I've been thinking for a while that there was a cycle that happened.
Ed was supposedly very sweet and supportive to Jade when she got out of the house (she mentioned this in a radio interview). They spend time in Sydney together with her HM friends and her dad and Jade is thinking that the"discussion" is a mere formality.
She goes to Melbourne and he's more distant but they are doing the publicity rounds as a couple so she figures it's all going to work out, but as her time to leave comes near, he still won't commit. She leaves and refuses to keep chasing him. Publicly she's ignoring him, people (Tim) are implying it was all a PR thing for him, and we know he's taking a beating on this forum and in social media. Jade doesn't even put up the picture of them from the wrap party.
Whether it was an image thing or a desire not to lose Jade, something spurs Ed to make a grand gesture. From what his boss said in the podcast, the trip to the GC for the draft came up suddenly, at Ed's instigation, after Jade 's plans were set. Maybe he didn't want her out with Tim, maybe he was really worried about losing her, but their road trip seemed to not be in Jade's original plans. The trip seems to go well and Jade's probably thinking it's going to be official, but Ed holds back again.
So there's the 2nd trip to Melbourne, which I already posted my thoughts on earlier. Jade leaves Melbourne thinking Ed may come around like he did previously. What's more, she doesn't want to make a public announcement because she's embarrassed that it all ended up this way. She does make some plans with Chef Hottie, as a friendly thing, but she keeps it on the downlow so as not to provoke talk. Ed, meantime, wants Jade to officially end things so he doesn't look like the jerk. When the picture of Jade and Dan becomes public, Ed starts liking Jade's stuff because he hopes if she's moved on publicly he can come out of this looking like a good guy. Jade misinterprets his surge in interest and tries to distance herself from Chef Hottie. Ed then steps up the obvious sleazy behavior, forcing Jade to eventually make a public statement acknowledging the end if the relationship or to be continually embarrassed. I don't think the actual behavior is out of the norm for Ed so not that embarrassing for him, it's just a return to the publicly single guy he thinks of himself as being.
