The ‘Golden Bachelor’ season 2 cast was cut from three down to the final two after Hometown Dates this week. Which woman just missed making the finale?
The Hometown Dates were quite emotional on The Golden Bachelor this week. Mel Owens went to Las Vegas to meet Peg Munson’s family, Denver to meet Debbie Siebers’ family, and Austin to meet Cindy Cullers’ family. All of the visits went really well, but one really stood out as being a top-tier Hometown Date.
Here’s how it went down, but be warned of spoilers — don’t keep reading if you haven’t watched the Wednesday, October 22 episode of The Golden Bachelor.
Who Went Home During the Rose Ceremony on The Golden Bachelor Season 2, Episode 5?
Going into the Rose Ceremony, I felt confident the roses would go to Peg and Cindy, and that’s exactly what happened. The woman who was eliminated before the finale was:
Debbie
Denver, Colorado
Fitness Professional, 65
Let’s see how we got there…
Peg’s Hometown Date
Las Vegas was up first with Peg, who started off the date with a trip to her fire station, which was super fun. She’s so proud to show off her professional accomplishments, as she should be.
At her home, Mel got to meet Peg’s mom Dorothy, her brother Guy and sister-in-law Brenda, and her daughter Dakota and Dakota’s boyfriend Kohl. Her brother, in particular, stood out as a father figure, telling Mel that Peg deserves to be held and cherished and loved with kindness, it was very sweet.
He also told Dakota that he loves her mom’s spirit and energy, and Dakota was a tough nut to crack. She peppered him with some tough questions and all he could really say was “I don’t know,” not just because he might not know at this point, but also because the show pretty obviously doesn’t let the leads start tossing out “I love yous” before the finale.
I really liked that Dakota did not let him off easy, but it also felt pretty obvious she hasn’t watched the show much because anybody who has knows how this works — the lead and the editors have to play coy because they don’t want to give away the ending before it’s time. So he’s never going to be able to give anyone’s family a terribly satisfactory answer.
But Peg did confess to her mom that if Mel proposed, she thinks she would say yes.
Debbie’s Hometown Date
Mel next headed for Denver to meet Debbie’s family. They went hiking in some absolutely insane scenery at Red Rocks before heading to her house. While they were there, Debbie opened up about a relationship she had about 15 years ago where the man suffered from depression and they had a lot of ups and downs, but eventually she had to walk away and two weeks later, he died by suicide. She naturally harbored a ton of guilt, it took her 10 years to recover, she said. Oof. That’s so hard.
At the house, Mel got to meet Debbie’s brothers Ron and Steve and sisters Judy and Donna and brother-in-law Mark (Judy), plus some nieces and nephews we didn’t really get to meet.
I gotta say — prior to this episode, it felt like we hadn’t gotten to know Debbie very well, so her being in the final 3 over Cheryl felt a little weird, but this episode really gave us a peek into Debbie. I now think that if she were to be the next Golden Bachelorette, she could be a good choice.
Cindy’s Hometown Date
The final hometown was in Austin with Cindy. When he first got there, she said in a talking-head interview that she would be willing to “leave this life I created” to be with him, i.e. move to Los Angeles, is what that felt like. That’s quite the bold statement because a lot of times, a tricky thing to navigate for people on this show is that they live in different cities.
Anyway, their visit involved meeting Cindy’s three daughters — Caroline, Sarah and Emily, plus son-in-law Fred (Sarah) and soon-to-be-son-in-law Alex (it wasn’t clear which daughter he is marrying).
Cindy privately talked to Emily and Caroline about how Mel makes her feel so “safe and secure,” and they are pretty wide-eyed that she said that. They know their mom is all in, they even told her that if she has to move to California for this, they’re on board. Wow.
Meanwhile, Cindy’s sons-in-law talked to Mel and when he said that he loves college football and he needs to know how a potential partner would feel about him being all about college football on Saturdays in the fall, the boys were like, “Um, she might know more than you, dude,” which Mel called a “game-changer.”
Cindy also told Sarah that she “might the big L love him” and how hard she has worked to put herself back together after her divorce. Sarah seemed convinced after that conversation.
They then went to her condo for a nightcap, and wow, her date seemed to be taking more screentime than the other two put together. At this juncture, I feel fairly confident that Cindy is going to be the winner here, or else she is in for a mountain of heartbreak during the finale.
Also, just by the way, ABC should book Cindy’s daughters for some kind of spinoff because they are absolute knockouts and seem like really sweet girls.
The Golden Bachelor season 2 airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu. The 22nd season of The Bachelorette is premiering this winter with Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul as the lead.
