A truly bizarre rivalry was born during episode 2 of Jenn Tran‘s The Bachelorette season but producers are being called out for allegedly doing something that adds to the bizarreness of it all.
If you didn’t have the pleasure of watching the episode, you missed a group of guys being angered at one guy who got a lot of Jenn’s time because he wasn’t afraid to steal one-on-one’s with her, unlike them.
Jenn seemed happy about Devin‘s attention, even sealing their last little date with a kiss and later defending him in a truly awkward moment when Thomas just couldn’t get over the fact that Devin kept stealing her so he interrupted them and — instead of just asking her for time like Devin would — he asked to talk with Devin alone.
Yet, all of this was occurring over the backdrop of the rapidly growing rivalry between Devin and Aaron. If you watched the episode, you were likely wondering why everyone and their grandma had a problem with Devin spending time with Jenn. Many of the other guys whined about it all. The king of this mentality was Aaron who was so self-righteous that he confronted Devin early on and flat-out told him he felt he wasn’t there for the right reasons. Given how often Devin saw Jenn then that seemed like a strange statement to make.
Aaron took things to another level, constantly talking down to Devin, referring to him as a boy, calling him “Dillon” multiple times despite being corrected, and even had the nerve to call him a bully — something that Aaron actually was to Devin, not the other way around like he suggested.
That’s when Bachelorette producers apparently decided to make a bold move. At first, it just seemed odd. Aaron decided to call a truce and gifted Devin a book titled “The Principles of Self-Growth,” by Dr. Brandon O’Connor. Devin understandably took it as another way for Aaron to look down on him, a way to tell him that he has a lot to learn, especially considering Devin just finds him annoying and has no clue why Aaron is so uptight with him.
Here’s the problem, however, which leads to a bigger one.
Even though Aaron handed Devin this book, it appears that the book does not even exist.
People went online to search for the book and it’s nowhere to be found. Even self-published out-of-print books will still show up online. This one doesn’t. Is it a completely fabricated book?
A screenshot from the episode even shows that the book’s title is misspelled on the spine. The whole thing seems thrown together. Then people remembered that when Aaron’s twin brother Noah was on the show 3 years ago and was caught up in a rivalry, it resulted in his rival offering him a self-help book. It’s not like this is a regular occurrence on the show, either. In fact, I can’t think of any other book-giving moments in the franchise’s history outside of these two,
The producers seemed to be clearly playing on that history. The franchise has been riddled over the years with moments completely created by the producers. If this latest endeavor is yet another example of that then it would not be difficult to believe.
One thing is certainly true: No one can find the book. It seems to be a complete fake. Did Aaron himself create this completely BS book or was it given to him by producers who are known to encourage the suitors to do what they want them to do?
Is Devin in on it? Is this whole scene thrown together by producers who talked both men into it?
It’s yet another bad look for the “reality” show. Indeed, the franchise is always less about true love and more about true ratings.
Sometimes it’s real, most times it’s unreal but if you believe it’s all real then I have a self-help book to sell you.