‘The Bachelorette Season 8’ episode 7 recap: Your faves weigh in – Ok! Here's the Situation

Wow! What an episode! We got to see Chris Harrison at his best — dissecting a difficult show situation with the utmost professionalism, per usual. We got to see some behind-the-scenes producer action (Cassie Lambert) in front of the camera (we LOVE it when the 4th wall gets broken on this show!) And we got to see some of the cutest moments in Bachelorette history during Emily’s one-on-one date with the show’s resident dreamboat, Jef Holm. I mean, the quote heard ’round the world — “I want to date you so hard and marry the f@ck out of you” — was just too amazing for words.

Now, let’s get to what some of your favorite former show contestants and fan bloggers had to say about this week’s episode!

Bachelorette Emily Maynard blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Now let’s talk about the painfully awkward group date: Poor Doug got about a thousand hints to make a move, but he didn’t pick up on it until I was breaking up with him. Could there have been a worse time to try and kiss me? I literally had to watch on TV with my hands over my face because I was mortified for the both of us. Was “thank you for that” really the best I could come up with in that moment? Seriously?!

Ever since I gave him the first-impression rose I felt like I spent more time begging Doug to open up to me, rather than actually getting to know him. And after Arie told me he loved me, it made me realize how different so many of my relationships were. As a mother, I didn’t feel right involving his son knowing how serious we should be at this point and we obviously weren’t there.

After giving Sean the rose I definitely saw a side of Chris that I thought only existed on Toddlers and Tiaras. I get that his feelings were hurt, but I wish he would have been a little more mature about it. I’m just so happy that this was the last group date I’ll ever have to go on for the rest of my life!”

Bachelorette host Chris Harrison blogs about episode 7:

“Jef’s date was very simple but amazing at the same time. The two of them bought marionettes and made their way to an old historic library in Prague. The scene the two of them acted out was very interesting. It’s like they were able to say everything they ever wanted to say to each other by talking through these marionettes. This brings up a very good question: If someone says they love you through a puppet, does it really count? I ask because after that Jef would only tell Emily to her face that he really liked her. Either way, I think Emily took it to heart, and has taken Jef into her heart as well.”

From Ben Flajnik’s season, Jenna Burke blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Let’s talk boys: Arie. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks he knows what he’s doing in the kissing department. But there’s a difference between passionate love and companionship love. Don’t get me wrong, I think Arie and Emily have more than just passion, but I see more of a companionship with Jef.

As for the dramatic “producer situation,” I’m pretty sure it happened 10 years ago and Cassie, the producer, is now happily engaged. When your relationship goes from zero to 100 in a matter of weeks, I think you miss out on that window to talk about it.”

Read more from Jenna Burke at Life&Style….

From Jillian Harris’ season, Dave Good blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“I want to say something about this whole Cassie “the producer” thing. Cassie is an awesome chick let me say that. @Emilymaynard is REALLLLLY Overreacting to this. He dated someone 10 years ago?! Who gives a sh#t. Why would he just throw that out there?

What does she WANT ARIE TO SAY???? “Hey Em…I just thought that I would tell you that 10 YEARS AGO I went on a few dates with a girl that I think you are KIND OF friends with… I also sh#t my pants in 2nd grade and stole money from my grandma when I was 5 for candy. Anything else you want to know?” I’m sure it is not even crossing his mind.

Read more from Dave Good at Bachelor.TV….

From Jason Mesnick’s season, Natalie Getz blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Jef has definitely played inappropriately with dolls before. He’s almost too good at making the scary Michael Jackson marionette do all kinds of dance moves. It was pretty smooth of him when he ran back to get a doll for Ricki-Tick as him and Emily were leaving to play dolls in the library. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine my boyfriend and I traveling to Prague, creepy doll shopping and then playing with them in a library. Where did this idea even come from? A child psychologist?

This little reenactment of their relationship is freaking hilarious! Anyone else other than Jef would have been so boring and awkward. He tells Emily how much he is in love with her, but doesn’t look at her in the face. He is staring at his awkward doll! He covers up for any awkward moments by asking if they can get a dog. He then asks Emily when she wants kids and Emily replies, “yesterday.” Look, I’m glad these two are being honest, but damn! That’s some serious baby talk. They are actually having one of the most real conversations I’ve ever seen on this show. Jef tells Emily, “I wanna date you so hard and marry the f*** out of you.” I believe he was being PG about really wanting to say, “My something is so hard and I wanna something the something out of you.” I mean, good gracious. They are rolling around on a library room floor, making out, talking about making babies…can we just get these two a room?”

Read more from Natalie Getz at Bachelor.TV….

