What happens in the fantasy suites doesn’t always stay in the fantasy suites. Caila Quinn recapped the Tuesday, March 8, episode of The Bachelor with Us Weekly as Bachelor Nation debates how Clayton Echard handled the situation.
“I don’t know if he really knows what love is,” the 31-year-old Bachelor season 20 second runner-up said on the Wednesday, March 9, episode of Us’ “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast. “So I think he’s just throwing out versions of love [with all the women] to make it feel different so that he can validate his feelings later.”
During Tuesday’s episode, the 28-year-old Bachelor admitted that he had sex with Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia after Susie Evans revealed her concerns about the overnight dates. Clayton also told Gabby, 32, and Rachel, 26, that he was falling in love with them before telling Susie, 29, that he loved her “the most.” In the end, the former football player sent the videographer home after a heated conversation.
Caila, for her part, told Us that she feels “confused and sad and frustrated” for Clayton.
“I think he is trying to have an authentic journey. I think he is a good guy at heart. I think he is confused between love and lust,” she told Us. “And at the end of the day, when he’s with Susie, he’s looking at her and he’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’re in front of me and I feel the strongest about you.’ And what’s really sad is I think that he wasn’t really focusing on his feelings [throughout the show]. He just wanted all three women to love him. So that’s why he’s just telling all them, ‘I love you,’ so that he had the choice at the end.”
The lifestyle blogger wished that Clayton was more open with his feelings for his finalists earlier in the journey.
“It was kind of like flipping a switch,” she said. “And the women have been dating this conservative guy who really isn’t open about his feelings the entire time. And now he chooses to go all in and say, ‘What do you mean you didn’t know I loved you?’ And the women are like, ‘What do you mean, you haven’t given me any validation to this point.’ It’s just a 180 to just drink the Kool-Aid so late in the game.”
For a complete recap of Tuesday’s episode, listen to Us’ “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast.