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‘Ben & Lauren’ Recap: Chad Johnson Interrupts Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell’s Camping Trip — and Lace Morris Bawls

Now that Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell have agreed to televise their wedding, they needed to start, uh, planning a wedding, as seen on Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever Afters Tuesday, October 25, episode. After a wildly overwhelming phone call with their wedding planner, who asked 100 questions in one minute, the couple decided they need a break from wedding planning. And thus launched an entire episode of Ben and Lauren avoiding wedding planning.

Related: PHOTOS: The Bachelor After the Final Rose: Broken Engagements, Weddings, Babies, and More!

Sharing Hobbies

To decompress, Lauren took Ben to aerial yoga, which just happens to be one of her secret hobbies. We didn’t see too much of her skills, but since most Bachelor activities are all about the outfits anyway, Ben changed into pink tights and a black workout tank. Lauren’s reaction: “I can see your whole wiener!” (For the record, we don’t get a close-up of Ben’s package.)

Related: PHOTOS: 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette' Engagement Rings Through the Years

One aerial yoga class wasn’t enough to make the couple forget about tortuous wedding planning, so Ben showed Lauren his way of unwinding — camping with friends. Former Bachelor Chris Soules and Ben & Lauren regulars Emily and Haley Ferguson joined on the getaway. Ben told Chris that Chad Johnson might be joining the group, to which Chris responded, “I’m no longer afraid of the bears.”

Related: PHOTOS: Biggest Reality TV Villains Ever!

Grace’s Grand Entrance

One more of Ben’s exes joined: Lace Morris, along with her Bachelor in Paradise fiancé, Grant Kemp, which was problematic because Lace has quite the history with Chad. (To refresh, Chad and Lace started hooking up on night 1 in Paradise, and the relationship quickly turned volatile. Chad was asked to leave by The Chris Harrison because of the situation.)

Allegedly, lines were crossed. Ben and Lauren thought Grace wouldn’t make the trip, so they invited Chad after meeting him at JoJo‘s After the Final Rose, thinking some camaraderie might be good for the known villain.

Ben broke the news to Lace and Grant that Chad may be joining the trip in the same tone he used to break up with women on The Bachelor. Grant and Lace made no promises that they would be there, and Grant aptly noted that Chad “needs a lot more help than a campfire.”

Ben and Lauren Recap 10/25
Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell

A Bear Arrives

A real one — not Chad. Everyone was really jazzed about this, especially Ben, who went into the woods with Chris to try to find the bear.

Lauren was actually angered by these irresponsible actions, which Ben found funny and adventurous. “I’m a boy — I do crazy stuff! I’m wild, honey!” he pleaded.

It’s unclear whether they actually reached common ground on this issue, but Ben at least pretended to validate Lauren’s feelings while he held her close at sunset. This is romance!

Recap 10/25
Chris Soules and Ben Higgins

Grant Reminds Us He’s a Firefighter

Grant taught Ben and Chris how to put out a fire. This information might be important someday (hopefully not), so we suggest taking notes.

Step 1: Take your shirt off.

Step 2: Strike a pose.

Step 3: Put the fire out by pouring water over it.

Somehow we don’t think that’s exactly what they teach in firefighter school.

Recap 10/25
Lauren Bushnell, Emily Ferguson, Chris Soules, Grant Kemp and Ben Higgins

Ben Just Wants Us All to Get Along

As soon as Chad sat down, Ben needed to address the situation at hand — essentially that Chad is a bully. Lauren came to Chad’s defense with, “I don’t think you’re that person.”

Chad seemed uncomfortable for the entire conversation and insisted that he was “just trying to make people laugh,” and he’s “good to people who are good to [him].” In an attempt to explain his behavior, he totally nailed the way we all feel when we do bad things: “Sometimes we do things, and then those things become things.”

RECAP 10/25
Chris Soules, Grant Kemp, Emily Ferguson, Haley Ferguson, Lace Morris, Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell

Knowing this conversation was going nowhere, Ben told the cameramen to put their cameras down — a request they took literally and then continued to film from the ground. Finally, Chad admitted, “If I really sat down and thought about my actions, which I don’t ever do, I would probably feel pretty bad,” which is the closest we’d expect Chad to get to a real apology.

Grant tried to take it a step further and bring up Chad’s mom, but Chad quickly shut that down. Lace was still upset about being around Chad, and Chad realized there was nothing he could do about it, so after a sweet “I’ve done you guys wrong” speech, Chad whistled away into the woods. Classic Chad.

Ever-positive Ben couldn’t end the night on that note, so he led a toast for the rest of the group. “More hope, more love and more acceptance of the people in our life that have hurt us.” We can probably all drink to that.

Ben and Lauren came home to 17 messages from their wedding planner. And so the saga of avoiding wedding planning continues on Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After? on Freeform Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.

Tell Us: What are your thoughts on Chad’s camping behavior?

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