[Reality-TV-Fanatics] 'The Bachelor Winter Games' Recap: The Pressure of Ice Skating Causes One Couple to Break

 

  'The Bachelor Winter Games' Recap: The Pressure of Ice Skating Causes One Couple to Break
Thursday, February 22, 2018

Derek Stauffer
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV

After last episode, Winter Games has decided it's no longer a winter-themed romp which forces reality contestants to do increasingly humiliating sports. Now, it's all about love. Nothing but couples are left in the house and the traditional competitions are replaced with a romance-inspired events. That's not all that's changed though. The lighthearted fun of the early episode has been transplanted with serious conversations and tears. So many tears

Icy (Illogical) Breakdown

Instead of the men competing against each other and vice versa, the couples must compete against each other in a figure skating contest. This should be innocuous and fun, but it quickly boils down to the emotional bone for one pair. Bibiana and Jordan's routine starts off rocky as Bibiana is not okay with Jordan's lack of dancing skills while preparing their routine (off the ice). Everything really explodes though when Jordan has the "audacity" to ask where the relationship is going. 

It's a very reasonable request as Jordan does live in New Zealand and Bibiana is from Miami. With only days left to go, it's about time to have a conversation about if the relationship is worth pursuing, but Bibiana loses her damn mind. She's feeling "pressured" and "rushed" and "oh my god I can't breathe, I can't breathe." It's remarkable that Jordan started off Winter Games being hated by the entire house for flipping a coin while he was on The Bachelor and now he looks like the sympathetic victim as Bibiana looks totally crazy. 

Bibana cries and avoids Jordan for as long as she can but eventually she faces him ... to tell him she's getting the hell out of there. Bibiana leaves (in tears) and Jordan also exits (in even more tears) the season. Bibiana promises that she's going to keep looking for love and not be rushed. Though she doesn't mention never going on a reality show again, which seems to be her main issue here. 

America Loves Its Fantasy Suites

In any case, with Bibiana and Jordan bowing out, there are only four couples left to compete in the figure skating challenge. After all the tears, Winter Games desperately tries to get some fun back with a group training session involving Olympic medalist, Nancy Kerrigan. Yeah, that's right. Tonya Harding has an Oscar nominated movie in 2018 and Nancy Kerrigan has a guest spot on Bachelor Winter Games. 

Nancy's stint doesn't even last that long because quickly Chris Harrison (the pimp) enters. Chris informs the couples that they will all be getting one final date together and then have the option to go to the Fantasy Suite. 

There's not too many surprises or highlights with what happens with this final date. Lily and Courtney remain just as smitten and boring as ever. Dean acts in a way that reminds us of his early likable days on The Bachelorette and shows he has changed. Of course, there's also still (way) too much talk about Ashley I.'s virginity. 

The one really interesting thing is how the international and American/Canadian couples deal with the Fantasy Suite. There's almost no hesitation in all American Dean and Lesley going to the Fantasy Suite. There's about the same level waiting for Ashley and Kevin. 

Yet Stassi and Luke forgo the Fantasy Suite because she's not ready for that step or having her mother watch her go into a sex den. Courtney and Lily also decide it's not time. In both cases, the abandoning of the Fantasy Suite feels more intimate and bonding than anything that may (or may not) have happened with other couples behind closed doors. Even Stassi tearing up over her decision feels super sweet.  

The First Couple of Bachelor World

Yet no matter what the choices in Fantasy Suites, all couples must reunite on the ice for the big figure skating showdown. The costumes are handed out and it's immediately clear which couples the producers like (Ashley and Kevin, Dean and Lesley) and which they just want to make look ridiculous (Courtney and Lily, Luke and Stassi). There's some slight drama before it all starts when Kevin falls on the ice and hurts his knee. However, Winter Games doesn't even get Nancy Kerrigan's reaction to an ice skating-related knee injury, so what are we doing here? 

Nancy is back though with two other former ice skaters, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, to judge the competition. Winter Games tries hard to make it seem there are some actual stakes here but really it's just stupid fun. The breakdown is pretty simple.

• Dean and Lesley - They're cute as they giggle their entire way through the routine but they're god-awful skaters and it's painful to watch.
• Courtney and Lily - They're surprisingly confident on the ice and they do a good job but there's no way the couple that's got the least screen time is going to "win" Winter Games.
• Stassi and Luke - The highlight here is the vaguely Russian music they play throughout but Luke looks like a blundering linebacker on ice and Stassi is trying her hardest to make her seem human.
• Ashley and Kevin - They have the most organized and choreographed routine but it's distracting that during the entire skate, Chris Harrison commentates and says everything but these two totally boned last night.

After those displays, it's completely predictable when Ashley and Kevin are named the champions of Winter Games. Ashley I. finally gets a win. They did have the best routine, for sure, but this is all about the storyline and this really was Ashley I.'s story. Now please keep off Bachelor Nation for a least a few years. 

Do you think Ashley and Kevin were the champions? Did Bibiana overreact? Were you surprised about how the international couples approached the Fantasy Suites? Should there have been more Nancy Kerrigan? 

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