Sam McKinney was even worse than the editing portrayed him to be on Jenn Tran's The Bachelorette season, according to The Bachelor couple Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney.
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Sam appeared to talk in circles and make love claims without providing any concrete examples on why Jenn was the right woman for him.
When asked a serious question, he'd make out with Jenn instead on The Bachelorette -- and, according to Jason and Molly, the situation was even harder to watch in person.
"Sam is a former athlete," Jason revealed during the August 12 episode of "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast." "There were things said that they had to edit out that were terrible and we can't even talk about."
"Yeah," Molly agreed, "we can't get into that."
The podcast's co-host, Ben Higgins, pointed out how viewers probably cringed when Sam admitted he had thought The Bachelorette star was going to be Daisy Kent or Maria Georgas. Sam even confessed to Jenn that she's not his type.
On that note, Jason added, "There were things that didn't make it on air that will never, ever be said by anybody."
And Molly added, "That was a moment where I was just like, 'Oh my god, I can't believe you just said that!'"
Molly therefore said Sam's edit on Monday night's episode "was entirely accurate," and she reiterated, "There was so much more that people didn't even see."
According to Molly, Devin Strader -- who was also on the group date along with Grant Ellis, Jonathon Johnson, and Spencer Conley -- hit the nail on the head when he summed up Sam's behavior on the date.
"Devin said it perfectly: Sam says so many words and he talks so much but nothing is coming out of his mouth," Molly explained.
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"He just rambles and rambles and rambles. There was no meat to what he was saying, and he couldn't really get his thoughts out... He doesn't give her anything."
Molly recalled how Jenn had asked Sam questions such as, "Why do you like me? Why do you think you're in love with me? Why are we compatible?"
"And he just gives words with nothing to it," Molly complained.
Molly shared how she and Jason got to listen in on Jenn and Sam's conversation at the radio station.
"We had ear pieces in and they would ask each other questions and Sam was rambling on for so long that they'd be like, 'Molly, cut him off and ask another question. Tell him to stop talking.' He just kept going and going and going."
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Going into the radio-show group date, Jason and Molly revealed that The Bachelorette producers had prepped them and given a full "rundown" on the guys they'd be meeting.
"The biggest thing they honed in on was that [Jenn] was obsessed with Sam," Molly admitted.
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Jason agreed that he thought Jenn was "all in" on Sam and that he was hometown-bound "for sure."
"I knew he wasn't going to be the right fit," Jason noted of Sam, "but I was like, 'She loves this guy.' When she walked in, we were like, 'Okay, who do you like?' And she was like, 'Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam.'"
But Molly said while Jenn was interviewing Sam on the radio show, asking him questions about why he loved her and wanted to be with only her, everyone in the studio could almost see "a light bulb go on" in Jenn's head that Sam was "not it" for her.
While Molly and Jason clearly didn't have a great impression of Sam, they told Ben how they didn't want to sit on his podcast and bash the bachelor since he's already received a lot of flack and backlash from The Bachelorette fans.
"He's getting a really bad edit this season. I think this show, in this environment, it either makes someone flourish or it makes someone flounder, and so think he is someone whom this environment isn't good for," Molly reasoned.
"I think he was more maybe wrapped up in the competition aspect of it and winning and wasn't really allowing himself to feel."
Jason agreed that while the competition aspect of The Bachelorette clearly got to Sam, he could tell Sam really liked Jenn by the way the pair had giggled, kissed and played like no one was watching.
"The kiss they showed was like 15 seconds," Jason said of the couple's in-studio makeout session.
"Yeah, it was super awkward to be in that room," Molly shared.
Instead of telling Jenn why she was great and why they'd make an ideal match, Sam simply spoke in generalities about trusting The Bachelorette process and wanting a "ferocious love."
Jenn therefore believed Sam's love declaration wasn't genuine since he didn't seem to understand her wants or needs, nevermind the complexities of her personality and overall character.
Jenn thought Sam would've said the same things had The Bachelorette star been any other woman.
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Given Jenn had seemed completely smitten with Sam, Jason said he was shocked when The Bachelorette star decided to advance Devin, Jonathon, Marcus Shoberg, and Jeremy Simon to hometown dates instead.
"Something else must have happened from a production aspect. They may have told her something that really set her off," Jason reasoned.
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Sam, for his part, broke his silence on Instagram after The Bachelorette aired his exit on August 12.
Sam said of his breakup conversation with Jenn, "I wish I was able to truly show how I felt in that moment right there, but that love that I carry is visceral, it's instinctive, and it's beyond descriptive, and it just didn't work in that setting -- and that's okay."
When Jenn had asked Sam specific questions about her, he'd blurt out, "I appreciate you," or, "I love you."
Sam, for instance, said he loved Jenn because she's "selfless," but he couldn't come up with a single instance when Jenn had acted selflessly during their time together.
"This is how I know you're selfless, actually. After Night 1, that connection that we had was hot," Sam told The Bachelorette star during the radio-show group date.
At one point, Jenn criticized Sam for sounding like he was reading off a script.
"He's dismissing me and he's not listening and he's not asking," Jenn complained to The Bachelorette cameras. "I'm not seeing the love! What does [pour into his emotional part] even mean?"
Jenn ultimately determined that Sam reminded her too much of her toxic relationships in the past, and so she decided to dump him in Seattle.
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Jenn said Sam wasn't going to be able to give her the type of love she deserved, and so she gave him a cold hug goodbye.
Sam found his exchange with Jenn "frustrating," and he told the cameras, "The energy that she brought was very dull. It's not my fault... At the end of the day, it is what it is. I will always keep the main thing, the main thing -- and that's finding my person."
Jenn admitted she was "so mad" that she had gotten it "wrong" with Sam, who had received her First Impression Rose as well as the first kiss of the season.
Jenn explained how her connection with Sam was mainly physical and letting him go was a huge "turning point" for her in this journey of finding true love.
"I understand what I want, and what I want is not Sam," Jenn concluded.
Molly and Jason agreed on Ben's podcast, however, that Sam is not a bad person.
"I think he does want to be with somebody. Maybe Jenn isn't the right person, but he wants to get married," Jason concluded.
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Click here to read spoilers about how the rest of Jenn's The Bachelorette season unfolds, including who Jenn picks as her winner and runner-up.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski