The Bachelorette Season Finale Recap: Jenn Tran Got Engaged — But the Relationship Took a Dark Turn

Bachelor Nation Weighs In

Members of Bachelor Nation are reacting to the dramatic ending to Jenn season.

Sam McKinney, who was on the receiving end of backlash for calling out Devin’s behavior during season 21 of The Bachelorette, shared his thoughts on Devin calling off his and Jenn’s engagement after the finale.

Reposting a post on his Instagram Stories that read, “When the worst person you know was actually right,” along with a photo of Sam M., he wrote, “Hahahah okay this is funny.”

The next video was him sitting in front of his TV with his hand over his mouth, seemingly invested in the on-screen confrontation between Devin and Jenn. His next repost read: “Always was team Sam and never thought he was the worst (he was actually my top pick). but PROOF HE REALLY WAS KEEPING THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING ” Sam captioned it, “Forever.”

Thomas N., who was also criticized for putting his energy into arguing with Devin, posted a photo of Devin to his Instagram Stories and wrote, “Damn. Should’ve kept the main thing the main thing,” referencing Sam M.’s catchphrase all season.
He also posted a clip of himself sipping tea and glaring into the camera silently.

A Golden Sneak

The evening couldn't end on that sad note, so Jesse wrapped things up with a sneak peek at Joan Vassos's journey on The Golden Bachelorette.

In the clip, Bachelor alum Kelsey Anderson gets out of the limo and tells Joan about her father Mark Anderson. "I think that maybe y'all would get along," she said as her fan-favorite father stepped out of the limo.

"I love you dad. Have the best time," Kelsey said.

"As a father, I raised my children and I wanted them to experience life, not to say no because they're afraid of taking a chance. And now here I am taking an opportunity to take a chance for me to find love again, and I am honored to be able to be a part of your journey."

Jenn and Devin Watch Their Proposal

After that tense back and forth and countless tears, The Bachelorette rolled on the actual proposal, which was awkward to watch.

"Jenn, I do love you with all of my heart, and it's a feeling I don't ever want to go away," Devin said.

"You were always a constant, our love was always there, and I never doubted for a second how much you loved me," Jenn said. "I love you so deeply, Devin, but I can't let you propose to me. I've decided to choose myself in this journey, and the best version of myself is when I'm with you."

"I want to fight for you every day," she continued. "You're everything that I've ever dreamed of but didn't know that I could have. I want to wake up and choose you every day for the rest of my life."

She then proposed with a wedding band in a seashell. "Absolutely," he said, "A hundred times over."

Devin then proposed anyway — "Will you make me the happiest man and marry me?" — and they shared a passionate embrace.

Back in the studio, Jesse reminded Jenn how empowered she was in that moment.

"I did make a lot of promises and at the time I fully believed them," Devin admitted, and called the split "one-sided."

"That man loved you," he added. "I understand that I couldn't keep promises that I made to you."

"I hope that you learn that the weight of your words matter," she said.

Jesse then concluded that he knows Jenn will find the great love she's looking for.

Jenn and Devin See Each Other for the First Time in Weeks

When Devin joined Jenn onstage, the body language between them was ice cold.

"This conversation right now between the two of us is not what I wanted," Jenn began, reminding Devin that they owed each other "respect" enough to have conversations off-camera.

"What I can't understand is everything that you did after you broke our engagement," Jenn said, noting that right after that, he followed former Bachelor contestant Maria Georgas. "Not only is that so disrespectful to everything that we had shared together, I just don't understand it, why you would do something like that. It completely invalidated the entire relationship."

"I failed you," Devin said. "And there's nothing I can say other than that. But everything I felt for you was real."

Jenn then asked him about the "time and space" he asked for to "process your emotions," but then went clubbing in New York City.

Jesse finally asked Devin what happened.

"When we left the show, I had a lot of doubts," Devin said. "I did come clean to you about that."

Devin contended that he "hid all these feelings of doubt" both on the show and shortly after they finished filming. "It's hard to sit here and deny what you're accusing me of," he said. "I was regretfully late on letting you know. I can only sit here and take accountability for my shortcomings."

"I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, I wanted to have a family with you, and you didn't feel those things," Jenn responded. "You had one foot out the door the entire time. ... I am heartbroken every Monday night watching the lies you said to me on TV."

After a commercial break, Devin said, "I'm not here to save face. I have nothing to gain by being here other than to make sure that you're okay, which is what I came here to do."

Jesse encouraged Devin to summarize anything he had yet to say to Jenn.

"I watched this beautiful girl flourish," Devin said. "It was amazing to watch you. I found myself falling short in the real world. ... I watched you grow and then I watched myself contribute to your regression."

Finally, Jesse applauded Jenn's strength throughout her journey — no matter how it ended. "You showed all of us what a strong and powerful woman is," the former Bachelor lead said.

A Shocking Twist

Jenn struggled to speak through her tears. "It's been a really hard couple of months," she began. "We had left Hawai'i engaged and very happy. I thought that I had found the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with, and then, essentially, as soon as we left Hawai'i, things were different. It kind of just felt like he was pulling away."

