The Bachelor franchise thrives on its contestants’ personalities and their in-fighting, and this season of The Bachelorette does not disappoint. While Lucas and Blake exited the show with some epically silly verbal sparring, Rachel learned the Medusan nature of feuds in this world, with Lee and Eric quickly stepping up to bring more drama to her “journey.”
This week, your A.V. Club and Onion Inc. Bachelorette fans place bets on the odds of Eric getting that group-date rose revoked, in addition to our usual roster of weekly will-they/won’t-they odds. Our Vegas-style odds are provided by Benjamin Lee Eckstein, Bachelor/Bachelorette fan and a nationally syndicated odds maker and owner of America’s Line, a betting odds website. Each week, he gives us the odds on what will happen in next week’s episode of Bachelorette, along with his rationale behind the odds.
What will the Tickle Monster bring out next?
2-1 Fuzzy handcuffs
3-1 Sex toy
5-1 Whip
6-1 Giant barbeque gloves
10-1 No.1 foam hand
The oddsmaker says: “The tickle guy is such an idiot.”
The A.V. Club says: “His props are gimmicks. We doubt he’d bring on anything quite so risqué as a sex toy or whip, but we definitely see a No. 1 foam hand as a possibility.”
3-1 Lee wears a Confederate-flag tie to the rose ceremony
The oddsmaker says: “The ‘Next week on The Bachelorette’ and the history of our country leads me to believe we may be reaching a confrontation. And like the clip said, when a black man is loud and a Southern guy is on the receiving end of that, it can get racial.”
The A.V. Club says: “Lee certainly seems like his issues with Eric are more racial than anything.”
Eric gets the rose revoked
Yes 2-1
No 10-1
The oddsmaker says: “He’s part of this dramatic feud. It’s too much, and Rachel isn’t into the drama.”
The A.V. Club says: “This could go a lot of ways.”
6-5 Lee is eliminated
The oddsmaker says: “He has a Napoleon complex. Short guys with raised hair usually do.”
The A.V. Club says: “If there’s one context we would agree the Napoleon complex is a real thing, it’d be in this one: All these souped-up gym rats ooze insecurity. More importantly, Rachel demonstrated by eliminating Blake and Whaboom last week that she will get rid of the drama during the rose ceremonies.”
7-5 Eric goes home (assuming his group-date rose is not revoked)
The oddsmaker says: “Even if his rose isn’t revoked, Rachel might still not want him around if he’s raising the drama.”
The A.V. Club says: “Rachel is very classy and we don’t think she’ll revoke the rose, but yeah, she might just plan on eliminating him during the next rose ceremony instead.”
9-5 Iggy is eliminated
The oddsmaker says: “He’s just trying to creep in and throw poison darts at everyone else while doing nothing to foster a real relationship with Rachel. It doesn’t seem like she wants to grab him like some of the other guys.”
The A.V. Club says: “Inserting himself into this feud seems very stupid, though we understand that since he didn’t get any face time with Rachel this week, he’d want to make a big impression.”
3-1 Jonathan (“Tickle Monster”) is eliminated
The oddsmaker says: “You know my feelings on him. He’s too old to be a tickle monster.”
The A.V. Club says: “Rachel seems to weirdly like him. We don’t think he’s a contender by a long shot, but we wouldn’t be surprised if she kept him around.”