Monday night’s episode of The Bachelor covered hometown dates, which meant Ben traveled to various beautiful parts of this great nation to meet with the families of his potential wives-to-be. This also meant that emotions ran particularly high, as Ben grappled with the realization that it’s much harder to break up with people when you care about them—because as much as this show seems like it’s about polygamy, it’s actually about monogamy.
During the episode, Ben cried outright at least twice and teared up a few more times. Most of his tears were about breaking up with Amanda, mother of two adorable twin girls I thought were twins but aren’t, but he also got emotional just seeing her with her children for the first time, in describing his feelings for Lauren B. to her sister, and in talking about how hard this experience has been for him emotionally.
Ben was not the only one crying last night; Jojo broke down after her amazingly named ex-boyfriend Chad sent her a letter and roses saying he wanted to get back together with her, Amanda cried when Ben sent her home, Lauren B. teared up over the thought of her love for Ben, and Caila would be a great actress. While men have certainly cried on The Bachelor before, they often do not do so with the willingness that the women do; as we all know, it’s much easier to break up with someone than it is to be broken up with, plus gender norms punish us all.
Anyway, it was nice to see Ben so in touch with his feelings, though there were times that you sorta wanted to say, “Hey Ben, make like Jojo’s mom and just start drinking from the bottle.”
