Bachelorette - Reality bites

Today's isn't as funny, with 2 hours worth of show to talk about it's tough to cover everything.

I find myself in a little bit of a problem writing this blog this morning. The normal side of me wants to just tear into the show once again, because I find enjoyment out of that sort of thing. But the other half of me was struck last night by a feeling of sympathy for poor old Ashley. I mean let's face it, there is TONS of things that could be pulled from the episode last night that would constitute as funny, but now it might just be mean. At the end of the show last night it was hard not to feel bad for her, and that's when we realized that you know what, it's finally become a reality TV show.

But Adam, it's always been a reality show. Right... Last night was interesting because Ashley was completely blown away by how the guys rejected her explanation about Bentley, and that was when it all became real. At that moment, and after watching the show for a couple years with my wife, that was the first time that it really looked like the emotions were 100% genuine. It just always seemed in the past that the emotions were manufactured to a good extent by the situations and the editing, heck even Ashley's feelings for Bentley didn't seem altogether real, and we know where he stood on the whole thing. So watching the guys blow up in her face and her breaking down into tears was refreshing to me, here was reality TV where people actually got hurt by each others actions. Not like getting mad on Survivor that someone betrayed your alliance, "uh duh they're trying to win too, it was only a matter of time" or Keeping up with the Kardassians, "My butt is so big, it's soo hard to be rich and famous for no reason, and then to have people only look at my butt after making a sex tape. It's just soo hard and people don't understand" type of reality.

(Of course Amazing Race is still the best in my opinion, you can't fake a crappy taxi ride in India. Man I'd love to go on that show.)

So with all of that being said, how on Earth can I possibly rip on Ashley and her stripper platform heels? Maybe I'll just have to write this and then come back months later after everyone reads it and sees that I'm going soft and then re-edit in some footage, er I mean text so that I won't look like a tool. If only I knew where to find an example of that type of clever clean up... Oh I know... Last night...

During the first 5 minutes of the show you had Ashley doing a voice over which basically made her sound a lot tougher about the whole Bentley thing than she did last week. I mean ABC would never go back and rework the episode a little bit to make Ashley look a little better now would they??? It's not on the level of Han shooting first, but it's kind of funny that they might do it.

(As for the Han shot first reference, in the original Star Wars, Han Solo is confronted with a bounty hunter in the cantina. When the alien [Geedo] says that he's going to turn him in to Jaba for the bounty, Han shoots and kills him. In the re-editted versions that Lucas has since put out, the movie has been editted so that Greedo shoots at Han and misses and then Han shoots in retaliation. To make it look like Han is a better hero or something.)

Oh sorry I got off on a major tangent there.

So after typing for the last 20 minutes talking about everything except the show, let's talk about the show. Ashley after a night of rewirtting history meets up with Chris in the CONRAD hotel (thank you ABC, if I ever travel to Hong Kong I will make sure that I stay there) at which time Chris tells Ashley that Bentley is there in the hotel. Ashley quickly tells Chris to "shut up". My wife would latter tell me that she wasn't really telling him to shut up, it was just an expression. I'll never understand women...

Anyway she makes her way up to his room, what I want to know is what was she really thinking at this point? Was she thinking that oh boy he came back for me, now we can go get married. Was she thinking, he's here so that I can finally get closure and move on with "the process"? I'm going with the whole narration at the beginning of the show was bullshit and that she wasn't looking for closure, she was really hoping that upon opening that door that he was going to rejoin the show.

So she knocks on the door and he answers, "Who is it?" Really? There is a freakin peep hole in the door you moron. Granted she's only like 4 feet tall, but come on. The conversation after that point is essentially more of him trying to lead her on and that once the show is over she should still come to Salt Lake to see him and see if it works out. At some point I'm guessing that ABC stepped in and told her off camera what he had really said to the cameras so that she would actually be pressed enough to get to the bottom of his crap. And good for Ashley, it really looked genuine where she realized what an idiot that she had been, you go girl! lol

Someone is probably asking, why did Bentley even come back on the show so that she could confront him? Two reasons, more fame, which will play out wonderfully when he is on Bachelor Pad, and the second they gave him a free trip to Hong Kong to stay for 5 days and 6 nights at the luxurious Conrad hotel, located in downtown Hong Kong. While there, he'll enjoy taking in the local cuisine, traveling to the legendary great wall, and, oh wait sorry I'm doing my commercial thing again... (dot dot dot, bastards ruined those for me).

