‘The Golden Bachelor’ Episode 4 Recap: ‘It’s Hard Getting Older and Falling in Love’

The women’s competition got physical — and there were casualties

The great Golden Bachelor Pickleball Tournament in this episode upped the injury odds, but you can’t have Gerry without pickleball.

“Pickleball is so much fun, it’s part of my life — and whoever of us becomes a couple, that will be part of my life into the future and I hope you’re OK with that,” Gerry warned the contestants. “I get to play pickleball, and I get to spend quality time with my amazing women!” he added, sounding like a pasha praising his harem.

“I wonder why they call it pickleball — I don’t quite get that. It is a game and there is a ball. I don’t see the pickle,” said wedding officiant Susan, 66, reasonably.

Sandra, 75, a retired executive assistant from Doraville, Georgia.

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But if a peculiarly named sport was the key to Gerry’s thumping heart, these dames were game to play. Despite having two artificial knees, retired executive assistant Sandra, 75, skipped her daughter’s wedding to vie for Gerry’s affections on the pickleball court, and then in person — when he met her daughter and the groom via smartphone.

The first to fall — on the court, not for Gerry — was Florida therapist April, 65, who claimed to have twisted her ankle. But she winked at the audience — she faked it! — and her ploy paid off by arousing Gerry’s protective instincts. “I felt so bad for April because I had broken my ankle before,” said retired interior decorator Nancy, 60, “but hey, Gerry got to cozy up to her.”

Sandra’s knees held up just fine, but later, her stomach did not: Despite being lactose intolerant, she inadvisably joined the women in an ice cream feast and took to bed with a bellyache. 

Nancy, 60, a retired interior designer from Alexandria, Virginia.

John Fleenor/ABC

Nancy discovered it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing

When Nancy kissed Gerry in Episode 2, there was an alarming lack of apparent passion on her part, and he was thrown by her glumness (which was caused by the costume they had her wear, a wedding dress that reminded her of the day she married her late husband). This time, she told him, “You’re a lot more passionate with other people.”

“I’m really not going to dispute that,” he replied. So she was off the show even before the final rose ceremony.

When the other women wept to see her leave, we saw not the usual tears of disappointment or passion or anger, but guilt and what appeared to be genuine sorrow and sisterly solidarity. It’s not just the bachelor they’re starting to have deeper feelings for.

And at the other end of the passion spectrum …

“It’s hard getting older and falling in love,” said retired teacher Ellen, 71, who’s usually as bubbly as Nancy is melancholy. “The hardest part is my feelings that I haven’t had in so long being ignited, and that’s the part that’s scaring me. Because I actually didn’t think I could actually feel like this again.”

On their date, she confessed, “You brought out a spark in me that I didn’t realize how much I needed. I mean, I can’t remember the last time I felt this way, giggling, laughing, kissing, and I’m so happy — yet apprehensive.

“But I feel the need and the want to take a leap of faith and tell you because I don’t want to lose that opportunity that I haven’t had in innumerable years. I’m falling in love with you, Gerry, and it’s really hard!”

He told her what everybody longs to hear: “I feel your emotion. I’m in the same place.” Then he teared up and told the camera, “To hear her say the things that she just did, she makes me think back to the last time that happened … with my wife of 43 years.”

Kathy (left) and April, 65, a therapist from Port St. Lucie, Florida.

John Fleenor/ABC

Kathy’s spat with Theresa backfired, and April’s hurt-ankle plot failed

April may have deceived Gerry into comforting her for her nonexistent pickleball injury, but bottom line — she got no rose.

Kathy was prescient to have said that her ill will toward Theresa may have cost her. Despite praising her all-important pickleball skills, Gerry rejected her. She took the news jauntily. “Rejection’s not fun,” she said, then joked, “I mean, I might burn the house down before I leave!”

Still, she left the show with renewed romantic confidence. “I am who I am, and people either like me or they don’t. But look at this [she gestured at her own trim figure]. Who can say no to this?”