If you don't laugh, you'll cry. Photo / Supplied
There was a lot to unpack and reflect on during tonight's episode.
Dev gave an emotional and Oscar-worthy goodbye to Moses. "I feel like I haven't gotten to the stage where a lot of the girls are yet, so out of respect for you and the girls, I think it's best I go home," she said, but let's be honest, who didn't see that coming?
Art sent the girls on their way with no rose ceremony, and the next day Negin finally got her single date. To say she was over the moon would be an understatement.
"Do people kiss on the first date? I think it's a thing at the moment." HA. Oh, Negin.
Moses took her sailing and there was this super awkward hug/high-five situation which I know a lot of you may have cringed at, but honestly, I thought it was cute and showed how excited she was.
At the mansion, there were passive-aggressive flatmate vibes floating around. Chanel asked Lydia to please do the dishes and Lydia said she would rather wash her make-up brush. Annie proceeded to tell Lydia: "your roots look like crap". We weren't prepared for what came next after the insult of the season so far. I hate doing dishes as much as the next person, but this was a lot to handle.
Annie tackled Lydia and pushed her face into the ground leading to Lydia storming off. Annie realised she didn't enjoy wrestling as much as she'd thought. Giving up the fight, we saw a softer side of her when she and Lydia had deep and meaningful chat. It reminded me of the bleary-eyed days in university when you'd link up with your flatmates for debriefs of the night out before.
Moses attempted to get into Negin's head on the single date, but she wasn't giving anything away. She did however tell the confession cam: "I might have the feels. I don't know." Sounds like every over-romanticised crush in history to me.
Sadly, Negin returned to the mansion rose-less. Our Bachelor is holding on to these roses for dear life, that's for sure.
Art arrived dressed as a clown to turn those frowns upside down. Lou immediately picked it was talent show time but she might have been the only one happy about it. Shenae asked Art for advice on what to do and tip-toed around the idea of juggling until Art crushed her soul by saying it "isn't a talent". The girls weren't to know that juggling didn't exactly go down too well on The Bachelorette this year ...
The drama from earlier in the episode wasn't over yet. Annie and Lydia had another chat resulting in Lydia bursting into tears, but don't worry, it wasn't because Annie tackled her. The emotions definitely ran high tonight.
Moses saw Lydia and gave us worried boyfriend vibes when he immediately embraced her in a bear hug and whispered soothing words to her. I've literally never felt more single.
Right, back to the talent show. Annie kicked off the extravaganza by doing an interpretive dance to her poem that Art read aloud and obviously, Moses loved it. Lana sang a song and boy, was she nervous, but she did a fantastic job, and everyone was extremely supportive.
Elsewhere, Lou danced beautifully and Moses used every ounce of control not to join her. He should have, because I think we all can agree if they had danced together it would have been the highlight of the episode.
Lana and Annie won the talent show and time with Moses, but despite Moses' jokes, Lana was not having a bar of the three-way chat and asked to split the time.
The one-on-one time tugged my heart in all directions when Annie told Moses she struggled with anorexia when she was 18 and it stopped her from dancing for a while and then Lana told Moses her first boyfriend died when they were 17 and she struggled to find her way back from that dark time in her life.
Oh my god. What are you two doing to me? This is too much.
At the cocktail party, Annie went back to being her cagey self and kept the details of her one-on-one a secret while Lana felt disconnected from Moses. He must have felt the same because he pulled her away again. They held hands and snuggled into each other and when it was all said and done, Lana felt so much better.
Phew. Snuggles fix everything, I swear.
Moses knew Lydia was feeling down, so he went over to try cheer her up but accidentally made her relive all the embarrassment of accidentally flashing him so that wasn't great.
And instead of learning from his mistake, he went inside to spend time with the girls *cough Annie cough* and upset everyone by saying "I might get to the end and then conversations had and actually I don't want to be with anyone." Oh my god, Moses, read the room.
"The chance of it being an Art and Matilda is small," Annie said to the confession cam. "I just want that, that's all."
We all want to find love as strong as NZ's first Bachelor couple, Annie.
And the episode ended with a million-dollar question from Lydia: "if I get a rose, will I accept it or not accept it?"
• The Bachelor New Zealand airs at 7.30pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on TVNZ 2, and tune in to hear Sol3 Mio weekday mornings on Flava's breakfast show.
Can't get enough of The Bachelorette NZ on TVNZ 2?
Catch up with ZM's Carwen Jones and Celia Whitley as they break it all down in the official podcast, Can I Steal You For A Second? After each episode airs, join the girls as they do a recap and dissect what's going on. They're the binge-watching friends you never knew you needed.