"The efforts were inconsistent, he wasn't calling as much. texting as much. I was confused, I didn't understand because we had just left so happy,"

"I felt like I was secondary to everything else in his life ... and I didn't understand why," she said. "We had a happy couple [visit] planned sometime last month early and the night before, he called me, and he basically broke off the engagement. He basically said that he didn't love me anymore and didn't feel the same way. ... He regretted getting engaged. And I didn't know. I knew all along it was just different."

"For the past month, I've been trying to empathize with the way that he had been feeling, trying to wrap my head around what he was feeling. ... He was making bold proclamations of love and then suddenly the next day he was like, nothing and he denied ever being in love."

"I was like, 'Let's take the pressure off the engagement. Let's just date.' And he was checked out, it wasn't what he wanted anymore, and I've been fighting for the relationship. ... He didn't want to go to couple's counseling, he didn't want to fight for the relationship anymore, he was just done."

Jesse shared his shock too. "Devin always spoke so passionately about how much he loved you and that he would never abandon you."

"All the promises he had made to me, all of the love that he had wanted to give to me wasn't there anymore," Jenn added, revealing she last saw Devin in July.

Jesse Palmer Butts In

Normally, we'd get a romantic proposal next, and instead, Jesse interrupted the flow.

"You won't be seeing that proposal," he said, followed by a long pause. Then, he added, "That's right. Because of what transpired since that day in Hawai'i, we decided it wouldn't be appropriate for anyone to see it until we heard from Jenn."

Before cutting to commercial, Jenn was shown backstage looking nervous and tearing up.

Jenn Plans to Propose to Devin

Jesse Palmer said "it's finally the moment of truth" for Jenn and Devin.

"Devin has been choosing me every day since the beginning, and I do love Devin," Jenn said. "What's going to happen today is, I don't, I don't know what to do."

As Jenn contemplated all that, Devin met with Neil Lane to look at engagement rings. "I feel confident in us," Devin said. "I can't wait to get down on a knee for her."

"I really need to follow my heart today," Jenn told Jesse. "Going into today, I though I knew which way I wanted it to go, and I woke up this morning with a totally different point of view on it. ... I have to choose myself. I'm not going to let Devin propose to me today — I'm going to propose to Devin."

"I want him to know that I'm going to fight for him every day, and I'm going to choose him every day," she added.

Marcus in the Hot Seat

"It's tough to watch back," Marcus admitted to Jesse Palmer in the After the Final Rose studio.

"There was some painful truths that I stumbled upon during that time in Hawai'i," Marcus added. "When I got back home, I had no idea if I had made the right decision or not. It took some time to realize that we had made the right choice. ... The hardest part for me was feeling like I let her down."

Asked about the painful truths, "The painful truth was that I wasn't living up to what [Jenn] said that she needed. ... She's one of the best women I've ever met in my life. The difficult truth there was that I needed to get out of her way."

When Jenn joined Marcus on the couch, they shared the "honor and privilege" it was to be a part of each other's experiences.

"I feel like we both learned so much with each other," Jenn said.

The Conversation Ends with a Goodbye

Marcus was nervous after the commercial break.

"I did fall in love with you and I was afraid to tell you because it's clear that you know what you want," Marcus admitted. "Can I live up to what Jenn is saying that you need? And I'm not giving you what you need."

"I opened my heart to you every second that I got," Jenn said. "And I think I got lost in it. ... I know that I'm worth it. I'm done hinging my future on somebody being afraid to lose me. I'm done waiting around for somebody to get there. I'm just done. I genuinely had so much hope for us."

"I'm afraid that I'm not going to find someone like you again," Marcus said, crying.

"I know what I want for my future and it's not this feeling anymore," Jenn concluded.

A Big Moment for Marcus

"I have loved him hard and given myself... but at this point, I can't help but be in my head and worry if I'm making past mistakes and repeating history," Jenn began the segment.

Before the date, host Jesse Palmer met up with Marcus for a chat.

"I've been struggling with this doubt of whether or not Jenn and I are meant for each other," he told Jesse. "Every time we get to spend time together, we are making progress and that connection gets a little stronger. ... One of the things that I know for sure is that I care about her deeply.

"I've never been so torn," he added.

Jenn didn't want to wait to meet Marcus at a romantic location before asking her questions. "I need answers from Marcus and I'm not going to wait any longer," she said as she headed to his hotel room.

Jenn admitted to Marcus she didn't know where his head was and reminded him, "We're running out of time."

"I don't know if you see me in your future," she added. "I felt like you weren't excited for the future."

"It's scary to me. I'm struggling, for sure," Marcus responded. "I'm not keeping anything from you. I'm not keeping any answers from you. ... I have my uncertainties but you make me want to keep trying."

"I know that my feelings for you are real and that I can picture it with you," he added. "I don't understand why it's so scary for me to move forward with someone I care so much about."

