Once again, it's time for us to take a look at the most recent episode of The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman, and decide who is right woman for Andy Baldwin to spend the rest of his life with.  We are all, of course, just the right people to make that decision because we've been able to watch at least about fifty minutes of edited footage.  How could we go wrong? 

Here are my picks for this week for Ring (the girl I think is the best match) and Fling (the girl who should have gone home but didn't).  Take a look and then weigh in with your own expert opinion!

RING

Once again, my pick for Andy: Tessa Horst. In addition to the positives I mentioned when she was my pick last week, there is a new one this week that Andy sort of alluded to himself. He mentioned that he took Tessa on a one-on-one date because there was an “aspect of the chase” with her. Which reminds me of some good old-fashioned dating advice: don’t play hard to get – BE hard to get.

Meaning: don’t be a manipulative or fake person who acts aloof and standoffish when you are not feeling that way. But do know your own worth and value as a person. And Tessa certainly seems to.

In this highly competitive environment, the need to get attention might drive a less secure woman to change her own style. While Tessa is warm, receptive, and playful with Andy, she has stuck to her guns about her own personal dating style, which might be a little more slow and steady than would be ideal for a show like The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman. She is open enough to tell Andy she is willing to take baby steps, but secure enough in herself and her value as a person ask for the slower pace that she needs. The fact that she, with her reserved style, continued to intrigue Andy despite there being more aggressive women in the house shows that he seems to appreciate her grounded sense of self as well.

And who do I think should have gone home?

FLING

Bevin Powers.

I realize this might seem an odd choice, because of all the women, it is clear that she and Andy have some serious chemistry.  But I guess I, again, return to some old-fashion dating advice: chemistry isn't necessarily always the best thing to go by.

It's clear Bevin is an interesting person and has some important traits in common with Andy, like her adventurous nature and athleticism. However – and, per usual, maybe this is all edited or the pressure of the show – her tendency towards melancholy or taking a glass-half-empty view seems at odds with Andy’s rather simple and sunny nature. She seems like a complex person and I wonder if maybe she would get bored with someone so straightforward as Andy.  And maybe he, in turn, would lose patience with her somewhat frequent mopey dramatics once the novelty of the physical connection has worn off.

Additionally, her hesitation to talk to Andy about her divorce doesn’t bode well. I do understand she hasn’t had an official one-on-one date on The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman, but she has spent solo time with him on several occasions, including their “quality alone time” up in his hotel suite. She might not have wanted to ruin their fun with that news, but now that she has left it to the family time, she has created a situation where Andy will be hard-pressed not to feel somewhat blind-sided. It’s one thing not to get into all your past relationships during casual one-on-one time, but on a show where the end of the season is an engagement, I think it’s reasonable to think she should have just broken off a clinch somewhere in there and just laid it out straight for him.

I know we have some Bevin fans here on the site, so if I am missing part of the story with her, let us know in the comments…there are always multiple ways to look at a situation – especially something as complex as matters of the heart! – so if you have some different perspectives on the ladies on The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman, let us know!

-Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

(Images courtesy of ABC)