Is Age Just a Number if It’s 22?

Now that The Mystery of Bekah’s Age has been revealed (22! Gasp!) – she’s still the only contestant whose age does NOT appear on the show’s website – the theme for the rest of the season is clearly Will He or Won’t He. It’s so obvious that Arie is quite taken with her – how could he not be? – and since the pre-season buzz is that he falls for TWO women, the path is now clear:

1. Bekah is one of them.
2. Therefore, our task is to wait to see who the other one is (possible candidates suggested below).
3. We’ll watch Arie’s torture trying to convince himself that Bekah is The One.
4. And then wait to see how bad the brutal break-up Arie and Bekah both fear[1] is going to be[2].

But let’s be honest. The Bachelor track record is such that Arie is actually heading to a six-month engagement and then a break-up, despite his protestation to Bekah that he’s looking for a wife and not a (implied “young”) girlfriend. And yet despite said protestation, he seems to have sent all the girls close to his age, i.e. above 30, home. So, My Girl Bekah’s best move would appear to NOT be the last one standing. Then she can take all that timeless movie star charisma and move into the life of celebrity she was clearly born for . . . with a stop as the Queen of Bachelor in Paradise, of course. 🙂

The other “star” of this episode in her continuing role as the designated Bad Girl is Krystal who is kray-kray. This week she added whininess to her hot, buttered mess of emotional unintelligence. A touch of dismissive arrogance I can happily live with but I cannot abide whininess and I want her gone as soon as possible. I suspect Arie has much greater interest in other girls but the producers are keeping her around to maximize our enjoyment of her eventual fall from grace.

Moving on to Arie – clearly, I am having a hard time seeing him rather than My Girl Bekah as the lead of the season – is it me or is “time with Arie” lately best described as his making a few minutes of vapid conversation before he metamorphoses into The Kissing Bandit?[3] Is he capable of responding to anything approaching vulnerability with more than “awesome” and a hug? During his one-on-one date with the very bright, poised and articulate Sienne, she lamented how challenging it is to be a black woman in America where the media stories and images of being a princess with a happy ending don’t seem to apply to her. His response was something like:

Regarding the group date theme of surviving in the wilderness: while leading a group of beautiful women to the safety of a mountain lodge with sparkling wine in a hot tub would certainly be enticing, I’ll be choosing death rather than eating or drinking any gross stuff to stay alive. So if you find yourself with me in such a situation, you may want to plan accordingly.

There was a great moment during the closing credits via Chelsea when she was accused of “glam shaming” by Marikh. Chelsea’s response: “What is glam shaming? I’ve never been called anti-glam. I am and have always been pro-glam.”

So, as I previously alluded to, my other current (besides My Girl Bekah and subject to change) favorites for Arie’s heart are:

• Becca K.
• Kendall the Taxidermist
• Tia aka Raven 2.0 (although this could be because I like the original Raven 1.0 so much)

P.S. And, yes, I am so here for The Bachelor Winter Games. 🙂

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[1] For a 4^th episode date, that was a pretty intensely open conversation. I can’t speak for the women in Bachelor Nation but speaking for the guys, you don’t have that kind of conversation that early unless you are already completely and totally hooked.

[2] Except that I don’t know if “fear” is the right word for her. She seems to live so much in the moment, I think she’s way more, “Let’s see what happens.”

[3] Is anybody else getting grossed out by all the kiss close-ups? Enough already.