'Bachelor' Week 5 recap: Did Shanae convince Mizzou football alum Clayton Echard to keep her around?

Imagine what it must feel like to be "The Bachelor" star Clayton Echard.

You're sitting back, hopefully with your fiancé by your side, watching yourself be made to look like a fool. You realize you sent the wrong woman home — and that woman, Elizabeth, was essentially bullied out by another woman, Shanae, who you kept around because you didn't know Shanae made fun of Elizabeth's ADHD diagnosis.

(That or the producers told you to keep Shanae.)

This week should be all about redemption for Echard, whose unwillingness to truly deal with the toxicity that has crept into his show under the guise of blonde hair and fake apologies has lost him a lot of the audience's respect.

What happened last week?: Clayton Echard finds that every conflict is bigger in Texas

And he sees what people are saying — last week he tweeted about mental health right as the episode concluded — so why keep allowing this farce to continue? There are some truly likable personalities this season, from a playful former Olympian to an unapologetic jokester. Why not try to lean on them a bit, instead of latching onto a freaking shrimp? It's not even that there's chemistry with Shanae; their bar kiss last week felt more staged than "Dear Evan Hansen."

More: 5 things to know about Clayton Echard, former Mizzou football player

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I guess there's only one way to find out.

Let's dive in!

What happened on 'The Bachelor' this week?

We open with Susie, Jill and Rachel talking about how Shanae staying around felt like a turning point and how her presence makes it hard to form any real connections.

One-on-one date: Pleasure Pier adventures

Serene joins Clayton at the Pleasure Pier in Houston, and the two start off fast on a roller coaster. Must be a relief for Clayton to feel disoriented for fun, physical reasons and not because he's caught up in Hurricane Shanae. Clayton tells Shanae about his old job at Six Flags in his native Eureka, Missouri, The two share some ice cream and bond over their mutual joy at having uninterrupted time together.

Clayton opens up about how he feels they share a strong physical connection, but he wants to know if they can share something deeper.

After their day at the amusement park, the pair retreat for an intimate candlelit dinner. Serene opens up to Clayton about her past. She's suffered a lot of loss — including her grandmother two years ago and a younger cousin this year. The cousin's loss is still fresh. "Yeah, that's a lot," Clayton responds (he tried). She bursts into tears as she shares that she cherishes fireflies because they remind her of a happy memory with her cousin. It's easy to share with him, she says, because of his kindness, and thanks him for listening to her. Serene accepts the rose Clayton offers, they kiss and stare out a window.

Kiss counter: 5

The cocktail party

As the women all sit in awkward silence, Jill breaks it by telling Shanae how her actions have hurt her, with backup from Teddi. Clayton summons the winning team from last week's group date to get the full story about Shanae. They tell Clayton what happened as Lyndsey tells Shanae that she has a lot to make up for.

"This is a lot to take in," Clayton says before pulling Shanae aside. She says that she was just heated, and tired of having people point fingers at her. Clayton throws her a softball to apologize, and she does, in one of the worst apologies I have ever heard. Shanae emerges in tears and apologizes to the others, breathing weirdly hard the entire time. Genevieve does not buy it, clearly, but Marlena and Susie speak up and accept the apology. And right after that, she admits in a talking head that she deserves an Oscar for her performance and shares a long kiss with Clayton.

Good lord. I am about to yank my hair out of my head.

Time for me to weep as Shanae survives another week and I have to say goodbye to Sierra, Jill and Lyndsey. I hope Jill has a wonderful reunion with her cat, and I hope Sierra and Lyndsey have wonderful lives far away from Shanae.

"Don't be stupid," Sierra advises Clayton as Shanae brags about sending "another b---- home." Take note of that too, producers.

Kiss counter: 6

Solo date: 'The Bachelor' takes on Toronto, Canada

Clayton is thrilled to be in Canada, and hopes that the Shanae drama disappears — even though he kept Shanae around.

Gabby, who Clayton says took him by surprise with her humor and easygoing nature, joins Clayton on a walk through the city and helicopter ride. She tells him she's trying not to overthink things and reveals later to us that she feels like she's in a romantic movie around him. It's a breath of fresh air to watch these two just have fun together without the impending threat of actual crocodile Shanae coming to eat someone.

