SPOILER ALERT: If you don’t want to know the outcome of “The Bachelorette” season finale, stop reading right now.
Congratulations are in order after Monday’s “Bachelorette” season finale: oh sure, to Katie Thurston and her fiancé, but I was thinking more of the show’s producers, who pulled off yet another masterful bit of misdirection after last week’s shocker of an episode.
If you watched that brutal breakup between Katie and the man who many of us assumed was the holder of her heart, Greg Grippo, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Blake Moynes and Justin Glaze were destined for disappointment, that Katie couldn’t possibly get engaged to one of them when her “number one” had sent himself home.
But once we all took a breath, it was clear how unlikely it was that a) Katie would actually abandon her quest for love; b) that she and Greg would get back together, since she essentially accused him of gaslighting her on Instagram or c) that she would end up with no one, especially with three hours of finale air time to fill.
On Monday, not only did Katie choose one of the final two; she did it barely 40 minutes into the episode. Despite her insistence that she wouldn’t say “I love you” to anyone but the last man standing — a decision that seemed to have played a role in Greg’s departure — she spilled the L-word to Blake Moynes on their fantasy suite date, the first (and only) one she went on.
The only logical conclusion is that Katie didn’t love Greg after all; that if she truly did want to go home after he walked out on her it wasn’t because she couldn’t imagine carrying on without him but because his abandonment had shaken her faith in her own lovability. And that makes perfect sense to me.
But Katie did find love and she found it with Canadian contestant Blake, and they seemed just as smitten with each other on the “After the Final Rose” portion of the finale as during the proposal.
For those who still think Katie picked him just so she could walk away engaged, I’d say you’re not giving her anywhere near enough credit. If Greg really had been “the one” for her I believe she would have left rather than pretend to have feelings for Blake or Justin. Just compare and contrast her reactions when first Greg then Blake said they loved her.
When Greg said it, she smiled at him and told him she loved looking at him. When Blake said it, she quickly broke her own rule about not using the L-word before the end and told him, “I fucking love you so much and I couldn’t be happier that you’re here.” Like “Greg who?”
And she kept saying it to Blake in the fantasy suite. And in case we didn’t get the point, Katie told co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe later, “My heart officially belongs to Blake.” (She also told her, ahem, that her night with Blake left her “plenty satisfied, many times.” Sex positive, indeed.)
Unfortunately, that meant no fantasy suite date for Justin. Katie let him down as gently as she could, but he was crushed. It was even more heartbreaking to see him struggling to hold back tears as he met Katie in the studio for the first time since their breakup. Katie reassured him that they’d had a real connection despite his feeling he’d ended up in the final two by default (although if we’re being honest, he had; Greg and Blake would have been final two I’m sure if Greg hadn’t vamoosed).
Luckily, the mood was lightened by a highlight reel of Justin’s facial expressions — he said he hadn’t been aware he was making them while, yes, making them. Plus, Justin has to be on the short list for next Bachelor after what we saw of him on Monday night.
But with one man left standing, the producers had to try to keep the drama going by pretending that maybe Blake wouldn’t propose.
If anyone stood a chance of derailing Katie’s and Blake’s cross-border relationship, it would have been Katie’s Aunt Lindsey. Katie called her a “tough cookie,” but she was kind of like Peter Weber’s mom Barb and Desiree Hartsock’s brother Nate rolled into one — in other words, terrifying.
“You’d better be secure as fuck coming in our family,” she told Blake, “because at the end of the day you’re here because we want you here, not because we need you here.”
She interrogated Blake on how he planned to handle marriage when it got hard. When he said he and Katie would do anything to make things right, Lindsey replied, “Yeah, that’s not how it works, I mean cute, but ultimately that’s not how anything works.
Luckily, Katie’s mom, Rhonda Lee, was more welcoming, crushing Blake with a hug when he walked in and tearing up as she told him how happy Katie seemed to be.
Nice try, producers, but a surly aunt didn’t deter Blake.
I won’t bore you with all the details, but Blake obligingly did several voice-overs expressing doubt about whether he was ready to propose. He even took a walk away from the table to frown and worriedly rub his hands together while co-host Tayshia Adams, filling in for an absent Neil Lane, was helping him choose an engagement ring.
There was one final fakeout during Blake’s proposal speech when he told Katie, “I can’t give you what you came here for” — long pause — “because you deserve a lot more than that.”
Of course he got down on one knee; of course he pulled out a honking big diamond ring. Katie simultaneously laughed and cried after she said yes. And then Tayshia and Kaitlyn came running over to help them celebrate, which made the whole thing more endearing. (Katie gave them heartfelt thanks on “ATFR,” telling them “I truly would not have gotten through this if it wasn’t for the support of you ladies.”)
But hold those warm and fuzzy thoughts because after the commercial break, Greg joined Kaitlyn and Tayshia in the studio and then Katie came out, pointedly walking past Greg without a hug or even a handshake, and it was a downer.
They rehashed the breakup with Katie chastising Greg for how he treated her.
“You were never ready for an engagement,” she said. “You spoke down to me. You didn’t even bother to say goodbye. You say you love me, but I don’t even think you know what love is.” She also accused Greg of using her to get acting practice, and of being “a confident, cocky boy from Jersey who knows he’s hot shit” rather than the shy guy he portrayed on the show.
Greg was gaslighting her, she added, by making her feel “like I did something so horrible you had to leave.”
It just went on and on and on, extending past another commercial break.
The bottom line, I think, is that Katie felt if Greg had really loved her he would have stayed; and Greg felt if Katie had loved him she would have said something to convince him to stay, and I think they’re both right about that although I totally get why Katie felt disrespected.
The skirmish ended with them wishing each other, however insincerely, “nothing but the best.”
And then Blake and Katie reunited for their first time together in public as a couple.
Blake said he knew he was in love with Katie when they played hockey on their hometown date, which Kaitlyn said was “very Canadian” of him. Katie said that Blake coming back on “The Bachelorette” to be with her, and risking looking dumb if she turned him down, was “probably the most romantic thing somebody’s ever done.”
But Blake (or at least some producer) one-upped himself by having audience members stand up holding boomboxes John Cusack-style while the country song that Blake and Katie danced to on their first one-on-one played in the studio and they danced and kissed onstage.
Maybe Aunt Lindsey is right and things will go to hell in a hand basket for them, but they looked like a couple who were head over heels on Monday. Good luck to them, I say.
That’s a wrap on “Bachelorette,” but I’ll be back in this space next week for the premiere of “Bachelor in Paradise.”
Tune in next Monday at 8 p.m. on Citytv. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo
Recent Comments