I was not going to say anything about this week's episode of
The Bachelorette.
And then I saw, yesterday, that
The Bachelorette is in the Top 10 at #7 in the latest
Nielsen Ratings.
So, I guess I am not alone in finding this bizarre train wreck to be somewhat entertaining to watch.
This week Ashley and the boys were in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Beautiful town.
So, what does Ashley, I mean the show's producer's, come up with for us to watch? A group date where 8 of the boys train for hours in the Thai national sport of trying to kill someone via boxing and kicking.
After the training the boys are loaded on to a transit device. As they were being transported the boys were very nervous as to what was in store for them.
They got to some sort of square with a boxing ring. Soon the fighting was underway.
But before that happened the boys had to exchange their clothes for special boxing attire. This had Ames ending up in pink shorts, with matching pink shoes and pink boxing gloves. That is Ames bringing up the rear as the boxing boys head to the ring, in the picture above.
I don't know how it was chosen as to who fought who, but pink shorts Ames fought solar panel billionaire, Ryan P. Ames made it clear he had never been in a fight before. While the other boys made it sound as if getting in fights was a major pasttime for them. Ryan P. beat up Ames bad and won the bout.
Ames sat down looking dazed. All were concerned. Soon Ames was walked to an ambulance and hauled away to learn that Ryan P. had inflicted a minor concussion on him.
Side note on Ames. He is sort of goofy looking, til he talks. He is by far the most articulate of the boys.
Additional side note. Just like in the previous episode, in the latest episode, Ashley went on and on about Bentley.
Eventually the Bentley obsession led Ashley to telling Chris Harrison that she could barely function without getting some sort of closure regarding Bentley. I'm thinking to myself, he left the show, how much closure do you need?
Chris Harrison seemed a bit disgusted with Ashley for mucking up the patented process in this manner. But Harrison said he'd see what he could do.
Last week, in the previews we learned that Bentley was returning. And we were led to believe we would see that return in Monday's episode. That did not happen.
Instead, in the previews for next week, we see the same thing we did last week, except this time the door opens and there's Bentley. Who hugs. And maybe kisses Ashley.
Then, also in the previews, we see Ashley letting the boys know about the return of Bentley. This does not seem to sit too well with most of the boys. It appears much drama ensues.
Previously to the previews we'd seen Ashley take William and Ben C. on one of those dates were at least one boy is guaranteed a ticket home. And no rose. On this particular date neither boy got a rose.
Soon after the trio had floated up an elephant infested river, somewhere in Thailand, William took Ashley aside and informed her that the other guy on the date, Ben C., just was not all that in to her. That he had talked about the dating sites he was gonna get on as soon as he was released from his Ashley hell.
Ashley then marched over to Ben C. and banished him immediately, citing his crimes and giving the lawyer no chance to offer up a defense.
So, we have Ashley banishing Ben C., who seemed like a nice guy, banishing him without probable cause, while she remains smitten with Bentley, who she was warned about by Michelle Money. And who left the Ashley's husband hunt by choice.
After rejecting Ben C., Ashley and William continued on their date. William really had no chance to recover from the roast where he'd driven Ashley to tears by saying how upset he was to see he was stuck with Ashley when he was hoping for Emily or Chantall. And that Ashley needed a breast enlargement procedure. And that her forehead was too big.
After some stilted conversation Ashley decided there was no chance the chemistry with William would revive to Bentley level smittedness. And so she told William it was time for him to go.
William did not take being sent home too well. He informed us of what a living hell home was, how stupid he was, what a screw up he was, how his life was over, how he was 30 and never gonna lose his virginity now. That he was going to crawl back in his hole and pull his rock lid back over him.
If you were feeling bad for sad William, feel bad no longer. William has crawled out of his hole and is on
Bachelor Pad where he once more will have a chance to lose his virginity. Maybe Michelle Money might do him the favor?
Jumping back to the 'cocktail party' that followed the boxing match. All were remorse with worry about Ames. Then Ames showed up, still dazed, but still managing to be more articulate than any of the other boys when talking to Ashley.
I would have thought Ashley would have given the Sacred Rose to Ames that night, after the living hell she had put him through. But instead, for reasons that made no sense to me, she gave the Sacred Rose to a guy I did not even remember seeing before.
At the Main Sacred Rose Ceremony she made poor beat up Ames wait well into the rose dispensal before asking him if he would accept a Sacred Rose. In the end it was between solar panel billionaire, Ryan P., and Nick, the personal trainer, who seemed pretty bland, and with bad taste, what with one of those dumb looking "soul patches" under his lower lip.
It was Nick who did not get a rose. He did not seem to heartbroken about the rejection.
I can't imagine why the show's producers did not give Ashley closure regarding Bentley by simply showing her some of the tapes of Bentley saying she was not his type, that he's not into alien foreheads, that he wanted it to be Emily, that he's not even remotely attracted to her, that her body repulses him.
I guess it was cheaper to fly Bentley to Hong Kong, that being the location of next week's rivettng drama, than simply let Ashley see video evidencne of what a scummy scumbag Bentley is.
Maybe the producers and Chris Harrison did not think of that solution to Ashley's Bentley closure needs.....
The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for June 15 - June 21. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie.
