Every single year, Chris Harrison and ABC try to convince us that the latest season of The Bachelor will be the most dramatic ever -- and for once, they weren't exaggerating.
Part 1 of Season 22's finale aired Monday night, and showed a conflicted Arie Lyendyk Jr. telling both finalists -- Becca Kurfin & Lauren -- that he loved them.
**SPOILER ALERT: He eventually proposed to Becca, ONLY TO BREAK UP WITH HER LATER ON IN THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE, RAW FOOTAGE EVER SHOWN ON REALITY TELEVISION. And why did he want the split? BECAUSE HE SAYS THAT HE'S STILL IN LOVE WITH LAUREN!
And while it's already bad enough to be blindsided with a breakup on national television, the situation was made even MORE uncomfortable by the fact that Arie literally wouldn't leave after he made it clear that the relationship was over.
[Twitter was just not having it, y'all.]
Becca has since spoken out, revealing that Arie had talked to her about his lingering feelings for Lauren even before their breakup.
“He had told me, ‘I still have feelings for her, I’m trying to work through them.’ He said it was hard for him to always talk about it in interviews with the press, to relive that relationship. He said he couldn’t close that chapter until everything was said and done and the finale aired. That whole time we were just looking at the end goal of this week to finally be done with that and move on and be together and work through it as a team,” Kurfin told People.
Aili Nahas at People.com writes:
'Kufrin says she “can’t fault” Luyendyk Jr. “for falling in love with Lauren and following his heart because I would never want anyone to stay in a relationship where they felt trapped and it wasn’t right,” but she wishes he’d done things differently.'
Perhaps a silver lining in this train-wreck of a situation is that people everywhere have circled the metaphorical wagons for Becca, sending her money for wine [and words of encouragement!] on Venmo. LOL!
How do you feel about Monday night's episode of The Bachelor?
More information below: