Bachelor Power Rankings: Peter has no idea what he’s doing

Recapping Week 3 of The Bachelor.

Peter Weber is losing hope after being informed that some of his cast members might not be here for the right reasons, and his Rose Ceremony in Week 3 ended with a shocking twist. We’ll be recapping each episode and ranking all the contestants weekly on FTW. 

Last week, I wrote that Peter seemed to be doing a great job at making each woman in his cast feel special during their one-on-one interactions. After episode 3, I’m worried that Peter may be going too far and getting carried away with the things he’s saying so early in the process – which could make for some devastating moments later in the season. On Monday, for example, Peter told one woman that she’s the most inspiring person in his entire life after their first date. The late-season breakups in Peter’s season are going to make for epic television.

1. Victoria P.

Last week’s rank: 3

Victoria P. earned the only one-on-one date of the show, and Peter drove her to his hometown to buy some cowboy gear for a night at one of his favorite hangouts. From the start, it’s clear that Victoria P. is absolutely smitten with Peter, and her feelings have already advanced to an alarming level after just two episodes.

“I want nothing more than for Peter and I to fall in love.”

They spent a romantic evening in a hangar, where Victoria P. revealed her remarkable life story to Peter in an emotional conversation. Victoria P.’s father died when she was young, and she said her mother became an addict after his death. Peter was moved by Victoria P,’s willingness to open up, and her story that showed him “what kind of person you are.” Victoria P., who seemed like she would say yes to a proposal if Peter were to get down on one knee, wondered if the stars were aligning for them.

Then things got a little crazy. Peter told Victoria P. a story that feels like it’s something Luke P. would say. According to Peter, he witnessed a shooting star during a conversation with God just before filming began.

“I couple days before all this started, I had a really special moment where I felt like I just knew this was going to work. I just started, like, talking to God, and I just was like, ‘I don’t know where she is, but watch over her. And the second that I said that, a shooting star went across the sky.”

Peter then gave Victoria P. the highest compliment imaginable after spending his very first day with her.

“I have never been inspired by someone so much in my entire life, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

If Peter doesn’t close the season by proposing to Victoria P. after saying that, it’s going to be even more awkward than Madison’s framed Weber family photo.

Later on in the show, Victoria P. says in a confessional that she’s already falling in love.

“I just had to tell the truth to the person that I’m falling in love with.”

2. Madison

Last week’s rank: 2

Madison only appeared once in the episode and had a short chat with Peter at the pool party, but after going on such an early one-on-one, it’s to be expected that she’s going to fly under the radar for a while. Most importantly, she’s been completely removed from drama this season, which bodes well for her in the long run.

3. Kelley

Last week’s rank: 1

Peter’s conversation with Kelley, the woman he met prior to filming, had a decidedly different tone than the conversations he had with everyone else. After being told to shave his beard, Peter asked Kelley if she could realistically see the Bachelor process working out for her as a way to find a partner. Kelley said that she’s very out of her comfort zone, but that she would have left already if she didn’t feel it was worth it to stick around.

4. Sydney

Last week’s rank: 7

If you’ve watched previous seasons of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, you know that it’s generally a terrible strategy to serve as a “cop” of the season. Ratting out fellow cast members to the person you’re trying to date, or questioning whether people are here for the right reasons, only serves to get the cop caught up in entirely avoidable drama, and also wastes time that they could be spending forging a solid relationship with the star of the season. As noted by FTW alum Greg Presto, Sydney may be the first cop in Bachelor history who was actually rewarded for causing a massive feud.

Sydney is convinced that Alayah, who she cannot stand, is putting on a front while on camera, and isn’t letting Peter see who she truly is. Sydney is also alarmed that the women who seem to be connecting with Peter are the “opposite” of who she is, so she decides to tell Peter that inside the mansion, some of the women are “so artificial.”

Sydney’s plan backfires somewhat when Peter outs her as a whistleblower during a group date cocktail party, but she somehow emerged with a group date rose from the chaos.

Honestly, I was firmly on #TeamSydney until Alayah’s conversation with her at the pool party, where Sydney took her policing of the show to the next level, and straight-up asked if Alayah had feelings.

“Do you have feelings? Do you have emotions other than… perfect? You can’t be happy all the time.”

There’s zero chance that her conflicts with the rest of the cast don’t doom Sydney eventually.

5. Hannah Ann

Last week’s rank: 5

The episode opened with Hannah Ann and Kelsey dealing with the fallout from #ChampagneGate. In a somewhat surprising move given how vicious the dispute was, both women sat down together to hash out their differences – and Hannah Ann discovered that she will never be winning an argument with Kelsey. In what has to be one of the funniest conversations in Bachelor history, Kelsey admitted to “using unkind words” against Hannah Ann, but vehemently denied bullying her. Kelsey then asked why Hannah Ann didn’t just approach her instead of going to Peter, which led to this glorious exchange.

Usually in this situation, I’d predict that Hannah Ann wouldn’t be able to recover from this incident – but the feud between Sydney and Alayah took the spotlight off Hannah Ann and Kelsey, which may allow them to bury this beef and move on.

