If you're not bringing fleecey animal pajamas to The Bachelor fantasy suite, then you are not doing fantasy suite right, as Rachel Linsday proved on her Finnish winter getaway with Nick Viall. Rachel's penguin pajamas on The Bachelor immediately won Twitter's collective heart, which is a good sign since we already know she's the next Bachelorette.
Even though fantasy suites typically take place in some uber-tropical locale (the better to build up narrative sexual tension with lots of bikini time, my dear), this season, The Bachelor took Nick, Rachel, Raven, and Vanessa to Lapland, Finland for a destination date complete with mugs of warm beverages, ice baths (so they could still get the swimsuit shots in there), reindeer, and extremely adorable tiny cottages with huge windows over the bed for viewing the Northern Lights. Nick and Rachel seemed to enjoy an easy comfort on their overnight date, in spite of Rachel's understandable hesitation to say I love you. And while she may have packed away some killer lingerie that we didn't get the pleasure of seeing on camera, Rachel wasted no time busting out her cozy pajamas with penguins all over them. Oh, and did I mention it was a onesie? Unsurprisingly, Twitter fell deeply in love on the spot.
It takes a special kind of confidence to rock comfy PJs during your first sleepover with a new partner and Rachel pulled them off with no problem. Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that she pushed through her trepidation about opening up, Rachel also got sent home this week. Of course, we knew this was coming eventually, since Rachel was named The Bachelorette a few weeks ago. But it was still surprising, considering her connection with Nick seemed so strong. When she told him she was falling in love with him, Nick praised her for opening up, and said he was "falling for" her, too.
Obviously, this put Rachel in the awful position of getting dumped the moment she became vulnerable. At the same time, that lesson tends to be what makes someone a great Bachelor or Bachelorette in the future. The decision also seemed fraught for Nick, who genuinely seemed like he didn't know who he was sending home till the rose ceremony. He had no trouble sending women home after they said I love you when he knew right away that he didn't feel the same way. The fact that he returned Rachel's affection immediately seemed like he really thought they had a chance. It'll probably take some time for her to recover from the breakup, but hopefully, Rachel brings those onesie pajamas along with her next season when she's ready to get back in the game.
