'The Bachelorette' - 'Let Me Be Frank' Recap
Someone needs to alert ABC -- I think that there was a little confusion on primetime tonight. Many of us tuned in to see 'The Bachelorette,' but seemingly found ourselves watching a brand new spin-off called 'The Frankette' instead. The promos for this week's episode gave us plenty of warning about the that a trainwreck was coming, but no 30-second clip can truly do justice to the epic level of douchiness Frank displayed last night. So if the "surprise!-but-not-really" reunion between Frank and his "sickened" ex didn't just make you flip channels to see what MTV was showing, join us after the jump to try and figure out what the frak we just witnessed ...
Things started off jovially enough with Chris and Roberto packing for Tahiti inbetween slow, thoughtful shots of them staring contemplatively into mirrors, or at baseballs, as if they held the secrets to the meaning of life. But then Frank had to go and ruin it all with his now prerequisite angsting and over-analyzing, deciding that before he could truly give his heart to Ali, he needed to visit his ex-girlfriend in Chicago to make sure that he was "over her" ... because that always works out so well.
It's a given that reality dating shows are designed to be tacky, and 'The Bachelor' and 'The Bachelorette' franchises in particular are designed to turn dating into one huge, televised exercise in cheating with 20 people at once, but I've never been more tempted to change the channel than I was when Frank made his "impromptu" visit to see his ex, Nicole.
And wasn't it amazing how such a spur-of-the-moment visit could seem so perfectly orchestrated in Nicole's
Not so much, I'm afraid. I seriously thought that I'd stumbled onto an episode of 'The Hills' by accident, and that Audrina was about to pop out from behind a curtain to tell Nicole and Frank all about her latest escapades with Justin Bobby. The whole thing just seemed ... gross. We signed up to see Ali's search for love (and maybe also to ridicule a weatherman): Who gives a damn about the dating follies of the flaky dude who lives with his parents and has more psychological ups and downs than a yo-yo?
By the time he revealed the truth to Ali, I'd moved on from bored and weirded-out to just plain irritated by the guy; Ali summoned up plenty of righteous anger over Justin, but Frank was final three, and Ali had just met his parents. For him to decide that he was doing the "right thing" at this late stage in the game, after so much time and energy had already been invested in their relationship, was utterly laughable, not to mention hurtful.
I'm the first to admit that a hefty amount of the 'Bachelor/ette' is contrived, but there was nothing fake about Ali's tears when Frank told her the truth, nor her reaction to the latest in a long line of knocks against her fragile self-esteem. To hear the woman say "I can't help but think there's something wrong with me," because another guy was a douche to her is so heartbreaking. I have a feeling that if Frank hadn't made everything so FUBAR this week, the eventual outcome of the show would have been entirely different -- how about you guys?
The episode saved all the drama for the end, but Ali did have two cute dates with Roberto and Chris beforehand -- sharing a retreat on a heart-shaped island with Roberto and searching for pearls in the surf with Chris. It's hard to imagine that she would have sent either of them home, but I feel like it might've been poor, long-suffering Chris on the chopping block had Frank stuck around. I'm glad he got a chance to deepen his connection with her, a relationship which Ali later compared to the creation of a pearl -- aww!
Both guys got their time in the fantasy suite with Ali, but was there canoodling, or just stimulating conversation? I hope that our bachelorette got in all the happy time she could before Frank dropped the ex-bomb on her.
It made me kind of sad that Chris actually admitted that he loved Ali outside the fantasy suite, but she didn't say it back -- I'm clearly too much of a sucker for romance novels. Both guys are slowly but surely opening up to her, but I hope this setback with Flaky Frank won't make her pull away from them: I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to call it quits altogether after being so obviously head over heels for the guy.
BOO, FRANK, BOO. Go back to Chicago and never show your face on a reality show again! My heart can't take all the drama ...
But Roberto and Chris survived another week. Will either of them get Ali's final rose and the chance to propose? Next week, we'll hear the men "Tell All" in a special
Share your thoughts on Frank's decision below, and if you have any burning questions for our Bachelorette, we'll be chatting to Ali herself at around 2PM Eastern/11AM Pacific, so leave them in the comments!
[Follow Laura on Twitter @LauinLA.]

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