and it's just as terrible as it sounds.  The second event has them spin around on a bat and propose to JoJo and while the rest of the guys have cheesy lovey dovey speeches, Chad isn't here to play games or make friends and actually calls JoJo "naggy" when she asks him to elaborate on why he likes her.  Next they all go into a press conference.  One of the questions is who should not win, and every guy picks Chad.  Chad owns it and straight up tells JoJo no one else seems to be there for the right reasons and think they're in love and he just met her and is excited to see if it can work but just doesn't know yet because he's literally spent like 4 minutes with her.  It's all too real, and makes a lot of sense, but we still hate you, Chad.  James Taylor beats out Chad and Alex for the number one spot in the power rankings and Alex is furious to see his name just below Chad.

Chad is definitely not here to make friends.

Onto the evening portion of the group date.  James Taylor is just amazed some pretty girl likes him since he's not "abs McGee."  Chad's keeping a running commentary of these "children" he's competing with and it's just great:

"The best thing about Jordan is his brother.  The worst thing about Jordan is that he's not his brother."
"Alex is just too short"  (Chad is not going to let this go)
"Christian is constantly listening to his own words before he says them" (That's not how that saying goes)
"Nick is trying sooo hard it's coming off so weird" (and Nick seems relatively normal for this show)

Chad goes to talk to JoJo, who likes that he's being honest but feels like he's overcompensating for something.  Chad talks about his tiny dog which is his segue into how his mom is dead.

James Taylor says that if Chad got the group date rose he would have to "rethink [his] whole life."  Really?  You were just saying how JoJo is way out of your league, so why would it be any shock that she falls for the king of all douchebros?  Anyway, James Taylor gets the group date rose, so no rethinking one's life tonight.

Cocktail Party!  Chad decided to get some air so he doesn't have to hang out with his weak competitors and conveniently has an extra glass of wine for JoJo when she shows up.  They walk into the mansion together and the other guys are livid.  Alex takes it upon himself to lead an intervention.  The first confrontation is about him walking in with JoJo and how much meat he's eating.  Chad doesn't care and finds it entertaining the way the guys are getting SO worked up about him (I find it entertaining as well).  Chad steals JoJo from a couple of guys, which Alex compares to a horror film, so Alex confronts Chad again and tries to tell him he's creeping JoJo out.  Chad responds with a "fuck you," to which Alex responds "hey, cool, bro, cool."  They say things loudly at each other, and as Chad walks away, Alex shouts "you're a meltdown!" and honestly, that's the best insult you could come up with, bro?

Chad makes fun of the guys confronting him, comparing them to the West Side Story and Care Bears and "we're a group of butthurt dudes who are going to confront you... slightly" and he kind of has a point- their confrontation was a bit weak.  Chad is further convinced that the "competition's real light" and proceeds to gnaw on his meat during the Rose Ceremony.  Alex is still fuming and goes on a rant about the roses: "it's supposed to symbolize that you're a good guy and your here for the right reasons.  It's gonna represent just garbage if he gets that rose."  Oooooh boy, this is going to be a great season.

Chad is the Brad Pitt in Ocean's 11 of the Bachelorette:
always eating.

Guys we lost this week:
Brandon, the hipster
James S., the bachelor superfan who can now go back to being just a fan
Will, who thought it was a good idea to TP the mansion with JoJo tonight.

Inexplicably, Vinny the barber with an awful haircut and creepy male model, Daniel (who made a joke about pulling fire hoses that I think was supposed to imply he has lots of sex but it didn't land) are still around.