SnapeCharmer

I cannot wait until this franchise is cancelled.

What a funny episode! Breathed life into this boring season. Poor Dean. Not. How stupid can one man be? I guess his stupidity is only topped by the silly women taking his B.S. Both of these young women can do so much better.

Uh they were. He turned them down for the lead. That should make some people happy. Frankly, I'm ecstatic!

Contrived. Boring. Typical. I'm tapping out of this show. Not for me. I hope Winter Games is better.

I try to see people as individuals, so in that way some people are open to dating a spectrum of people, while others have a fixed type. Some people are drawn mostly to aesthetics, other's mostly to personality attributes. Some people are somewhere in between. Everyone is different in that way. Rachel may have been open at this point in her life to dating outside her race, when before she may not have been; it worked for her. Peter may have been open as well, but found in practice it didn't work for him or that it didn't work for him with Rachel. If she wasn't his type, (for whatever reason) I don't begrudge him of that. What I have an issue with is the possibility of him knowing early on that she was not his type and still moving forward with the relationship (for the wrong reasons). Because that is by definition, deceptive. Not to mention the emotional strife it caused. It removed her focus from other men who were attracted to her in full and that took away from the experience for everyone.

This was a very dry episode. Most of the cast is dull as dishwater. No wonder producers had to drum up this tasteless controversy. Pretty bad all around.

LOL. @Sarah22029 you're like F it, I'm just gonna put it out there! You're a brave one.

Rachel and Bryan have moved on. I hope they have a long and happy life together. See y'all in the BIP forum.

I'm with you on that. After BIP, I'll just stick to recaps and spoilers.

Your profession offers some helpful insight into these things. Thank you for sharing! That's what frustrated me the most with Rachel. But again, I realize there may have been things going on behind the scenes that pushed her to keep him, outside of the theory that he was manipulating her or she was manipulating him. That point I'll concede.

Bryan was her final pick because: Rachel was highly attracted to him and vice versa. He came on the show for Rachel, after his friend nominated him. He had expressed that she was the kind of woman he wanted after seeing her on Nick's season. He was attentive to Rachel. He focused on her and their building relationship. Everything else was background noise. He showed her he desired her (For instance, he was non withholding of his affection from day one. When they conversed he leaned in when he spoke to her to maintain their physical connection. That's speaks to intimacy. He was direct with his intentions. He was unwavering in his commitment to see what they were building through to the end; he stayed consistent in his words and actions toward Rachel. He always checked in with her emotions; how do you feel? Are you okay? What can I do to help you feel better (for example: the back massage). That speaks to care and comfort. He was affirming instead of negating. Their lifestyles are complementary. His career and finances is complementary to Rachel's. They both have professional degrees and are working in their respective fields. He has the flexibility to relocate if need be. So does Rachel. He loves Sports Center (like Rachel) He's older and maturer than most of her other suitors. They had plenty of deep conversations, about what they wanted and those wants were compatible. Both have stated this in their post show interviews (but those conversations were left on the editing room floor. The show wanted a certain narrative. Their discussions didn't fit that narrative). He was/is marriage minded. He is at a place in his life where he's ready to settle down. He said he wants ot get married. He wants three children (Rachel wants 4 lol). That matches up with what Rachel has said to want all along; marriage and children. He gave her little gifts throughout their journey (others did as well, but I thought I should still add that to the list). He showed his generous side by sharing his clothes with Dean during the show (even though Dean did not seem as fond of him as others). During his hometown Date, when his mother criticized his haircut, he stated that "As long as Rachel likes it, I'm happy." - That was sweet, and revealing. Rachel comes first. He asked Rachel's father for her hand in marriage, and her father gave the blessing (this speaks to traditional values of marriage. Again, that matches up with Rachel's ideals. His parents have been married for over 40 years, so like Rachel he has a great familial foundation to draw upon. This is another match with her lifestyle. He takes care of himself - well groomed and fit. Most important, he told her he loved her without qualifier or quantifiers. In Rachel's words "He seemed too good to be true." His post show words and actions have done nothing but validate the man he presented himself to be - To Rachel, he is The One. Oh and he (Bryan) has a good Credit score, she asked her final three about that. Possibly a good stroke game as well (if we are to surmise they slept together in the fantasy suite) lol That is all! Rachel and her sisters looked gorgeous in their white dresses. Everyone looked like they were having a ton of fun.

I do not believe he's approaching this from their kind of angst - hostility at not being desired by the women they want. Because it's more than obvious that Peter has zero problems attracting women. Equally desired women at that. But I do think it's within the realm of possibility that some of his actions on the show could be based on those strategies. I think he had a goal and he did what he had to do to reach it. Whether others agree or disagree with his tactics is a different story. --- General comment not directed to anyone in particular: To the overall discussion about Peter, I don't think hashing out theories, possibilities, analyzing, and relating to certain behaviors necessarily equates to disparaging someone for the sake of . A discussion is not an echo chamber.

Yes! Exactly. Straight out of the PUA handbook.

I'm sorry that happened to you. Thank you for sharing your story. Your observations are things that I noticed as well: the little criticisms he made when they were together and yes, he was very handsy with her around the other guys. I wonder why? <smirks> It's great to see that others noticed these things too. Sometimes I think I'm imagining stuff when I writing some of my observations about this show, because the reactions are so strong. The only thing I part ways with you on is that IMO, his actions were very deliberate, but what you wrote is definitely food for thought.

