by Gina Scarpa

Hometown dates are always unpredictable on The Bachelor, and surely a great source of stress for the man that has to win over four sets of parents. Sean started off in Houston with AshLee, who has parents just as sweet and loving as she is. Of course, they're concerned he'll break her heart and the girl already has abandonment issues but he doesn't seem close to ready to letting go of her yet. In Seattle, Catherine's sisters seemingly try to convince Sean that she's not a good fit for him. It's irrelevant anyway, since she has the lowest chance of being proposed to on finale night. In Missouri, Sean faces Lindsay's military father, who ends up being a lot less scary than he imagined and even gives permission for the guy to propose!

Things aren't going poorly for Sean at all until he reaches Los Angeles to see Desiree. She starts off with a practical joke, hiring an actor to play a jealous ex-boyfriend to hijack their date. Being a little prankster himself, Sean took it well but he's a bit gullible, don't you think? It didn't seem for one second that this was a legitimate relationship and felt very scripted. Unfortunately for Sean, the worst was yet to come.

Chris Harrison revealed in his blog that Des and her brother Nate had had a conversation earlier that day, where he seemed completely supportive of her relationship with Sean. Things changed though, quickly and dramatically, when the two men sat down. Sean was accused of not having genuine feelings for Des and being a playboy. The mood afterwards was so tense that her parents could do nothing more to ease the feeling in the room by talking about the weather. Even after Sean left, the whole family turned on Nate, saying he was way off when it came to Sean. Now, Desiree defending him I can understand but really, parents? You don't even know the guy and granted, Nate shouldn't have been as harsh as he was, but can we blame a guy for having legitimate concerns about what happens to his sister?

Despite the fact that Desiree pulled Sean aside at the rose ceremony prior to him handing anything out, it wasn't enough to reel him back in. Perhaps Nate ended up doing Desiree a favor, seeing as how hardly any relationships work out on The Bachelor. And don't you just love how typically, The Bachelor gets rid of anyone who questions him or has a hard time believing his intentions are true? What do you think that's about?

Tune in to a special episode of The Bachelor tonight at 8/7c on ABC.

(Image courtesy of ABC)

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