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A dog park, Thor and Snowy: The 7 most memorable Bachelor and Bachelorette hometown visits.

 

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Each season of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette is different.

Sometimes our Bachies pick the right person and live happily ever after. Sometimes they… don’t. And sometimes they decide not to pick anyone at all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But there are always a few constants: Osher’s whispering, those hideous red champagne flutes, manufactured drama, and of course, home town visits for the final four.

Mamamia recaps The Bachelor. Post continues below audio.

This week we’ll see this year’s bachelor Matt Agnew visit the hometowns of his final four, so in honour of all the protective brothers, overbearing parents and fun best friends, we’ve taken a walk down memory lane to revisit the most memorable home visits of seasons gone.

1. The dog park.

During his hometown visit, Bill Goldsmith took bachelorette Ali Oetjen to his dog park which was… fine, until she then met his friend named Amy who he met at a dog park and was the subject of death stares for an entire dinner.

When Ali asked whether Bill and Amy had ever dated before, he said they hadn’t dated but they’d “been together”, which means they had definitely had sex at least seven times.

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As Ali said, “What part of him thought this would be a good idea?”

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Bill has 97 identical photos with other women at the dog park.

The dog park then became... a thing. It was mentioned approximately 12,000 times during Bill's appearance on Bachelor In Paradise, sparked very thorough investigations by media and has cemented its place in Australian Bachie history.

2. Olena's boxing father.

We're scared.
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We all remember that Bachelor moment when Richie Strahan sat, quietly terrified, while Olena Khamula’s father gave him the world’s most intimidating death stare.

Who could forget thinking that Richie may not actually make it out of the house alive once Andriy Khamula found out he had taken his daughter for a motorbike ride?

The Ukrainian ex-professional boxer gave Richie a grilling before taking him out for a boxing lesson and we could almost smell Richie's fear through our TV screens.

3. Britt's dad, Thor.

Protective fathers and scared bachelors makes for great TV.

This time, then Bachelor front-runner (lol, hindsight's 20/20) Brittany Hockley took the Honey Badger home to Port Macquarie to meet her parents, a.k.a the god and goddess of thunder.

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Thor became a feminist icon when he grilled Nick about how football players treat women.

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"I don't have a great deal of respect for football players in terms of their relationships with women," he said in what is definitely the wisest, most perceptive thing anyone has ever said on this show and that's including the time Nick said "Hooroo chitty chitty bang bang rabbits".

4. Charlie... that is not how the show works.

After some unnecessary paddle boarding to kick off his hometown date, Charlie Newling told Ali she wouldn't be meeting his family.

Sir. You do realise what the 'hometown date' episode is for, right?

You see, Charlie had a sneaking suspicion that Ali was seeing three other guys. He complained that that wasn't what he signed up for when he agreed to be on a dating show in which one woman dates multiple men at once.

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"I can't quite put my finger on it"
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Charlie told Ali she needed to go and think about whether she could be exclusive with him from that moment on and it became very obvious no one had explained the basic rules of this game to him.

Later at the cocktail party he told Ali what she was doing would be called "unfaithful" in the real world and... oh my god, who filled out his application?

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There was then some back and forth of Ali trying to explain the rules of the game to Charlie and Charlie not getting it, so she asked him to leave. Byeeee.

5. Brooke's best friend, the real MVP.

In another glorious example of the Honey Badger getting grilled, Brooke Blurton's best friend Tess, who honestly deserves her own TV show, quizzed Nick HARD during their hometown visit.

And in true Honey Badger, he took it on the chin, rolled with the punches and ended up addressing every one of Tess' concerns eloquently.

Nah, just kidding. It was more like:

honey badger
"I Badger."
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6. Heather's complicated situation.

Heather Maltman didn't have the picture-perfect family dynamic we often see on this show and was pretty nervous to take bachelor Sam Wood to her hometown.

Heather's father left when she was young, and he passed away not long after she reconnected with him at 18.

Recalling her childhood with her mum, she said: "There were days I went to school with no food, dirty uniforms and that whole bit [sic] because there was no food and no money to buy food.

"We moved over 16 times before I was 12 and that doesn’t include living in cars, caravans and sometimes, not even that, closer to being on the street like homeless."

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Warwick has the best side-eye we've ever seen.

When she took Sam home to Brisbane, he met her intimidating yet caring father-figure and mentor Warwick and Australia fell in love... only to be left crushed when Sam sent Heather packing at the next cocktail party.

7. National hero Snowy.

Nikki Gogan introduced Richie (and Australia) to her brother-in-law 'Snowy' on her hometown visit and we collectively decided to make him brother-in-law of the nation.

Snowy became a national icon after pulling Richie aside for a private talk, where he cut right to the chase asking "So is Nikki your number one choice or what?"

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Richie laughed a very nervous laugh and answered with a typically 'I'm contractually obliged not to tell you' response:

"Look, it's really tough, sorry, to be honest mate. I've built some incredible relationships with four beautiful women. There's differences with all of them. But mate, you can't fault them. And I can't fault Nikki, she's incredible."

Snowy then gave Richie some advice, while tending to his barbecue and sipping a beer, saying "You've gotta think of your worst day. Your worst day. And where they'll be. Don’t worry about all their fancy sh*t, and what they look like and all that. Just where you are, at the worst point in your life, and imagine them."

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Bless your wisdom and emotional intelligence, Snowy.

What are your most memorable Bachelor/Bachelorette hometown visits? Let us know in a comment.