Entertainment

Lauren B.'s Hometown Date Was SO Awkward & 'Bachelor' Fans Couldn't Handle It

by Nicole Pomarico
Paul Hebert/ABC

Now that The Bachelor's hometown dates are here, it's time to get serious — except sometimes, things get a little too serious. The last time we saw Arie and Lauren B., they were admitting that they were falling in love with each other, so it seemed pretty serious. Then, on Monday night's episode, Lauren B.'s Bachelor hometown date with Arie was the most awkward by far, and fans of the show definitely noticed.

Since Lauren's date was the last of the four, it was easy to compare the difference between her hometown and the rest of them... and hers was different from the start. As soon as Arie arrived at Lauren's house, it was... silent. She and Arie sat far away from Lauren's family on the couch, and there was some tension in the air for sure. At first, it seemed like his conversation with Lauren's dad was going to be really brutal, and Arie even had to walk away and take a minute to gather his thoughts beforehand. Of course, that's something he seems to do anytime he's around Lauren.

However, even though Lauren's family seemed to like him enough — minus Lauren's mom's cynicism, because this isn't exactly how most people find love — it definitely didn't take away from how weird the situation was... and Twitter was full of observations about the evening.

Most people just couldn't get over the fact that Arie was able to win Lauren's father over so quickly. When the evening began, he seemed like he was going to be a tough sell, but it just took one single anecdote about Arie and other drivers visiting Iraq to hang out with the troops to win Lauren's dad over.

It was a little suspicious for Lauren's dad to be so easily convinced Arie is a good dude, wasn't it? And some people couldn't help but pick up how intent Lauren's whole family was on the fact that Arie doesn't play golf, despite the fact that he lives in Scottsdale, the apparent world capital of the sport.

And even though Lauren's dad didn't take long to fall in love with Arie, her mom was another story. No matter how much she talked to either of them, she just didn't seem convinced that this relationship between them was going to work — if Arie ends up choosing her at the end of this thing, anyway. Whether she was addressing her concerns with Lauren or grilling Arie on basically every detail on his life, it didn't seem like she was going to be sold on the idea that her daughter found love on a reality show.

But most of all, what was really confusing was the fact that Lauren and Arie apparently have this earth shattering, life-changing connection with each other, but it's not something that we've really seen on the show this season. Unfortunately, they haven't had too many real conversations on the parts of the show the show has let us see, so that's led to a lot of tweets like these:

Regardless of what's been captured on screen, it seems like Lauren and Arie have a pretty deep connection — awkward hometown date or not. Obviously, that's the goal at the end of this whole thing, right? And fortunately, it's not like Arie left the date worried about his future with Lauren — or with her family chasing after him with pitchforks. So mission accomplished, right?

It was awkward, and Bachelor fans noticed, but that doesn't matter when it comes to whatever Lauren and Arie see in each other. Here's hoping that we finally get to find out where all this chemistry came from during the next episode.