6. Tammy

Last week’s rank: 9

Tammy, who was on the varsity boys’ wrestling team in high school, was disqualified from Demi’s pillow fight championship for repeatedly taking Kelley down to the mat. Peter complimented her at the cocktail party afterward fro being “so much fun,” and they capped the conversation with a kiss.

7. Lexi

Last week’s rank: 6

It was another slow night for Lexi, who only really appeared to warn Peter about some of the women who “turn it on for the camera” and may have a different personality away from the show. Interestingly, Lexi didn’t name Alayah specifically and kept it general, so there may be other women that are still getting away with faking it around Peter.

8. Mykenna

Last week’s rank: 4

Mykenna was distraught after the cancelled pool party, as she was among the eight women who didn’t get any time with Peter ahead of the Rose Ceremony. Fortunately, Mykenna scored the very last rose of the week.

The “here for the right reasons, but still not here on my TV” division

We’ve seen a total of seven hours of Peter’s season so far, but with episodes 2 and 3 being dominated by two-person feuds, we’re still waiting to learn more about several women who are struggling to earn camera time. With the cast already cut down to 15, Week 4 will be pivotal for these contestants.

T-9. Natasha

Last week’s rank: 8

T-9. Deandra

Last week’s rank: T-10

T-9. Kiarra

Last week’s rank: T-10

T-9. Shiann

Last week’s rank: T-10

T-9. Savannah

Last week’s rank: T-10

14. Victoria F.

Last week’s rank: 18

It was a quiet week for Victoria F., but we saw in the preview for next week that she appears to go on a one-on-one date with Peter to a Chase Rice concert. The only problem? Victoria dated Chase prior to the show. Get your popcorn ready.

The “women Peter may regret not giving a chance to” division

I’m sure Peter had his reasons for not giving a rose to any of these three, but we never saw those reasons play out on television. Alexa, Jasmine and Sarah were essentially invisible after their first night in the mansion, so we’ll never know what kind of chemistry they had with Peter.

T-15. Alexa (eliminated)

Last week’s rank: T-10

T-15. Jasmine (eliminated)

Last week’s rank: T-10

T-15. Sarah (eliminated)

Last week’s rank: T-10

18. Kelsey

Last week’s rank: 19

According to Kelsey, Hannah Ann made a “serious accusation” that she was bullied, but being called expletives and pejoratives does not constitute bullying… or something.

Kelsey also made the shocking revelation that she doesn’t “even like champagne,” despite exploding in Week 2 over a bottle that she had been saving for more than 12 months. It’s possible that Kelsey is telling the truth here, and that she’s really just upset about the possibility that someone interfered with her plans.

In any event, the Sydney-Alayah feud was a lifesaver for Kelsey, who we know will be sticking around long enough to tell Peter that she’s falling in love with him. I’d peg the over/under on that occurring within 1.5 episodes.

19. Alayah (eliminated?)

Last week’s rank: T-10

Alayah didn’t receive a rose at the end of a wild third episode, but she may not be out of the game just yet.

The episode opened with a fantastic supercut of Alayah potentially annoying everyone else in the mansion, expertly framed in a way by Bachelor producers to establish her as a villain. We know that Sydney hates Alayah and wants her gone, but we aren’t entirely sure if anyone else agrees.

Alayah is a part of the group date pillow fight, and somehow emerges victorious thanks to Demi’s nebulous rules and ridiculous tournament structure. (Instead of just advancing the winners from each round, Demi elects the two women she felt showed the most effort to fight in the final, and then randomly declared Alayah to be the winner. I’m surprised Tammy didn’t lodge a formal protest with the California State Athletic Commission.)

At the cocktail party after the date, Sydney launched her full frontal assault against Alayah, delivering another legendary quote in an episode full of them.

Sydney: “Do you work at all?”
Alayah: “I have three jobs.”

In a private conversation with Peter, Sydney outs Alayah as “fake,” but likely wasn’t expecting what came next. In an incredibly poorly planned speech, Peter told all of the women on the date that he was afraid of falling for someone who wasn’t genuine – and then revealed that Sydney told him that a person on the cast wasn’t being authentic. By outing Sydney as a whistleblower, Peter immediately made her an enemy of the house – but Sydney picked up the baton and continued running at full speed, calling Alayah out in front of the group for being fake.

At the pool party, nearly every woman Peter talked to corroborated Sydney’s claims about Alayah, and Victoria P. – who knew Alayah personally from the pageant circuit – revealed that Alayah had asked her not to tell producers that they were acquaintances. When asked about this by Peter, Alayah makes up a ridiculous excuse that she thought both she and Victoria P. would be disqualified from the show for… knowing one another (???).

Despite all these red flags, Peter is torn over his Rose Ceremony decision. He apparently meant to give his final two roses to Alayah and Mykenna, but changed his mind mid-Rose Ceremony, and had Chris Harrison remove one of his roses. The episode closed with Peter second-guessing his decision, and wondering if he should let Alayah leave the house. In the episode preview, we see that Alayah comes back in Week 4, so it’s possible that she may re-join the cast.

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