‘The Bachelor’ recap: Front-runner takes home Ben’s final rose
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Well, that’s all she wrote, folks.
As most of “The Bachelor” nation predicted, Courtney Robertson walked away with Ben Flajnik’s final rose on Monday’s night season finale. We all know what went down -- Lindzi got rejected, showed no emotion, Courtney showed up in evil black gloves and scored a Neil Lane ring -- so I’m gonna spare everyone a play-by-play. Instead, here are some final thoughts on good ol’ Benji’s trek down “Bachelor” lane:
The moral of the story? The pretty girl always wins. I wish I could say this season of “The Bachelor” warmed my jaded heart, but truthfully, it only strengthened my belief in the deepest of bad stereotypes about men. As Ben told me in an interview a few weeks ago, he purposefully requested no “models or hair and makeup people” be cast on his season. When Courtney was cast regardless of this mantra, he soon found there was more depth to her than he’d imagined a model might be able to carry. Listen, I’m not arguing with the fact that Ben and Courtney do share some weird sort of chemistry. They definitely seem genuinely into one another, and the moments when they nerd out together -- doing little dances or sledding together -- are admittedly adorable. But there’s no denying that Courtney was the most attractive woman on Ben’s season. And that automatically gave her a leg up, because Ben was willing to give her personality more of a shot. Not to mention how emotionally withholding and overtly sexual Courtney was throughout the season -- only making her further irresistible to Ben.
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This was the most poorly edited season of “The Bachelor” ever. There’s never been a season in which it’s so obvious who the final pick will be. The show played up Courtney’s malicious side so much, and meanwhile barely gave any air time to Lindzi. By the time Ben was down to his final two, I still felt as if I knew nothing about Lindzi. My lack of sympathy for her only deepened when her face didn’t move for the entirety of the five minutes during which Ben was rejecting her.
I’m tired of hearing the final couples complain that the press tore them apart. Courtney, the press ripped you to shreds because you were really mean to other girls on the show. And Ben’s whole attitude -- he tweeted “no more reality TV for me” late Monday night -- irks me. I wish he’d stop acting so put upon. Dude, you signed up for the show, you’re getting paid to travel around the world and date beautiful women: Life isn’t that bad. It made me deeply sad when he began to cry on the reunion special, re-watching his proposal from last November and that “beautiful moment has been soiled by all of this” negative press. Why should it? If that moment genuinely holds meaning for him and Courtney, why is he letting tabloids bother him so much?
I don’t think Courtney and Ben are going to work out. I know, duh. But I’m not just saying that because of the track record of the show. In a weird way, I kind of do think they work as a pair, and they seem to have deep love for one another. But the fact that the negative press rattled them so deeply doesn’t bode well. Courtney seemed so insecure about their relationship status. And Ben was less than eager to take Chris Harrison up on his offer to re-propose to her. It was just reminiscent of that “After the Final Rose” episode with Emily and Brad, who were already falling out of love and trying to keep it together. Not good.
But hey, speaking of Emily, she’s up next! Is it May, yet?
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--Amy Kaufman