['The Bachelor' - 'Season 15, Episode 6']

This week on 'Fear Factor' ... Oops, wrong competition. Or is it?

We expect houses on reality shows to be bugged as par for the course, but after Alli's hysterical (in both senses of the word) reactions to the two insects that laid siege to the house this week, I'm half convinced that 'The Bachelor' producers have a box of creepy crawlers to release whenever there's a lull in activity in the house.

The phobias were out in full force again this week, as Jackie was confronted with her "deathly" fear of heights, and Alli came face-to-face with both spiders and bats on her awkward one-on-one with Brad. There has to be a snake phobia that 'The Bachelor' can exploit in someone next week, right?

Also out in full force: Michelle's craziness, which grows more potent and glassy-eyed each week. From hoping that Chantal would get "attacked by monkeys ... or apes," to appearing at Brad's door in the middle of the night, cloaked in shadow like a serial killer, the woman committed a whole host of restraining order-worthy offenses to add to the growing list.



As Michelle's arch-nemesis Chantal pointed out, it seems like she's more concerned with winning some kind of competition than actually feeling any of the emotions that are supposed to be emerging at this stage of the game. She's all for hitting Brad and making out with him when he attempts to think too much, but when it comes to forging an actual connection with him, the spark (much like her sanity) is sadly absent.

It's still baffling to me that Brad could think that Chantal was "dramatic," while Michelle apparently seems completely normal to him -- although after Michelle's attempts to destabilize his relationships with the other girls this week, I think our Bachelor is finally starting to see the light (it's on, but nobody's home).

Brad and Chantal's second one-on-one was cute and followed their tradition of being rained on. They also saw a monkey, but it failed to attack her -- bad monkey! Or was it an ape? Someone call Michelle, stat!

Chantal remarked that it was nice to see Brad on the fly, and their spontaneous trip back to his room when the rain set in was obviously an excellent decision for both of them, since it enabled Brad to gallantly offer Chantal one of his shirts, and for Chantal to prance seductively around in it and render Brad completely incoherent. We're all for Brad giving his shirt to people, but it's far more fun when he's actually taking it off his back to do so. (Luckily, shirtless Brad made a welcome return later at the hot springs -- leading to a case of waaaaay TMI from Michelle. Yuck.)

Regardless of what else anyone might think of Chantal, it was clear on their evening date that her feelings for Brad were real -- she was giggling and blushing like a teenager, and although she's prone to interrupting and waffling on while Brad's trying to impart some studly wisdom or talk about his extensive therapy, or whatever, I did believe her when she admitted that she'd fallen in love with him. She's far more vocal and demonstrative about those feelings than perhaps any of the other women (aside from maybe Ashley), and I found myself kind of rooting for her after this episode.

Alli, on the other hand, was tragic. Not only did Brad drag the poor girl into a cold, spooky cave (talk about being short-changed, especially after Shawntel's shopping spree and Jackie's ballgown and spa date) for an underwhelming picnic, she then suffered the indignity of completely misreading Brad's signals during dinner, declaring how much she cared about him just as he was trying to work up the nerve to send her home. To Brad's credit, he did let her down gently.

The group date was a total downer, too, with Michelle trying her puppetmaster routine on Brad in the hot springs, and Emily scaring him by admitting that she always sabotages her relationships just when they start getting meaningful. Hearing Alli shrieking about a beetle probably didn't do much for the romantic atmosphere, either. I did applaud Brad's decision not to give out a rose, as all of the girls were kind of terrifying (except Ashley, who was oddly quiet this week) and I respected his decision to wait and reflect on who deserved it.

Of course, he chose wrong, since he decided to send home the perfectly lovely Jackie instead of Michelle. I'm hoping Chantal will take off her earrings and have a throwdown with our resident nutbar before the season is out.

'The Bachelor' airs Mondays, 8PM ET on ABC.

What did you think of this week's 'Bachelor'? Are you surprised that Brad has kept Michelle around this long? Did anyone else predict that Britt would be the one sent home instead of Jackie? Share your thoughts below!

Follow Laura on Twitter: @LauinLA.

Watch the full episode here: