The Most Repugnant Rose Ceremony Ever

I think I might be the only person who watched "The Bachelor: After the Final Rose" and didn't come away from it thinking Jason was the biggest jerkface of all time (any number of Bachelors before him were far more horrible). And that's ironic coming from a woman who has been dumped in a humiliating manner more than once. (But it all comes back to karma as I have broken up with guys over email AND voicemail.) ANYWAY. Yeah. I didn't think what he did was that bad!

First, none of these relationships works out. (And don't throw Tristan and Ryan at me. That was "The Bachelorette," and I am still positive Ryan has a soundproof closet in his house wherein he screams to high heaven at least once a day as a way of expressing his utter horror that he is married to that baby-talking famewhore...But he's a nice guy and is sticking around because of the children.) A proposal is always made on the season finale, and a few weeks, or months later, the couple breaks up. OF COURSE they do. They now have to pay for their dates, and actually talk to each other, and sleep together, and things are bound to be different. It is not that shocking that these kinds of relationships fail. So the only difference here is Jason dumped his choice on TV.

It is very likely that the producers of the show wanted to cash in on the continuing trend of romantic failure, and, once they found out Jason was having second thoughts, convinced him to do the breaking up on TV. I'm sure money was involved. And Jason, after counting said money, justified this as a chance to tell the world what happened, instead of leaving it to speculation if the break-up were just left to a brief mention in EW's "Milestones" section.

I don't think he's a bad guy for breaking up with Melissa. What was he supposed to do once he realized he really wasn't in love with her, and didn't want to spend the rest of his life with her? Go through with it anyway? To spare her feelings? Of course not. The counter argument is probably that he shouldn't have proposed in the first place. But that's the show. The guys propose. And if either of the people goes into finale really thinking they've found true love, then that's their naivety, and that's their fault. It's. A. SHOW.

I'm also pretty sure Melissa did not go into that "After the Final Rose" show NOT knowing she was about to get dumped. She could have refused to appear. But she didn't, so I don't feel sorry for her for being "humiliated."

As for his decision to try it with Molly, well, that's a little sketchier. But I think the honest reaction to the situation is that yes, you would automatically think, "I wonder if I chose the wrong girl?", and want to try it with Miss Runner-Up. Asking her out RIGHT AFTER YOU'VE JUST DUMPED SOMEONE, is not a classy thing to do in real life, of course. But once again, this is TV. This is not real life. And they had TV time to fill. And they happened to have Molly standing right over there....

So, in conclusion, I do not think Jason is the Worst Bachelor Ever (I think that honor goes to Bob Guiney, just for the amount of sheer disappointment we had as we watched him go from goofy-fun-guy to complete-and-utter lech), I just think he's the Bachelor With the Least Ability to Judge What Should and Should Not Be Done in Front of a National TV Audience.