Bachelorette 5 Thoughts and Comments

[SaffronSunrise]

I wanted to comment on the whole "meeting the family away from their home" thing. The first time I remember it happening was Jason's season & it seems to have happened on this season. Jason's family was flown to NZ to meet the F2...I'm pretty sure they don't have a house there. Supposedly, Jillian's parents met her F2 in Hawaii. I'm guessing that they don't have a house there. The guys will meet her family in a situation that is away from their typical environment, just like when Jillian meet Ed's parents (if that even happens..I don't even know if they meet). I guess I just don't see the difference. If it's good for the goose..........

ETA: Sub, you & I had the same idea.

[kygirl93]

Interesting but the men are also meeting her parents in Hawaii also. I guess they won't be getting a real feel of her life either then right?

Lets face it, the majority of the dates are not something the couple woud do in a real dating situation. The whole situation insn't real life. So this excuse does not wash for me.

Ooooh, burn! Good catch!

You, too, Saffron, I can't believe I didn't think of this!! ha!

[Luvvy]

We HAVE NO IDEA what happened between Ed and his boss. I have said before that it sounds more to me that Ed's boss wasn't prepared for Ed to be gone more than anything. For all we know, he came back "did his thing" in his words, then went above his immediate boss for a higher level approval. Or he quit. Or he went completely AWOL. WE DON'T KNOW. But it's pointless speculation at this point, because he's back, obviously Jill wants him back, TPTB don't mind letting him back (or actively want him back, or forced him back, whatever you choose to believe).

And I fail to see why this is so much more "farcical" than some of the other stuff we have seen--burying doves? Really? Helicopter and zip-lines as "regular" dates? No way. Frankly, this is the most "real" thing I have seen on the show in ages. I have often wondered who the heck are these contestants who can put their lives (and jobs) on hold for two months to go through this process. Most "real" people cannot do that, unless they are independently wealthy or unemployed, and most of the people I have ever dated were neither.

I completely agree with this. It amazes me how people really think they know what's happened behind the scenes...when none of us do.

[pminn1608]

I wanted to comment on the whole "meeting the family away from their home" thing. The first time I remember it happening was Jason's season & it seems to have happened on this season. Jason's family was flown to NZ to meet the F2...I'm pretty sure they don't have a house there. Supposedly, Jillian's parents met her F2 in Hawaii. I'm guessing that they don't have a house there. The guys will meet her family in a situation that is away from their typical environment, just like when Jillian meet Ed's parents (if that even happens..I don't even know if they meet). I guess I just don't see the difference. If it's good for the goose..........

ETA: Sub, you & I had the same idea.

Meredith never met Ian's family.
Trista had both Mother and Father and stepmother all in the same house at the same time.
There are numerous cases of meeting the family situations.
But the best one is Jillian's family will be in Hawaii when the men meet her parents so obviously this is not going to work out because they did not go to her hometown and her parents home.

[cheekychook]

Interesting but the men are also meeting her parents in Hawaii also. I guess they won't be getting a real feel of her life either then right?

Lets face it, the majority of the dates are not something the couple woud do in a real dating situation. The whole situation insn't real life. So this excuse does not wash for me.

Yes, that's very true, but the guys did all get to go to Vancouver and see Jillian's home turf by spending all that time in Canada.

[MiniDiva]

If I were to take a random person from this board back to my parents house they would learn more about me by going there, even though I don't live there anymore, than they would learn by meeting my family for a meal at an exotic location. Seeing how people behave in a family setting, with familiar things around, family photos, personal memorabilia, etc is very different than seeing them at a hotel or meeting at a restaurant. In spite of the cameras, and the crew, and the obvious staging of the traditional htd's Jillian still got to know the other guys' families better than she will get to know Ed's IF she only gets to see them in the neutral setting of an unfamiliar/exotic place like Hawaii, IMO.

