'Bachelorette' instant reaction: Wrestling with some bad news

Ali began the episode by chirping to the camera, “I don’t think anything could go wrong at this point!” Which meant only one thing: Most. Dramatic. First 20 Minutes or So. Of The Bachelorette. Ever. It came as no surprise that some serious Justin stuff went down — we could tell that much from the teasers — but how it all went down was pretty much the reason we watch reality TV. You never know what’s going to happen (or who’s going to show up, or where producers will have cameras, or what audio tapes will be played, or how many places one can walk on hotel grounds to try to escape from cameras and accusations).

After all that, the rest of the trip to Turkey had a lot to live up to. And much of it didn’t, though there were plenty of hints of trouble to come. Ty put in a fairly typical date’s work — with one red-flag revelation. Frank continued his now-standard whining about having to share Ali with other guys while on a show that’s about her dating him and a bunch of other guys — while also making veiled references to never being “100 percent sure” about romantic choices. The group date involved olive-oil wrestling, which is really quite something, I must admit.

The full recap with all the specifics, including much more discussion of the Canadian phone call heard round the world, will be up soon (UPDATE: Click the link to read Jennifer Armstrong’s full Bachelorette recap), but if you’ve already watched and want to weigh in on Justin’s level of jerkdom or Chris’ recipe for grilled asparagus, read on after the jump for more. [SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you've already watched Monday's Bachelorette. Seriously.]

We were treated to some major Canadian revelations as the episode began with a Chris Harrison-aided phone call to none other than Jessie, a forgotten Bachelor contestant from last season, who then told Ali Justin had a girlfriend back home in Toronto. Whom he was still sneaking “I love you” phone calls to. Who was sitting right there next to Jessie. Her name was Jessica, and she spilled everything to Ali after hearing that he had yet another girlfriend: He’d planned to get to the Top 3 to get famous, then he would leave to marry Jessica and live happily ever after. The American Dream, 2010 style. Confronted about the situation, he walked right out of the hotel room and tried to keep walking, though Ali and the cameras wouldn’t let him. He tried to squirm out of the accusations but found little wiggle room. Ali summarized: “I came here to find a husband and you’re f—ing with that.” He left in shame to the soundtrack of the messages he left to Jessica while he was on the show, declaring his undying love and his intention to marry her.

No one could quite match that level of drama for the rest of the episode, though Ty tried to sneak in an admission that he’d split with his ex-wife because of his “traditional” values. He saved himself by explaining that he’d learned a lot since then — “women are presidents of companies, they’re CEOs” — and he got a rose, though Ali did admit she had “concerns.” The group date allowed Craig to finally win some one-on-one time via olive oil wrestling, but their alone time proved less than sparky. And Frank got his much-desired second one-on-one date, from which he emerged with both a new rug and a rose — even though he raised his own share of red flags.

Craig left in a decisive rose ceremony, no surprise. My full recap will be up soon, but let us know what you think now. What did you think of the Justin debacle? Who’s your current favorite? Do you wish she’d booted someone else? Should Frank really have bought that rug?