Former Bachelorette Ashley Hebert blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Jef. Jef. Jef. I’ve been the captain of Team Jemily for a few weeks now, and if after this date America hasn’t completely converted to Team Jef, I don’t know what else to do to convince them. I don’t want to talk about the details of this date, I want to talk about two of my favorite moments in Bachelorette history! Both of them are from this date! How is Jef so great with puppets? I could not stop laughing at their puppet conversations and thought to myself, “this is the best date ever!” Then I realized I was watching puppets. Jef has the most romantic idea of love in his head and spits his love one-liners out in haiku form. When he said “I’m falling in love with you…will you…get a dog with me?” I ALMOST DIED. I literally jumped off my couch and was laughing out loud. I thought that was all the amazingness Jef had to offer on this date until they sprawled out on the library floor and began talking about their life together. At one point Jef cuddles with Emily and says “I want to date you hard, and marry the !@*# out of you”. Brilliant. Can someone bottle him up please. The rest is history because at this point, my sister is calling me, declaring her love for Jef, saying I was right…etc. I told her…I’m always right Chrys. ;P (JP reference).”

Read more from Ashley Hebert at Parade.com….

Former Bachelorette Jillian Harris blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Then it was time for Jef’s one-on-one date, and I could hardly wait to see what would happen. I know I’ve said that Jef might have nice-guys-finish-last syndrome, but he was such a cutie and I can tell that Emily sees him as a potential soul mate. I don’t think they let go of each other’s hands once through out the entire date. Plus, he hit the jackpot when he picked a princess puppet for little Ricki—so adorable. But I have to say that I think he should have omitted the fact that he dumped his last girlfriend solely because of his parents’ opinion. TMI! Emily was clearly a little freaked out and rightfully so, but when he said “I want date you so hard and marry the bleep out of you,” I literally laughed out loud.”

Read more from Jillian Harris at LHJ.com….

Former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Ok, now on to my boy Jef with one F. Jef is as cute as ever this week. He reminds me of one of my good guy friends. Anyway, I didn’t really like that Jef said “I love you” with the puppets. I know a lot of you think it was cute, but I just think it means that he wasn’t ready to say those words to her. You see, in Bachelorette world, you are encouraged to says those words pretty quickly. Heck, I told Jake I would marry him at my hometown date! Looking back on that moment, I barely even knew Jake, never mind love him. It’s really hard to explain, but what happens emotionally on this show, doesn’t always seem real. The contestants believe it’s real at the time and then sometimes quickly get over it. I would be willing to bet that if Jef went home this week, he would go right back to his normal life with little or no “getting over” her. You can ask any contestant from any season. Even the people who make it to the top two, once you get sent home, it’s almost like it didn’t happen and your feelings go away even faster than they came. It’s really hard to explain, but let me end with this: Almost every couple from the show will say that they REALLY fell in love after the show was done taping.

Even though I thought the “I love you” was forced, I adored the conversation they had in the library. It was cool to see them talk so comfortably about kids and what they would be like as a married couple. Heck, I thought it was GREAT that they talked about what their living situation would be after the show. It’s really important to have that conversation, especially because Emily has a daughter involved in everything. I am glad that Jef took the initiative to bring those things up to Emily. How cute was his “I want to date you so hard” line? He is the man.”

Stacey B from Office Stace blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“So let’s break down the big Arie scandal which was not scandalous at all. Was Arie wrong not to tell Emily

from the start what was going on? I agree with Emily that it’s kind of strange nobody said something to her – and it probably wouldn’t have been a big deal at all if they mentioned that they knew each other in the beginning of the process. I’m not sure if it’s because there’s absolutely 0 drama left on the show or what, but seems that this was carried out a bit far. When Emily was sitting with Arie and talking to him about honesty and trust and blah blah blah, why didn’t she just straight out ask him? She likes to torture this guy. On the other hand, I think we’re missing a key piece of the puzzle by not being able to see the 3 way conversation that took place between Emily, Arie and Cassie Lambert. Because the Emily who was sitting with Arie skeptical at their lunch date and the Emily who was expressing her confusion about Arie to Cassie is a different Emily than the one who was smitten with him late that night. What did he say to her?

Emily went from being annoyed that she knew this “secret” about him to not being able to get the smile off her face. Arie’s no fool – he went in for the kill, saying that he is in love with her. WOAH!! Throwing all his cards on the table this early – bold! I loved that Emily was walking aroundPrague in her cowboy boots and tour guide book. She kept throwing out random facts aboutPraguethe entire episode and I asked The Husband – are the producers feeding her those lines or did she just memorize Lonely Planet?

