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Here’s Why the Bachelor Women Had to Stay Together During Fantasy Suite Week

Warning: Spoilers for The Bachelor ahead.

This week marked a first in Bachelor and Bachelorette history: The final contestants were forced to live together during the infamous Fantasy Suite week.

As usual, the final three women—Madison, Victoria F., and Hannah Ann—were sent on a one-on-one date with Peter Weber, with the option of spending the night together sans cameras. Last season, Fantasy Suite week led to the most dramatic moment of the season, when Luke P. shamed Hannah Brown for having overnight dates.

But imagine how much worse Luke P.’s fight with Hannah could have been had he been in the same hotel suite as Tyler C., Peter, and Jed when they didn't return home from their one-on-one dates? The producers thought they should give it a try with Madison, who also could not stomach the idea of her suitor sleeping with other women.

Basically, Madison, Victoria F., and Hannah Ann were forced to live together to create drama. Fans had thoughts.

Naturally, Chris Harrison was tasked for setting the record straight. According to the host, who spoke to Bachelor Happy Hour podcast hosts Rachel Lindsay and Becca Kufrin, the producers chose to create the “uncomfortable zone” to force Madison to be honest with Pilot Pete and force him to make a decision. Apparently, even though viewers knew Madison was a virgin, she hadn’t told Peter that she was saving herself for marriage.

“Sometimes we do it for your behalf; sometimes we do it for the guys or the girls,” he said, per the Hollywood Reporter. “This situation was pretty extraordinary because Peter had kicked the can down the road, but also, this time Madison had. So this was to force a situation that had to happen, and it had to happen this week.”

Well, it turns out that during Monday’s episode, Peter was blindsided and forced to admit he’d slept with the two other women, causing Madison to walk away from the competition (for now). Harrison thinks it’s better that it happened now than right before or after Weber chooses to get down on one knee.

<cite class="credit">ABC</cite>
ABC

“If we get to proposal week, then this guy is really screwed and there’s no chance this works,” Harrison said. “We gotta figure this out and there’s really only one way to do it. So yeah, it was tough love and it was really awkward. As you know in the history of the show, I don’t know if we’ve ever done this. But we decided to do it this week because these are conversations that needed to be had. And it was because of the double standard and the things that Peter was going to deal with [that] we kind of needed the women’s perspective on this. We needed Madison to face Victoria and Hannah Ann and have them express their emotions on this because, again, it’s just this guy and his perspective and I don’t know if that’s the greatest thing right now.”

On the decision to have the women stay together during the Fantasy Suites, Weber told Glamour, “Definitely, obviously, it made for a weird, awkward situation. But in a weird way, maybe, I think it could have allowed for the women to have a little bit more support with each other. Again, it’s kind of like a double-edge sword. It could have been weird, and it was probably for them. But I guess there’s some benefits to it…. I’m not quite sure why that was decided for this season, but it was definitely a little awkward.”

A little awkward, indeed.

Watch Now: Glamour Video.

Originally Appeared on Glamour