“None of this is normal,” a bewildered Cassie Randolph said to Colton Underwood in the early moments of Tuesday night’s season finale of “The Bachelor.”
Her confusion was certainly understandable. After all, Cassie had been programmed to lean into the strange “logic” that had governed ABC’s reality dating series for 22 seasons.
The show’s leading man is not supposed to ditch his two would-be finalists. He is not supposed to jump a fence and threaten to bolt the production. And he is certainly not supposed to go chasing after a woman who, just hours before, dumped him.
But who said love makes any sense?
It was a season of remarkable firsts on “The Bachelor,” beginning right from the start with the anointed rose-holder — a 26-year-old former pro football player — openly declaring that he was still a virgin. From there, this unconventional, oddly adorable Bachelor went rogue, breaking all the rules and undermining a process that had been in place since 2002, when creator (mad scientist?) Mike Fleiss introduced America to his bizarre, TV version of speed-dating.
Based on most accounts, it was the most compelling season of “The Bachelor” in ages, largely because it was so different. And now that fans have experienced that difference, one has to wonder if the show can ever go back to standard operating procedure. Can it be “normal” again? Or would that be just too damn boring?
Most long-running reality TV shows struggle to find ways to remain fresh and exciting. “Survivor,” for example, continually injects new twists into its playbook. “The Bachelor,” in contrast, has pretty much stuck to its rigid formula: Man meets 30 or so women. Man cuts his harem down via a series of one-on-one and group dates. Man does hometown visits and Fantasy Suites and then tearfully frets over having to pick between two women. The faces and locales may change, but the process — and the pressure — is essentially the same.
But on the season before Colton’s, a strange new plot twist went down. Our Bachelor — Arie Luyendyk Jr. — proposed to one woman and then, weeks later, had a change of heart and started dating the show’s other finalist. (They’re now married).
Fans were outraged over the breakup and Arie was branded a villain — the baddest of Bachelor bad boys. It might have been a prime-time train wreck, but the jaw-dropping twist drew widespread interest and had people talking.
So, again, now what? After two straight renegade narratives, will “The Bachelor” go back to its typical tropes — or will new contestants who watched what came before be emboldened to break more rules and do things their way? And will producers be open to the changes?
Colton’s season was distinctive for one other significant reason: More than ever, he broke the so-called fourth wall and gave fans an intriguing peek into the show’s behind-the-scenes machinations. When he jumped the fence and went AWOL, we saw freaked-out crew members scrambling to track him down.
Likewise, when he entered the Fantasy Suite with Cassie, he again interacted with the crew, telling them — politely and lovingly — to get their cameras and microphones out of there. Yes, this might be a TV show that spawns fodder for snarky recaps and hate-tweets, but we were vividly reminded that real personal emotions were involved.
It should be noted that Cassie, our lovely Walnut Creek native, was a brazen “Bachelor” rebel as well. The main reason she had previously decided to leave the show is because she didn’t want to be a slave to its timeline. It just didn’t feel right. Why should she commit if she wasn’t yet on the “same page” as Colton? As one reasonable parent pointed out earlier in the season, you don’t “microwave” a relationship.
And maybe that’s the most important takeaway from Colton’s season: “The Bachelor” franchise might indeed get back to its moldy “normal” format. But we all need to keep in mind that its fast-pass approach to romance is — and always will be — anything but normal.
