WTF? (What the final rose?)

So, I just finished watching the finale of this season of The Bachelor--or should I say El Bachelor? I know I'm a little late to the game, so I won't bore you with the obvious retelling of Juan Pablo's failed journey into reality TV villainy. This guy's received a lot of flack, and rightly so. As if he can fool 12 million viewers into believing he's a nice guy with the raise of a tan shoulder and a Latin accent.

The thing that struck me most about the awkward finale and the after show that followed was how both J.P. and Niki framed their closed-lip interview and lack of public proclamations of affection. After all, these are the juicy tidbits that make true Bachelor franchise fans watch. J.P. repeatedly declared that it was time to start their "real," "private" relationship. And Niki also sat across from host Chris Harrison bashfully mum. Could Niki and J.P. possibly think that they were entitled to their silence after the show was responsible for their meeting, multi-continent trip, and fame (however brief)? As last season's Bachelor winner Catherine proclaimed from the peanut gallery: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

On the other hand, it just might be possible. In a society that so seamlessly blends reality and fantasy, in a world where something that occurs in Australia is news in a millisecond across the globe, in a time when someone can snap a photo of anyone with his or her iPhone and post it to social media with the stroke of a finger, have we finished defining the dos and don'ts of the new PUBLIC public sphere? Maybe J.P. really thought going onto the show that his life would resume as usual when the season ended. And maybe returning to privacy sounds good to Niki too, especially when presented in that Venezuelan accent. Nothing that occurred on the season would lead us to believe that J.P. came to the table with the savvy to skillfully navigate life on a reality show. To prove that point, I don't have to look any further than his late-night tryst in the ocean with Claire.

In any case, the franchise will soon continue with new Bachelorette, Andi Dorfman, while Entertainment Weekly confirmed rumors of yet another Bachelor spin-off, Bachelor in Paradise. The franchise says it will be a mix of Temptation Island and Bachelor Pad. Yikes, that sounds dangerous.

Check in later this week for my take on the controversial first season of #RichKids of Beverly Hills.