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Well, we can honestly say we’ve never seen a season of The Bachelorette end quite like that.
Tuesday’s grand finale kicks off with Jenn in Hawaii still pondering her final two men, Devin and Marcus. They offer quite a stark contrast, too: Devin has been open about telling Jenn he’s in love with her, while Marcus is “not there yet,” in his own words. So will she go with the safe choice in Devin, or take the plunge with Marcus? Or even choose “none of the above,” Brad Womack-style? Let’s find out!
Jenn says she’s in love with both of her final two men, and she’s excited to introduce them to her family. (Especially since she’s never brought a guy home before.) We meet her family, including her mom Trinh and her brother James, and they hesitate a bit when she tells them only one of her final guys has told her he loves her. Luckily, Devin is up first!
He gushes to her mom and aunt about how much he cares for Jenn, and it’s very sweet when he promises to take care of her in a way that her father never did. Her mom, though, is nervous about their short courtship, telling Jenn, “I think you need more time to understand each other.” Plus, her brother James is very protective, and while he tells Jenn he thinks they’re “a great match,” when Devin asks for his blessing to propose to her, James bluntly tells him, “I’m definitely not gonna give the blessing now,” because he wants to talk to Marcus first. And Devin’s old doubts start to creep back in…
On the live show, Jesse checks in with Jenn’s exes Jonathon and Jeremy, who hint that they’ve heard rumors of “an interesting end” to the season and wanted to be there to show their support. Hmmm! Back in Hawaii, Jenn brings Marcus in to meet her family, and James is worried she’s falling for another “emotionally unavailable” man, as she tends to do. Marcus narrates that he does have “strong feelings” for Jenn — but he still has “hesitations and reservations,” too.
He explains his tough upbringing in foster care to her family, and James appreciates him opening up, but he admits he was “looking for more” from him. He pulls him aside to dig a little deeper and grills him a bit about what’s holding him back with Jenn. Marcus says he feels like he’s “well on my way to finding true love”… but he’s not ready to drop the L-word. (And James definitely noticed.)
Jenn’s aunt is even more direct, asking Marcus if he’s in love with Jenn or not. Marcus admits, “I’m not there now,” but he gets emotional, too, telling her: “I want to get there for her.” Jenn’s mom can tell he’s not ready to get engaged, and James tells Jenn he doesn’t want to see her falling into old relationship patterns. Jenn sticks up for Marcus, but she also feels like “I’ve given a lot” to him already, and she doesn’t know how long she’s willing to wait. “I don’t want to repeat history,” Jenn declares. She tries to get an answer from Marcus, and when he talks about making “progress,” she pointedly reminds him: “It’s this week.” Do the words “season finale” mean anything to you, Marcus?!
In the studio audience, James admits he’s “not too happy” right now, so we’re definitely getting bad vibes about how this whole thing plays out. In Hawaii, Jenn and Devin take part in a traditional Hawaiian spiritual ceremony, letting go of their fears by hurling rocks into the ocean, and it seems to draw them even closer, with Devin later giving Jenn a thoughtful gift from their first one-on-one date in New Zealand. She has a final date with Marcus, too, and Jesse steps in first to strongly encourage him to share his feelings with Jenn. But she’s tired of waiting for him to “get there,” so she goes to his hotel room to get answers.
She wants to know how he sees this whole thing going, adding that when they talked, “I felt like you weren’t excited for the future.” He apologizes for not being clear with her and says things like “You make me want to keep trying” — but she’s heard all of this before. She’s invested so much into their relationship, she says, and “it’s not being handled with care.” Marcus does eventually say “I know that I love you” (!), and the surprise of that forces Jenn to take a moment to collect herself. But he realizes that “I’m not giving you what you need,” and she knows that she deserves better. “I’m just done,” she tells him, and they share a tender hug goodbye. So it’s down to just Devin! So why do we still have a bad feeling about this?
After Marcus sits down with Jenn and Jesse on the live show — please, ABC, get this man the therapy he needs — we’re back in Hawaii, and Jesse once again warns us we’re about to see something we’ve never seen before on this show. Even though she only has one man left, Jenn is still conflicted, admitting “I don’t know what to do.” While Devin makes his customary visit to Neil Lane, she sits down with Jesse and tells him she’s had a change of heart. “I’m not going to let Devin propose to me today.” But don’t worry, folks: “I’m going to propose to Devin!” she adds. That would be a first in Bachelorette history, we believe.
