
Look, like pretty much all of you, I hate Bryan too. He reminds me so much of Josh Murray with his entire demeanor. The way he can only speak in cliches like he was cursed by a fairy before the show. The way he likes to act like he’s a completely moral person who would never do anything wrong. The way he keeps saying he’s a physician when he’s a chiropractor. Say it with me Bryan: a chiropractor is not a fucking doctor! Bryan is a sleazy guy and as a chiropractor, I wouldn’t be surprised if he offered his clients “Happy Endings”.
It’s pretty clear, when taking the pulse of the online Bachelor community that my feelings for Bryan are not entirely uncommon. He gets routinely hated on twitter and the Bachelor subreddit for everything I have mentioned above and more. Seeing his arc develop over the season really has been like Josh Murray 2.0 only this time we see him as a fraud from the get-go because there is no Nick Viall to distract us from his awfulness.

On the other hand, Rachel is clearly vibing with this dude. She has put him above all the other men when it comes to criticisms. She (well the production team) bought him a crazy expensive watch. Of course he ruined that by pairing the watch face with a leather bracelet. Couldn’t even get pampered like a rich person correctly. When it came time for the family visits on last night’s episode, Rachel got incredibly defensive of Bryan when her family asked him some tough questions. The same questions Peter and Eric were asked and answered as best they could. For his part, Bryan tried to deflect the questions with his usual act of bullshit and platitudes.
What Rachel’s mom told Rachel was the truth. Rachel is currently in a bubble and can’t see outside of it. Her family are not in the same head space and called a spade a spade and when Bryan came into the Lindsay family household, they could smell the bullshit off of him instantly. To borrow a quote from Rachel herself, her family was just keeping it 100 with her by trying to make Bryan say words with actual meanings.
My question is simple. Given the fact that it’s becoming increasingly obvious that he will be the guy chosen by our bachelorette, why is Bryan being edited in such a negative light? It’s not like the producers are moralistic people who just need to show the true Bryan to the world. The comparison to Josh is out there a million times over and Josh was never shown to be this terrible on Andi’s season. In fact, most people at the time going into the finale would have been 100% team-Josh. I doubt that figure will be more than 15% for his dollar store version.
Is it because Bryan has given them literally nothing else to work with? We’ve seen some strong bonds between a lot of the men this season. Alex and Dean in particular seemed very close with a lot of the guys on the show. This continued to be true off the air when looking at social media. Nobody seems to be very close to Bryan other than possibly Will. Is this a product of the likely winner being shunned by the rest? Maybe. There is precedent to that with Vanessa being the outcast from Nick’s season. Then again, she had a group of people she ran with too and Bryan really does seem like he’s on an island.
If all Bryan is doing is sprouting cliches to Rachel and for his ITMs, then how is an intelligent woman like Rachel falling for this man? Maybe I am placing too much stock into her being a successful, single woman but I can’t for the life of me figure out why she seems so desperate for Bryan to show her affection. She’s so blinded by his shtick that he has gotten away with things others could never think of trying.
For example, take how Rachel sent Josiah home for laying it on a little thick. He was trying to be smooth and charming, giving her lines. It turned Rachel off because it wasn’t coming off as genuine. Consider that in the same episode, Bryan gave her his usual canned lines and she melted like chocolate and then let him absorb her soul through their mouths. The only difference is that she lusts for Bryan and not for Josiah.

So what we are seeing at home is an entirely plastic persona. An empty shell of a man who is supposedly attractive but looks overly polished and has nothing of importance to say ever. Is that really all there is to Bryan? Is Rachel really this foolish?
If the producers are hiding another side of Bryan, it’s a stupid move. Maybe there’s side that Rachel may see when she spends time with him, one that maybe actually opens up from time to time. Why haven’t they shown us that? If they think they are taking the right road by highlighting Bryan’s fakeness, they are wrong. Yes a lot of people, including myself, watch the show for the drama and the alcohol fueled fights. That said, I also happen to like Rachel a lot and want to see her find a happy ending. The way Bryan has been portrayed, this will not be a happy ending to many when she inevitably chooses him over Peter.
Are they trying to prop up Peter as a potential Bachelor? Then they should be focusing on his positive aspects like they have but that doesn’t mean they should be playing down the season’s winner. In wrestling terms, it seems like they are using Bryan to put Peter over but in turn, the producers are shooting themselves in the foot for this season’s reception.
All of this is purely conjecture. Maybe Bryan is the nicest man in the universe and that he speaks only in cliches because he learned how to talk by watching romantic comedies. Maybe he is perfect for Rachel, bad edit or not. All I know is that from my point of view, Rachel is about to make a bad decision and it’s only made worse by the fact that the producers are leaning heavily into this bad decision. At the end of all of this, I just hope Rachel ends up being a better writer than Andi was.
