ABCBachelor Nation, we need to talk about Chad Johnson—again.
Four episodes in and all The Bachelorette fans are talking about is JoJo Fletcher's polarizing suitor, a 28-year-old luxury real estate agent with a penchant for working out, eating lunch meat and threatening the other men in the house. At the end of Tuesday night's episode, it seemed Chad's reign of terror had come to an end when JoJo eliminated him...until he found his way back to the men's house, just before the episode cut to black. (Curse you, producers!)
Alex Woytkiw, who has been the most vocal about his dislike for Chad, talked about last night's shocking episode and the intense two-on-one date on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, during which he sounded off on the cliffhanger ending everyone is buzzing/concerned about.
"He shows up to the guys' house where we're all staying," Alex confirmed. The 25-year-old suitor also revealed, "At the time, I was actually with JoJo, so I can't comment on what happens." But that doesn't mean he didn't wonder at the time about the possibility of Chad resurfacing. "I thought about it, like, 'Man, what if this guy actually comes to break up me and JoJo here?' Fortunately he didn't, but he actually went and did that with the guys."
What Alex could comment on was Chad's behavior in last night's episode, during which he threatened to find Jordan Rodgers after the show finished filming. Chad also said he was going to have to find Alex after he was eliminated on the two-on-one date, but the former Marine didn't seem overly concerned over his well-being.
"I would say Chad is a chihuahua, he likes to bark," Alex said. "So I'm not concerned for myself or any other guy in the house of any threats he's made because he was a big talker, and I think the show showed that. He never did anything physical because he wasn't going to do anything physical. He just liked to threaten people."
Still, the suitors' collective unease around Chad did lead to security guards being stationed around the mansion, and host Chris Harrison taking Chad aside for a serious talk about his threats of violence.
"The whole security guard thing, I think was just a proactive measure for the show. I really respected them for doing that, because there's people sleeping in a room with this guy," Alex said. "We're pretty much sitting on a couch...we're talking and you're seeing these exchanges going on and you can see that we're all extremely uncomfortable around this guy and don't like him and he's threatening to punch people's teeth out. Then those same guys are going to have to sleep in a room with him. So the show, I think they saw that happening and they made a proactive measure to say, 'Hey, we've got your guys' backs,' and I commend them for it."
But some viewers were surprised by the producers' lack of involvement when it came to Chad's repeated threats of violence, and wondered if and when they would step in.
"I never thought that the producers were going to have to jump in," Alex said. "For me, I think it was after the second episode when I told him to stop cutting people off and he put his finger an inch away from my face and was telling me he was going to knock out my teeth, and when no one actually stepped in during that type of confrontation, I kind of figured, alright we're on our own here. They're going to let things roll and let everything fall into the place that they will, and if it gets out of control, maybe they'll jump in. But you pretty much have someone saying he's going to punch me in the face and knock out my teeth and no one came over and stopped that, so at that point, you're just like, this is real. This is not some production, this is really happening."
The Chad storyline has dominated the season so far, with the promos for the two-episode special, which ABC dubbed "Chadageddon," even featuring Evan Bass (also a founding member of the Anti-Chad club) and James Taylor bleeding, strongly implying that Chad was responsible for the injuries. (Evan ended up with a bloody nose during a pool party, while James was injured on the group date while playing football.) For Alex, he said he got "a kick" out of the promos ("It's a good way to promote it"), and denied that Chad was being edited to be the villain of the season.
"No, I don't think he was villainized," he said. "Villain is something that we're just dubbing him because it's a reality TV show. What Chad was was just a bad guy. That was real. The show didn't have to do anything, they don't have to edit him anyway. You can just show his raw content and people would have the same opinion about him. He was just a bad guy."
The Bachelorette returns Monday, June 20 at 8 p.m. on ABC.