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"We had plenty of drama in The Bachelorette last week, so how would this week&amp;#039;s episode possibly compare? Well, it was lighter on the scandal, but there was still plenty of action to sink our teeth into. Plus, men in Speedos. But Des has had enough of Los Angeles, so it&amp;#039;s off to Atlantic City for this week&amp;#039;s bunch of dates!  Brad fails to shine Desiree is rocking an absolutely gorgeous sweater, but I suppose I should actually tell you about her first one-on-one date with Brad: &amp;quot;Let our love shine through.&amp;quot; Brad is thrilled that he&amp;#039;ll have time with Des, but it doesn&amp;#039;t seem like the other guys are particularly worried - basically all they can say is that they don&amp;#039;t think Brad&amp;#039;s got a chance. But, like, not even in a mean way. They&amp;#039;re just supremely unconcerned about him as a threat. And to be fair, we&amp;#039;ve hardly seen Brad. Actually, though, Brad&amp;#039;s date with Des starts really well. They go for a stroll on the boardwalk, full of rollercoaster rides and giggles and a ride on a carousel (observed by some very jealous suitors from their hotel room 44 floors up.) They even go to a saltwater taffy factory and chase the smell of chocolate before stuffing candy into each other&amp;#039;s faces - which is basically a perfect romcom moment. Des thinks that he&amp;#039;s actually coming into himself a bit more. Things should go from good to better when the couple have a little romantic sit on the beach together - complete with a fire and a beautiful, intricate sandcastle - but Des doesn&amp;#039;t seem too comfortable with his answers about his family. She explains that at dinner she&amp;#039;ll be looking to see if they actually have a connection, which is never a good sign, right? Things don&amp;#039;t actually improve at dinner, either. If anything, they take a sharp nosedive with the most awkward conversation ever. It&amp;#039;s so stilted it&amp;#039;s actually hard to watch. All Des can say in her confessionals is that she&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;conflicted&amp;quot;. Perhaps in a last-ditch attempt at romance, Desiree suggests a walk to the top of the lighthouse - which basically just tires them both out. It&amp;#039;s intercut with all the guys saying they can&amp;#039;t see Brad come back to the house - way to build the tension, producers! Anyway, when Brad and Des finally get to the top, it seems like Brad leans in for a kiss and Des kind of deflects the whole thing. Hideously awkward. Then she turns to him and says that though she had a lot of fun, something was missing - she won&amp;#039;t be giving him the rose. Right, so why make him walk all the way to the top of the lighthouse so he has to troop morosely back down? Way harsh, Des.  Anyway, it&amp;#039;s a very amicable goodbye - Des tells us that she just didn&amp;#039;t see a &amp;quot;forever&amp;quot; with Brad - but he obviously has a little cry before getting into his taxi. He says he doesn&amp;#039;t feel like Desiree rejected him, just like she made the right decision for her. And hey, he gets to see his son now. Back at the hotel, all the men pretend to feign sadness when Brad&amp;#039;s suitcase is picked up, when clearly they are thrilled. Bye, Brad! We hardly knew you! Let&amp;#039;s crown our Mr America... It&amp;#039;s time for a group date (&amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m looking for my Mr Right&amp;quot;), and the lucky guys are Brooks, Bryden, Zack K, Kasey, Drew, Juan Pablo, Zak W, Mikey, Ben, Michael and Chris - meaning James has landed the one on one. Anyway, the men meet Des at Boardwalk Hall, and she clearly knows what&amp;#039;s about to happen because she can&amp;#039;t help but let a cheeky little grin slip out. So what are they doing? Well, inside Chris Harrison and Miss America 2013 reveal that they&amp;#039;ll be taking part in a pageant! To be fair, some of the men are just excited about seeing Desiree: &amp;quot;Right now she&amp;#039;s this mystical creature like the unicorn - she shows up every once in a while for ten seconds and then she&amp;#039;s gone,&amp;quot; Brooks quips. &amp;quot;Usually with another guy.&amp;quot; Still, I don&amp;#039;t know how they&amp;#039;ll feel about her once they discover they&amp;#039;ll have to do an interview, show off a talent, and parade their best swimsuit bodies (&amp;quot;You guys hate me,&amp;quot; Des can be heard to say in the background.)  