The pair return to Hotel Toronto for a beautiful dinner with the bright lights of the city in the background. Clayton loves who he becomes with Gabby, and how much fun they had together. In turn, Gabby takes the time she has to reveal that she battles a fear of receiving love from a past feeling of being undeserving. She reveals that her mom was very hot-and-cold with love and affection growing up. If her mom could stop loving her, then why couldn't anyone else?

She tells Clayton that she can't mend her relationship with her mother yet — but maybe someday, and that she's been moving forward with therapy. Yes, Gabby! Therapy rules!

Kiss counter: 9

Group date: A classic Bachelor roast

Marlena, Eliza, Hunter, Serene, Mara, Rachel, Susie, Teddi and Sarah are brought to comedian Russell Peters. It's time for a roast!

Marlena, to her credit, is a joy. She compares Shanae to a herpes outbreak, because she keeps coming back. Massive applause. And she's not the only one — just about everyone had jokes. Clayton, are your eyes open yet?

In other news, Sarah calls Mara a cougar, and then Mara calls her a 13-year-old. I'm chomping popcorn at this point — this drama is hilarious.

Clayton loves it, at least.

At the after party, Susie tells Clayton everything she likes about him. Later, he and Marlena have a great time reminiscing over her excellent comedy skills and she says she is all-in on building their relationship. Overall, Clayton looks to be back in his element now that he's no longer mediating war.

It's Rachel who get the rose, because she makes him feel safe with every interaction.

The kiss counter has reached 14 — as my friend Mark says, the man is catching kisses like Pokemon.

Kiss counter: 14

Two on one date: Genevieve vs. Shanae

Gabby, Susie and Rachel discuss how nervous they are for Genevieve.

There's a collective feeling that either Shanae or Genevieve will be going home after this date. Shanae has a plan — a full script for every reaction to Clayton, every fake smile to use around Genevieve.

Welcome to Niagara Falls, everyone. Time to get up close and personal with an imposing force of nature. Am I talking about the waterfall? You guess.

Back at the hotel, Susie admits that if he choses Shanae, she will take her own relationship less seriously. The others agree.

A lot hinges on the choice Clayton will make next week. I hope for the sake of my sanity and for his future relationships that he makes the right one.

Who didn't get a rose from Clayton Echard?

• Jill

• Sierra

• Lyndsey

What's next for Clayton?

Next week, we'll see how the two-on-one duel goes down, take a trip to Europe, and a lot of people burst into tears.

Also, at some point, Clayton will say, "I'm so broken." I knew this would happen.

When will Season 26, Episode 6 of 'The Bachelor' air?

The next episode of "The Bachelor" will air on Monday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. CT on ABC.

How do I stream 'The Bachelor' online?

You can watch it on fuboTV with a 7-day free trial, on Hulu + Live or through YouTube TV. If you have cable, you can also stream the show on abc.com/watch-live/abc or on the ABC app available on iPad, iPhone, Android, Roku, Chromecast, Samsung SmartTV or Kindle Fire.

Who is Clayton Echard?

Clayton Echard, vanilla incarnate, is a man who wants a family and white-picket-fence fantasy.

The former Missouri football player has lived quite the life. After going undrafted in 2016, he signed a free-agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks. He played in all four of Seattle's 2016 preseason games and made it past the first round of cuts. As NFL teams shaved down rosters to 53 active players, Echard was cut.

According to Echard's LinkedIn page, he's worked in sales for medical device company Stryker since July 2016. His first 18 months with the company were based in St. Louis, but he has been based in the Columbia area since January 2018.

But that's the boring stuff. Here's the stuff that actually matters:

• He feels really bad about keeping Shanae on the show, posting a Notes app apology to Elizabeth shortly after the previous episode aired.

• He thinks whispering is romantic.

• He met his best friend at Mizzou.

Thanks for following along. I'll be back next week, spending my Valentine's Day thanking my lucky stars that my partner is super OK with watching this show instead of going out on a date. In fact, I think he's ... excited? See you then, Bachelor Nation!

Gabriela Velasquez is a planning editor for the Springfield News-Leader and Columbia Daily Tribune, based out of Columbia, Mo. Follow her on Twitter at @not_gabriela.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 'Bachelor' Week 5 recap: Clayton Echard heads to Canada, gets closer to Gabby