The Bachelorette Finale Recap: Jenn Makes Franchise History — But Did She Get a Fairy Tale Ending?
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!
More from TVLine
The Bachelorette: How Long Each Couple Lasted
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.
Best of TVLine
Sign up for Tvline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
