Heavy/YouTube/BachelorNation Zach Shallcross in Thailand.
It is Fantasy Suite week on “The Bachelor!” As Zach Shallcross attempts to take his relationships to the next level, will contradicting himself ruin everything?
WARNING: STOP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS FOR SEASON 27 OF “THE BACHELOR.”
The 26-year-old is fresh off of Hometown Dates, saying goodbye to Charity Lawson. Now, with just three contestants remaining, he will test out his connections during overnight dates.
The remaining women are:
- Ariel Frenkel, 28, a marketing executive from New York City, New York
- Gabriella “Gabi” Elnicki, 25, an account executive from Pittsford, Vermont
- Kaitlyn “Kaity” Biggar, 27, an ER nurse from Austin, Texas.
Where will their journey for love take them? What vow does Shallcross make? Who will make it to the finale? Here is what you need to know:
Zach Shallcross Finds ‘Adventure’ With His Remaining Women in Thailand
YouTube/Bachelor Nation
Shallcross and his remaining women continue their journey for love abroad. As ABC teased in a press release, “In the romantic city of Krabi, Thailand, adventure awaits.”
Just a week away from the finale, the lead and his contestants have reached an important Bachelor Nation milestone. Shallcross will be invited to spend overnight time with each of the women in a Fantasy Suite, away from the prying eyes of cameras.
“I know this is a big week,” host Jesse Palmer said to Shallcross in an Instagram promo. “It was at this time with Rachel that everything turned upside down.” As fans of the franchise will recall, it was during the week of Fantasy Suites that Shallcross broke up with former Bachelorette Rachel Recchia.
“I am so in love and I can’t wait to share,” Shallcross said in the preview. “I have three incredible relationships with three incredible women. I can see myself spending the rest of my life with any of them. How do I make a decision when my heart is being pulled in separate directions? Real feelings aren’t safe and everything can change in a day, in a night.”
Zach Shallcross Vows Not to Be Intimate During ‘Sex Week’
Shallcross has coined this week as “Sex Week.” As he declared to Palmer in the preview, “Not conventional, but I decided that there will be no sex of any kind for fantasy suites.”
Sean Lowe inspired Shallcross’ decision, he admitted to Palmer. He further explained his stance in a confessional.
“What feels right to me is to not explore sexual connections with three different women before falling in love,” Shallcross said in an Instagram promo. “Like, when sex is involved, it can cause so many additional hurdles. It shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
In Bachelor Nation clips, the California native shared this stance with his contestants and promised to save any intimacy for his future fiancée. But his vow of celibacy may prove more difficult than he initially thought.
“With firm parameters set on intimacy and love in the air, can Zach hold himself to this commitment and control his libido, or will he go back on his word?” ABC teased in a press release.
Based on the previews, it seems Shallcross does indeed fail to uphold his vow.
“Waking up this morning, I’ve had this like pit in my stomach,” a teary-eyed Shallcross tells Palmer in this week’s preview. “I feel like I let myself down and I feel like I let the women down by saying one thing and doing another.”
In a confessional, he adds, “That was a beautiful moment. It feels robbed.”
But it remains to be seen who the woman in question is.
Zach Shallcross & Ariel Frenkel ‘Expand Their Palette’
Shallcross will “expand his palette” with Ariel Frenkel on their Fantasy Suite date, ABC teased in a press release. Based on the preview, the duo ride in a bicycle taxi, eat at an outdoor market and even take in a fire show.
At dinner, the couple delves further into their feelings for each other. “I definitely am falling in love with you,” the New Yorker tells Shallcross in the preview.
“Zach is looking delicious tonight,” the 28-year-old adds in the preview.
At the end of dinner, as seen in a video on Instagram, Frenkel reads the date card which explains they can “use this key to stay as a couple in the Fantasy Suite.” But Shallcross then reveals his vow to not have sex with any of the remaining women.
“I really wanna be in the Fantasy Suite and I want to keep exploring this relationship,” she explained in a confessional, as seen on Instagram. “So, I definitely want to have those physical moments as well.”
In an Instagram promo, Shallcross admits to also feeling that “pull” to Frenkel.
“She’s just looking absolutely beautiful, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Boy, oh boy. This is gonna be difficult,’” he adds in the clip.
Insecurities Threaten Gabi Elnicki’s Date With Zach Shallcross
Shallcross will “charter a boat with” Gabi Elnicki, ABC revealed in a press release. In the preview, the giggly duo recreate the iconic “Titanic” pose at the front of the boat as Elnicki declares “We’re flying.”
Their date takes them to a beach, where a bathing suit-clad Shallcross admits to the 25-year-old, “I’m falling in love with you and I could tell you 10 million times again and again.”
But their romantic day gets sidelines as Elnicki opens up about her insecurities.
“Right now, I’m feeling a lot of insecurity and I have these feelings that are, like, haunting me a little bit,” she tells Shallcross in a clip on Instagram. “So, I was in my head a little bit this week.”
When he asks if she is worried about time, she explains in the video, “It’s more like, in previous relationships, I was like kind of chosen second and so, not seeing you for so long, and then being the second Fantasy Suite, I was like ‘Oh, I feel very second again.’”
Despite promising he is not playing “mind games,” Elnicki storms away.
“This is putting me in my head. There are other women here. You just get in your own mind,” she says in an Instagram video, seemingly to a producer. Elnicki tearfully adds, “I feel very stupid and foolish, and why can’t I be happy? I don’t even feel like I can go back there.”
Their date must rebound. They are seen lying in the bed in their Fantasy Suite, with Elnicki declaring the moment is “magical.”
Zach Shallcross & Kaity Biggar Go on a ‘Picturesque’ Date
YouTube/Bachelor NationKaity Biggar and Zach Shallcross on a date in Thailand.
Shallcross rounds out his dates for the week with Kaity Biggar, exploring “picturesque mangrove forests,” according to an ABC press release. In the preview, she is seen perched next to him on tree roots and tells him, “I have never felt this way in my entire life.”
The duo is seen walking hand-in-hand to their Fantasy Suite, with Biggar declaring, “ It feels so right with him.”
While Bachelor Nation will have to tune in to find out who gets intimate with Shallcross, Reality Steve thinks Biggar is the most likely candidate.
“I’m sure it’ll be a bumpy ride, we already know he breaks his own promise about ‘no sex in the fantasy suites’ next week, which I assume is for Kaity, but nothing this show does in the editing is going to change the finale spoiler,” the blogger wrote.
During the fallout from breaking his celibacy vow, Shallcross says presumably to her, “I don’t want you to feel like I regret anything that we did.”
In the preview, Biggar is seen walking away from a tense exchange. Confiding in producers, she tearfully says, “How am I supposed to keep moving forward? I’m confused, I feel distant from him. I’m not happy. Literally just want to go home.”
Zach Shallcross Says Goodbye to Ariel Frenkel
Shallcross faces a hard decision going into the last rose ceremony of the season, with only two women moving forward to meet his family. According to Reality Steve, “Ariel was eliminated at the overnight date rose ceremony.”
That means his final two contestants are:
- Gabriella “Gabi” Elnicki, 25, an account executive from Pittsford, Vermont
- Kaitlyn “Kaity” Biggar, 27, an ER nurse from Austin, Texas.
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‘The Bachelor’ 2023 Spoilers for Episode 9: Fantasy Suites