On to date number 1, Lucas the oil man from shithole, I mean Odessa, Texas. Anyone else wonder if he played for the high school football team there? I hear it's a big thing there Friday nights, under the lights...

Fresh on the rebound we found our two lovebirds wondering the streets of Hong Kong in what is the theme this season of shopping in street markets. On the junk the two of them had what looked like a very odd romantic dinner where Lucas went on to tell Ashley about his ex and how that just didn't work out, yada yada yada. I really thought that she wasn't going to give him a rose, they just don't seem like a real couple. Ashley is a women with big city dreams and looks like she wants more than to be a dentist in Philadelphia. Lucas on the other hand is as Western Texas as you can get, he's small town, he works in an oil field, or something like that, seriously he's not too far from Jet and Cord from the Amazing Race last season. It's not an insult, he's just very different than her. But here he is being open and honest with her about his past, and hey he got a rose for it.

Now let's jump to the final part of the show, weren't we all expecting that Lucas was going to give that rose back to Ashley? I mean shouldn't he have? Here he was being open and honest with her and in return she's holding back telling him about what just happened with Bentley the day before. To make matters worse, she actually told JP on their one on one date a couple days later. If I'm Lucas, I'm out. If she feels that she can tell another man about what is going on and her emotions but can't tell me, then who is she closer to? Dude she just picked someone else over you. Sure you might have a rose, but if you know you're her second choice why stick around at that point?

Blaa Blaa Blaa Dragon boats and some filler crap...

Everyone hates Ryan, but Ryan gets the rose on the group date. Much to the ire of Blake, who can't see what she sees in him and why he should even be there if she had and interest in a guy like that.

The date with JP was the usual date, but he has to be the front runner at this point. She talked to him about Bentley and he didn't flip out. Of all the guys on the show, he's the one that I'm having a beer with, he's the most down to Earth. The only question with him that I can see with Ashley is, is he too much of a friend, does she see him more as a friend or a husband? Based on the previews that they showed for the coming weeks, I'm going to to guess that Ashley is soo screwed up that she won't know either and in trying to "protect herself" she'll send him home thinking that they don't have that romantic spark, only to realize her mistake later and want to bring him back. Makes for a great twist and it sure plays out like a Romantic Comedy if I've ever seen one.

(Plot of Romantic Comedy: Girl falls in love with guy, guy is not in love with girl and breaks her heart. Girl then rushes to her guy friend and tells him everything, all the while the guy is secretly crushing on her. Then girl finds a new guy that she is romantically interested in, but she is confused, most likely pushing the friend guy away at some point. Finally she realizes that she isn't really in love with the guy she thought she was, she's missing the guy she sent away. Eventually she sees the friend that she sent away and begs for him to give her another chance. At which time, he says that he always loved her and always will, they go get married and live happily ever after.)

So finally after all of my rambling, we get to the cocktail party... =D

Fresh off her amazing date with JP, Ashley feels that she now has the confidence to tell all of the guys about what was really going on with Bentley. Putting her best spin on it, she says that she now has closure and is ready to move on and is cheerful as ever. The music slowly fades away and the guys now start asking questions, more like ripping into her. The guys have every right to be pissed at her, and they let her know it. After she was led on by Bentley, she essentially led them on as well. Reason says you have to just get over it, in life it's not like you find one person and that is it you date many people and eventually find that right person. The show is an accelerated level of that process, do they have a right to be mad, yes, but take it for what it is. And that includes you Blake, man what an asshole.

It was interesting to see how all of the guys reacted.

Blake - Pissed off, jumped down her throat about it in frustration.
Ames - "I spent the night in a hospital and she thinking about another guy." - actual quote
Mickey - I'm out
Lucas - Just got hit with the freight truck of betrayal. Why didn't he leave? My guess is that his ex-wife cheated on him, so he's just holding on.
Ryan - Ryan was interesting, it didn't really seem to phase him. All of the other guys have a problem with him, but I'm actually coming back to the side that he might not be such a bad guy. He just took it in stride, was that being rational, or something else?
Others - Generally pissed off

Next week will be interesting to see how the guys respond to the news that Ashley had been thinking about another guy the whole time. It's very reasonable for all of them to abandon her as a result, but it's going to be the ones that are genuinely understanding that she should pick to be with. She seemed truly guilty for how she felt, but the guys will have to have their guard up now. Should be interesting, and interestingly enough, everything actually got real on reality TV.

I'm sure next week will let me down.