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The Bachelorette 16 - Tayshia

The “Bachelorette” Tayshia – Episode 9 Recap, ABC Spoils Their Own MTA, & a “Bachelorette” Parody

Photo Credit: ABC

-7 guys left, and JoJo walks in to tell them next week is Hometowns where Tayshia will be meeting their family. And in her experience, “This was the week that I knew I was falling in love with my fiancé Jordan.” Yes, that might be the case. But it was also the week that his family (or most likely production) decided to set up an empty chair at the dinner table to let EVERYONE know that 1) Aaron Rodgers is Jordan’s brother and 2) he wouldn’t be attending their family dinner. One of the most awkward and uncalled for moments this show has ever had. For those after 40 seasons that still might actually think these producers care about their contestants and their well being and aren’t interested in exploiting every possible situation to their advantage, look no further than that Rodgers hometown date. We all knew Aaron wasn’t showing up and there was a strained family relationship at that time and the show didn’t care. They made sure everyone else knew too.

-JoJo has planned an “oasis” date for Tayshia and Ben for his 1-on-1 as she rides in on a scooter. For the record, JoJo Fletcher riding a scooter > Chris Harrison running a lemonade stand. And it isn’t even close. By the way, I’ve never heard it called an “oasis” date. Am I out of the loop? I thought this was basically like a scavenger hunt. You go to a bunch of different places and do different things, and at each stop there’s a letter or a clue that tells you about the next place to go to. I’ve done this before. They’re awesome. And really cool when you put thought into them and plan them out. Of course at La Quinta they basically had to travel like 17 feet to get to each stop, so it wasn’t nearly as exciting as the one I did years ago. But yeah, never heard it called an “oasis” before unless I just completely misheard what she said.

-So in this “oasis,” they rode scooters to a pool of tennis balls where another letter was placed, which then led them to a fountain that had a letter in a bottle, which then led them to pinatas. Ben and Tayshia beat the living piss out of some of the pinatas but of course it wasn’t til the last one that the letter was in. By the way, I’ve got a question about pinatas. If you really do pinatas correctly, and the swingers are blindfoled and someone is moving the pinata up and down, I’m sorry but unless that swinger is cheating, there’s no way they should ever get a good hit on the pinata. How many times have you seen someone knock the wire that holds the pinata first? And can we all admit that the pinata is probably the most overrated children’s birthday game ever? At least with Pin the Tail on the Donkey you get to spin someone around and watch them try and not act like they’re drunk. Seriously with the pinatas? Bc inevitably, unless someone cheated, it’s a bunch of swings and misses, barely any holes, then we get a complete give up, they’ll let someone take the blindfold off, or the person moving the pinata just stops moving it and the swinger is hitting a stationary target. O-VER-RATED! Clap, clap, clapclapclap…

-So we all know what the night portion of this date centered around Ben and the story he told Tayshia, which was that in 2018 and 2019 he had two failed suicide attempts. He also mentioned that he had held that in and never even told his sister who was seemingly hearing that for the first time. I can’t begin to put myself in his shoes to know the depths he fell to to get to that place where he felt that was his only option – twice. And I can’t imagine that was easy to talk about to essentially a complete stranger on national television. All the credit goes to Ben for having that conversation with Tayshia. He didn’t HAVE to share that, but he did. He’d already opened up last week about having a 15 year eating disorder, so clearly Ben has had some struggles in his life. Maybe it was cathartic for him to talk about it. But to tackle suicide on this show is just something they don’t do, so props for allowing this to the forefront, especially considering where we’re at as a country right now and the mental health state of a lot of people right now. Maybe they needed to hear that. And it was a solid touch by them to include the National Suicide Prevention Hotline as they went to commercial break. A powerful segment for sure. HOWEVER…

-…I found the whole thing very exploitative. I feel that production knew about Ben’s past, and either told Tayshia directly to get it out of him, or at least told her “hey, he’s got some really deep stuff that you should try to see if he’ll talk about it,” without giving her the specifics. Because Tayshia was definitely prying for something during that convo by saying things like “I know you’re holding back” and “there’s hurt there.” So maybe she didn’t specifically know Ben had two failed suicide attempts, but I believe she was definitely coached to get something out of him. Outside of that, I just have an issue with Ben being on the show in the first place. Like, did you HAVE to cast Ben knowing that he attempted suicide twice in the last 3 years? Isn’t there some sort of mental health threshold this show should adhere to? Where do you draw the line? It seems like that line is skewed now.

-While Ben seems to be doing better and we all applaud him for that, I’m not sure this show was something he needed to do. Like, if Ben wasn’t cast this season, we all would’ve been fine. But by putting him on the show, then hearing that story last night when it’s not something he’s even told the person he feels closest to in his sister, how can I NOT think that they used him for exploitative purposes? My opinion is I don’t think he should’ve been on the show in the first place. Anyone who attempted suicide JUST LAST YEAR, while seemingly doing better now, is still struggling. Probably always will be. We’ve heard all the stories of vets and their struggles after getting out of the service. Ben is a prime example. The whole thing just made me feel icky and I felt they exploited Ben and his issues. Remember, Ben wasn’t part of the OG cast back in March. He was part of the re-cast of a lot of new guys in July.

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