The Bachelor – The Good, The Bad…The Ugly

The Bachelor

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Week 4

By Jakub Dulak

January 23, 2018

This week’s show begins The Bachelor’s World Tour, meaning Arie and the ladies will be traveling all over the globe on dates.  First stop, Nevada. How exotic.   OK, the location wasn’t the most exciting thing ever, but it did allow us to get to know more about one of the contestants that I’ve favored since the season premiere…that being Kendall. The quirky, creative taxidermy nut is one of the most colorful characters we’ve seen this season, and it was great watching her practically turn a group date into a solo date simply by being so comfortable in the outdoor element. Eating worms, hiking through the mountains, all of this seemed like a regular Tuesday in Kendall world.  What bothered me about this came after the date itself, when Kendall and Arie had some alone time. Kendall kept talking about how much she enjoyed the date, while the Kissing Bandit seemed to just nod, smile and wait to lock lips. It was clear he found Kendall attractive, but also clear he had no interest in carrying a conversation to explore her interests and quirks even deeper.  Shame Shame.   Also on the topic of group dates, can we all agree that the ladies squealing “ARIE!!!” as a mass choir is one of the cringe-worthy things ever? Yes?

Let’s talk about the queen of airtime this season, that being Krystal. You can just tell how much the producers love this girl. Every single time she opens her mouth to moan and complain about the other girls, it’s completely turned around on her. “These girls are so overbearingly obnoxious trying to be seen,” she would say after notoriously stealing extra time with Arie away from the other contestants. What’s even better is her absolute audacity to continuously victimize herself after blatantly stepping on everyone’s toes. And here’s the thing: I appreciate aggressive game play as much as the next guy, and as far as the “strategic” part of the Bachelor, I do see where Krystal is coming from. The issue is that she doesn’t own it. She doesn’t see herself as the villain that the rest of the cast (and clearly, the production team) all make her out to be. Sorry hon, but you can’t be the villain AND the victim at the same time. She’s like the living incarnation of Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do, not knowing who she is or being socially aware enough to see how she’s perceived.

The episode’s biggest moment arguably came when Bekah admitted she was only 22 years old to Arie. She knew it had the potential to get her sent home, and Arie’s reactions were…actually a little more mature than what I had anticipated.    I fully expected Arie to immediately exile Bekah, as he’s clearly terrified of getting burned by this competition yet again. Arie continuously said that Bekah has so many things to her that he looks for in a partner, and yet when the age bomb dropped, his demeanor shifted drastically. I do understand that he wants to settle down immediately after the show ends, but come on dude, the age difference shouldn’t make you fall into crisis mode. Arie recovers enough to find an excuse for himself to keep Bekah around, as he calls her a risk that he’d like to continue to explore. I mean, I don’t know if I would take that as a compliment if I were in Bekah’s shoes…but, a rose is a rose.

Before we finish up for the week, there’s one key moment from the rose ceremony that we NEED to talk about…that being Krystal stealing Arie away as the ceremony begins.  For context, Arie had openly said he didn’t want a cocktail party this evening.   So, why would he grant a private audience to Krystal or any of the other women for that matter?   I really do appreciate villainous game play, but this flat out wasn’t fair.  Fair play to Krystal for attempting it, but Arie allowing it was total B.S.   I don’t have the “Official Bachelor Rule Book” in front of me, but I’m pretty sure this was in a pretty gray moral area… Regardless, Krystal proved that she really does have our sensitive Bachelor wrapped all around her fingers, but I have a feeling that when she eventually does get knocked off her pedestal, it’s going to be oh so sweet.