The Golden Bachelorette is down to the wire, and with only the finale (and Men Tell All) remaining, Joan has never felt more confused about the journey ahead.
The 61-year-old leading lady left Hometown Week feeling hopeful about her final three men: Guy Gansert, Chock Chapple, and Pascal Ibgui. But during Fantasy Suite Week, her sense of security was shattered, her confidence was shaken, and the fears she had at the start of the season returned in full force.
After Joan traveled to Tahiti for intimate one-on-one time and life-changing overnight dates with her Top Three, the episode concluded with her in tears and only two men remaining — despite no rose ceremony…
At the start of Fantasy Suite Week, Joan admitted she could picture a future with all three men, so who went home on The Golden Bachelorette Episode 7? Who broke Joan’s heart during Fantasy Suite Week? And who’s moving on to the finale?
Decider’s Golden Bachelorette Episode 7 recap has all the answers. Time to set sail!
From an airport in Los Angeles to Moorea, The Islands of Tahiti, Joan traveled to “paradise” to kick off the final stretch of her search to find love. The group spent the week on the luxurious Star Breeze cruise ship, but before the dates began, Joan got a visit from an old Golden Bachelor gal: Nancy Hulkower. In addition to dating Joan’s ex Gerry Turner, the Golden Bachelor alum and retired interior designer from Alexandria, Virginia, also lost her husband, so the two had a much-needed heart-to-heart.
Joan called Guy “an amazing human being” who really takes care of her, saying, “We have a lot of fun. It’s been a slow smolder. He makes me feel wonderful. I can picture a life with him.” Pascal “lives life big. And the thing about him is John lived like that,” Joan explained, praising Pascal’s love of adventure, fun, and confidence. Last but not least, Joan said Chock makes her “feel safe and sexy.” (Also, he’s a great kisser.) The only red flag? She fears he may be too good to be true.
With overnight dates ahead, Joan channeled her inner Zach Shallcross and decided she wanted to save physical intimacy for her final guy, so time in the Fantasy Suites would be used solely to strengthen emotional intimacy. “My biggest hope is that my heart and my head come together and I pick the person that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with,” Joan told cameras. Without further ado, let’s dive into the dates!
First up? A smitten Guy who “could see this going all the way.” Going into the date, Joan wanted to make sure she could catch up to Guy’s feelings for her, and after a day on the yacht, popping champagne and reminiscing on their successful Hometown date, Guy admitted he was “mesmerized” by Joan and assured her he’d fallen for her. The two shared deep thoughts, snorkeled with sea life, and by the time Joan got out of the water, her feelings for Guy were right where she needed them to be.
Going into dinner, Joan was confident Guy would be a great partner and said she could “vividly” picture them together. He respected her sex-free Fantasy Suites decision and happily accepted the invite, so the two headed to a bungalow strengthen their emotional connection behind closed doors.
“After last night and waking up this morning, I feel absolutely great. I absolutely feel like I got everything I needed. I got intimacy on an emotional level. It was a very good night,” Guy said the next morning. “I’m falling in love with Joan, and having an evening like we had last night, I could easily see that for the rest of our lives. It would be just as magical — and maybe even more magical. I feel good about things.”
Ahead of Chock’s Fantasy Suite date with Joan, the Golden Bachelorette frontrunner sat down with Jesse Palmer, admitted “I’m in love with her,” and confirmed he was “heavily invested” in the outcome of the journey. He also told Jesse that getting sent home this late in the game would be “devastating” — especially since he hoped it would end in an engagement.
The two met up to explore Moorea by ATV, and the time together made Joan realize how much she missed Chock. Once the ATV started whipping, she let loose and enjoyed the ride, saying, “When it comes to love, I take it slow. I’m very methodical and thoughtful about what I do, but today I loved going fast in the ATV with Chock.” After the two pulled over, sipped champagne, and smooched a bit, they met back up on a boat for dinner and deeper conversation.
Chock reiterated that he’s crazy about Joan and feels “overconfident” about their connection. “I don’t want to be cocky, but I felt that we were the right couple from Day 1. I was awestruck when I stepped out of the limo… I’ve grown to appreciate you and to really love you more,” he explained. Joan said she felt like she knew Chock “for a year” on their one-on-one to Disneyland, and thee Fantasy Suite invite was offered and accepted. Chock was “perfectly OK with” Joan’s emotional intimacy boundary, and the two toasted to private time before closing the door.
In the morning, Chock wrote in his journal about his “beautiful night” with Joan. “I’m tired, but I’ve just got a smile on my face. What a great evening. We had champagne, we had a big comfy couch, and I had Joan there,” Chock explained. “What did we do? That’s between Joan and myself. If she wants to talk about it, she can, but, my lips are sealed. And that’s the beauty of the Fantasy Suites, is just between two adults, but we had a great time. It was everything I expected and more.” (Do we sense some Zach Shallcross vibes, or are you just being coy, Chock?)
Ahead of the final Fantasy Suite date, Pascal also met with Jesse to talk through his reservations and the fear that he might not be able to match Joan’s feelings in time for an engagement. “I’ll be very honest with you. I was very much in love with a woman about a year ago. I was almost engaged…We had that fire in us, you know? We’d look at each other, and we knew we had what it takes. We we had two years of wonderful experiences, and then that start changing,” Pascal said. “We break up once, and we went back together. We break up twice, and went back together. The third time we break up, and I said, ‘It’s done. We can’t keep doing that’…and I decided to move on. She’s still there. Like John lost her husband, I’m sure he’s still there. She would never not love him.”
