‘Bachelor Winter Games’ Welcomes the Most Hated Contestant Ever in Surprise Twist

In a truly wild plot twist, Bachelor Winter Games brought on one of the franchise’s most hated contestants ever on Thursday night’s episode.

When the rest of the contestants returned from their speed skating competition, Jordan Mauger from The Bachelor New Zealand season two was waiting for them in their cabin, sitting in a leather chair drinking what Canadian contestant Kevin Wendt called a “douchey Scotch.”

Not only has Mauger called out the show in the past for being fake, he also admittedly flipped a coin to determine which of the two female finalists he would pick to marry, choosing Fleur Verhoeven in the end. The two broke up almost immediately after the finale.

Its this baggage that he brought into the Bachelor Winter Games cabin, which was greeted with admitted hostility by his fellow contestants.

But when Bachelor alum Ben Higgins decided to address the “elephant in the room” with Mauger, the Kiwi opened up about his actions.

“Being the Bachelor is a crazy experience,” Higgins said while confronting his new housemate. “It’s hard, it’s weird, and I get that you’re going to make a thousand decisions and a couple of them are probably going to be wrong. I’m familiar with that. But flipping a coin is crazy.”

In retrospect, Mauger said, he would have chosen neither woman once he realized he didn’t have a true connection with the contestants in his season.

But he also claimed to be a victim of the media, after Verhoeven went to the media and vilified him.

“From that, anything I said or did was just white noise,” he said. “It was just, he’s the villain, let’s attack him.”

He added that appearing on this show was a “little bit of redemption,” and an opportunity to make a real connection with someone on TV.

“Fresh start, man,” Higgins said, leading the group in a toast to their new housemate.

Mauger has been more open in the past with his decision to flip a coin for his engagement.

“Unfortunately, I knew early on that I wasn’t connecting with anyone on the show,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “I’ve fallen for women before and felt the butterflies and I just wasn’t feeling it. It was tough because you have to see it through — you can’t have a Bachelor season that finishes on the 10th episode when there’s 22.”

He continued: “I felt terrible [for] leading on the girls who were genuine … which was very few. The majority wanted more Instagram followers and free sh*t after the show. But out of the genuine girls, I think they knew the chemistry wasn’t there.”

Mauger said he deliberately chose women who he thought were there for the wrong reasons so as not to deceive those who were “genuine.”

“I thought it was unfair taking a genuine person into a fake relationship for cameras — that would’ve been traumatic for someone who’s in it for real,” he explained. “Then, there were the other two girls [Verhoeven and runner-up Nazanin Khanjani] who didn’t really give a s—. I saw their hissy fits, heard through crew what they said behind the scenes and saw they didn’t believe in the process, so [decided] to have them as the final two and flipped a coin for the winner.”

Will Mauger find love finally?

Bachelor Winter Games next airs Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC