['The Bachelorette' - 'Season 7, Episode 3']

Step aside, Wes Hayden, there's a new bad boy in town, and his hair is way better than yours. No season of 'The Bachelorette' would be complete without the guy you love to hate, but after this week's performance, Bentley Williams may be reality TV's Public Enemy Number One.

For three episodes, we've seen the single dad (someone call CPS) preen and scheme and cackle malevolently at Ashley's ignorance (and, to be fair, the girl has made some pretty laughable decisions this season), but the drama came to a head tonight.

Not because Bentley chose to own up and admit that he'd rather swim in pee than go on a wedding-themed date with our Bachelorette, of course, but because, up until the bitter end, he still had Ashley convinced that he was on the show for the Right Reasons.

Someone hand that man an Emmy.



Don't get me wrong, no matter how much of a douche Bentley was, I've still never wanted to slap a reality TV contestant more than I wanted to smack some sense into Ashley tonight (seriously, even more than Snooki and the Kardashians combined). After all the warnings, all the signals, all of the soulless detachment behind Bentley's glassy eyes, the girl still somehow fell in love with him? After two weeks? She doesn't need sympathy, she needs psychiatric help.

Sure, Bentley talked a good game, and despite having no one-on-one dates with our dancing dentist, somehow managed to brainwash her into thinking he was a decent guy, but with genuinely sweet, sincere bachelors vying for her hand and ex-wives issuing ominous warnings before filming even started, are we seriously supposed to believe that her BS-meter wasn't measuring off the charts? If she truly thought Bentley was The One after two weeks of smarm and half-hearted compliments, I can't summon up much empathy.

Still, it's never fun to see someone having their misguided heart ripped from their delicate, flat chest (more on that in a moment) and I can't be the only one who is a little concerned that dead-eyed, perfectly coiffed Bentley is going to go out into the real world and join forces with dead-eyed, perfectly coiffed Jake Pavelka to bring about the rise of the machines that James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been foretelling for all these years, can I?

The guy is a complete sociopath (didn't you dig the way he deadpanned "heartbreak is worse than any illness, in my opinion," like a Child of the Corn?) -- he must've been the type of kid who pulled the wings off butterflies and fried ants under a magnifying glass. From using his daughter as his excuse for leaving, to emotionlessly noting that he could've totally started something sexy, brah, when Ashley's legs were wrapped around him, he took the concept of mind games to a whole new level. Creepo.

If Michelle Money (crazy obviously begets crazy) was right and Bentley's endgame on the show was to promote his business, I'm pretty sure he's regretting that decision -- and looking for a new career path and witness protection -- right about now. Given his performance over the past three weeks, though, he's probably really hoping that a disgruntled fan will torch his office and allow him to scoop the insurance payout.


The worst part of it all was that by the end of the episode, Ashley still truly believed that Bentley was leaving for his daughter's sake, and not just because he's a giant tool -- it's fairly tragic, in a hilariously absurd way.

All of this begs the question of whether the show's producers should've stepped in to warn Ashley about Bentley's intentions once they started seeing his video confessionals. Certainly, they've been milking the Bentley scandal for all that it's worth from the get-go, and I doubt that many of us are naive enough to believe that Ashley's feelings or her quest for love truly come before ratings from a network standpoint, but does the show have a responsibility to protect Ashley? Or do the show's producers see themselves like wildlife documentary filmmakers, honor-bound not to interfere in what they see, regardless of whether or not the sweet, innocent baby bird is about to be eaten by the gigantic, well-groomed snake?

Even ignoring the Bentley wreck, some truly bad decisions from the other bachelors meant that it wasn't a fabulous week for our perky Bachelorette on any front -- and I'm not just talking about Ben C.'s attempts at dancing. (He was actually kind of cute, right?)

Preppy William, who was probably a frontrunner before Ashley got all twitterpatted by the evil genius, managed to destroy every ounce of appeal he once had by completely shattering Ashley's self-esteem at the comedy roast. Sexy.

Again, our lovelorn heroine was kind of cuckoo-bananas for thinking that a roast would be an enjoyable way to spend an evening (they're not even all that fun to watch, let alone participate in -- just ask The Situation) but William was completely nuts for actually taking the concept seriously.

Roasting the other suitors was much safer ground, and a couple of the guys had some pretty sharp zingers (most of them involving Jeff and his kinky mask), but not only did William hit upon Ashley's most obvious shortcoming (or should that be flatcoming?) -- her chest -- he then proceeded to take a page out of Bentley's playbook and bemoan the fact that they were stuck with Ashley instead of Emily and Chantal; I'm sure she's never been more charmed.

The ensuing waterworks set the whole week on a downhill spiral, with William gallantly suggesting he should leave, before wussing out on the idea, and driving Ashley straight into Bentley's manipulative arms. One standout was dreamy Ryan, our solar-powered hottie, who managed to cheer Ashley up with his kisses and compliments and dimples and general yumminess.

The Bentley drama also kind of scuppered J.P.'s chance at a romantic, exotic date, since he got saddled with a puffy-eyed Ashley and take-out in front of her fireplace, but it turned out to be a sweet, low-key night that thankfully reassured us that Bentley's kisses sucked compared to J.P.'s -- karma!

After last week's almost-reveal, Phantom of the Bachelor Pad Jeff finally got to unveil the top part of his face, much to the amazement of no-one. Aside from making his nose look slightly less squashed, it was entirely anticlimactic, seeing as he hasn't been wearing a balaclava and the whole eyewear-as-disguise shtick hasn't been convincing since Clark Kent. Ashley finally ended the madness and sent him home, which is just as well, since he and Bentley seemed to have some sort of eerie bathroom bromance going on that was better left unexamined.

Ashley also sent a guy called Chris home, but as I had completely forgotten his name, I doubt we'll be losing any sleep over him. She did give William a second chance, but I'm pretty skeptical that he'll be able to charm his way back into her good graces. Meanwhile, since Bentley insisted on keeping the " ... " in their relationship, I'm betting that we haven't seen the last of him. Hopefully, if he does return, Ashley will give him a slap from all of America; he's certainly more deserving of it than Brad.

'The Bachelorette' airs Mondays at 8PM ET on ABC.

Do you think the 'Bachelorette' producers should've warned Ashley about Bentley's intentions once they first witnessed him manipulating her? Or do you think they were right to stay out of the way and let Ashley discover the truth (or not) in her own time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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