“That’s why everybody hates me—because I wasn’t willing to play along,” said Chad during Tuesday night’s Men Tell All episode of The Bachelorette, where the men JoJo rejected (sans her final two) converged to discuss the season. Well, Chad, that’s sort of true.
“They’re all here for a reason,” he said of his fellow contestants, outlining the many things they wanted to promote (their businesses, themselves), claiming (as he has before) that none of them were really “here for the right reasons,” as the saying goes. Chad’s moment in the hot seat was certainly more than a moment—it really dragged on—and it was hard to take seriously, given that, well, if everyone’s here to get something, what is he here to get?
Chad brought up how lovely Grant and Robby’s ex-girlfriends (he and others claim Grant and Robby broke up with these women and then quickly signed up for the show) are, but didn’t explain how it was appropriate for him to be seen dabbling with each of them as the show has aired. But ignorance was the name of the game last night (and perhaps always on this show): “Chad, back up, nobody knows who you guys are talking about,” Chris Harrison said to him, ignoring the fact that actually, a lot of people read Reality Steve and do know who he’s talking about. They also know that the line-up of men the producers cast for JoJo this season were hardly Grade A beef.
Chad’s shtick is that he’s real, that he’ll tell a truth—he said last night that JoJo probably didn’t want to keep him around because he was the bad guy and people would think less of her—but all the while ignoring his own truth. It’s hard to critique a system when you’re still in it; on the one hand, you still have the dirt, while on the other, you’re still benefitting from it. He pulled no punches, and frankly, that ABC aired his worst insults and spoilers shows that they’re as bad as they’re painting him out to be.
“Obviously we know that Robby broke up with his girlfriend days before filming in order to be on the show to be with you. And we both know Jordan is a liar cheater whose own older brother won’t even talk to him,” Chad said to JoJo during their confrontation, her face trying to hold back displeasure. We do know that—though why we know that was of course never acknowledged—but then things moved swiftly along. JoJo claimed she could “go off right now,” but then of course did not, not wanting to give credence to his comments about her suitors, or sully her image. She said it was because he wasn’t worth her breath, which is a disingenuous way of saying that he had played his part, and now he was done.