I agree with you in part. I believe that simply meeting the parents in a neutral location may even enhance the experience of the visit. You would eliminiate the stress, burden and preparation for having a camera crew in your home, preparing appropriate spread of food/drinks and having the entire event filmed in your private residence. By the time they have moved things around and cleaned up, there is probably not a "true" picture of the home environment and things are staged at that point. Given the choice, I would opt for an all expense paid visit hosted by the show at a restaurant or rented villa where I could go and relax and have a good time meeting the families/participants despite it being on camera. I see merits of both types of visit as long as Jillian gets to "meet the parents".

All that said, the HTD visits did turn out pretty well but they didn't get much air time due to the Wes girlfriendgate drama

[CaliGal]

CH said to Jillian that she will not get to meet Ed's family in the discussion about him returning. Jillian made a point to say to CH that she couldn't consider a proposal from Ed unless she was able to meet them, or at least talk to them before making a decision. I thought that clearly set up an 11th hour phone call to Ed's family ala Jason/Melissa's mom. And that phone call will probably look a lot like the one between Jake and Tanner in the airport - completely one-sided and we won't even know if there is anyone on the other end of the phone.

HI...do you remember the call that Jason made to Melissa's mom in NZ? that call was fake...Jason was speaking on the phone. Melissa's mom was not on the other end. This was discussed during DWTS posting. I also bet that the Jake call to Tanner was fake too.

The best scenario for Jillian is to meet Ed and his parents in a real home life setting just like she did with Kip and Reid's family. It is too bad that Ed missed out on this. If he was really into Jillian, he should have convinced the producers to get him a HTD just like he begged to get back timely for the RC.

[cheekychook]

I wanted to comment on the whole "meeting the family away from their home" thing. The first time I remember it happening was Jason's season & it seems to have happened on this season. Jason's family was flown to NZ to meet the F2...I'm pretty sure they don't have a house there. Supposedly, Jillian's parents met her F2 in Hawaii. I'm guessing that they don't have a house there. The guys will meet her family in a situation that is away from their typical environment, just like when Jillian meet Ed's parents (if that even happens..I don't even know if they meet). I guess I just don't see the difference. If it's good for the goose..........

ETA: Sub, you & I had the same idea.

Yes, that's all very true. However, Jillian got to see all the other guys in their home environment. Ed will be the only one where she visits neither the city he lives in nor his familial home. Yes, the final guys will only meet her parents in Hawaii, but they have all been taken to Vancouver and toured around Canada. IMO that makes it all equal except for Ed and his family---the situation with his family (whether it's a phone call or a meeting in Hawaii) will be different than the opportunities she had to meet the other guys' families.

[ironcat]

I wanted to comment on the whole "meeting the family away from their home" thing. The first time I remember it happening was Jason's season & it seems to have happened on this season. Jason's family was flown to NZ to meet the F2...I'm pretty sure they don't have a house there. Supposedly, Jillian's parents met her F2 in Hawaii. I'm guessing that they don't have a house there. The guys will meet her family in a situation that is away from their typical environment, just like when Jillian meet Ed's parents (if that even happens..I don't even know if they meet). I guess I just don't see the difference. If it's good for the goose..........

ETA: Sub, you & I had the same idea.

If Ed is indeed her F1, I think it would have been more critical to assessing how well the relationship would work if she would have gone to Chicago to see how Ed lives now, meet his friends, etc. (Added bonus would be to fly his family there too.) That's what's really missing from the scenario, and something Jill would benefit from before committing to marriage with the guy, especially since the plan seems to be for her to move to his city initially.

What one may get out of seeing where the person grew up is a further fleshing out and understanding of their earlier influences, values, etc. Nice, but not a dealbreaker IMO.

[cheekychook]

HI...do you remember the call that Jason made to Melissa's mom in NZ? that call was fake...Jason was speaking on the phone. Melissa's mom was not on the other end. This was discussed during DWTS posting. I also bet that the Jake call to Tanner was fake too.

The best scenario for Jillian is to meet Ed and his parents in a real home life setting just like she did with Kip and Reid's family. It is too bad that Ed missed out on this. If he was really into Jillian, he should have convinced the producers to get him a HTD just like he begged to get back timely for the RC.

Thank you, that's what I have been trying to say, but I guess I wasn't stating it clearly. Not having a HTD was a missed opportunity for both Jillian and Ed, IMO.