Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Stop the Madness!

And so it ends! The Bachelor takes the route of safety and chooses the kindergarten teacher who lives down the block. I know it’s supposed to be so special and such a “sign,” etc., etc. that they came ALL THE WAY TO PARIS to meet each other, when they were right there all along! Yeah, yeah. It took two torturous hours to get there and it wasn’t fun – even when fastforwarding through the commercials.

Can we please examine the chocolate covered macadamia nut for a moment? She is the walking poster child of girls who get so swept up in this crap that they completely lose all track of any sort of reason. She was existing on PURE emotion – that’s it. All of her poetic ramblings indicate that she came on to the Bachelor just to get a free trip to Paris and she didn’t care about the guy, and didn’t care what happened, and on and on. Then at some magical point in time, known only to her, something totally clicked in her mind and she was lost forever after that. It’s when she “saw her own soul reflected back to her.” (How many times did we hear that?) So she decides that Travis is a big shining mirror and now she has given herself over completely to this idea. When Travis’s sister asks, “What do you like about Travis?” It’s the reflected soul thing. When Travis’s parents ask, “Why do you connect with Travis?” She has no answer. None. Nothing about his personality, his sense of humor, his work ethic, even his HAIR, NOTHING. All she can ever come up with is that they have this super-duper-secret connection involving the reflection of her soul. Excuse me, but is there anything about this guy she likes? Is there anything about him she appreciates or finds useful? No. She just has this feeling that she has completely surrendered to. And the feeling is that she sees herself in him. That’s not that much to go on, if you ask me. It’s a reason to go on a second date, but not a reason to turn over your entire life. She has also clearly disregarded the fact that Travis is also dating someone else. Granted, that doesn’t normally happen, and granted, this is a cruel setup designed to make a total fool out of most involved parties, but she has totally forgotten everything. The producers should be high-fiving each other in the background because the plan WORKED on Moana. They took her out of her everyday life, away from contact with humans, media, entertainment, everything. They gave her several weeks with nothing to focus on but Travis. And she was ready to drink poison KoolAid for him. That’s what this is all about. This is what they want. They want to lure these girls into being totally in love with someone they barely know and then yank the rug out from under them in front of the world. It’s so unnatural and so unkind, and yet girls keep signing up. So here’s Moana, wanting nothing more than a free trip to Paris, and what happens? She gets a glimpse of “her own soul reflected back to her,” and suddenly it’s much more serious. Suddenly all of her perceptions become reality and when the rug is yanked, it’s really yanked. After all, he’s been having these conversations with other people, too, whether Moana chooses to acknowledge it or not. How could she be so wrong? How could something she was so sure of be so wrong? Oh honey, so many things about this are wrong, it’s impossible to count. Did you know that this has been a long journey for her? Did you know that she has totally found herself in Paris? Did you know that she’s never seen “her own soul reflected back to her” like this? Did you know it’s all a giant sham?

Ok, I've examined her for more than a moment. I just felt so bad for her at the end. She was so convinced - SO CONVINCED that what she was feeling went for both of them. On the one hand, it's so sad because she was led to believe that this was a real relationship, but on the other hand, she lost sight of everything and let herself forget the reality of the situation. I don't even understand how the winners of these things ever get past watching everything that went on with everyone who didn't win! Shame on all of them!

Kay - I'm now inviting you, Gnomecorp, to write about the other half, the WINNING half of this episode. What was Sarah thinking? Was she more reasonable than Moana (not a hard thing to be), or was she just lucky? Or unlucky? Is she just boring enough for Travis? More practical? Less soul reflecting going on? Easier? Better suited? What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

Nikoletta said...

Ha! It's true though. Maybe the producers asked Sweet Travis to keep the chocolate covered macadamia nut on as long as possible because it would increase ratings.

This is the funniest thing:

They have this super-duper-secret connection involving the reflection of her soul.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha...so funny. That's pretty much all she said. Like - you have to experience it to understand it. Okay...

I didn't take notes on this episode, I know, I totally dropped the ball, because, like you said: it too two torturous hours to get there and it wasn’t fun.

But I do have some thoughts on Sarah from Tennessee...to come at a later time. I'm off to catch a plane. Good luck on Monday.

Nikoletta said...

Ok, enough time has passed that the Bachelor has become both completely irrelevant in my life and I miss it at the same time. My first question is: where’s ‘After The Final Rose?’ I need closure; I need to see the Choc. Have a break down and ask Sweet Trav – why? 'Why would you make me look like a fool? Why would you lead me to believe there was a super secret connection between us that reflected my soul off the bus door in the surveillance camera??' (A little Las Vegas allusion for ya – I know you probably don’t get it…I’ll explain later)

Ah, Sarah… I’ll be referring to her as P.J. – plain Jane – My very few comments include how bad P.J.'s black eye shadow make-up look was, how much a flat iron could make you look more your age, and she could have chosen a better dress.

On the final date, P.J. seemed desperate to say all the right things she needed to say to not loose this gem. But I felt like that, above everything the ladies have done, was the most thinly veiled attempt to win a game show. I’m sure she “felt” like she really wanted him, but it seemed so fake. Almost like she sold the idea to herself by the end, even if didn’t make sense. But that’s the thing with women, it doesn’t really matter, because she could learn to love him as she gets to know him better, even if she finds out what we all know – that he’s an empty barrel of clichés.

Other evidence that leads me to believe that P.J. was caught up in the game is when she said she "just wants to take him home to Naaaahhhshville." I just didn’t get a genuine feeling from her. Which is bizarre, because if anyone, it’s him that is so not real.

And why have there been more Bachelors than Bachelorette shows? It’s reinforcing the shift of social norms of the women hunting out the men, and not how it was in the past, the men seeking out the women. Which is fine, but the problem is, guys aren’t conforming…so it’s now women pursuing men, and making it seem like it’s still the men pursing the women. The trickery is exhausting.