Some are very happy - &amp;quot;As a young kid, I often dreamed of becoming Mr America,&amp;quot; Michael reveals, perhaps oversharing (bit of a red flag that one, isn&amp;#039;t it.) Anyway, pageant expert Christopher Dean is there to help the guys with their talents (mostly saying: &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s a strong choice&amp;quot;, uncertainly.) Chris wastes no time in slipping into some high heels - hey, wherever you get your kicks - while Juan Pablo surprises everyone with his baton skills (and then winks. He is great.) It&amp;#039;s actually great fun watching them all have a blast - &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a hodgepodge of tomfoolery,&amp;quot; Drew announces, unexpectedly. Meanwhile, Miss America Mallory Hagan coaches the guys for their interview section, leaving Michael completely blank and baffled when she quizzes him on the biggest problem in America today. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s really hard to take you seriously when you have heels on,&amp;quot; she admits while testing Chris. Then it&amp;#039;s just time for the guys to pick up their swimsuits - and Mikey&amp;#039;s just disappointed that his is actually bigger than he wanted. &amp;quot;The last thing I want to do is walk across the stage in a banana hammock,&amp;quot; Drew sighs.  Of course, the surprises ain&amp;#039;t over, so Chris Harrison announces that their actual pageant will take place in front of a live audience! They&amp;#039;ll be judged by Mallory, Desiree and Atlantic City&amp;#039;s mayor Lorenzo Langford. We begin with the interview section - highlights include Kasey being asked if he is a &amp;quot;giver or taker&amp;quot; (oh, do calm down); Brooks being asked which animal he would be and immediately purring: &amp;quot;The lion - he&amp;#039;s king of the jungle&amp;quot;; and Chris horrifying himself by saying he would take a girl out to dinner &amp;quot;more than necessary&amp;quot;. But Mikey makes all the guys lose it backstage when he starts talking about how women just see men&amp;#039;s bodies and not their sensitive sides. Seeing them all laugh their heads off is brilliant fun. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m tired of being a piece of meat,&amp;quot; he grins. Next, the talents - Kasey tells a cute story about stapling metal to his sneakers and then does an endearing little tapdance; Mikey completely undercuts his interview answer by ripping his shirt off and doing handstand pushups; Brooks sings a silly little song and then smashes his ukulele on the stage; Ben does something bizarre with ribbons; Drew performs a Shakespearean monologue; Chris swings hula hoops on his arms while rocking his heels; Bryden, er, thrusts; and Zak sings and plays guitar and is actually surprisingly good (I could swear that Desiree, who looks very impressed, is close to tears.)  After the swimsuit round - which is great fun as the guys totally ham it up, complete with pec-dancing - it&amp;#039;s the big announcement! Brooks is second runner-up (and does a fantastic pageant wave); Zak W is the first runner-up, and the winner is... Kasey! He&amp;#039;s obviously thrilled and gets a fancy sash, flowers and crown. That was actually far more entertaining than it had any right to be.  Pool Party Desiree hosts a pool party after the pageant, which seems like a thinly veiled reason to get the men back in their swimsuits. Chris impresses Desiree by reading out a poem he&amp;#039;s written for her (a no-no for me, but Des seems to like it - it ends in kissing, anyway).  Meanwhile, the tension with Ben is back once more (&amp;quot;I hate Ben,&amp;quot; Bryden huffs. &amp;quot;Just as a person.&amp;quot;) And Ben doesn&amp;#039;t help the situation by making sure that his one-on-one time with Des is right in front of all the other men. They repay him by complaining that they haven&amp;#039;t heard a thing about Ben&amp;#039;s son - while Ben is showing off his son&amp;#039;s thumbprint on a necklace he always wears. Oof. Des certainly seems to be enjoying her time with Ben, anyway. Later, Zak builds on his impressive performance at the pageant by singing the rest of his song and winning over Des enough to get the rose! But Bryden is annoyed that he didn&amp;#039;t actually get to spend any alone time with Des... uh oh. I sense trouble brewing.  James and Jersey Shore In a hilarious little aside, we see James alone at the hotel while the other guys are on the group date, kicking back with a bubble bath, a bathrobe and a glass of wine. Smooth. Anyway, his date card says: &amp;quot;Can our love weather the storm?