The Bachelorette is a show about love, right? It was kind of hard to tell this week, what with all the Nick drama and everything. Episode seven found Andi Dorfman and her remaining six suitors in Brussels, Belgium, for one final week of dating before the much-anticipated hometowns. Andi's feelings took a backseat to the guys' feelings, though—and, boy, do they have a lot of them. Let's recap!
The episode kicks off with Chris Harrison informing the men that there will be three dates this week (or three official dates, at least)—two one-on-one dates (with no roses) and one four-on-one date (with a rose).
Date No. 1 is good but uneventful. Andi and Marcus mostly just walk and talk and eat and talk and walk and talk some more. She confesses it's hard for her to get close to him ever since he told her he thought about leaving; he says he only wanted to leave because he was scared of the magnitude of his feelings. They also talk about his family a little—he hints at some painful history there—but for the most part, it's a lot of kissing and cooing and gushing.
The real action starts later that night, when Marcus returns to the hotel. Seeing how happy he is, Nick gets jealous and decides to create a little one-on-one time for himself. So while the rest of the guys are talking to Marcus about his date, Nick sneaks downstairs, tricks the hotel concierge into giving him Andi's room number, and then knocks on her door to invite her on a walk around Brussels. It's not exactly skinny-dipping in the ocean—hello, Ben Flajnik and Courtney Robertson!—but it's still kind of shady.
"It is breaking the rules, and there is, for a slight moment, the feeling of guilt," Andi says. "But at the same time…they should want to sneak over. This is week seven. Go for it."
Nick does indeed go for it. He tells Andi he knows he's going to marry her, which results in a pretty steamy makeout session on the street. "I think if I had to choose one word to describe my relationship with Nick, it would be passion," she raves. "When he kisses me, I can feel what he is thinking. It's so hot."
The next day, Andi meets up with Josh for date No. 2 in Ghent. She's feeling good after her time with Marcus, and really good after her time with Nick, but she's somewhat apprehensive about her time with Josh, since he tends to be less open about his feelings for her. "I'm afraid he could be the one breaking my heart [at the end of this]," she admits.
Because of that, she spends most of their date trying to get him to tell her he's falling in love with her, which he does, finally, during dinner at a castle that night. "I want you to myself. I don't like seeing you talk to other guys," he tells her. (Uh, then you probably shouldn't have signed up to be on a reality show like The Bachelorette, dude.) Pressed for more, he says he's going to tell his family how he feels about her. Which is…? "I'm gonna tell them the truth," he says. "That I am falling in love with you." (Ding ding ding! Right answer!)
Moving on! The group date this week—with Nick, Dylan, Brian, and Chris—is on sacred ground, at a real, working monastery in Belgium, which means there's no kissing allowed within the walls. Andi finds a way around this with Chris, though, by taking him offsite to a pottery barn. (An actual pottery barn, not a Pottery Barn store.) There, without a hint of irony, they recreate the pottery wheel scene from Ghost. (Seriously, guys?)
Afterward, Andi tells the men that she's going to award the date rose before dinner. The lucky guy who gets it will be sticking around for some extra one-on-one time, while the rest of the group heads back to the hotel. They all want it, of course, but more than that, they all want it not to go to Nick.
Andi can't help herself, though. After Nick tells her he thinks she's falling in love with him, she gives him the date rose and sends Brian, Dylan, and Chris on their not-so-merry way. They're seething—all three cuss under their breath in the van going back to the hotel, and once in their room, they start talking with Josh and Marcus about what a snake Nick is.
Andi, meanwhile, is totally blissed out by him. "When Nick looks at me, I feel like he sees every part of me," she gushes. "And I do see that possibility of him standing at the very end."
Nick is feeling pretty good about himself when he returns to the hotel, but the other guys are ready and waiting to take him down a notch. They confront him about his attitude, saying he cares more about playing the game than being with Andi, and though they don't do a great job of articulating specific examples of his deviousness, the general consensus is that he's not "here for the right reasons."
"I have a gut feeling. If it was my sister, I would not feel comfortable [with you dating her]," Marcus tells him.
Nick is only slightly fazed. "I didn't come her to be in a frat house," he says. "I don't care what the other guys think at this point. I'm pretty confident that I'm going to be with Andi."
The next night, at the cocktail party, Chris, Brian, and Dylan realize that it's likely Andi will keep only one of the three of them for hometowns. Desperate to stay, Chris lays it all on the line and tells her he's falling in love with her and wants her to meet his family. Brian attempts to do the same, but Nick interrupts, even though he already has a rose. (You're not doing a whole lot to disprove this whole villain thing, sir.) "When I look at the other guys, I know they have some strong feelings," Nick says by way of explanation. "It's just different with us." Then, tearing up, he adds, "I'm really excited for my friends to meet her. And my family."
Right before the rose ceremony, Chris approaches Andi and says he has something else he needs to tell her. Thanks to the producers' clever (read: misleading) juxtaposition of his "I need to talk to you" line and Nick's tear-stained face in previews, I thought the soft-spoken farmer was going to give Andi a piece of his mind about everyone's least-favorite bro. She thought he was going to give her a goodbye speech—but we were both wrong. Turns out he just wanted to give her a kiss. Talk about a letdown.
It must have been a pretty sexy smooch, though, because Chris gets the only other rose that was really up for grabs. (Andi basically said earlier in the night that Josh and Marcus were shoo-ins for the hometown dates.) That means Dylan and Brian are out—which is sad for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the highlight of this entire episode is a post-credits blooper of Dylan chasing pickle-phobic Brian with a wine glass of pickle juice.
Tell Us: Are you sad to see Dylan and Brian go? Do you think Nick is "here for the right reasons"?