“I definitely want to move on, but I’m having a tough time,” Pascal said. “I’m at the stage where I’m trying to rebuild. From the outside, I look all fun and funny all the time… but I’m hurting. It’s hard to open up. I come from a fucked up background, you know? My childhood has been very difficult…people look at me with my fancy car, my fancy clothes, and my French accent and lifestyle, and they say, ‘Oh, God. This guy!’ They don’t know where I come from. They have no idea.”
Pascal told Jesse he believed he’d be able to move on from the heartbreak if he found the right person, which is why the date with Joan was so important. On Joan’s end, she hoped Pascal would let his walls down a bit more so he could meet her family next week. (Essentially confirming a Top 2 spot would be in his future!) The two met up and watched La Ora Na, a Tahitian welcoming ceremony, before enjoying a Tahitian feast and learning more about the culture. Pascal was speaking French, laughing, and feeling comfortable in the casual setting — then the traditional Tahitian bonding ceremony changed everything.
The ceremony required Pascal and Joan to get serious and vulnerable about their past, present, and future — something Pascal definitely wasn’t ready for as his head was swirling with doubt. As the two waded in the water and tried to cleanse each other’s fears, The Golden Bachelorette showed Pascal stressing in confessionals, while Joan was on Cloud Nine. “I’m amazed at how vulnerable and comfortable I am with Pascal,” she said. “I thought about this journey before I came on it, and I wasn’t going to say I love somebody until I was literally at the end of this process. But now I’m at the end of this journey, and my heart is completely open.'”
Pascal left the ceremony “a little confused” and in desperate need of a conversation with Joan. “I thought we’d have something more casual — just being silly, being kids again — not something where we have to talk about our feelings,” he told cameras. “I wasn’t ready for that. I appreciate the thought behind it, and I did my very best to to show her who I am. But my wall is still up, and I’m guarded. I’m scared, and I’m not ready. I’m not ready for that. I’m not — I’m not ready.” Yikes.
Heading into dinner, the two were on vastly different pages. Joan kicked things off by telling Pascal how good she felt about their relationship, and Pascal started by reminding her that he was “very much in love with someone last year.” (Uh oh.) When his daughter signed him up for The Golden Bachelorette, he explained, he didn’t think he’d last that long because the competition was so fierce and he’s “a lover, not a fighter.” Before he continued, Pascal paused to ask Joan why — out of her 24 guys — she kept him around. She said that although she’s not looking for a replacement, he reminded her a lot of her late husband, who lived life big and made her feel like anything was possible. Joan said Pascal checked “a million boxes” and had an exciting zest for life, which made what happened next all the more heartbreaking…
In response to Joan’s kind words, Pascal told her where he was at, admitting, “Today I got scared in the ritual, because I’m having a very difficult time to let go.”
“I care very much about you, and the last thing I wanted to do is to hurt you, and I just don’t think I could get at the place where you want me to be,” he continued. “I’m having a very difficult time, because I know what love is. I’ve experienced it. You’ve experienced it. And I care about you as a friend, but I’m not in love. And I just can’t be there, and it’s hurting me, because we’re having a good time together. We laugh, we seem like we connect, but I need that spark, and I just don’t have it. I’m sorry. I thought I could move forward, and I’m just — I’m not ready.”
A disappointed Joan told Pascal, “I don’t want a broken heart at the end of this. And if you’re not ready, it’s one thing. If you’re never going to be ready, that’s a different thing… It’s OK. I wish you were ready, but if you’re not, you’re not. And I can’t force that.”
Pascal apologized again, assuring Joan that he cared very much about her. She said she would be OK, which hurt him even more. “I know it’s not OK. When you get hurt, you try to overcome it by saying, ‘Oh, I’m OK. It’s OK,’ to try to protect yourself. But I could see it, I could feel it — the way she was holding my hand, I know she was not OK,” he said. “I’m not OK. I’m not OK! I hate to hurt people. I’m hurt right now. I’m hurt and I’ve heard her, and I feel terrible about that.”
As Joan processed the unexpected breakup, she asked Pascal if they could walk out together, which is when he told cameras to “get away” from them. He hugged Joan tight, told her to be safe, take care of herself, and remember that he’s only a phone call away. After an emotional parting, Joan broke down for cameras, admitting, “That’s not how I pictured this going. But life has a funny way of doing that to you — not turning out how you thought it was… If I’m gonna be honest, it hurts the way he said it. When he said, ‘I know what true love is, and I don’t feel that for you,’ it made me know that he knew how to love, and he just couldn’t — I wasn’t lovable.”
While Pascal hopped on a boat to shore, Joan retreated to her room and started second guessing everything. “It’s hard to be vulnerable again once you’ve been hurt, so the walls are up again, and I feel like a failure. I had, gradually along this journey, started feeling more and more hopeful,” she said. “Now my hope is down to nothing. I had 24 people here in the beginning. I’m down to the last three, and I might end up with nobody…Will anybody love me feel now? It just makes me feel like I’m unlovable.”
Just to recap: Ahead of The Golden Bachelorette finale, there was no rose ceremony, Pascal self-eliminated, and Joan felt more uncertain in her journey than ever. So what’s next? Pascal and other fan-favorite Golden Guys will reflect on their Golden Bachelorette journey during the Men Tell All event.
New episodes of The Golden Bachelorette premiere Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.