Sounds great, right? Well, on the live show, Jesse pours cold water on the proceedings: “You won’t be seeing that proposal,” he informs us, until we hear from Jenn, because of “what transpired since that day in Hawaii.” Uh-oh. Jenn comes back out and fights back sobs: “It’s been a really hard couple of months.” She explains that she and Devin left Hawaii engaged and happy, but when they got home, “things were just different. It kind of just felt like he was pulling away.” He didn’t follow through on plans to move in together, and “he wasn’t calling as much,” she reports. She felt “secondary” to the rest of his life, and when they had plans to meet up last month, he called her the night before and broke off the engagement. Over the phone? Devin, how could you?
He told Jenn he didn’t love her anymore and he regretted getting engaged, and she was left puzzling over what went wrong with them so quickly. She even tried to just date him without the pressure of the engagement, but “he was checked out,” she says. They bring out Devin to face the firing squad — the crowd boos him, and rightfully so — and Jenn reveals that the day after they broke up, she noticed he started following her Bachelor co-star Maria on Instagram. (Messy!) His actions “completely invalidated our relationship,” she tells him, and he looks appropriately guilty as he admits: “I failed you.” She points out, though, that while he said he needed time to process their breakup, she found out he was in New York clubbing with Jeremy. And his defense is an instant classic: “Am I not allowed to live a life?” (There are not enough face palms in the world, ladies and gentlemen.)
Jesse tries to help Devin out, asking him what went wrong, and Devin says he “had a lot of doubts” when the show ended, but Jenn contends that she never told him any of that, or that he never wanted to get engaged in the first place. Devin does concede that he was “regretfully late on letting you know,” but she just stares daggers at him, reminding him that she wanted to marry him, and “you had one foot out the door the entire time.” She’s been heartbroken watching the show back again and hearing all the things he said to her — all the things that didn’t turn out to be true.
Devin keeps insisting that he’s hurt, too, and tries to compliment her for how much she’s “flourished,” but it all rings a bit hollow at this point. Jesse steps in and offers his sympathies, telling her what a “strong and powerful woman” she is. He asks if they should watch her proposal after all, and she laughs at how ridiculous this is: “Do I have a choice?” And to our shock and horror, they actually play it! Watching poor Jenn cry her eyes out while watching herself propose to a grade-A jackass is just about the most gut-wrenching thing we’ve seen on TV this year. Why, ABC, why? Did they just need to fill out the three-hour time slot? Can’t we just chat with the Golden Bachelorette and call it a day?
Anyway, we blacked out due to second-hand embarrassment during the proposal, but we think Jenn pulled a wedding band out of a clamshell? Devin went ahead and proposed, too, because he already got the ring from Neil Lane and everything. But man, this is just painful. Jesse wants Jenn to feel “empowered” by seeing herself take the reins on the proposal, and she’s proud of herself for proposing to that man, she says — but “that man doesn’t exist anymore.” She’s confident she will find a man who will fulfill the promises he makes to her, and Devin, well… he should really just stop talking now. Jesse tries to put a nice bow on all this by giving us a sneak peek at The Golden Bachelorette. But sorry, Joan, we’ve still got a pretty bad taste in our mouths.
It’s your turn, Bachelor Nation: Who should Jenn have handed her final rose to? Vote in our poll below, and then hit the comments to share your post-finale thoughts.
I don’t understand why this show is still on the air. I guess enough people enjoy watching all the ridiculous drama and sad endings. I have my own TV vices, so I get it. But while I once believed in this show (and The Bachelor), I no longer believe that 99.9% of them go on there to find love. Just…silly and stupid of them to keep trying to force that premise down our throats when I can’t believe anyone believes it.
How do they “force it down your throat”? Do what normal people do when they don’t like the program and change the channel. If you keep watching a show you don’t like it is all YOUR fault.
IMO, this is just televised prostitution. How is this still on the air?!?!
