You can respect Madison Prewett for the decision she made on the latest episode of The Bachelor to question whether it’s worth it to remain on the show while still believing her ultimatum was unfair. She is very confident in her faith and what she needs out of a man, which is admirable. But Madison, you knew what show this was!
The Auburn native has been a front-runner on The Bachelor since the beginning. She received the first one-on-one date, meeting Peter’s family as his parents renewed their vows. Fortunately for her, the show didn’t make her season arc about the fact that she is a virgin. That information was revealed during the hometown dates. Peter Weber hadn’t learned that Madison was saving sex for marriage when he visited her family. At the rose ceremony where Kelsey Weier was eliminated, Madison pulled Peter aside afterward and warned him subtly that she wouldn’t be able to continue with him if he slept with the other women. In this moment, she was still uncomfortable telling him she was abstaining from intercourse until her wedding day. Peter heard this, but then remembered he has two other women he really wants to sleep with. So that’s what he did.
Of course, Madison’s fantasy suite one-on-one was saved for last. To add to the drama, they put all three women in the same hotel room. Madison went into her date unsure if Peter had been intimate with Hannah Ann Sluss and Victoria Fuller, even though they had returned the following morning. During the night portion of Madison’s date, Peter knew he had to fess up to sleeping with the other two women. Madison finally told Peter that she wasn’t going to have sex until marriage. She didn’t take the news about him being intimate with Hannah Ann and Victoria well. How did she not know this news before? It’s a mystery.
Peter sits awkwardly alone while Madison collects herself outside. When Peter gets impatient, he goes to comfort her. The damage has already been done. Madison walks away. In the coming attractions, she’s not present at the rose ceremony. But then there’s a lot of shots of Peter crying and his mother sobbing - how many times now have we seen “Bring her hooome!” - so we’ll have to wait a couple weeks to see whether Madison factors into any of those emotions. Given the fact that she was basically the entire focus of the fantasy suite episode, she probably does.
Madison made an astute point during her dinner with Peter, explaining to him how hard it would be to accept a proposal from someone who had slept with another woman less than a week prior. It was a reminder of the absolute absurdity of The Bachelor, and how ridiculous it is that a show like this exists in 2020. It’s also, however, a sign that we shouldn’t be criticizing Madison for choosing to walk away from Peter. She, much unlike a certain hypocritical someone from Hannah Brown’s season, is very sure in who she is and what she stands for. Although she was ill-prepared to come up with a plan to address her concerns at the final three, Peter is also at fault for not pulling her aside before he went on a date with Hannah Ann to tell her what to expect. Nonetheless, the producers got what they wanted at the end of the episode, setting up a finale - or, as Chris Harrison likes to say, finaahhle - that should be a proper way to wrap up this chaotic mess of a season.
Next: The Bachelor: Why Madison Waited So Long To Reveal Her Virginity
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8pm EST on ABC.