"I have invested so much into us, Marcus, since the beginning," Jenn said. "It hurts me because I don't know what to do with it now. Where am I supposed to go from here?"

"At the end of the day, I know that I love you," Marcus said through tears. "I don't want to give up on us."

Jenn later then said in a confessional, "I have a pit in my stomach and I don't know what to do with it."

One More Date, but First...

This isn't just a Bachelorette finale: It's also a chance for ABC to promote some of their newest shows. That includes teasers from The Golden Bachelorette, which premieres in a few weeks, and High Potential as well as cast members from Hulu's The Secret Lives of Sister Wives appearing in the live audience.

And, naturally, more promos. All aboard the Doctor Odyssey trailer here — starring Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson — just for fun.

Jenn's Final Date with Devin

For their last romantic date in Hawai'i, Jenn and Devin did a Hawaiian spiritual ceremony that happens before big life events.

Devin admitted that "when I have a good thing, I can't let go of the bad, and I want to just accept the good for good." Jenn shared that she had "fear of abandonment."

"When Jenn said that, it made me want to be there for her," Devin said.

"Now that we've released our fears into the ocean, it truly feels like a rebirth of myself," Jenn said later.

In the evening, Devin told Jenn, "I love the thought of forever with you."

At the end of the night, Jenn said Devin showed her what "unconditional love" feels like.

Jenn Leaves Another Conversation Confused

Following Marcus's meeting with her family, Jenn asked the man point-blank how he was feeling, hoping that he'd drop the l-bomb she so wanted to hear. He didn't.

Instead, he reiterated the pressure he feels to be a husband and a father he didn't experience and that he feels Jenn deserves. He teared up as he shared that he believes he can "get there."

Jenn was confused and showed her increasing frustration.

Marcus Meets the Family

"If I got an 'I love you' from Marcus today, it's going to change everything," Jenn said before he met her family.

Moments later, Marcus said, "I'm not in love with [Jenn] right now but I do have strong feelings for her and I do see a future with us, but I also have uncertainty and reservations and I think that explaining that to [her family] so close to a potential proposal is going to be a difficult thing."

Trinh asked Marcus about himself right out the gate, and he shared the story of not knowing his biological parents and being in the foster care system. He went on to share some of his experience in the military.

"As the protective brother, I was looking for more of him opening up about his relationship with Jenn," James said.

Trinh and Laylan asked Marcus point-blank if he was in love with Jenn.

"I believe that I can get there. I know that I'm not right now," he said. "I've been missing this feeling of certainty and that makes me unsure. I want to get there for her. The only reason I'm struggling with it is because of how much pressure I put on myself to be a good husband and good father to be able to provide the things that I didn't have when I was growing up and to be able to provide the things that Jenn didn't have when she was growing up."

Marcus added, "The feelings that I have for your daughter are real and I do believe we can get there."

Jenn later explained that she believes some of Marcus' hesitation has to do with the trauma of how he was raised, but James was not so sure and worried that Jenn would be repeating her past of falling for emotionally unavailable guys. Regardless of what she does, James told her he's "super proud" of her.

It's a No on a Brother's Blessing

James isn't messing around. "As a big brother, you know, my role here is to definitely grill the guys," he said.

And he kept to that grounding vibe when Devin asked for his blessing to propose to Jenn.

"Jenn keeps me grounded," Devin said. "We've been through a lot of things similarly with our relationships and you know I only want to do this once and I want to do it with the woman that makes me the happiest. You know, I would really love to have your blessing to propose to her."

James quickly turned down that request, telling Devin he's glad to have been asked, but can't give his blessing until he's met Marcus.

Devin Meets the Family

Before Jenn's family could meet Devin in Hawai'i, she told them she has "equal" feelings for both of her remaining men, but did share with her mom Trinh, aunt Lylan, brother James and best friend Nicole that only Devin had told her he loved her and Marcus had not.

Devin arrived filled with excitement to meet the quartet. "Jenn is a person that makes me feel that I am 100 percent whole," he told them. "She's a great person."

Lylan asked if he could make Jenn "always feel loved and safe," and Devin responded that "to be that person would be a blessing for me."

Still, Trinh was skeptical about the whole process. "I think they need more time to understand each other," she said.

Jenn shared with her mother that Devin "wants to understand me, he wants to see all these parts to me." That includes her Vietnamese culture, she continued. "He wants to help me raise our kids like that. And he wants you to teach our kids Vietnamese."

Mom was not convinced. Neither was James. But at least he was "excited to see where you're going with this."

A Sexy Preview

Hours before the finale began, Bachelorette Jenn Tran shared photos of herself in a lacy white dress on Instagram. "I once believed Love was black and white," she wrote. "But it’s golden."

Meanwhile, the main Bachelorette Instagram posted several clips teasing the gents meeting Jenn's family followed by "the live Bachelorette finale you never saw coming."

"Where am I supposed to go from her?" she asks. "I have a pit in my stomach and I don't know what to do with it."