to see Tuesday night’s finale BacheloretteOne phrase kept ringing in my mind: Cruelty is the point.
Adam Server of The Atlantic Wrote those words To explain the appeal of Donald Trump’s particularly mean-spirited brand of politics in 2018. But the same principles can be applied Bachelor Franchise That has always been true to some extent; As an audience, you’re just signing up to watch a bunch of hot, over-served 20-somethings battle for the right to be engaged to the main character over the course of two months.
There is nothing natural about it. You can also say that there is none of it real.
But last night’s season finale of Jane Tran, in which the show so callously ripped apart its main character, should be all the proof that this brutal drama needs real pain at its center. Shaw’s promise of true love demands the threat of true heartbreak to make it feel earned. This means that, from time to time, when the fairy tale ending fails to materialize the show and provide its big cathartic finish, cast members will instead be shocked for our entertainment.
It can be just a television program for the producers, for many contestants and for the audience. But the tears streaming down Tran’s face were an uncomfortable, piercing reminder that at the heart of all these pranksters is a real person who truly believes they have a chance to find the love of their life through this silly show.
You might find that ridiculous, but that doesn’t make it any less true — nor does it justify the utter disregard Tran’s ex-fiance and the show that cast her as her first Asian-American lead treated her at her lowest moment.
What happened on Bachelorette final
Here’s a recap for the uninitiated: Tran’s decision came down to two men, Marcus and Devin. Both shared their traumatic childhood experiences with him. Marcus was more reserved, which made any steps towards love feel authentic, but Devin was a fan favorite, a vivacious personality who seemed genuinely attracted to our leads. It was almost shocking how insecure he was with his feelings.
The only question was whether Tran would choose the noble Devin – admittedly less conventionally attractive than some of the other men – or the more unavailable Marcus. It was supposed to be a source of suspense.
Midway through the finale, Jane has a difficult conversation with Marcus in which it becomes clear that she will never “get there” emotionally, so she chooses to end the relationship. That meant that Devin—the one who seemed to choose “the right one,” the one who was really there for the right reasons, the one who was really into her—was the only one left. The show had us hyped for months for the unprecedented finale, and many viewers speculated that Jen would propose to her man. In Hawaii, after breaking up with Marcus, Jennan says she plans to do the same with Devin. It seemed she was on the verge of her happy ending.
But then, instead of rolling the proposal footage, producers joined host Jesse Palmer in the ABC studios and it quickly became clear that between that moment of triumph and the live taping of last night’s post-final special, something had gone horribly wrong. This was a break from the norm when, even if a couple broke up after the season ended, the show allowed the audience to reveal the proposal before breaking the bad news. In the next hour, we will see how far the show is willing to go to use real emotions for cheap entertainment.
First Jane by herself and then Jane and Devin together reenacted what happened after the proposal that had not yet been shown. The story, as it was presented to us, was that as soon as the cameras went off, Devin switched up and went cold. When they returned to real life from filming, he was uncommitted and absent. Jane said he dumped her in a 15-minute phone call in which he said he never loved her and then refused to talk about it in more detail until they were in front of TV cameras again. For his part, Devin insisted that the feelings he expressed towards Jane during filming were genuine, but he otherwise did little to refute her allegations about his behavior after production ended, saying only repeatedly that he had “failed” her. He also admitted to following previous season’s contestant, Mariah, on Instagram, who was widely rumored to be the next Bachelorette before Jane was announced.
Maybe we viewers saw this coming. At the beginning of the episode, Palmer asks Jane’s brother how he is feeling. “Anger,” was his reply. It was an odd response, but it made perfect sense when the finale’s true twist was revealed.
Then came the final twist of the knife. After rekindling their painful break-up, with Jane struggling to keep her composure, Palmer proposes that they should see the proposal anyway. He tried to frame it as an empowering moment, saying that even though the engagement had faded, Jane still “picked herself up” in the moment and that’s all that mattered. Will she be okay with airing it?
“Do I have a choice?” she said with a pained laugh. The answer was implicit: no.
So the producers cut to the Hawaiian beach where Jen and Devin were to get engaged, with a contemporary scene describing how happy Jen is. Meanwhile, in the corner of the screen, they showed a feed of Jane live in the studio, sitting next to her ex, seeing her proposal and learning it was already invalid. Jane cried without hesitation. Whatever you might think, whether she was truly heartbroken or more ashamed of being humiliated, the pain was real. (At this point a friend texted me, “This is torture. It’s actually a violation of the Geneva Conventions to broadcast this.”)
Over the course of her season, I came to believe that, whatever her questionable taste in men, Jane was real. She was on this crap show for the elusive right reason. To see it all stripped away from him so publicly was nauseating – and admittedly riveting.
Bachelorette A ratings win was needed, and he crushed Jane to get it
For the production team, making good TV was definitely important. Bachelor The franchise is struggling Moderate ratings For a while now. Jane was a dog by season Bad buzz (Unfairly, in my opinion, but that was the prevailing sentiment). They needed a grand finale, and Jane’s emotional devastation provided it. There’s no denying that ABC has crafted a memorable climax — we can only hope they don’t permanently damage a real person’s psyche in the process.
Because it is a real risk. has been Much debate About whether reality TV participants deserve union representation and stronger legal protections. I think the argument against those moves is usually that these people know what they’re signing up for. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t vulnerable to emotional trauma as part of the experience. Jane’s final appearance, quickly sidelined so Palmer could introduce a new lead for the franchise’s next season, is a painful reminder.
This is the same show that once Attacked a competitor Who thought she was going to meet her fiancé only to find out that she was also going to lose the man who loved her (or so she believed). This show Intentionally racist can cast For the first season with Black Bachelorette. This show mocked the virginity of its main character.
This morning, reflecting on last night, I thought again 2022 Essay by Catherine Horowitz on Bright Wall/Dark Room In which she analyzes a moment that has a “character”. Bachelor Appeared to suffer real emotional distress and stretched to the point of ripping the fabric of the show. This led her to this crucial insight, which is easy to forget in our age of ubiquitous reality television: these narratives may be disposable entertainment for us, but they are part of another person’s lived experience, which they will carry with them long after. The lights go out and the studio audience goes home.
“For those who participate in it, reality television is not manufactured at all; It is a real part of their lives, affecting them permanently,” Horowitz wrote.
And almost paradoxically, these format-breaking moments give us a story that “maybe, just maybe, people can believe.” The cost, however, may be the well-being of the show’s cast.
Bachelor Not under any directive to be humane, just for fun. Cruelty has always been a feature of the show. That is the point.
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