I think Devin just wanted to win. He was all talk and Jen fell for it. What a piece of work. She did the right thing sending Marcus home. Real life is a lot harder than the romantic dates all over the world. I also think Devin never really was ready for the cultural differences between them. The show always pushing for an engagement after such a short period of time is unrealistic. It would be more realistic if at the end, they just chose the person they wanted to pursue a relationship with.
Agree. This pressure to give or receive a ring is just silly. Ending with an engagement was the original premise of this show, but it’s morphed into an evil robot fairy tale where there are very few happy endings.
Shame on you ABC. I have watched every season of the Bachelorette and the Bachelor. It’s my guilty pleasure and I always leave the last episode feeling good, although I know every season it probably won’t last. But, this is an all time low. I feel so bad for Jenn, no matter what the reason for their breakup. I guess popularity and fame went to Devin’s head. What he and the network did was wrong! Couldn’t you have just ended it with the proposal and let us believe they were happy until we read about it later on social media?! Not cool!
Not just any girl, but Maria ??? What difference does it make, I mean if he had called someone else it would have made a difference?? Honestly question.
I think the difference was is that they most likely have had a lot of conversations off camera about insecurities Jen must have felt when she was announced Bachelorette and everybody was spamming her socials with “It should’ve been Maria.” “You’re too boring. You’re not Maria”. etc. I’m sure this led to inferiority issues. So for him to break up with her and follow Maria less than 24 hours later has got to hit a soft spot.
Ohhhh okay, that makes sense. I don’t pay much attention to that bts stuff. In fact I never watched one episode of this season except for last night. Thanks for the reply.
Sorry for the name error. I think I need new batteries cuz my comp is dying, lol.
Omg. A hot girl ended up picking a guy who turned out to be a douchebag? That’s the first time in human history that’s happened!
I haven’t watched the Bachelor/Bachelorette in ages (but I did watch the Golden Bachelor hoping it would be different), but I guess this explains why they announced the next Bachelor so early and why he wasn’t one of her final three! I feel bad for Jenn, but I’m sure she’ll be fine by the time the next cycle of The Bachelorette rolls around.
That’s what you get for wanting to be famous
Wow, who would think letting your private life play out on national TV could be so embarrassing?
Only everyone.
She ditched all the guys and went on Tinder for a chick.
Very sad for Jan. I planed not watching Bachelorette ever again. ABC needs to apologized to her and compensate her for a public humiliation. Why? For ratings?
Totally disappointed 😞
…sheep…
I feel bad for her that it happened on live TV but didn’t she make a comment about being disappointed by the lack of men to choose from who shares her culture and background? The men didn’t hear about that until they left the house though but Devin and Marcus seemed a bit uncomfortable during the sit down with her family.
The “person she chose in the end looked and was such a fake. Always getting in the way of all the guys, interrupting their moments, making himself the only one that loved her and had to get his way, and bla bla bla!
And what happend in the end? He ends up humiliating her and running away like a chicken!!! Never liked him, never trusted him!
Love it. The ending she deserved
I agree with Jenny that Devin just wanted to win. I don’t think he considered himself as attractive or buff as the others and wanted to prove he could win. If you really look at him in the finale, he looked a little thinner, he grew a beard and even the black suit made him look better. I think when he got home, he felt he would be more appealing to women, especially after winning such a beautiful woman as Jenn and he wanted to play the field. As for me, I don’t find him attractive at all. He was definitely good with words but I believe they were insincere..
SAM M. SHOULD HAVE WON!!!!!!!
I don’t feel too bad. It was clear Devin was playing to WIN instead of being there to actually find love. Jenn also shouldn’t have sent Jonathan home and sent the guy who wasn’t even sure he loved her yet the week before last.
The Batch show is just a stepping stone for most of these ” people” to go on Instagram and try and become influencers ….
What an absolutely cruel thing bachelor nation had to watch a poor young woman go through watching her proposal, in front of the world sitting next to that jackass. I have watch since Trista so twenty years. I don’t know if I can ever watch again. I am ashamed of this franchise even being capable of this. She was crying her eyes out without comfort and everyone watching. That was the most cruel lack of taste ever. I am shocked and think this is the worst. So so sorry Jenn. You are a beautiful strong woman and shame on them for making money at your emotional expense. .