Serious Question: Really though, what was Rachel thinking?

Serious Question is when we pose a question and then try to answer it. Usually the question is not very serious.

As The Bachelorette has continued over the years, there’s been obvious pressure for the show to evolve out of its traditional and archaic values toward a more dynamic and inclusive structure, one more encompassing of outcomes or cast members that maybe didn’t fit in with the program’s original design 15 years ago. Rachel, this season’s Bachelorette and the first black Bachelor/ette in history, was often positioned as a symbol of progression within the Bachelorette universe. Look at her, the show said, we’re evolving. As exciting as it was to see the show take this step, it was a bit strange to see them advertise this step for themselves. Stranger than that was how Rachel herself seemed to answer the show’s call and present herself as that same progressive symbol. On last week’s finale, it backfired.

Here’s what happened, if (for some reason) you forgot, or if (for some reason) you don’t watch the show: Rachel was down to two suitors. The first was Peter, a square-jawed visual definition of handsome whose comparable ice-cream flavor would be “vanilla bean” because, while he is indeed plain and sort of boring, he still carries a classical and more refined sensibility. The second suitor was Bryan, a puffy-cheeked visual definition of douchebag whose comparable ice-cream flavor would be “pina colada” because, well, he’s faux-exotic and nobody likes him. Aside from the givens, there was another key difference between Peter and Bryan: Peter wasn’t sure he wanted to propose to Rachel at the end of The Bachelorette, and Bryan was a million percent sure he did. Remember: It’s an option for Rachel to accept a non-proposal and agree to continue a relationship with that suitor instead of, you know, becoming a fiancé after six weeks of serial dating.

Rachel chose Bryan. It pissed a lot of people off. Presented alongside Peter, he is clearly the inferior option, but the caveat was that Rachel voiced clearly she wanted to come out of The Bachelorette with a ring, and only Bryan was willing to take that step with her. Rachel and Peter had discussed an engagement, but Peter continually said—to his credit—that he was only willing to be engaged once in his life, and he wasn’t going to go down on one knee for Rachel until he was positive she was the woman he would (not wanted to—would) spend the rest of his life with. It’s a perfectly reasonable stance regardless of the context of this being a reality show, and when you include the context of this being a reality show (where most of the engaged couples end up calling it off), it’s probably the correct one.

Rachel implored Peter, saying that if he wouldn’t propose it would be a deal-breaker, but the man held to his convictions. A confusing makeout session ensued, I-love-yous were exchanged, and then Rachel left Peter’s life forever. It was a bizarre, frustrating viewing experience, even though it was objectively excellent television.

Much is made nowadays of The Bachelorette’s inner mechanisms, most notably things like the puppetry of the producers and the manipulative strategies employed by the editors. With this in mind, what’s conspicuous about Peter’s one-engagement-only stance is that it’s a clear attack on the franchise itself, even though any explicit mentions of the franchise were left on the cutting room floor. Peter has qualms about being engaged to Rachel because he knows that Bachelor/ette engagements have a notorious fail rate, and those qualms are magnified by the show’s accelerated relationship timeline. It’s a fascinating battle between a top reality-show contestant and the reality show he’s competing on. Peter joined The Bachelorette open to the idea of meeting someone, and even though he met someone he was super into, he never bought all the way in to the more “gamey” aspects of the show. This matters because he never advertised himself as this type of rebel against the form, whereas his counterpart, Rachel, did exactly this even though she still ended up being the complete opposite.

Rachel’s refrain since Week One on The Bachelorette was “I’m not here to play games; I’m here to find a man.” For nine weeks of television, it was delightful to see her not play games. She eviscerated the treacherous DeMario, she dismissed the sweet-but-reactionary Kenny, she saw through Racist Lee, and when early frontrunner Dean showed signs of immaturity and, for lack of a better word, boyishness, she dropped him like an Audi on lease. For audiences, it was a blast to have a Bachelorette who rose above the show’s usual pettiness and kept up a determined and focused pursuit on a husband. Rachel didn’t screw around, basically.

But then came the Peter/Bryan collision. On one hand, Rachel deserves some credit for sticking to her “I’m here for one thing and on thing only: a husband” philosophy, but on the other hand, that’s an absurd thing to be rigid on when you’re the star of a reality dating show where the suitors are out of your control to begin with. Rachel might as well have said, “no matter what, at the end of the day, I’m going to settle.” It’s an approach that contradicts the poise, maturity, and dignity she displayed all season, and it sucks that at the end of it all, she wasn’t really that different than other Bachelorettes at all.

In that sense, Rachel ended up playing to the show’s confines, ironic for someone who broke out of so many of those confines in the first place. It no longer needs to be said that the Bachelor/ette franchise should continue pursuing cast members of all backgrounds and cultures, but it still needs to be said that they should consider stars who rebel against the show’s parameters. Find someone who isn’t gung-ho on an engagement at the end of it. Find someone who won’t break up with anyone via rose ceremony. Find someone willing to reject every single person they meet at the mansion. At this point, 21 seasons in, it’s the most refreshing thing left to do.

The Bachelor/ette franchise has established itself as one of the most popular things on television. It has us hooked. Now that we’re in for the long haul, it’s time to shake up the formula we’ve all come to love criticizing, and if the producers themselves won’t mess with their success, they should be bold enough to cast someone who will. Love doesn’t follow a formula in reality, and isn’t that what this all is supposed to be, anyway?