Jersey Shore widow brings 'Golden Bachelor' to Shrewsbury, but show ends on cliffhanger
The New Jersey grandmother on the "Golden Bachelor" brought widower Gerry Turner to Shrewsbury in tonight's episode, hoping her family would fall in love with him, as she has.
Spoiler alert: The family was smitten.
And by the end of their "hometown date," kissing on the Casino Pier's ferris wheel in Seaside Heights, Theresa told him: "I am in love with you, I can't picture my life without you now."
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The show started near Shrewsbury, as the first shot of the Jersey Shore showed the quaint Broadwalk in Red Bank. Nothing appeared to be filmed downtown; most of the show centered on a neighborhood where Theresa's daughter lives. Waiting at the house were two sisters, daughter Jen, her husband and three grandchildren.
Turner, 72, and Theresa, 70, told the family about their first shocking meeting, laughing at how Theresa fooled him into believing she was naked under a bathrobe she was wearing the initial night. They sat close, leaning into one another.
"They look smitten, really good energy between them," her daughter, Jen, said. "I'm hopeful, very hopeful."
Hopeful but, like many on the show, a tragedy preceded all of these warm feelings, and that weight is ever-present. Jen's late father was Theresa's husband for 42 years.
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"Here they are, with a chance to do this again, in a totally different way though. It's not replacing the spouses that they had, for sure, 'cause you can't," Jen said, overcome with emotion. "It doesn't change how much love we had for my dad, you know."
It was an emotional episode, each family protective of the woman in their lives who had fallen in love with Turner. At each hometown date, he admitted he loved the women, all three of them.
The lightest moments of the episode revolved around the women's grandchildren, impatient in their own ways for their grandmothers to find love, questioning his intentions, courageous enough to be bold.
One of Theresa's grandsons said, "I think that you should be the new papa for us."
The episode ended on a cliffhanger, as Turner chose Leslie with the first rose and, crying, placed the final rose back on the table and walked away, leaving Theresa and Faith hanging.
We'll find out next week whether our Jersey girl makes it to the finale.
The "Golden Bachelor" airs at 8 p.m. Thursday on ABC.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Who wins the Golden Bachelor 2023 finale? How old is Theresa?