&amp;quot; and given the date that follows, I&amp;#039;m not sure how tasteful that is. It turns out that Des and James are going to visit the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Sandy. I&amp;#039;m not entirely sure whether this is in good taste given that they both talk about how the experience is bringing them closer together, but it&amp;#039;s kind of easy to let that go because the show pushes the American Red Cross hard, which can only be a good thing. After a helicopter ride along the coast, the pair visit Seaside Heights, which was really destroyed, and meet survivors Manny and Jan - who, by the way, are just entirely wonderful and very excited to meet Des. They emotionally speak about their experiences and reveal that their first night in the shelter was actually their 38th wedding anniversary. Hearing that, Des and James decide to forgo their dinner date and give it to Manny and Jan instead. Okay, so the producers decide this, but I don&amp;#039;t even care because the look on Manny&amp;#039;s face is adorable. I thought we wouldn&amp;#039;t get to see their dinner, but I&amp;#039;m so pleased that we do because they are lovely together and are thrilled when the Red Cross give them their wedding album, which has been restored for them. It&amp;#039;s adorable.  Meanwhile, James and Des pick up some fast food and have a little talk, which gives Des a chance to open up about her family&amp;#039;s financial struggles. At one point, James realises that they&amp;#039;re on such the same page that he leans over to give her a kiss, which is so cute. &amp;quot;I got chills,&amp;quot; he explains. It&amp;#039;s just lovely. Anyway, he has something to get off his chest and reveals that he cheated on his long-term girlfriend when he was a college freshman. Desiree, who&amp;#039;s been cheated on herself, does not seem to have a very impressed face after this but she does at least seem to appreciate his honesty. Plus, James knows how to twist this: &amp;quot;A man can&amp;#039;t really love until his heart&amp;#039;s been broken, and what I did broke my heart because I broke her heart.&amp;quot; Smooth.  After their food, Des and James join Manny and Jan for a bit of a talk and then reveal that there&amp;#039;s another part to the date - a private concert from Darius Rucker (Hootie!) While they&amp;#039;re dancing, Des gives James the rose and says she appreciates his honesty, before they go and boogie with Manny and Jan. James seriously turns on the charm, too, telling Des: &amp;quot;I really had no idea I would meet such a beautiful person.&amp;quot; Well, obviously she&amp;#039;s going to kiss him after that... (actually, she says she basically always wants to kiss him when she looks at him, she tells us.) Nice date, then! The cocktail party... and someone&amp;#039;s having doubts We&amp;#039;ve got our first &amp;#039;doubts&amp;#039; of the season, people! At the rose ceremony, Bryden admits that he doesn&amp;#039;t think his feelings for Des are where they should be, so he&amp;#039;s determined to get some time alone with her. He&amp;#039;ll have to wait though, because Michael grabs Desiree first and writes out each letter of her name, explaining that it stands for one of his qualities (he cheekily finishes with &amp;quot;G&amp;quot; to represent his surname.) Desiree says he&amp;#039;s funny and kisses him, but I&amp;#039;m not sure there&amp;#039;s a spark there. Still, Michael&amp;#039;s on &amp;quot;cloud nine&amp;quot;. Elsewhere, Chris has some cute alone time with Des, as she opens up about her past and they joke about being friends (&amp;quot;Are we in the friend zone right now?&amp;quot; Chris bemoans sweetly, as Desiree says no and kisses him to prove it. They are genuinely lovely together.) But everyone&amp;#039;s really wondering what Bryden&amp;#039;s going to do. To be fair to Bryden, he admits his concerns to Des, who says that she does want him there and does think they have a connection. Will he stick around? The other guys are clearly hoping not... Let&amp;#039;s find out!  The Rose Ceremony Desiree begins the rose ceremony by thanking the guys for their &amp;quot;willingness to be open&amp;quot;, and admits that her decisions are getting harder now. Here we go, then: Aside from James and Zak W, Chris is the first to get a rose. He&amp;#039;s followed by Brooks, Juan Pablo, Drew, Michael, Ben, Kasey and... Bryden. Will he accept the rose? Everyone&amp;#039;s breathing in, but he does indeed take it. The final rose goes to Mikey (&amp;quot;You make me sweat,&amp;quot; he tells Des. I know what he means, but... ugh.) That means that Zack is heading home, which is not really a surprise since I&amp;#039;m not even sure who he is. Still, Zack says he&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;shocked&amp;quot; and that he did see a future with Desiree, and obviously he gets a little weepy. He admits this is hard to swallow because he really wanted to find love. Aww. And Desiree says that was &amp;quot;difficult&amp;quot; because Zack&amp;#039;s great, and it&amp;#039;s just going to get tougher from now on. On the other hand, they&amp;#039;re all off to Munich next week - yay! The Bachelorette airs Mondays on ABC. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-bachelorette/news/a490950/the-bachelorette-week-four-recap-a-hodgepodge-of-tomfoolery/>