CLEVELAND — Ohio's Shanae Ankney may have won the battle against Colorado's Elizabeth Corrigan, but it looks like she's losing the war for the love of The Bachelor Clayton Echard, while recent Ohio University graduate Rachel Recchia is finally getting her chance to shine.
After watching episode 4 on Monday night where he kept Shanae on the show and asked Elizabeth and two other women to leave, Clayton tweeted an apology to Elizabeth on Tuesday morning, saying that had he known Shanae was "making fun" of Elizabeth for being neurodivergent that he would have sent Shanae home immediately.
The 28-year-old medical sales professional appears to be referring to an incident that happened during the second episode of the season. In episode two, Shanae, 29, refuses to believe that Elizabeth, 33, seemingly ignored her at the Bachelor Mansion pool because she has auditory processing limitations associated with ADHD. Shanae instead tells Elizabeth that she's two-faced and later mentions that Elizabeth said she's been diagnosed with ADHD in front of a group of other women, which Elizabeth told her was not her information to share and that it felt violating to her.
The timing of Clayton's delayed response to this exchange is interesting, since we saw this interaction between Shanae and Elizabeth play out in episode two but we are only now hearing from him about this three weeks later (due to a one-week break in airing).
It's also in stark contrast to a tweet from The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss, who tweeted last week: "Prediction for #BachelorNation. You will fall in love with Shanae during Monday night’s episode of #TheBachelor!!!"
Back to the latest episode in The Bachelor universe, after the third rose ceremony, the remaining 15 women are whisked off to Houston, Texas, where 25-year-old Rachel finally gets screen time with a solo date with Clayton.
During a romantic evening together, Clayton asks the commercial pilot and flight instructor why she's single, and Rachel reveals that her last relationship was with a man who didn't trust her because of stereotypes surrounding promiscuity and air travel professionals. Rachel said the mistrust was unwarranted, and while she wants a family, she's not willing to settle for that kind of dynamic when she's "worked so hard" to excel at a job that she loves.
Clayton responds by telling Rachel he promises he won't ever "dim her light," and they share a slow dance to a private performance by country band "Restless Road."
Before the night is over, Rachel accepts a rose from Clayton, who tells producers: “Rachel’s special. She makes me really just forget about everything else that’s going on. I haven’t had these feelings in a long time.”
Later, in a drastic change of tone and despite Elizabeth's exit, the drama continues for Shanae when she overhears several women talking about how toxic she is and that they plan to reveal her "character" to Clayton. When those same three women win during a game of tackle football on a group date and get to spend extra time with Clayton, his prompts Shanae to crash their cocktail party date where she tells a visibly annoyed Clayton what she heard them saying.
When Shanae explains why she's there, Clayton softens and spends time with her, lifting her up on a bar to kiss her, before we see the infamous seen from previous previews where she storms up to the group of women and tells them to keep "her name out of their mouths" before tossing their football trophy from the earlier portion of the date to the ground.
The episode ends with scenes flashing forward to Shanae being selected for a two-on-one date with Genevieve Parisi, a 26-year-old bartender from Los Angeles, where only one woman will receive a rose and the other will be asked to go home.
