Spoiler Alert! The Bachelor Ben Flajnik’s season just got a whole lot more interesting. The show has been running promos of a mystery woman who was scheduled to make her debut mid-season. She finally showed up during the San Francisco episode that aired January 16th, 2012.
As the drama unfolded tonight, with the help of show host Chris Harrison, she walked in on the middle of a cocktail party. Fans of the show never saw this one coming… the woman was none other than Shawntel the mortician back from the dead. In case you don’t remember, she was one of the last woman rejected on Brad Womack’s season (version 2). And guess what? She claims she is already head over heels in love with the winemaker. Uh-oh. So much for Ben F not being man enough to keep up ratings!
The girls all thought she was an ex-girlfriend, but the totally unexpected new competitor on the show has had her eye on Ben for some time now. She said she wanted to be at the rose ceremony and wants to get a rose. He said he enjoyed the times the two spoke in the past. They he told her he was not sure whether or not he would be giving her a rose.
Asking for a few minutes to collect himself, he said he hoped the other girls would be gracious and welcoming. Ha! The girls responded that she was not part of them and all essentially said no go.
Apparently Shawntel thinks there is something between her and Ben F. The girls actually yelled at her that she does not know Ben and totally were nasty to her for having been in love with Brad Womack in the past.
The general consensus was that Shawntel was being a B*tch and that she was unfairly winning a free pass for having been on a season past.
The model was the one who got the most hostile, claiming she was considering not staying if Shawntel was allowed in the rose ceremony. They called her Brad’s dumpster trash and said she was a loser. They also called her Brad’s leftovers.
The women were irritated, clearly. However, she says she is there for Ben F — and maybe, just maybe she means it.
Ben’s trouble is that he openly admits that Shawntel is exactly the kind of woman he would like to date in real life. Ending the cocktail party early, they went straight to the rose ceremony.
With Ben saying he was totally confused, he was justifiably worried that if he let her stay he might be missing out on a chance to find love with the women who were already there and competing above-board and right.
However, since one contestant went home early — canceling their one on one date and heading home because her heart was not in it (the girl who brought her grandma with her the first night), technically, if Shawntel would enter the contest as her replacement, no other women would be mathematically at more of a disadvantage.
Ben Flajnik tried to handle the difficult situation like a gentleman, saying he trusted his judgement in the process. Courtney flipped out that the brunette was there, calling her, “What’s her butt”. Casey B was crying. All the girls commentary alluded to incredible tension. There was eye rolling when he gave a rose to Blakely, but nothing like the venom Chantal O was getting.
At the end of the night when it came time to hand out the last rose of the night, the remaining women were crying and whining about getting dumped by a girl they thought he had known for three minutes. It was when he finally started to hand it out, one of the girls actually passed out on the floor. Erica fainted, Jacqueline was bawling, Chantal O was left staring and scowling at the floor. The three-ring circus (as one of the contestants called it) was reasonably hilarious.
Eventually, Ben Flajnick had to give the final rose out to one of the girls. Did it go to Brad Womack’s leftovers Shawntel?
NO! He refused to hand out the final rose. All the girls who were talking the most trash about Shawntel and Shawntel herself all were sent home.
What will she do now? After the sting wears off, maybe she could date Brad Womack again. We hear he’s still single. Yo ho!