The Golden Bachelor eliminates Faith and loses ours in the process

Poor Faith. After Gerry’s full-fledged meltdown last week, horse-owner and first-impression rose receiver Faith is the one to get the chop. We can’t say we’re all that surprised—apropos of nothing, our money is on Theresa—but Faith sure was. As she should be! Lest we forget, Gerry told her he loved her in front of her children and grandchildren. Faith just made the fatal mistake of assuming the man we’ve all been sold as “good” and “kind” actually was. How was she supposed to know he made two other women the exact same promises within the exact same week? Even host Jesse Palmer was visibly shocked before last week’s rose ceremony.

As is tradition in OG Bachelor, Faith’s post-hometown elimination was announced during the season’s “Women Tell All” episode to maximize on those sweet tears ABC so dearly craves. Why have a devastated and jilted Faith disappear into the sunset in a black jeep, when she could instead confront Gerry about her heartbreak for the very first time live and on camera?

And oh boy, did ABC get those tears. Full body sobs to be more accurate. Gerry and Faith embrace and weep for a few miserably silent seconds, while the camera zooms as close as possible to their blubbering faces. It’s all pretty awful to watch and reinforces—yet again—that The Bachelor is a whole lot less fun when its contestants are losing out on a whole lot more than a Revolve sponsorship.

The ensuing conversation is equally as gut-wrenching as the shot before. In her car ride away from the mansion, Faith laments, “I saw hope in both my son’s eyes… I wanted so much more for me. I wanted to much more for my kids. Maybe it’s just not in the cards for me.” She continues: “For the past 20 years, I didn’t really open myself to love, so I thought, ‘Okay, if I feel anything at all, I’m gonna go all in.’ It just shattered me.” To reiterate, this man knowingly broke down “30 years of walls” Faith had put up to protect herself (and her family!) from this exact kind of heartbreak and Gerry bulldozed them right down so he could figure out what was best for him.

Faith should be screaming at him. One of the younger women might have. But instead, she not only thanks him for making her feel “so safe,” but apologizes for being selfish for… some reason. This is the real headline of the Women Tell All. To a person, these women are so unduly gracious and so unbelievably forgiving when the person they were being gracious to more than deserves to be knocked down a peg.

There’s an icky power dynamic being played out here, where Gerry almost needs these women’s forgiveness to go on with the fantasy that he’s a good and righteous person who couldn’t hurt a fly. “I think the saddest part… is that I wasn’t able to try and talk to you so that you understood a little bit [why I eliminated you],” he tells Faith in their conversation, a sentiment to which Faith extends her full pardon even though Gerry doesn’t really explain it very well here, either. This is obviously the fault of years of societal conditioning, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Across the episode, multiple women talked about how the experience of being on this show made them feel more confident, sexy, and seen than they had been in years. Hopefully, the next step on that journey involves a little more righteous anger.

You can stream The Golden Bachelor now on Hulu.