Wednesday, November 16, 2016

B&L Recap "Trouble In Paradise"


  Since the powers that be decided not to air a new episode during election night, we were instead treated to a double header last night. And by treated, I don’t mean of the chocolate or sports car variety, but the bug bomb your room or take an antibiotic type of treatment. While I’ve always wanted a spin-off of one of the Bachelor couples, I can’t help but feel Ben and Lauren were a misstep. Every episode has ended up being the same. Ben has cold feet. Lauren doesn’t understand that. They keep fighting. Then they make up because of “love” and all of that jazz. But don’t let my feelings about the show spoil it for you. Let’s talk about what happened this episode.

   The episode starts with Lauren shopping for bridesmaid dresses with her friends. She talks about wanting them all to feel comfortable.  I flashback to the previous weddings of my sisters as a bridesmaid. Sorry, I don’t know why I’m shhhakinggg now. Ptttsssddd??? Anyway, off of that subject for my sanity. Lauren discusses how the day went “perfect” and she can’t wait to tell Ben. As expected, he will ruin that “perfect” day by talking again about his cold feet. Here’s a thought. Try some bunny slippers. Move out of Colorado. You’ll get warmer real fast. Oh, they meant about the wedding? I could never have guessed. 

  To deal with their problems they decide to go to pre-wedding counseling. Because they haven’t had any Bachelor alum in 10 minutes, the show hyperventilates and decides to bring in Lace/Grant and the Twins. I use to love The Twins, but do they really need to be in every episode? Could they not get any other alum? Heck, I bet Josh/Amanda would have loved to do it for tv time and I would kill to see them in couples therapy. Anyway at this counseling they play the nearly-wed game. I’m sure most of you know the rules. Your partner answers a question and you have to see if you know what they said. Everyone is surprised because Ben/Lauren do poorly, but Grant/Lace do well. But, all of Grant’s answers outside of one had to do with sex. He and Lace were having sex within 2 minutes of meeting each other. I wonder what their relationship is all about. Next time, ask them about when Grant expects to start cheating on Lace. I’m sure Lace will get that question wrong…..

  Lauren doing poorly just puts more doubt into Ben’s mind before the couples do part 2 of the therapy by completing a Ropes course together. All the girls are freaking out. I guess I’m not as much of a girly girl as I thought because it didn’t look scary at all. I mean, yes, heights suck. But did they really think that the show would EVER suggest doing something that would cause them to get hurt? There’d be lawsuits and cancellations if they did. Any logical person would have known that they would be perfectly fine. Yet again, maybe I’m just not like most girls, but the crying just got annoying after a while. 

   After the ropes course, they have the standard therapy session of talking out feelings. Ben again elaborates on feeling unlovable and how that makes him want to be extra sure before he marries Lauren. He feels they haven’t done enough to get married. This angers Lauren because she completely uprooted her California life and moved for him. She feels blindsided. She really shouldn’t because he has literally expressed this every episode, but she does. The therapist trying to help them, decides to do an exercise where they dress in wedding clothes so they can gauge how they would feel if they got married that second. Ben does a 180 and decides he’s ready to be married. Yeah, no that doesn’t happen. It only freaks him out more and he calls off the wedding. You know producers, maybe this would have had more impacted if you hadn’t shown that clip 70 billion times before the episode aired. Just a thought.

  So they go to Chris Harrison to tell him the wedding is off. This was again a repetitive segment where Ben and Lauren continued to express the same problem. Chris Harrison continued to act like he cares about the leads, when its just the paycheck that he is after. Ben realizes he is in the dog house so to compensate he  buys Lauren a new car. It’s a successful tactic. If a girl is mad at you, buy her an engagement ring, dog, house, or car. Usually, we will be blinded by that long enough for you to get at least a day of peace. The not happy couple then takes a road trip.

  On the way home, they stop at the IheartRadio Music Festival. I’m surprised because that took place in September. So the turnaround on these episodes is getting faster and faster. It also makes it appear worse that Ben and Lauren are still having these issues. Anyway, they fight. Again. The press keeps asking them about a wedding date and Lauren feels like Ben is faking that things are going okay. What is he supposed to say though? Dear press that we don’t know, we are fighting a ton and the wedding is called off. No. I get Lauren is upset, but every situation doesn’t need to be about the wedding. 

  Of course they aren’t allowed to end the episode on a bad note, so ‘spontaneously” Ben and Lauren meet with a couple that’s been married 70 years. Blah blah Blah. They offer advice. Blah Blah Blah. Ben and Lauren are happy again. ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ. Woah. I just woke up. Sorry about that.

  The episode ends with the big reveal that Ben had the house redecorated to Lauren’s taste while they were road tripping. The house is a little too overtly feminine for my tastes, but if Ben can suck it up, good for him. Until next time folks, keep dreaming about being on a reality show so you can afford a brand new car and complete remodeling all in the space of 3 days. 



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