Welcome to tonight’s Rose Ceremony, where I, a first time Bachelor watcher, give my highs and lows of Season 29, and my thoughts on the finale that premiered Monday, March 24. I have always classified myself as someone who doesn’t enjoy reality TV (with the exception of Hell’s Kitchen. Love you Gordon.), but when my roommate Abby insisted on watching it, I said, “Why not?” and decided to give it a try with her. She isn’t new to The Bachelor, so I was going into this with someone who already knew how it worked, which was helpful. Honestly, I enjoyed watching it every week. I may not have enjoyed some of the people, but just the act of watching it weekly with a friend felt very girlhood, which I just loved.
To start, our Bachelor, Grant, really was just a guy to me. There was nothing special about him that stood out, and he wasn’t insanely attractive to me, so I didn’t fall in love with him or anything throughout the season. I thought he was a bit bland and would repeat the same things over and over again, about himself and about the women he was going on dates with. He talked openly about his father’s addiction, which is of course important to his character and him in general, but I didn’t really feel like I got a total sense of what Grant was like. He would talk about wanting a wife and family, and when interviewed about the women, he would say he “could see her as his wife” or “could see himself falling in love with her.” He went as far as telling two women at the end of the season that he did, in fact, love them, which created a whole mess. Abby said that last season’s Bachelor, Joey, never told any of the girls he loved them during the season, but she also said last season was just better in general. Overall, Grant was boring and un-captivating, so I’m partly glad to not see him on my screen anymore. I definitely think I’ll continue watching The Bachelor and maybe The Bachelorette, but I’m hoping for a more interesting man next season, so we’ll see.
The girls of the season helped save it. Although the ones I was rooting for— Chloie, Parisa, Alli Jo, and Sarafiena— left pretty early on, I still liked most of the other girls. Of course, we have the ones in the middle of the drama: Zoe in the early episodes, and then Carolina until she got sent home, but for the most part, they were gorgeous, kind, and friendly to one another, and it made me happy to see a sisterhood really being formed. Our final three women were Zoe, Litia, and Julianna. I think everyone was shocked to see Zoe make it so far. She was no one’s favorite in the beginning with the way she was around Grant, but as the show progressed, she grew on me, and the audience as well, I think. She made it to Hometowns (Grant meets the womens’ families) and Fantasy Suites (Grant spends a night with each woman) in the Dominican Republic without even having a one-on-one. Even she was shocked, she revealed on the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast, and she also said that she would’ve left after Fantasy Suites either way, whether he had picked her or not. I could tell the chemistry wasn’t there, and I bet she could too, so the way Grant was keeping her around made me, as well as some of the viewers, sure he was just keeping her to make it easier at the end when he had to send someone home. Zoe’s character development, though, was great, and it made me understand and like her more. She talked about being adopted and struggling growing up in her hometown, but now she’s a model living in New York City, thriving on her own. In the end, it was clear that Zoe just wanted love and may have been too assertive in the beginning for the other girls, but I really did like her and was happy to see that she will be going on Bachelor in Paradise over the summer, and hopefully this time she does find love.
The drama throughout the middle few weeks of the season was incredibly entertaining and took the negative attention off of Zoe and passed it to Carolina, who just made everyone hate her. I thought I liked her after her and Grant’s one-on-one date. It seemed like the chemistry was there and they enjoyed their date. She revealed that she suffered from epilepsy and Grant was incredibly understanding and caring, so I thought there could be something there, but then in the next episode, Carolina was telling the other women how she wished her date never happened, she was jealous of the time he spent with people who weren’t her (which obviously she is entitled to feel, but it was the way she would go about it that was problematic), and she even got into drama with Rose, which also ended up being revealed at the Women’s Tell All as a misunderstanding on both womens’ parts and more Grant’s fault than anything. My problem with her was the way she victimized herself and made the other women in the mansion feel bad. She would complain about how Grant was hanging out with other women, among other things, and it was just like, that’s what happens when you sign up for this show. Her concerns would’ve been valid if this wasn’t reality TV, but at the end of the day, it was. Her complaints were just frustrating for the other women to hear, and annoying for the audience to hear. It was a happy day when she was sent home, and an even happier day when that ended all the drama (for the most part, though she continued to fight online with Dina, another contestant, about things that really should’ve been left in the past, but it did make for fun entertainment.)
Litia and Julianna were our final two women, and I was happy with that. I was able to see the chemistry with both women and Grant, though it started to decline after Litia revealed to Grant that she’s Mormon, but otherwise I was okay with either woman winning. Ultimately, Julianna took home the ring, and they are still engaged today. While he had a difficult time choosing who to propose to, I think it just came down to Grant and Litia’s priorities being different, and I think the Mormon reveal kind of broke their bond as he didn’t want to be with someone involved in such a strong religion. When Grant broke up with Litia, she automatically switched gears, going from kind and sweet to angry and hardened. This, to me, was completely understandable, and I felt for her. She definitely deserved better, not to be completely led on with Grant, getting reassurance after reassurance. But at the end of the day, it’s still reality TV, and it was partly to be expected. Litia didn’t get full closure until the finale, where they had a live audience, and the host, Jesse Palmer, interviewed Litia and gave her the chance to finally ask Grant why he led her on so much. He apologized and told her he regretted how he went about their relationship. Though the season is now over, Litia has been seen liking hate comments about Grant. Julianna and Grant are still happily engaged and are now able to share their content together on social media. Though I wasn’t the biggest Grant fan, I liked Julianna, so as long as he keeps her happy, I can get behind their relationship.
One notable part of Season 29 of The Bachelor was Grant releasing music on Spotify, particularly his song “Party Girl,” which has gotten some buzz online. A few weeks ago, I saw a couple podcasters discussing which girl they could have picked, based on who would have allowed them to release that song, (which is not that great) and it makes sense now that Julianna allowed it to be released because that’s his party girl. I think it’s safe to say that I enjoyed The Bachelor, though many people online were talking about how bad this season was compared to previous seasons, and saying it was definitely shorter. This didn’t mean much to me, seeing as I had never watched this show before, so I knew I just had to form my own opinion on it, and I thought it was enjoyable and entertaining TV. I most likely will be tuning in again, with Bachelor in Paradise up next, where Zoe will definitely be getting my support.