Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell were pretty much always fated to be together.
That much was made abundantly clear during their season of The Bachelor. It was one of the better seasons of the reality hit, but it was pretty predictable.
What about now, though? Can they make love last?
We’ve always wondered just how well these reality TV relationships function without the lavish trips, private concerts and just generally away from The Bachelor.
That’s probably why Freeform felt the need to make a series about it. If you still don’t know what the heck Freeform is, it’s the new name for ABC Family.
The network is struggling to find a hit, so considering The Bachelor performs well for their parent network, they probably assumed this iteration would be guaranteed ratings.
Ben and Lauren are just like the rest of us. We picked up with the two of them at the taping of The Bachelorette‘s After the Final Rose.
In an instant, it was pretty clear that Lauren was nervous about being there. This was because she and JoJo competed together on Ben’s season of The Bachelor.
Ben even told JoJo he loved her throughout filming, so there was always going to be some beef between JoJo and Lauren. It makes perfect sense that we would pick up with them at this taping.
It immediately puts a sense of jeopardy on the relationship. Lauren feels like Ben could just easily ditch her and move on to JoJo.
Ben and Lauren had their first argument of the night, but Ben did admit they probably should not have attended the taping. There’s a great chance that Ben did not even want to go at all.
Ben then revealed to Lauren that he wanted her to be happy, but taking her within 15 meters of JoJo Fletcher was most definitely not the best way to show that.
There is always going to be tension with JoJo. Poor Lauren probably squeals every time she reads reports of JoJo Fletcher breaking up with Jordan Rodgers.
For all we know, the couple could be on a strict itinerary to get content for the show. That’s sort of what happens in reality TV, but I guess they knew what they were signing up for before signing on the dotted line.
We were treated to a flashback of the couple being invited on the show with JoJo. Lauren knew immediately that there was something amiss.
It’s hard to imagine that the scene was genuinely filmed one month before, either. Flashbacks in reality TV makes them seem even more fake, so they’re best ditching them.
Poor Lauren could not escape JoJo and that’s probably because the couple could binged The Bachelorette. It’s all pretty ridiculous.
Lauren made the observation that JoJo has a clear type of men. They also shaded some of the contestants. Don’t they realize that they are being filmed?
Lauren reeled in Haley and Emily Ferguson for some advice about going to the After the Final Rose taping. They were very neutral about the whole thing, but said that if she went, it would prove they have all moved on.
The ladies took a trip to the toilet store and went completely crazy. They were running around the store like children. It was actually pretty obnoxious.
All of the drama from the day resulted in the women trying to install a new toilet in the bathroom, but Ben swooped in to save the day.
Later, Ben and Lauren had yet another bust up when JoJo called, inviting he and Lauren to lunch with her and Jordan.
Lauren went off on one because she was not consulted before he made the decision. To be fair to the dude, he was sort of put on the spot by JoJo.
We then returned to the scene that opened the show, with the couple on After the Final Rose. Ben gave his speech to JoJo and it Lauren was blatantly pissed off about the whole thing.
If we want to see what went down on the lunch date, we have to tune in to Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After? Season 1 Episode 2, but we get the feeling that a lot of viewers will not return.
As a standalone episode with some more footage would probably have had a bigger impact with viewers, but keeping up with the bickering on a weekly basis will probably be cumbersome for most.
They are no Sam and Ronnie from Jersey Shore.
What did you think of Ben & Lauren?
Hit the comments.
Have a look at what’s coming up on the series below:
