Premiering in August, The Bachelor Vietnam is the adaptation of its US counterpart in which one titular "bachelor" meets 25 romantic interests who aspire to be his final match. In the Vietnam version, it's Quoc Trung, a French-Vietnamese businessman who lives in Saigon.
Although drama and shocking revelations have always been a common feature of reality television, a recent confession made by a contestant on the fifth episode of The Bachelor Vietnam just put most televised surprises to shame.
During the episode's rose ceremony, the section in which the bachelor chooses candidates to proceed to the next round by giving each a rose, contestant Minh Thu made a shocking declaration:
"I entered this competition to find love. And I've found that love for myself. But it isn't you. It's someone else," Thu told the bachelor on national TV.
The episode then cut to another contestant, Truc Nhu, returning her rose to Trung and leaving the room with Minh Thu. An extended clip posted to the TV program's YouTube account later showed what really happened between the two scenes: after the confession, Minh Thu runs toward Truc Nhu, and the two embrace each other, after which Minh Thu tells Truc Nhu, "Come home with me."
The episode could have ended on a wholesome note and a happy finale for the two women. Alas, things don't always pan out the way we want, be it in real life or reality television: Truc Nhu decided to stay, after Trung convinced her in a heart-to-heart pep talk.
"I know you came here to find your man. It's good that you can make new friends here. But you need to focus on your goal," he says in the clip.
It's obvious that the relationship between the two women, or at least Minh Thu's feelings for Truc Nhu, are not of "friendship," as Trung said, since Minh Thu herself later confessed to another contestant in another extended clip released on YouTube.
"I want people to know the real reason. It's not because of something silly like 'one friend is leaving and wants to take her friend with her'," Thu says, adding, "Why shouldn't I be able to say this openly?"
The final results didn't stop the incident from making waves on social media, as the story was picked up by several major international media and news outlets, which led many to praise Minh Thu's courage and the positive queer representation of the show, or at least its social media extension.
[Photo via YouTube channel The Bachelor Vietnam - Anh Chang Doc Than]
