Wells Adams feels former The Bachelor star Ben Higgins is to blame for Greg Grippo's breakdown that led to his breakup with Katie Thurston on her season of The Bachelorette.
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Wells insisted he wasn't picking sides of choosing a team, but he had a bit of a bone to pick with Greg.
"Has Greg ever seen the show before?... It seems like he doesn't understand the very simple beats of how this show works... That one kind of theme is something that bothered me as I watched the show," Wells said.
After Katie met Greg's family on his hometown date, Greg expressed to the Bachelorette through tears how he was madly in love with her and wanted to propose marriage.
He said Katie had filled a hole in his heart from his father's passing, but then Katie stared at him longingly and said in reply, "I just love looking at you."
Greg, Katie's clear frontrunner all season long, became frustrated and angry that Katie wouldn't share the depth of her feelings for him in return, but The Bachelor and The Bachelorette leads are expected to maintain a level of covertness in order to keep viewers guessing and engaged in the dating process.
"What annoyed me about Greg is that he didn't understand how the show works, and I actually kind of blame Ben Higgins for this," Wells admitted.
"Because he all of a sudden kind of changed the script on everyone."
When Ben starred on The Bachelor's 20th season which aired on ABC in 2016, he told both his Final 2 bachelorettes, Lauren Bushnell and JoJo Fletcher, that he was in love with them.
Ben left little to the imagination about how he was feeling and was completely torn between the two women. However, he ended up picking Lauren at the Final Rose Ceremony and the couple split in May 2017.
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RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"Ben was just telling people willy-nilly that he loves them, and that just screws up everything because then we don't have normal beats of the show!" Wells explained.
"And then it makes it so you can end the show early, and that's happened most recently."
Wells was referring to The Bachelorette's sixteenth season last year, which featured Clare Crawley ending her journey to find love after only two weeks because she was immediately smitten with Dale Moss.
Colton Underwood also declared his love for Cassie Randolph before his round of Fantasy Suites and dumped his other two Final 3 bachelorettes in order to pursue a relationship solely with Cassie.
But Wells seems to appreciate the show's usual format and how a lead is supposed to ride it out all the way to the Final Rose Ceremony.
As for the usual "beats" of the show, there are hometown dates, Fantasy Suite dates, a Bachelor or Bachelorette's last two dates, and then the Final Rose Ceremony. And fans are used to hearing contestants say they are "falling in love" and then finally "in love."
"And so I liked Katie's rule of, 'Hey, listen guys, I'm just not going to tell you that I love you back. You just need to know that.' I don't know if she told everyone that. I assume she did or I assume production told Greg, 'Hey, just so you know, she has this rule because it's out of respect for everybody else,'" Wells said.
Nick pointed out how production probably wouldn't clarify something like that because it may prevent drama and producers like to let things play out.
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Wells continued that Greg -- who wanted Katie to acknowledge his feelings and not dismiss them -- "should know the norm of the show is that you don't get that response."
"He has this huge blowout and I understand that he's pouring his heart out to her about this very, very painful experience and this hole he has in his heart and that she fills it, but he has to know and he has to understand that she can't say it back to him because she's made this rule," Wells said.
Greg, however, did tell Katie that he was well aware she was still dating two other guys at that point, Justin Glaze and Blake Moynes.
"I think collectively, Katie gave a lot of positive affirmation to Greg, more so than anybody else thus far on the show," Wells told Nick.
Katie, for instance, kept telling Greg to hang in there because it would "all be worth it in the end." Katie also asked Greg repeatedly just to trust her, and she even noted how she would probably quit The Bachelorette as well if Greg chose to leave her.
"And for all of his faults in all of this," Wells continued, "he should have given her a little bit more grace in the whole situation."
Nick said it seemed like Greg thought Katie wasn't viewing their relationship as being real and he just wanted her to convince him otherwise.
As shown on Monday night's episode, Greg had told Katie that she was making him feel like "a number" and she seemed too preoccupied with handing out roses and the competition aspect of the show.
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Nick also reasoned with Wells that no one ever really knows what he or she signed up for because they never know how they're going to feel. Nick said it's natural for any person to want their feelings validated and Greg seemed extremely vulnerable and terrified.
Nick admitted Greg had in no way provided a perfect response to Katie's reaction to his declaration of love, but at the same time, Nick did view Katie's reaction as "surface level."
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As far as what Wells' fiancee, actress Sarah Hyland, thinks about Greg's blowout and decision to quit the show, Wells said Sarah thinks Greg was acting out because he wasn't getting what he wanted, which is similar to how the youngest sibling in a family may act.
"I feel bad for both of them. My sympathy goes to both of them... I think [Greg] is being pretty genuine about his feelings and Katie is put in a tough place. I think she knows in her mind that Greg is the guy and this is happening and she's freaking out because she's trying to carry the show because she's the lead and she doesn't know how to go about it," Wells said.
"I think they're both put in really bad positions, and I think they also don't have an amazing love-language communication and that's the big disconnect. A lot of this is being lost in translation for the both of them."
Wells acknowledged, however, that Katie and Greg's breakup was nuanced and more complex than anyone could understand given their two different roles on the show.
Once Greg left The Bachelorette, Katie locked herself in a bathroom and was bawling. She threatened to end the process early because she felt "destroyed" and had lost her confidence.
Bachelor Nation has had mixed reactions to Katie and Greg's argument and whether or not Greg was gaslighting Katie.
The Bachelorette bachelor John Hersey, for example, said Greg's actions were "extremely unhealthy," and the show's co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe said Greg's "ego" got in the way and how he treated Katie was "bullsh-t."
The Bachelor alum Caila Quinn, however, seemed to support Greg when she tweeted, "It wasn't about what place he was in, it wasn't about The Bachelor, it wasn't about the rose. It was about his heart."
The Bachelorette bachelor Connor Brennan said in a since-deleted tweet there was "no gaslighting" in Greg and Katie's breakup conversation, and Big Brother alum Kaitlyn Herman insisted Greg was "broken" and cried every day about his breakup with Katie once he returned home.
The Bachelorette finale for Season 17 will air Monday, August 9 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
