The Bachelor 20 - Ben Higgins - Social Media - Vids - Media - *Sleuthing - Spoilers* - #4

If you read last week's recap since Wednesday, you'll know I was required to take down what I posted that Olivia had told me. Honestly, it got me really down and I had a hard time motivating myself to write this one at all. First, I know this blog isn't saving lives or anything, but I do try to do good with it. I try to get my readers to watch the show differently and wonder about what's behind that fourth wall. Above all, I want viewers to not hate any contestant. I'm aware that I can be critical of contestants, but I always base it on what I see that can't be edited beyond recognition. Rather, if you insist on hate-watching a contestant, remain objective enough to know that what you see of them has likely turned them into a caricature and in no way represents who they are.

I guess what I'm saying is, since Wednesday, I've felt a suffocating sense of "What's the point?" So few people will ever even read what I write here—a fraction of a fraction of all the viewers of this show—and it's been two years since my own season. Yet, I still can't share something from behind the curtain, that, in my humble opinion, might do the slightest bit of good in changing the way viewers see someone they currently "love to hate."

For that reason, I have nothing to say about the Rose Ceremony. Correction: I have plenty to say about it, but I'm not allowed to, and in my down state I don't have the energy to dissect it. The entire Rose Ceremony revolves around Olivia and her many transgressions, and for me to dispute each one just feels like a waste of time. Olivia will continue to get the awful edit she's been getting, in small part because she deserves it for being impressionable, in small part because she's not a social creature, and in large part because it's the role she's been assigned. It's hard to picture her "winning" at this point since Ben is clearly not as into her as he is all 5 women who've had one-on-ones. At Women Tell All, she'll sit in the hot seat and defend herself. Hopefully, what she says there will redeem her. The producers may manage to convince her to do Bachelor in Paradise (a credit unto itself to their powers of persuasion), another shot at redemption (as successfully proven by JJ Lane), but there are no guarantees. Above all, nothing can undo the damage this show has done to her image, at least not for the near future.

I'll just say this: I know that conversations are not what they seem. I know that girls appear angry about things when in fact they got over it quickly. I know that a mumbled remark that appeared to be in response to something else... well, wasn't. Cryptic, I know.