You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - Vizzini in The Princess Bride

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We are all familiar with Kodak. With a long history of technical progress in the field of photography, Kodak created the first digital camera. Kodak also anticipated that digital cameras would replace traditional cameras . Their business plan included adapting to the digital world but refused to execute it because they wanted to avoid product cannibalization. This turned out to be a huge strategic blunder and Kodak is  shell of its former self.

The ladies competing for the Bachelors roses  have to have a strategy as well.
A few seasons ago,  Courtney  won the final rose and was classified by some as  the "Bill Belichek of the Bachelorettes"  for her cagey strategic moves.

Courtney -The Bill Belichek of the Bacholorettes


Our boy Ari has the flock down to 7 candidates and in this week he has to reduce the pool to four.  Next Ari will visit the ladies in their hometown and meet the families so we are all prepared to understand this week is "crucial".

Ari goes on dates with the two top seeds Lauren and Becca and awards them each a rose. Ari seems to work awful hard to get much personality out of  Lauren but he seems to dig her more than Bachelor Nation who finds her a bit reserved and lacking in charisma. Lauren goes "FULL BARBIE" ( beautiful but not animated) on her date . Kendall seems to have a far more engaging personality but Ari has not been returning my call to help him out.

Jacqueline before she skates away 


Jacqueline chooses to take a limo ride out of the competition  after it dawns on her she risks being proposed to by a guy she has been with on exactly one date.


Sienne auditioning for Bachelorette gig

This idea she may be looking at a marriage proposal and a sudden move to Scottsdale tells Jaqueline it is time to put on the skates. She looks to be on a  direct path to the summer entry of Bachelor in Paradise. Sienne gets a one on one dats but Ari feels there is something missing. The something missing is Sienne has emerged as candidate for next seasons Bachelorette.


Kendall survives to hometowns
So we have three left Tia, Kendall and Bekah ( our 22 year old) but only two roses. Ari takes all three to a mansion with lovely grounds and to my surprise gives a rose to Kendall. I have been on Team Kendall for a while but I don't get the sense Ari has noticed .So this choice to get Kendall to the hometown  weekend is a surprise as I had both Tia and Bekah seeded higher. But a rose to Kendal  means either Tia or Bekah are going home.

We know Bekah is young but she is engaging and charismatic. Tia is also a charmer and I had put her on top of  the leaderboard to be the next bachelorette coming into this week. But then Tia makes a huge strategic mistake. She weighs in that she thinks Bekah is too young for this serious stuff like marriage. Then she decides to share this view with Ari.


Bekah  demostrates champagne skills in the hot tub 

Now this  blunder is not to the level of getting in a land war in Asia but in bachelor terms it is close.
At this point Tia drops off the leaderboard for the next Bachelorette and will be very fortunate just to survive to hometowns.  Don't these girls watch the show???- moaning to the Bachelor  about the other girls is setting oneself up for DOOM. Tia has had a Kodak moment . Much like Kodak's strategy sent it to doom so will Tia's strategy to try to diminish another contestant. ( you knew I teed up Kodak and would eventually come back to it)


Tia commits a blunder

Ari now lets us know picking one and sending one home is really, really hard. I am wondering if we are supposed to look and see if there is a bomb under the table and Ari has ten seconds to decide to cut the red wire or the green one.

Eventually, Ari opts to send Bekah home and Tia survives but is wounded badly. I don't think she recovers and instead of being the next Bachelorette she ends up in the Bachelor in Paradise playpen.
as I seed Lauren and Becca as the top two seeds the window opens for Kendall to emerge as the next bachelorette.

Next week we visit the ladies in the hometowns and Ari meets the families before cutting the candidates to 2.























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