First of all, I want to apologize for not being here for epi six to summarize it all, but I was back home for a long awaited family reunion. There was well over a hundred of us there and we all had a blast. I saw 2 cousins that I hadn’t seen in well over 20 years. One of those had just had a heart transplant surgery and is well onto his road to recovery, full of life and so thankful for being there to see everyone.
Tonight’s epi began with a look back to Hong Kong and what happened that epi with JP at Victoria’s Peak and Tram, with Lucas in Kowloon park on the Saffron Sunrise Junk Boat for their dinner, and with the rest of the guys in Stanley Market and the Dragon Boat races.
Then we get Ashley talking of how she really loves Taiwan.......the scenery, the food and the general ambiance of the country. As we see the guys on the airplane, then the bus, we hear Ashley talking about each of the guys.....with Ryan, she always felt safe, always enjoyed the conversations and loved his energy. With Lucas, they had a great date together in Hong Kong and he is a real and genuine guy. With Ames, he is one of the most unique guys she has ever met, so sweet, so intelligent. She loves Ben, he is so funny, he has so many things going for him. Constantine, easy to talk to, easy to look at. JP makes her feel so comfortable and secure. Ashley is saying that she is looking for the whole package and that is the only way she is going to take home the guys. As the guys arrive in Taipei, they meet up with Chris and he explains that they are having four dates, and not the traditional three this week.........three individual dates and one group date. The only date that has a rose on it is the group date so this week is mainly a matter of spending time with Ashley.
In the pi’s we get as the guys check out their suite are Lucas hoping that he gets another 1 on 1 date with her but does feel confident anyways. Then we hear from JP whining of how he is done with the group dates and he feels that he is the one that is on a different level with her than anyone else.........kinda reminds me of Chantal last season with her constant PI’s of how she is done with the group dates and is just wanting Brad on her own.
The first individual date goes to Constantine. Let your love light shine.........Love Ashley. While Constantine is getting ready for his date, we get some more whining from JP of how difficult it is to watch the guys get ready for dates with her.........not that it is any different for the other guys as well, but for some reason, we only get JP whining about it.
They take off to the train depot and catch an old fashioned steam train to the village of Pingxi where it is a small village steeped in tradition. The customary tradition that the community has is the letting go of the lanterns that have dreams and wishes written on them. The idea is that when they write their wishes on the lanterns and let them go, their dreams will come true. As the two of them are on the train on their way to Pingxi, they are holding hands and just in general being very affectionate. When they arrive at the village, the two of them find a station set up with a lantern ready for them to write their dreams on it. As they figure out what to write, Ashley is finding out how serious Constantine is taking this lantern tradition.
Meanwhile back at the hotel, the next date card arrives. As Ames heads out to grab it, you can see the tension in the room. Ames reads out the card............Ben, lets spend a gorges day in Taiwan...........Love Ashley. Immediately you see Ryan disappointed that he didn’t get the date, but JP looks like he could kill.........LOL.
Back in Pingxi, Constantine and Ashley are having their dinner and talking about hometown dates. Ashley tells Constantine what she finds attractive about him.......physically he is what she finds attractive(so knowing that Ben and Constantine have some of the same looks, ie hair, does that correspond to him then??), he is a family man which is so important to her. Ashley also asks Constantine if he feels that he could fall in love.........and of course the guy says you just never know.
After dinner, they head out over the gorge area where they let their lantern go, in the process, they see numerous other lanterns rising into the night. After letting their lantern go, they shared some sweet kisses.....
The next day, Ashley meets up with Ben for their date in the Taroko Gorge. As they get on board their moped and enter the park through the gates, they are travelling down the gorge and kidding each other the whole way. As they take a break, they stop at the gorge overlooking the only temple in the park and share some kisses while walking across the suspension bridge.
Meanwhile, back at the hotel, the guys are awaiting the next date card. Constantine heads out to grab the card and read it out..........Lucas, Ames, and JP...........Grooming you for the big day. This leaves Ryan with the last individual date.
Back in the Taroko Gorge, Ben and Ashley arrive at the Silk’s Place Hotel and get ready for their dinner. When they meet up again, they are walking out to the outside patio area for their dinner. As they are enjoying their dinner, they are talking about hometown dates. Ben admits that he is really wanting them to take things to the next level and is looking forward to it. By the end of the night, they were spending a lot of time cuddling and smooching..........Ben admitted to really being on the tip of the next step and is really enjoying it. Ashley admitted that she was feeling like Ben is her boyfriend.
