Just like it does in so many other seasons of The Bachelorette, the petty drama between two of the men comes to a head. In Tayshia’s season, these two men are Noah and Bennett. We also see the men open up, which feels almost like a rite of passage at this point, though their stories and intimacy somehow feel less forced than they do in casual conversation. Jojo makes her entrance as Chris Harrison’s temporary replacement and Chris’ absence is less stark than was anticipated.
We see it in, dare I say it, every season. The drama will always be there. We knew it wouldn’t end with Chasen and Ed because the season was still too young. With so much road ahead, there had to be another feud brewing. Something about this pairing is a bit confusing, though. We were set up, in a way, to love Bennett and enjoy his bougie-ness rather than take him seriously. In the outro of one of the first episodes, he gave a small room tour and showed off his shoe collection. He was pictured doing a face mask and quite literally looking like he was on vacation. That’s the Bennett we fell in love with (even though he did give off a bit of a murder-y, has a body in the shed out back kind of vibe.) I liked vacation Bennett. He was fun and light-hearted and here to have a good time. Noah was the one that we all expected to be the villain. Despite a few missteps, Noah isn’t actually the villain. Sure, he tried to speak for the group (which, after Yosef, was absolutely not what anyone in that group needed,) and told Tayshia that the guys were questioning her decisions, but that seemed to be a sign of immaturity rather than actual malice.
That immaturity is the basis of Bennett’s gripes with Noah. While he may claim he’s unaware of any tension between them, he continually uses Noah’s age against him with little quips and offensive remarks that don’t ever convince anyone, least of all Tayshia, that Noah is lacking in maturity. Rather, we see through his attacks that Bennett is actually the one lacking in maturity. In the most condescending way, he gives Noah a gift: a bandana, symbolizing his “hope” to put bad blood to rest, a pair of mustache socks because “the only place you should wear a mustache is on your feet (*cue eye roll,*) and the real kicker, a book on emotional intelligence. Bennett condescends Noah even further, attributing his immaturity to a lack of emotional intelligence in three of the four categories. At this point, the tension between them is palpable. If Bennett isn’t aware of it, maybe it’s because he’s subpar in the social awareness and self-management areas of emotional intelligence. Unfortunately, their drama becomes so tiresome that even Tayshia is annoyed while listening to them. As you’d expect, Bennett feigns confusion and remains condescending, and Noah explains his grievances. In true Bachelor fashion, we won’t find out who stays and who is sent home until next week, so all we have to think about until then is this ridiculous drama.
As another week goes by in Bachelor Nation, we’re all waiting to see the outcome of Bennett and Noah’s sitdown and who Tayshia will bring with her into the coming week. The hard thing about making predictions this season is the fact that Tayshia is forming genuine connections with multiple men and every episode seems to highlight different ones. They make us fall in love with a different contestant every week and unlike Jimmy Kimmel’s wife, we may not be able to predict her final choice so easily.