Bachelor 19 - Chris Soules - General Discussion - *Spoilers*

I would like to thank Ladybug82.
Very shortly, she will be doing some screencapping for us! So expect to start seeing some screencaps of last night's previews. 
Screencapping is very time consuming and it is so essential to sleuthing, so I was very happy when she so kindly and graciously offered. 
Screencaps will be found in the sticky Screencap Spoiler, no discussion thread.
link
Thank you so much, Ladybug82! 

If anyone has any specific requests, I guess the easiest and best way to request would be pm.

Kashathediva wrote:I would like to thank Ladybug82.
Very shortly, she will be doing some screencapping for us! So expect to start seeing some screencaps of last night's previews. 
Screencapping is very time consuming and it is so essential to sleuthing, so I was very happy when she so kindly and graciously offered. 
Screencaps will be found in the sticky Screencap Spoiler, no discussion thread.
link
Thank you so much, Ladybug82! 

If anyone has any specific requests, I guess the easiest and best way to request would be pm.

Wonderful. Thanks a bunch, Ladybug82!  

Thanks LadyBug. I've never sleuthed screencaps before but I'd like to watch and learn.

That is awesome…..thanks Ladybug!

Your welcome! I just posted a bunch of them and will most more throughout the day when I can.  Working on getting all ITM's, PI's, RC line up positions and previews, but if I miss something or there's something specific you want, feel free to pm me to let me know.

Ladybug82 wrote:Your welcome!  I just posted a bunch of them and will most more throughout the day when I can.  Working on getting all ITM's, PI's, RC line up positions and previews, but if I miss something or there's something specific you want, feel free to pm me to let me know.

Why couldn't a guy like the guy in your avi (Eastwood?) be The Bachelor?

He is quite attractive!

Ladybug82 wrote:Your welcome!  I just posted a bunch of them and will most more throughout the day when I can.  Working on getting all ITM's, PI's, RC line up positions and previews, but if I miss something or there's something specific you want, feel free to pm me to let me know.

Thanks so much Ladybug82. I have no skills in this area but realize it involves a lot of work. We all do enjoy seeing and analyzing these so what you are doing is much appreciated.

atem wrote:

Ladybug82 wrote:Your welcome!  I just posted a bunch of them and will most more throughout the day when I can.  Working on getting all ITM's, PI's, RC line up positions and previews, but if I miss something or there's something specific you want, feel free to pm me to let me know.

Why couldn't a guy like the guy in your avi (Eastwood?) be The Bachelor?  

You and me both, Atem. Btw: that is Charlie Hunnam. Nice looking bloke ;)

I started lurking here at the end of Andi's season and have avidly followed all of the lead up to Chris' season. I finally worked up the nerve to post for the first time.

First I have to say I am in AWE  of the sleuthing.  There are sleuthers on this board who seriously should consider a career in  forensic investigation- you would EXCEL  at it. I seriously think there are people that actually do forensic "sleuthing" for a living who could learn A LOT  about sleuthing from the sleuthers on this board. I have always enjoyed the CSI type TV shows and how they are able to follow the clues to find the answer- at least I did until I found this forum. Now those shows kinda bore me, because while generally well written, they are scripted.  I find the real life sleuthing here far more entertaining now. :cutesmile!:

Disclaimer: I could never figure out clues the way the sleuthers here do, so don't look to me for any brilliant sleuthing. I will be over in the cheering section applauding the amazing sleuthing done by others.

Warning: I tend to be long winded and since my impressions of this season have been building for months, this is not a short post.

Disclosure: I do read RS spoilers. I don't take them as gospel truth, nor do I automatically assume they are wrong.  For me, his F4 and F1 are a starting point, then I watch the season (and whatever pre season "news" I see) and see if it seems to me like the edit supports his spoilers.

Purely my thoughts, gut instincts, opinions on how I think this season will play out. Absolutely no disrespect intended for any with different opinions, and I kinda pride myself on being open minded to others challenging my opinions.

I did like Chris on Andi's season- thought he was overall sincere and genuine, and while I have no doubt he did his fair share of going along with the "role" TPTB wrote for him,  he wasn't outrageous and didn't do anything really embarrassing as we have seen so many contestants do over the  years. I found the secret admirer notes to be immature and school boy ish but have no doubt that was part of the storyline TPTB dictated.

IIRC Chris' sisters sent in his application to be on the Bachelorette. IMO, they sent in an application for him to be the Bachelor and TPTB saw a good future storyline with the whole wholesome, All American, very traditional gentleman, lonely farmer who needs a wife theme. But told Chris he had to audition first by doing a Bachelorette season. So he dutifully went along and followed the script as it wasn't really that bad- a little hokey at times but not anything like some of the humiliating villain or "certifiably crazy" edits we've seen. He was gracious when Andi sent him home- also per the script IMO but probably not too far astray from who he really is.

