The Bachelor Fence Watch, Week 8: Nope, Colton still hasn’t jumped that fence
some 26 centuries ago. If that image has endured through the millennia, it isn’t just because her words happened to be preserved on papyrus, but also for the way they twist back on themselves: On the one hand, desire rushes over the poet, an uncontrollable force that overwhelms and envelops. On the other hand, she equates herself to a sturdy tree, one whose branches might flutter in the gale, but whose trunk will surely remain planted and stable.
If Sappho is an oak tree, Colton is a coat rack that has convinced itself it is a real boy. He wears his putative passions like lazily draped scarves and cardigans, a motley collection onto which new items pile each time someone passes through the door. Perhaps one of these garments might suit him, might even magically animate his wooden frame like a bewitched broomstick. But there are so many that they obscure one another, keeping us from knowing what he really feels.
In the episode’s twist ending, he keeps Cassie around. This should not come as a surprise. He repeatedly informs us — and the women, too — that he is motivated by his growing, budding, blooming love, but his truest feeling can only be his desire for affection and approval. With Cassie, he seems to lay his truth bare: He tells women he loves them because he needs them to tell him back — the more of them, apparently, the better.Thank you, Desmond Sr.
Cassie’s father responds by denying Colton his blessing. “As far as the hand in marriage, that would be a premature blessing,” Cassie’s father tells Colton. “That’s not exactly what I wanted to hear,” the Bachelor responds.