The Bachelor

They’re like zombies. You stab them in the heart, but they keep coming back anyway. Over the years, many a Bachelor and Bachelorette contestant has been dumped or quit the show, then returned to either ask for a second chance or impart some important information. We’re not talking about the lucky ones who get rejected on one show, then return to find love as the star. We mean the sorry folks who show up for a second chance to be hurt, yelled at, or just ignored by the ones holding the roses. Many of the returns drip with producer manipulation, but when it comes to someone like Mary Delgado — well, bless her, she was just a glutton for punishment.

Here are the stories of folks who just couldn’t stay away:

Mary is still the only contestant to get dumped, then sign on for more heartbreak on another season of the same show. Thankfully her second time on The Bachelor had a happier ending. (For a while, anyway.) She started as one of Season 4 Bachelor Bob Guiney's dumpees. She decided she wanted a second chance at humiliation so she went on Byron Velvick's Season 6. He proposed. She said yes. They got into some legal trouble and eventually broke up. Weirdly enough, no one else has tried to do this again.

From her "Gold Digger" T-shirt to her bunny-boiler stalking, Trish was fantastic. Jesse Palmer kept her all the way to fourth place, which was only Episode 5 back in 2004 . She was the first woman to come back on the same show after being denied a rose. She interrupted Jesse's overnight date with Mandy Jaye and offered him her room key, in case he wanted to change his mind. He didn't change his mind.

Jeremy was DeAnna’s third place guy. On the Season 4 Finale, he returned to tell her his feelings were real and he wished he had opened up more. He made a pitch for her to keep him around. She said she had enough respect for him to not drag this out, lead him on, and make him a promise she can't keep. She said she didn’t love him. She sobbed. Jeremy was dry-eyed while they talked, but made a big production on the way out.

People couldn't stop leaving and coming back on Jillian Harris's season. It was like a bachelor conveyor belt. First, in Episode 5, Ed decided he had to dump Jillian and go back to work in Chicago. Then Jake randomly showed up after being dumped on Episode 6. He said he wasn't there to try to win Jillian back, he just wanted her to know Wes Hayden had a girlfriend back home named Laurel. Jake faded away and Ed returned around the same time, Week 7, to say he really wanted to fight for love with Jillian or whatever. She bought it. She kept him to the end, making her final two Ed and Kiptyn Locke. She dumped Reid after the overnight dates, but Reid returned at the Final Rose Ceremony to make his pitch for her to give him another chance. She said no and eventually said yes to Ed. It's a wonder no one showed up in the After the Final Rose special to ask for still another chance.

Ali tried to pull an Ed, but it didn't work. On the same episode as the Hometown Dates, Ali told Jake she had to choose between her job at Facebook and taking a chance on love with Jake. Since Jake couldn't tell her she would definitely be The One, she dumped him for Facebook. The next week, we saw her in San Francisco, supposedly wanting Jake to give her a second chance. She didn't actually fly back to see him, but cameras taped both sides of their phone conversation. He declined to take her back. She went on to find a much better guy on The Bachelorette anyway. No one returned to win her affections on that season, but two guys did leave the show and Ali’s fellow Bachelor star, Jessie Sulidis, made a brief phone re-appearance to tell Ali about Justin “Rated-R” Rego’s gal back on the ranch.

*SPOILER ALERT* for Bachelorette Season 7

Don't read any further if you don't want to hear some of Reality Steve's spoilers for The Bachelorette Season 7...

According to Reality Steve, we have two more returnees on Ashley Hebert's season.

First is Bad News Bentley. Steve says Bentley Williams leaves the show on Episode 3, supposedly because he misses his daughter — but returns on Episode 6 in Hong Kong to tell Ashley something. He doesn't go on any dates or seem to be there to try to win her back, so if she doesn't already learn about his preference for Emily Maynard, maybe he reveals that now. If he already told her about that, maybe he returns to apologize. Who knows.

Ashley dumps first impression rose winner Ryan Park in Episode 7, but Steve says Ryan returns in Fiji. He seems to try to get Ashley to change her mind but supposedly she turns him down.


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