I believe Chris was attracted to Andi but I do not believe he fell in love. Whether or not you like Andi, (and I was pretty neutral about her), she is attractive and intelligent, and in  a different league than anyone he'd ever meet at the coffee shop in Arlington. So it was a fun adventure for Chris to get off the farm, travel the world, and get to "pursue" a woman unlike any woman he would ever meet much less date in Arlington. (I mean no disrespect to Arlington, just with a population of 400 or so, the choices have to be very limited).  I think Andi liked him, but I do not believe for one minute that anyone-Chris, Andi or TPTB - ever seriously thought Andi would pick Chris and pack up to move to  the farm.  I think it was scripted before the cameras started rolling that he would be F3 (the HTD with his family and farm life was an important part of the audition and setting up his storyline to be Bachelor). And as long as Andi got to pick who she wanted as her F1, she was happy to follow the script.

So Chris nails his audition and now he is the Bachelor.  I do think he is sincere in wanting to find a wife.  But for a man of 33, he seems awkward and naive about dating and relationships. I've read he had the one long term relationship with the woman he was engaged to who was his college sweetheart.  I don't know what other dating\relationship experience he has had but suspect it is very limited. He got engaged to his college sweetheart- a woman he met the first time he got off the farm and went into a bigger dating pool. That didn't work out for whatever reason, so he focuses on his career and turning the family farming empire into a more efficient, more profitable business and branches out into farm management\investment.

At some point he wakes up and realizes he is solid career and financial wise, but lonely, and the pickins are slim in terms of finding a wife in Arlington. In contrast to most of the other Bachelors who were from large cities and for whom it is ridiculous to believe they needed to go on this ridiculous show to find a wife\serious relationship, it does kinda make sense for Chris. I have a gut instinct that Chris was conflicted - loves his family and loves the farm but at least part of him wished he could leave the farm and go to a city (even like Des Moines - not too far away) but ultimately is too tied to his family\the farm enterprise to leave.  So since he has limited prospects to find a wife in Arlington, and even knowing TPTB will cast the requisite number of crazies and model\actress wannabees who will never move to the farm,  he figures why not take a chance that a few normal women who would actually be willing to move to the farm will slip past casting and get on the show.

The script to me for this season seems pretty clear- if you believe RS on the F4, its two wholesome women vs two... uhhh... let's just say, less than wholesome women. A spin on the good girl vs bad girl F2 from Jake's season. (They really need some new creative minds to work the show- it's like they have a limited inventory of story lines and they say "Hey, its been X number of seasons since we used  this script.  I think its been long enough that we can recycle it again. Get an intern to white out the names and we'll insert this season's cast and change a couple details so we can call it the "most romantic, dramatic season ever!").

So from the previews we see our wholesome farmer is going to be another kissing bandit, that a lot of model\actress wannabees that we could not in a million years see him bringing home to Mom and Dad will go far, and he seemingly will not be bypasssing any opportunity to make out with the "hot" women.  And his pristine wholesome image is going to get trashed by the "tent scandal" and whatever else he might have done that causes him to take responsibility, apologize, agonize, and beg the women for forgiveness and a second chance. I think the storyline that is being set up by the previews is a combination of the usual producer\editor manipulation and Chris deciding to take this opportunity to sow his wild oats.  While I do think Chris sincerely agreed to be the Bachelor to find a wife, he is IMO in WAY  over his head and I don't think his experience on Andi's season began to prepare him for what he was in for. It couldn't have been that hard to agree to follow  the script on Andi's season when his role was overall a positive and sympathetic role ( although I do think he should have grown a pair and refused to do the secret admirer notes). Plus, on Andi's season, he was one in a crowd.  Now as the lead, the script is a lot longer and complicated and he can't just blend in with the crowd- he has to carry the show. I'm sure the tent scandal and whatever other naughty deeds he did were pure producer manipulation, and I get that he was bordering on desperate to look for a wife outside the confines of Arlington and probably felt he had to follow the script so he could look for a normal woman who would actually come back to the farm, but shame on him for going along with that level of manipulation. ("hey, we haven't used the tent scandal since Jason's season.  I think it's time to use it again").

I think either Whitney or Becca would be a great F1.  Part of me is convinced  Whitney is F1 solely because of the mural- kinda hard to take his fiance (Becca or any one other than Whitney) into town for dinner and run into the Whitney mural. But I also have a nagging feeling that Whitney as F1 is just too obvious and the fact that so far they are hiding Becca is suspicious.   I hope this is not going to be a Melnick -Part II season- F1 seems too obvious, something goes down in a tent and then he dumps F1 for F2.

Going back to the fact that I think Chris is relatively inexperienced in dating, and probably does not bump into too many runway gorgeous models in Arlington, in addition to the producer manipulation, I do think Chris was, as CH said (and it pains me to credit CH with a real piece of information and not the usual spin he could recite while comatose) like a kid in a candy store (and a kid who hasn't had much candy before). I think he did genuinely want to find a wife, but I also think he could not resist his one and only opportunity to make out with a lot of hot women before he picks one of the wholesome, normal women as his F1 to take home and marry. So in his "journey" to find a wife, he is also having his Bachelor party, last fling as a single man, and sowing the last of his wild oats.

it's going to be quite a season.

Howdy KB_Mom