The Bachelor 20 - Ben Higgins - MTP -LCD - FRC - *Sleuthing - Spoilers*

Tiger Tip wrote:

Lucas15 wrote:

grace8136 wrote:I took the hell to mean the backlash on SM and how it will seem that his F1 "wins" Ben by 51%. It's not exactly a romantic fairytale for poor Lauren.

I took the Hell to mean what happened during filming because Ben expressed it as something that already happened - not something that is going to happen; anything that will or won't be said on SM about a close call on the "win" can't begin until Monday. IMO by 11:00PM Monday, EDT, everyone is going to have a different view of things and the "narrow margin of victory" may either not seem narrow at all, or won't matter to most.
JMHO

Remember, also, there are handlers involved.  Ben's conflict of love is not unusual to the show.  In what previews we are shown, I see parallels to Andy, Bevin and Tessa season.  In fact, they even have JoJo in a swimming hole similar to Bevins.  Andy professed his love for Bevin very distinctly on the FRC (and may well have said it to her before that - off camera)...it's just this season, Ben was more vocal about it (and likely because of his handler, and tptb desire to promote it through the encouragement of him to be candid instead of quiet).

So I tend to agree here - "we" is likely something that happened and is a retrospective statement.  He may well have deep regrets for awhile on "how better he could have played his cards" but - will, become much like Jason and Molly over time with "whatever hellish events that occurred" being completely insignificant to their relationship today.

Crazylady29 wrote:yea I'm not sure I'm going to watch until probably the proposal. its going to be the jojo episode until then.

Lucas15 wrote:

Tiger Tip wrote:The polarity of the viewership is not new.  I don't know of when there was a time when the F2 were not fairly evenly split with supporters.  

Watching a horse race where one horse has a 31 length lead going into the final straightaway doesn't get people standing up and cheering - it's the nose to nose dual to a photo finish that does that - and if the bets on each of those two horses are relatively even then it really gets watchers cheering them on. IMO the show has learned this over the years and will always edit and script to provide a photo finish; the last thing they want is indifference. The polarization of viewers and fans over the F1 / F2 race to the wire is part of the secret sauce that has helped this franchise survive as long as it has with little signs of running out of steam.

TPTB have to continue to innovate how they create polarizing situations; IMO we're seeing one such innovation this season.

grace8136 wrote:snipped

I can't find anywhere that Ben said "we" put her through hell. If he did, can someone point me to the source please?

etonline.com

"We're a team now, and teams communicate, they have to, even in situations that are tough and difficult," he explained. "I had to communicate with her, and she's been supportive and loving and caring. Understanding it's not always easy, right? We've put her through hell and back sometimes, but she's never ceased to love me and support me through it. That's why we're standing here today, and I am so excited."

tennischick80 wrote:

Crazylady29 wrote:yea I'm not sure I'm going to watch until probably the proposal. its going to be the jojo episode until then.

I understand what you mean...but that just means that the fact that he picks Lauren makes it all the more special. Whatever he went through with Jojo led him to Lauren, so I kind of want to see it all.