‘The Bachelor’ Recap: Things get complicated between Peter and Madison

Fantasy suite week gets dramatic as Madison shakes things up.

Pilot Pete and the remaining three contestants on this season of The Bachelor — Hannah Ann, Victoria F., and Madison — traveled to Gold Coast, Australia, on Monday night’s episode. If you’re familiar with the show, you know this means one thing: fantasy suites. If you’re not familiar with the show, this means the titular hunk (or babe if it’s The Bachelorette) has a chance to spend some quality intimate time with each of his love interests.

Which means sex. They get to have sex if they want to.

This posed a problem for Madison, who, because of her strong faith, is waiting until marriage to lose her virginity. That’s awesome! I fully respect that decision and her dedication to it.

My question is: Why did she sign up for this show?

We are in the millionth 24th season of The Bachelor. The formula is not a surprise at this point. When four women are left, you do hometown visits. When three are left, you have the opportunity for sexy time. It’s not a guarantee that the Bachelor/ette sleeps with all three (Hannah Brown last season made a point to say that she did not sleep with Tyler Cameron because he was literally TOO sexy and she felt she had to connect with him on a non-physical level), but, yeah, plenty of sex is had.

During Madison’s hometown visit, viewers found out about her virginity via a conversation between her and her mother. After last week’s rose ceremony, Madison pulled Peter aside. Without sharing the reasoning behind not wanting him to be intimate with the other ladies — you know, beyond the general weirdness of the man you want to marry juggling three ongoing relationships — she delivers a vague ultimatum intimating that if he slept with any of the other women, he’d jeopardize their connection.

Look, we know and accept the unrealistic premise of the show in that most winning contestants accept proposals from people who slept with another person just days before, but that’s the setup. The Bachelor isn’t popular because it facilitates normal relationships or even anything remotely adjacent. Contestants compete against each other to win a person’s heart in a matter of weeks with limited one-on-one time and constant drama. While Madison’s personal feelings are understandable, she knew fantasy suite week was on the horizon and didn’t have an up-front conversation with Peter before that happened.

As a result of the hometown visits, Peter sent Kelsey home (him keeping Victoria around is another conversation for another day), who had expressed her love for him. Wouldn’t it have been more fair to allow Peter to make his decision heading into the fantasy suite week with all available information?

So many seasons of this show have left me cynical, wondering if this isn’t in some way a stunt or angling on Madison’s part to become next season’s Bachelorette. You could have made this stance at any point, say, before he left your house after the hometown visit. At least at that point he could weigh his options regarding aligning values, your expectations, and your relationship.

Maybe Madison thought Peter would be different, but there is literally no evidence to indicate that would be the case. Hell, the only two things that people could point out about him following his stint on Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette was that 1) he was a pilot, and 2) they had sex in a windmill.

Search “Peter Weber Windmill” on Google, and this is a sampling of what you get:

You can’t even make the case that Madison didn’t know it was Peter. “I’m so excited the Bachelor is Peter,” Madison said with a giggle and huge grin in her pre-recorded video in the first episode of the season. “I just think he’s really sweet and really genuine.”

The producers did everything they could to turn the drama up to 11, including having all three women SHARE A SUITE and making Madison’s date last of the three. Peter did have sex with both Hannah Ann and Victoria, a fact he reluctantly shared with Madison during the dinner portion of their date.

“The last thing I wanted to do was put you in an uncomfortable position, or make it seem like it was this ultimatum,” Madison told Peter over dinner. She then shared her expectations for Peter’s actions on these dates ... after the dates had already occurred.

Could things have progressed differently if Peter knew the reasoning behind Madison’s ultimatum? Possibly! Holding yourself to a personal standard is tough and something he clearly respected. But expecting someone else to match that personal standard is unfair when you’re not upfront about it from the get-go.

Madison’s feelings are completely understandable regarding not wanting the guy she loves sleeping with two other women. But, the fact of the matter remains: Peter is not exclusive with Madison at this point, and is openly dating two other women. Because that’s how the show works.

The episode ended with Madison politely excusing herself from the show, leaving Peter brokenhearted. Unfortunately for Madison and Peter, this isn’t the real world — it’s reality television.