Death, taxes, and a Bachelor contestant bitterly complaining to the bachelor about another contestant; these are three guarantees in life that never fail to happen. This season, the third inevitability comes courtesy of Madina, Sydney, and Maria. Thanks, gals!
Nothing is more annoying for viewers of The Bachelor to have at least one plotline every single season be about an adult who cannot fix their own arising situation with another adult, and thus bring the drama to the person they are most trying to impress. It’s mind-boggling, immature, and almost unbelievable when you consider that these contestants — who are really suitors for the bachelor — have themselves witnessed this happen on previous seasons, and must know how bad this bellyaching looks — both to the object of their affection, and to the audience. These unnecessary conflicts rarely end well, and oftentimes do not make a good impression on the bachelor who, understandably, never ends up thinking, “Wow! That woman who took her time to complain to me about that other woman is a gem that I need to keep around.” To make this season’s version even worse, the drama involved a misunderstood statement about the extremely foolish question of whether a 31-year old is too old to date the 28-year old bachelor.
Don’t get me wrong, this happens almost every season on The Bachelorette also — and, quite honestly, the men who do this are significantly more absurd than the women — but it always happen on every season of The Bachelor. Both shows need this to change.
So, to spare us all from having to watch this happening again, to spare the bachelor from being forced to turn into a referee, and to spare the woman who believes it’s a good idea to complain about such things to the bachelor, here is a new rule suggestion that producers of this alleged looking-for-love show need to implement moving forward.
Keep in mind, I’m fully aware that the producers of the show love drama. They always have people who are just not good matches for the lead, but who can stir the pot with the other ladies. Drama sells. Even though they just finished airing the almost drama-free inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor, which had solid ratings and resulted in an actual marriage, which is rare for the other shows of the franchise, even though that should be the goal — producers decided that the new twist they should introduce to The Bachelor is a fairly cruel one.
They gave contestant Lea a date card, but instead of being a straight up date with bachelor Joey, it ended up being a sort of veto of another person’s date. More accurately, it gives her the power to take the place of a woman Joey is going to go on a date with. So, Lea can be the one on an exclusive date with Joey even if he chose someone else for that date. The card is good for one use only.
When Lea received this card, she was emotional for three reasons. Firstly, It wasn’t really a date card for her and Joey, but rather a sneaky way to go on a date with him later. Secondly, it meant that she had to be a bit cruel to use it. Thirdly — and crucially — using it would mean Lea is going against Joey’s wishes.
So, Lea wisely decided to always respect Joey’s decisions for who to take on which date and, despite some of the other women saying they would have used the card, she burned it in the fire, a powerful demonstration of her admirable intent.
It’s a shame that the show even introduces such twists, however. Instead, if producers really did have everyone’s best interests in mind, then they should introduce a rule that would likely prevent the women from complaining to the bachelor about each other. Of course, the rule could be that simple: No complaining! But maybe there’s even a better way to attack this issue.
The bachelor (and the bachelorette) should be allowed, on certain occasions, to view footage from the mansion that shows the true colors of those who are competing for them. Perhaps this doesn’t even need to be revealed to the suitors during the first season it’s used. The only issue with this is that other suitors in future seasons might pretend to be better people than they are, since they would know what they do on film can be seen by the bachelor.
Nonetheless, that might be a good thing. It has to be frustrating for the bachelor to see all of the footage only after he’s already made his decision to whom to propose. Why not let him see the footage before he makes that decision?
This rule wouldn’t necessarily eliminate someone complaining about someone else, but it would help reach a resolution immediately. Also, if the bachelor has continuous access to the footage, then there would be no real reason to complain, since he could see what’s happening. Also, the contestants could be more comfortable simply spending their respective time with him, without it being about someone else.
This rule would be highly entertaining the first time it’s introduced, since the women would be completely unaware. That alone should make producers happy to use the rule, and to observe how that rule evolves for future seasons would be interesting.
If producers do not use this rule, then I myself may start complaining. Clearly, I already have.
