The Bachelor episode 9 review: Did show push Nick Viall – Raven Gates sex life talk too far?
There are many moments from Monday’s episode that are going to be discussed, but let’s get through the one that should never be mentioned again first: Andi Dorfman showing up for no good reason whatsoever. This was clearly akin to a producer throwing her a bag of money and telling her to turn up somewhere. Other than Nick Viall expressing some regret for what he said at the After the Final Rose special after her season, this was useless. Maybe it was good for keeping Nick from looking like a hypocrite if he goes on all the fantasy suite dates, but that’s it.
Also, there was the surprisingly-teary exit of Corinne Olympios, who is either A) a very good actress or B) had actually convinced herself that this could work with Nick. Given that there are some women on this season, including new Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay, who has publicly defended Corinne, we do think she’s probably not a terror as she’s been presented. She’s likely just someone who was very thirsty for fame and extremely entitled. There are a ton of those people out there who just don’t know better. We’d like to say that there will be a chance for her to experience real life coming up … but she’s probably a lock for Bachelor in Paradise. Given that next week is also The Women Tell All, there is almost no break from Corinne at all this season.
Now, let’s take a deep breath before things get awkward.
Raven Gates said WHAT?
Let’s start this off with this: There is absolutely nothing wrong with anything Raven said tonight regarding her sex history in her conversation with Nick. Obviously she felt very vulnerable and real with him in that moment, and wanted to bond with him by sharing something that was important to her that she hasn’t been with many men over the course of her life. (She did say more than this, but it feels uncomfortable to get into a whole lot of detail about it.)
There are two things that we wonder more about this: Why she wanted to talk about this with the cameras around as opposed to during the overnight portion of the date, and then also why producers chose to leave so much of it in there and beat the drum on it. Obviously, it’s a unique story that makes Raven memorable, but the way they promoted it was as though she had some sort of scandalous secret that was incredibly dramatic for some reason. It was basically them taking advantage of something that was very personal and intimate to her, and we’re not sure if she was thinking all of that through at the time she opened up about it.
Alas, this is reality television, and this sort of stuff does happen. They own your soul on these shows! Anyway, this episode was more or less a reminder of why shows like UnREAL exist, and also why sometimes The Bachelor loses some of their human element. Episode Grade: C.
What did you think about the way this all played out? Share in the comments, and head over here for some other news on the show. (Photo: ABC.)