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The Bachelor Season 26 is getting serious – by the end of this week's episode, just four women remained and five had been eliminated by Clayton Echard.
The ABC show began with a rose ceremony (and some Mara-Sarah drama), at which two contestants were sent home. The remaining seven of Clayton's co-girlfriends then went to Vienna for a week of fine art, therapy...and performances from "Lady in Red" singer Chris De Burgh.
Clayton then sent home two more women after a Sigmund Freud-inspired task designed by someone who seemed to know next to nothing about Sigmund Freud, before another rose ceremony revealed this year's final four.
Here's who Bachelor Nation had to say goodbye to in Episode 7.
Who Was Sent Home on The Bachelor This Week?
First Rose Ceremony
The first of two rose ceremonies saw Clayton give roses to Susie Evans, Serene Russell, Gabby Windey, Genevieve Parisi, Teddi Wright, Sarah Hamrick and Rachel Recchia.
This meant that the following contestants went home:
- Eliza Isichei, 25, a marketing manage from Tampa, Florida
- Mara Agrait, 32, an entrepreneur from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
This came after Mara and Sarah had been fighting about Mara telling Clayton that Sarah was too cocky. Mara also told the Bachelor that she thought it was unfair Sarah had had two one-on-one dates while Mara had had none.
Sarah called this a "last-ditch effort by someone who feels like they're going home." And if Mara did not feel like she was going home, the rose ceremony proved that she should have.
As for Eliza, her elimination was kind of inevitable, seeing as she had by far the least screen time of any of the remaining women. But to add insult to injury, the German-speaking suitor went home just before all the women were sent to a German-speaking country.
Who Was Eliminated in the Psychoanalysis Challenge?
With the show moving to Vienna for the week, The Bachelor decided to theme one group date around one of the city's most famous former residents, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
Here's what psychoanalysis is: "A method of analyzing psychic phenomena and treating emotional disorders that involves treatment sessions during which the patient is encouraged to talk freely about personal experiences and especially about early childhood and dreams." (Per Miriam Webster). Or, as the old joke has it: "Where you say one thing and mean your mother."
Here's what psychoanalysis isn't: A competitive sport in which participants have to share camera-ready emotional truths on camera to an audience of millions, after which a therapist breaks out some pop psychology, calls them "performative," and then they get sent home on a reality competition.
No one told The Bachelor producers, however, and so two women got sent home because they did not do therapy well enough – aka they did not reveal enough traumatic details about their lives on camera.
Genevieve was the first to be sent packing because she was unable to "open up." After being unwilling to discuss her feelings with the therapist, Clayton takes her for a talk outside. There, he tells her : "It's really hard for me to see meeting your family when I'm not able to see what is inside the walls."
The 26-year-old bartender from Rehoboth, Massachusetts therefore became the 24th contestant to be sent home on The Bachelor Season 26.
Following shortly after her was Sarah Hamrick, the 23-year-old wealth-management adviser from Spartanburg, South Carolina. If Genevieve's problem was that she was too closed off, Sarah's might be that she was a little too open.
After the Mara fight, Sarah cried in the session talking about how hurtful she had found the other girls calling her out for being cocky. She was in for a pretty hurtful night, then, when the other girls spent most of the cocktail party badmouthing her to Clayton for her over-confidence.
Her fatal mistake was to tell the other contestants that Clayton had cried – calling out a Bachelor for being anything less than toxically masculine is a no-no. After a confrontation, Clayton sent her home.
Who Left in The Bachelor's Second Rose Ceremony?
With just five women remaining, Bachelor Nation knew that one would not be making it to next week's hometown dates.
That fifth place went to Teddi Wright, 24, a surgical unit nurse from Redlands, Califonia. She had got the first impression rose earlier in the season, but clearly she and Clayton hadn't managed to keep up that momentum.
That leaves Gabby, Rachel, Serene and Susie going on hometown dates when the show returns next week.
The Bachelor Season 26 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Tuesdays from 5 a.m. ET on Hulu.