The Bachelor Expert blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“They act out their entire relationship through puppets, up until the point where Jef tells her he loves her. I really wish he would have said that without the puppet, but it was cute. Jef asks her if they can get a dog together? Emily suggests another cat. He tells about how he broke up with another girl, because his parents didn’t like her. This made me nervous for Emily, I get parent’s approval, but I would hope Jef’s valued his own opinion on his ex. Maybe she was Hitler, but she could have been a saint. They talk about whether or not they would like to live with each other before, and how they both wanted kids yesterday. My favorite line was, I want to date you so hard, and marry the f**k out of you.”

Lincee from ihategreenbeans blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“And we were immediately sucked in to the BEST PUPPET SHOW EVER! It was like Mystery Science Theater but with marionettes! One F Jef’s puppet shivered with nervousness before Emily’s puppet chased him around the library. The wooden One F slaps himself for not kissing Emily on the beach and then pets the hair made of yarn on Emily’s doll. The dialog was full of charming one liners from One F like “I love your nail polish” and “I think we should get a dog” that had Emily and my watching party laughing in hysterics.

After a brief check on how Contestant Chris is handling the pressure of being in the same room as four other guys who are dating his soul mate (answer: not well), the camera heads back to the library where One F and Emily are laying on their back on the floor talking about life, love and other mysteries. We learn that One F once broke up with a girl because his parents didn’t like her and that sends Emily into the land of insecurity. We can’t tell that she’s worried because her brow ceased from furrowing three Botox sessions ago. Luckily, she tells us that she’s worried. One F eases her spirit, confident that his entire family will love her.

OFJ: “Would you want to live together first if this works out?”
Emily: “No.”
OFJ: “Me neither. I take stuff like that seriously. When do you want to have kids?”
Emily: “Yesterday.”
OFJ: “ME TOO!”

One F goes in for the horizontal kill…

OFJ: “I want to date you so hard and marry the BLEEP out of you.”

That sound you heard was thousands of Facebook statuses updating at once. Well done One F.

There is an unmatched comfort that Emily portrays when she’s with One F Jef. He seems genuine with his feelings and displays a vulnerability that the others don’t. Jef asked questions that made sense for a guy who is truly looking to see if he has a compatible life with the girl he’s randomly laying on the floor next to in a live version of the Beauty and the Beast library. I’m sure they have names picked out for their kids. Although I don’t see him winning, I think he will be top three – possibly top two – for sure.”

TV fashion expert Possessionista blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

Emily Maynard fringe wedge boots

Koolaburra

Basix sequin shorts, $385

Fan blogger Knox McCoy blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Let’s talk about Emily’s faces for a minute. Aren’t they the worst? They are just awful. We can agree that if Emily’s faces were a person, that person would be Amber’s personality from Teen Mom with Gary’s body and let me go on record. I love Gary. But that aggressively obese and trailery parky body is a situation. I think we can all agree on that morsel of truth and honesty.

BUT NOW LET ME THROW THIS AT YOU: think about how much worse her faces could be if she wasn’t injecting enough botox on her self to make her look like HellRaiser. THEN how bad would her faces be? Right?

Arie says something about wanting to reveal something and Emily is like OH MUH GAW THIS IS IT and Arie is like I used to have a tramp stamp or something of a girl’s name. And Emily is like DON’T CARE: Tell me about the time you held hands with my producer friend and slow danced to K-Ci and Jojo’s All My Life, you PIG.

Back from commercial and we’re STILL in PSA mode? This is so bizarre. It feels like SUCH middle school gossip. Harrison is like, Emily might have said that Cassie probably made out with a hot dog and when we asked Cassie about it she was like OMG you guys that was ONE TIME! I’m never playing truth or die again!

Back with Emily and Arie and I seriously have no idea what’s going on except that Arie is now tongue kissing Emily.”

Fan blogger Lost Angeles blogs The Bachelorette episode 7:

“Final date is with One Direction, whose cutesy game is finally starting to wear me down (like the insistence that all men on this show wear blazers with elbow patches). They buy marionettes and then go to a library that looks like it is in a castle and do a whole skit about falling in love and I give One Direction credit, he’s good at working a marionette. Weird, no wonder Emily is digging him. Here’s a Chloe bag. Douche.

They start talking about family and all that and he basically mentions his parents are super committed to something in South Carolina. It’s being Mormon mission commanders, meanwhile Jef is clearly not practicing being Mormon because he swears a lot and I feel like he drinks too, but I can’t remember because every cocktail party on this show has sucked. I support all faiths and all everythings, I just am making a fair warning. This is not going to go well.

I know Jef isn’t practicing, but he makes it clear if his parents aren’t all in, neither is he. Are his Mormon parents going to be stoked he’s bringing home a girl who selected him via drunken gameshow by making out with 20 dudes? Or how about when they see the episode where he says “I wanna date you hard and marry the shit out of you”. Next week should have potential to be interesting. Finally.”