Back at the hotel, it is the next morning and Ben and Ashley are still at the gorge, while Ames and Ryan are at the table talking. It is obvious that JP is pretty ticked off as he is trying to ignore the guys. We get a PI from Lucas saying how upset JP is and it is obviously putting tension between him and the guys as Lucas alludes to in his PI. In JP’s PI, it is extremely obvious that not only is he jealous, but he is actually very pissed off that Ben still isn’t home from the date. After a while, Ben shows up at the hotel and begins to tell the guys about his date as they are the ones asking the questions. Meanwhile if you look at JP, it is like he is shooting Ben daggers with his eyes........LOL, JP then gets up and storms out of the hotel room. In a PI, he is still very upset and carrying on about watching the other guys go out on dates with Ash.........come on already.......I think we get it. LOL.
The three guys head to the wedding photographers to meet up with Ashley. They find out that all three guys will get dressed up in traditional wedding garb and have their pics taken with Ash. Immediately JP starts in with his frustration and “anger” over having to watch the other guys getting dressed up and taking their pics with Ash. As the guys go to the dressing rooms to try on their garbs, we see Lucas in the traditional Taiwanese wedding garb, then Ames comes out with a garb that is a cross between an ostrich and John Lennon as Lucas calls it, then JP gets changed and comes out in the traditional tux. At this time we get a PI from Lucas stating how much JP has been pouting about Ben and his date, of how he has been really cranky to be around, then he gets the tux.........can you imagine how he would of been if he had to wear one of our outfits..........he would of thrown a fit like a 15 year old.........
As the guys head out to meet up with Ash, they begin the photoshoot. First up was Lucas and after taking some traditional pose pics, they then got to kiss for some photo’s. Then was Ames and Ash’s turn..........again they did some traditional poses, then carried onto the kissing pics. At this time we get another PI from JP whining once again of watching the guys with Ash and how unfair it is to him to have to watch...........come on, this whining now is getting a bit much.
After they finish with the photoshoot, they head off to the regent lounge area, and we get another whining PI from JP..........enough already JP! First up to get some quality time was Lucas and they started talking about the hometown dates and since he was married before, she wanted to make sure that Lucas wouldn’t feel awkward with bringing her home to meet the fam.
Back at the suite, Ryan’s date card arrives. Ryan.............let’s get a taste of Taipei.
Back with the group date, Ash and Ames are talking and Ames shows some pics to Ash of his family and of him when he was younger. They spend some time talking about him taking her home for their hometown date. Finally JP gets time with Ash and starts whining..........AGAIN!! You can tell through their conversation that Ashley’s eyes were opened up as to how JP may be handling things and you can see she was uneasy at points. She asked him if it was anger, if other things like that were coming into it. I guess it would create pause for anyone. Then she gets up and goes to get the rose.........was it a sympathy rose, knowing how she felt on the photoshoot that she had with Brad.........IMO, maybe so. So of course after he gets the rose, he is fine.........are you serious..........all you’ve been doing for days is whining..........yikes!!
Ashley is in Tai-Shek Square waiting for Ryan to come so they can begin the last individual date of the week. As Ashley is waiting for Ryan, she is talking about her feelings for him, of how she liked him from the beginning with him being her first impression rose, then of how she feels comfortable, he is so sweet, a really nice guy. When Ryan does come, he kinda runs towards her and picks her up.........as they begin their date, they head over to Longshan Temple where they witness everyone praying en masse. As they come across this one idol, Ashley says that it is the matchmaking god. As she hands him a “brick”, and she keeps the other one, they are suppose to make a wish and if their “bricks” land on the opposite sides, their wish will come true. After they threw them down, they both landed on the same side. As they head off to watch the Tai Chi class, they are talking and it is obvious that Ashley is in a bit of a turmoil regarding her feelings for Ryan. As they wander around the park at the square, they come across a picnic that is set out for them. As they are talking about hometown dates and what they would find at Ryan’s home, you could see the turmoil in her face. On paper, he is the perfect guy, but the real romance that she is looking for just might not be there. As she tells Ryan that she doesn’t think he’s the one for her..........she’s really confused as to whether she made the right decision and if maybe the romance would smack her in the face, but it didn’t through their day together. As Ryan heads off doing his farewell interview, you can tell how much this is hitting him. Because of how she said to him that she doesn’t know if the romance could be there, you can understand how he could interpret it to also be a form of the ... scenario..........wonder what that means now. As he wanders around town making his good bye interview, he is really hit with the realism that he’s going home without her and maybe that is when he realized how much he actually cared for her??
When Ashley meets up with Chris, she says that she knows what she wants to do and there is no sense in having a cocktail party. Chris then heads off to inform the guys that there won’t be a cocktail party, but they are heading directly to the rose ceremony.
As the guys all line up and Ashley comes in, she hands out roses to Ben, Constantine and Ames, which leaves Lucas heading home. Next week are the hometown dates and we will go to Ben’s in Sonoma, Ames in PA, JP in New York, and Constantine in Atlanta. I will be back next week for another roundup as to what happened in that episode.
