After the Final Rose or as I like to call it ‘thread the needle’ was intense last night. Before I watched ATFR I was going to comment on what a superb job Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay did at leading this show, but whoa! I don’t know anymore. Rachel scares me.
In fact, to be honest her behavior on ATFR reminds me of someone with Borderline Personality Disorder. Because instead of addressing runner-up Peter Kraus kindly and graciously she is a serious, cold bitch and launches into a smear campaign.
To start, as Peter comes out shaking in terror and sits down, Rachel scoots over so she is even farther away from him.
Chris Harrison asks Peter how he’s doing and Peter says, “he’s terrified…this is hard.”
Rachel’s demeanor is bizarre. It’s calm. It’s disingenuous. It’s over-the-top friendly in a condescending and patronizing way. Its affected. She is acting like Peter just imagined their connection and it was’t nearly as meaningful to her, but she really wishes him well.
Rachel tells him her two day cry fest was just because she was frustrated and confused, not because Peter was even in the running at that point.
“I was confused as to why you were still there because you said in Geneva if you weren’t sure you would leave.”
Chris asks about the situation room in Rioja, Spain where the two cried and eventually broke up.
“The night did not go well”, Peter laments.
“What did you feel when she walked out of there that night?”
“It was hard, very hard.”
“I watched you walk out the door and I knew you were a person that I could spend the rest of my life with and I knew that you had all of the qualities in a person that I would hope for in my life. I let you go because I couldn’t get to the same point as you at that time……all I could think of is what was wrong with me”
So here is where I would expect Rachel to be the bigger person, to be gracious and compassionate knowing how hard it was and still is for Peter to see her, knowing that clearly the ‘accelerated’ process of The Bachelorette is far more challenging than building a relationship in real life off camera and that Peter’s emotions were quite normal — and especially now that she is happily engaged to someone else. But instead she says this:
“There were other deep rooted issues that I started to see that began in in Geneva… that made me realize that you weren’t quite in the same place that I wanted someone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with…the emotion you see comes from what I had experienced in my prior relationship before.”
In other words ‘the emotion you see’ wasn’t because I had real feelings for you, I was just tapping in to feelings from a past relationship’ and was using you to work through those issues’.
And then this dig disguised as affection,
“I just don’t think this show, this process, this journey is for you. You need more time” (more than 9 weeks)…..aka don’t pick Peter to be The Bachelor ABC. He can’t handle it.
I mean holy crap! of course in perfect legal fashion Rachel uses the tool of plausible deniability to deliver this enormous dig.
Chris Harrison then asks Peter about the line that Rachel is still stewing over.
“You said she was ‘choosing a ring and a proposal over happiness.'”
“That was a mistake made out of emotion”, Peter explains.
But it is way too late Peter because Rachel has taken those words to heart and is not going to forgive you …..ever.
Peter claims that he feels attacked and doesn’t know how to respond. Evidently Peter had contacted Rachel after taping the show and asked if they could stay in contact and she said “no”.
He is clearly hoping for some more time to talk to her, but Rachel shuts him down at every turn.
The uncomfortable scene ends with Rachel professing, “Im not leading a mediocre life, Im living my best life” as she turns away from him.
Damn! I thought there was a chance for Peter and Rachel after seeing the finale, but not anymore. This girl is DONE. I feel sorry for Peter who is clearly confused by Rachel’s unjustifiable coolness.
At the beginning of this article I said I call ATFR ‘thread the needle’. Of course I’m referring to the fact that its a very tough position for the lead because they have to address the runner up–aka the guy that the lead also fell in love with, with kindness and affection, and has to pretend that their relationship was all editing and not real–for the fiancee back stage watching.
So I always give the lead a lot of slack for that, but this was uncalled for. Sadly I genuinely think Rachel said yes to Bryan’s proposal just to get revenge on the guy she really wanted–which means sadly, no one is a winner here.
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