Bryan treats her like his future wife. The way she should be treated. As for the show, I agree that Rachel deserved better. It was too focused on building up and tearing down certain men and Rachel by extension. Instead of focusing on Rachel's journey to finding the right partner. Luckily, she was able to wade through the muck and connect with a good man. One who wanted the same things she did, at the same time.

Here's a great article that supports some of what a few of us have been saying: https://www.yahoo.com/news/those-think-rachel-settled-bachelorette-183015451.html

It's amazing to me that people feel such an affront to the idea of someone wanting to get married, on a show about finding a mate to marry. Makes no sense to me, but whatever! Everyday I have to wade through some statistic or think piece about how down and out Black women are. How there are so many out of wedlock births, so much romantic dysfunction. How professional Black women are not finding mates to marry. But here we have one on national television, saying look, I've got my education, my career, life experience, and now I'm ready to get married. So that's what she pursues. If someone else comes along and doesn't want those things, why is that her fault? But that's taking the show literal, at its word; that is believing it's main purpose is to match-make like-minded, marriage minded adults. No. This show is mainly about entertainment, and if love and marriage results, so be it. Since the author of that article cited UnReal (which is ironic, considering), here's a thought: Production pushed her to keep Peter, because he was their top pick for the next Bachelor. I really don't think anyone else (not even Dean) was a real consideration. The final talk between Peter and Rachel was so producer driven. They trapped them in that suite for four hours! Don't believe me? Ask Sarah Gertrude Shapiro what kind of tactics they use to break these people down and get what they want. But I'm not going to go over it again. I think I laid out a thorough example in my earlier post of what I believed happened. Whether it's true or not, we'll probably never know. At least not anytime soon. I cannot wait until this franchise is cancelled so we can start getting the books and documentaries about what went on behind the scenes. For now, I guess all we have to reference is UnReal.

The operative word I used was might. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine. Take care.

LOL, yes, My Twitter has tumbleweeds rolling by and Facebook is too frantic. I've followed some of the comments on the contestants Instagram pages the past couple of weeks due to all the fervor. But it's hard to keep up. I prefer sticking to forum discussions.

And let's just call it what it is. The negative perception of the most minute actions by Rachel might be contributed to racial stereotypes and some individuals' comfort with viewing others through those kinds of lenses. How many times has she been called sassy? How many times has the term "attacked" been used to describe her conversation with Peter. How many times has desperate been used in regard to the Proposal argument? Angry? Hostile? What played out on the show: Rachel's casting is a product of ABC and the show's producers creating a narrative that clears them of former charges of racial bias in the franchise. But by casting men like Peter, that helps them set up and continue their usual formula in the upcoming season. The other person that commented made a good point. There is a tremendous amount of Network and producer meddling in this situation. I think from the start the story line was set up and they knew they wanted Peter as the next lead. they ensured this in multiple ways: By casting people like Lee, Will, DeMario and quite of few others that also had no interest in her, and would only prove to devalue her and paint her as having poor judgement. By maintaining a makeup artist and hair stylist that are highly unskilled in working with Black women's skin and hair to feed into the stereotype of undesirability. I'm just keeping it real here.. I also think they accomplished their goals by helping Peter along throughout the season. Feeding him info to help win Rachel over. They do extensive interviews when casting. Including psychological evaluations. They know these individuals buttons through and through. Know how to manipulate situations to achieve a certain result. But some things cannot be concealed. Many of us could see in the footage that aired, that Peter's body language and the delivery of his words screamed, not interested. He was not falling for her. That it was an act. But she was in the thick of it and just could not see for herself. She's not the audience at home or the puppet-master. She's in the middle of it, probably being pulled in a million directions. I think now, that she can look back at the footage, compare it to what we didn't see and get a fuller picture of what happened and I think she feels humiliated and foolish. To the person that said, she should be careful because the Network is not on her side - I wholeheartedly agree. They are not on her side. I think her demeanor is an internal cauldron boiling over. She is kind of trapped between maintaining her dignity, and keeping smooth relations with the network, contractually and so she doesn't burn bridges (for future financial and career opportunities). Otherwise, I have no doubt dirty laundry would be aired.

I would be on board with your take on Peter, but the idea that he is seriously considering being The Bachelor, negates everything you stated. He has ambitions - fine. He wants to be famous - fine. He wasn't into Rachel enough to want to propose to her - fine. What is not fine is lying, deceit, playing victim, throwing out dog whistles when you get called out on your actions and using friends, family and other surrogates to disparage this woman. A woman you know had deep feelings for you. Rachel's family is not disparaging this man. Her real friends (not television friends) are not disparaging this man. The circumstances and environment do not matter. It's called human decency.

And he knew that way before the final two. So, what does that say about him? Please. Spare me.

Now you know if I would have posted that, I would have gotten another reprimand. LOL

Thank you. Re: Peter I'm with you on that theory. I think that's his story line: Walls up, Loses woman. Meets new women. Walls down. Falls in Love. Proposes. Fade to black.

Exactly. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not to his own facts.