Before hosting a reunion between the season 19 contestants, Jesse Palmer kicked off the Monday, August 29, episode of The Bachelorette with Rachel Recchia’s final hometown date.
During the August 22 episode, Gabby Windey bonded with the families of her final three — Erich, Johnny and Jason. Fans also watched Rachel meet Tino and Zach’s families — and saw the pilot send home Tyler before officially spending time with his loved ones. Monday’s episode saw Rachel on her final hometown with Aven.
“I fully expect his parents to be skeptical. My fears are that they just won’t like me. They don’t like this process. They just don’t trust it. So that is, of course, a fear for me tonight for sure,” Rachel told the cameras before acknowledging that Aven previously told her that his parents “didn’t approve” of his exes.
The sales executive then dropped another bomb on Rachel — his parents haven’t been in the same room since he graduated college. The flight instructor didn’t have too much trouble winning over Aven’s mom and dad, however.
“I have zero doubts. Seeing the looks on my parent’s face. They see how happy I am with you and — just this night just meant the world to me,” Aven told Rachel. “I swear, like, my feelings are getting really, really strong. And I am, like, falling in love with you. I am. I really am.”
Rachel told Aven that she’s “so happy” before admitting in a confessional interview that she is “falling in love” with him too.
The show then cut back to the host who informed the audience that they won’t see a rose ceremony after hometown dates.
“I got a spoiler for you. [Aven] did [get a rose]. In fact, all of Rachel’s guys did. So did all of Gabby’s,” Jesse said. “Now, look, I know you haven’t seen the rose ceremony yet and guess what? You’re not gonna see it tonight. We just have way too many things to get to. But I told you from the beginning, Gabby and Rachel — they wanted to call all the shots. They decided that after their hometowns, they weren’t sending anybody home. They wanted to keep all of their men.”
Bachelor Nation can watch the rose ceremony on ABC.com and expect to see three fantasy suite dates for each co-lead when the overnight dates kick off on Monday, September 5. Scroll through for the biggest takeaways from the Men Tell All: