Only three episodes deep into Bachelor in Paradise and they have already thoroughly established who is supposedly this season’s stage five clinger: Rachel Gouvignon.
Rachel is coming off as the intense read-for-commitment-like-right-now girl, who still holds a torch for her original Bachelor, Richie Strahan.
It’s the treatment that Cassie got in Honey Badger’s Bachelor season, and it’s the treatment many more have had before them. There’s always going to be a melodramatic desperado, because the show editors will make sure of it.
So far, the general consensus among the Bachelor In Paradise audience is that yes, Rachel is too keen.
#BachelorInParadiseAU
any boy: hey
Rachel: pic.twitter.com/d0wQMgFNgp— Ellie (@ellieinparadise) April 11, 2019
Anyone who has watched even one episode of Unreal knows that footage and people can be manipulated to say the things that the producers need them to say. They make us believe what they want us to, and they make people play characters.
According to the footage from Wednesday night’s episode, when Richie didn’t give Rachel his last rose, she fainted.
The mockery of Rachel and what appears to be melodramatic desperation is in full force online.
Rachel when Richie didn’t pick her #BachelorInParadiseAU pic.twitter.com/S93fdkR8zx
— Finja.he (@he_finja) April 10, 2019
But as we should know with reality TV, everything is not always as it seems. First off, fans pointed out that the shots that are cut into a sequence seem to show Brittney with Cat to her left at times, and other times just empty space. Very suspicious.
Secondly, Rachel took to Instagram to clarify that the dramatic moment was actually just an unrelated shot cut in to look like a reaction.
“I fell off the stairs!” she wrote on Instagram Story. “Not a reaction to Richie’s pick!”
Rachel also responded to fans in the comments section confirming that the editing has made her out to be “10000000%” more desperate than the reality.
According to her, the dramatic faint was actually just a reaction to a bug flying past and her then falling off the stairs.
Both the audience and contestants know they’re getting into this when jumping on board with reality dating shows like Bachelor in Paradise, so we can’t honestly say we’re surprised.
Every season will have a bad guy, a wifey, a loose unit, and a stage five clinger. Every time.