This ‘Bachelor’ contestant wanted to leave after Joey did what all Bachelors do

It never fails. Another season of The Bachelor, and another contestant deciding that it’s too difficult to stick around and watch the person they’ve fallen for date other contestants. It’s almost as if no one who ever gets selected for The Bachelor has ever watched the show before.

For season 28, our latest person victimized by this horrible condition is named Maria Georgas. She fell for bachelor Joey, but was taken aback to see him kiss Jenn. Shocking! So, Maria decided that Joey meeting her family — which is the next step in the process — would be too strange if he wasn’t in an exclusive relationship with her. Yes, it would normally be, but this is a television show you’re on, and that’s normal for this show.

So, what does she do? She unwisely expresses all of this to Joey, and implies that she should leave. Joey, who is really into Maria, seemed surprised but slightly perturbed, which is understandable because it’s as if she cannot accept how the show works.

After an emotional moment alone, Maria changed her mind and told Joey she’s just scared. To his credit, he was understanding, but he also couldn’t help but see that she is somewhat inconsistent. He also expressed being scared, but it’s because she found it so easy to decide to leave, even though she changed her mind. He further expressed that he doesn’t want to ask someone to marry him who finds it so easy to suddenly decide to say goodbye.

Joey later expressed feeling conflicted, which he wouldn’t have had Maria not mentioned her misgivings, and was better able to handle her emotions. The irony of this happening to Maria is that she was pulled into unnecessary drama about age earlier in the season. When 31-year old Madina expressed feeling “too old,” Maria commented to someone else that she isn’t old at all. Sounds like a good thing, but it was taken the wrong way. Yet, here she is, one of the three oldest to be on the show this season — she’s 29 and most of the women are 25 — yet she is the one showing emotional immaturity in this particular moment.

Past seasons have taught us that if any point a contestant voices not wanting to stay until the end of the show, then — even if they change their mind — they likely won’t last. Maria did herself a disservice, considering she has lasted this long, by putting the seeds of doubt in Joey’s mind. It’s not the first time this season that one of the contestants has made a questionable decision to leave.

She later told the other women, “I told Joey I was contemplating leaving, and I regret that.”

At the following rose ceremony, Joey started it by asking to speak with Maria alone. He needed clarity. Clearly, he was considering sending her home, but she assured him that the way she reacted was due to having true feelings for him. It was just enough for him to give her a rose, and grant her a place in The Bachelor version of the final four, but it seems more likely that it’s just the beginning of the end for any real chance that Maria has to triumph as Joey’s chosen one.