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.
Jenn says she’s in love with both of her final two men, and she’s excited to introduce them to her family.
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 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.
Jenn’s aunt is even more direct, asking Marcus if he’s in love with Jenn or not.
She has a final date with Marcus, too, and Jesse steps in first to strongly encourage him to share his feelings with Jenn.
Jesse tries to put a nice bow on all this by giving us a sneak peek at The Golden Bachelorette.
To be honest, we’ve never seen The Bachelorette season end quite like that.
The grand finale of Tuesday begins with Jenn still thinking about her final two suitors, Devin and Marcus, while she is in Hawaii. They also present a striking contrast: Devin has expressed his feelings for Jenn in public, while Marcus is, in his own words, “not there yet.”. Let us find out if she will choose “none of the above,” a la Brad Womack, or stick with Devin, who is a safe choice.
The two men Jenn has left, she claims to be in love with, and she can’t wait to introduce them to her family. Considering that she has never before brought a man home. After she tells them that only one of her final guys has told her he loves her, her family—including her brother James and mother Trinh—hesitates a little. Devin is fortunately up first!
He tells Jenn’s mother and aunt how much he loves her, and it’s adorable when he makes the promise to look after her in a way her father never did. She tells Jenn, “I think you need more time to understand each other,” but her mother is anxious about their brief courtship. In addition, Devin approaches her brother James for permission to propose, and James, who is fiercely protective of Jenn, tells him straight out that he wants to speak with Marcus first, even though he thinks they’re “a great match.”. Devin begins to have his previous doubts resurface.
As Jesse checks in with Jenn’s ex-boyfriends Jonathan and Jeremy on the live show, they imply that they’ve heard whispers of “an interesting end” to the season and wanted to be present to offer their support. When Jenn brings Marcus home to meet her family after returning to Hawaii, James worries that she’s falling for another “emotionally unavailable” man, as she usually does. Hmmmm. Although Marcus claims to have “strong feelings” for Jenn, he also admits to having “hesitations and reservations.”.
While James is grateful that he opened up to her family, he acknowledges that he was “looking for more” from him when he shared with them about his difficult start in foster care. He takes him aside to question him more deeply and to find out what’s stopping him from getting close to Jenn. Although Marcus claims to be “well on my way to finding true love,” he isn’t quite ready to call someone out. (James observed it, for sure. ( ).
Even more bluntly, Jenn’s aunt asks Marcus outright whether he loves Jenn or not. Marcus tells her, “I’m not there now,” but he also becomes emotional and says, “I want to get there for her.”. James tells Jenn that he doesn’t want to see her reverting to their previous relationship habits because Jenn’s mother can tell he’s not ready to get engaged. Jenn defends Marcus, but she’s not sure how much longer she can wait because she feels like “I’ve given a lot” to him already. Jenn says, “I don’t want to repeat history.”. She presses Marcus for a response, reminding him emphatically that this week is when he is supposed to be making “progress.”. Marcus, do you understand what a “season finale” means?
We have serious doubts about how this whole thing turns out because James acknowledges to the studio audience that he’s “not too happy” at the moment. After participating in a customary Hawaiian spiritual ceremony in Hawaii where they throw rocks into the ocean to release their fears, Jenn and Devin appear to become even closer. Later, on a thoughtful gift-giving date in New Zealand, Devin gives Jenn a heartfelt present. Marcus and she are going on their last date when Jesse intervenes to urge Marcus to tell Jenn how he really feels. To get answers, though, she visits his hotel room since she is fed up with waiting for him to “get there.”.
When they spoke, she said, “I felt like you weren’t excited for the future,” and she wants to know how he sees this whole thing going. He expresses regret for not being more explicit with her and says things like, “You inspire me to keep trying,” but she has heard all of this before. She claims that despite her deep investment in their relationship, “it’s not being handled with care.”. Jenn has to take a moment to gather herself when Marcus finally says, “I know that I love you” (!). He understands that “I’m not giving you what you need,” though, and she knows that she is deserving of better. “I’m just done,” she says to him before giving him a sweet farewell hug. It’s all up to Devin now, so why are we still feeling this way?
We’re back in Hawaii when Jesse warns us once more that we’re going to see something we’ve never seen on this show before after Marcus sits down with Jenn and Jesse on the live show. Please, ABC, get this man the therapy he needs. Jenn is still torn, acknowledging that she only has one man left, saying, “I don’t know what to do.”. She sits down with Jesse and informs him that she has changed her mind while Devin pays Neil Lane his usual visit. Devin’s proposal to me today won’t go through. I’m going to pop the question to Devin, so don’t worry, people. We think that would be a first for Bachelorettes ever.
Nice, huh? Well, Jesse puts a stop to things on the live show, telling us that “you won’t be seeing that proposal” until we hear from Jenn due to “what transpired since that day in Hawaii.”. Oh no. Jenn reappears and stifles her tears, saying, “These past few months have been really difficult.”. She says that although she and Devin had been engaged and happy when they left Hawaii, “things were just different when they got home.”. He seemed to be retreating, to put it mildly. She claims that “he wasn’t calling as much” and that “he didn’t follow through on plans to move in together.”. She felt “secondary” to the rest of his life, and he called her the night before their scheduled meeting last month to end their engagement. Devin, how could you say that over the phone?
Jenn was left wondering why things had fallen apart between them so quickly when he told her he no longer loved her and regretted becoming engaged. Even though she attempted to simply date him without the engagement stress, she claims that “he was checked out.”. When Devin is brought out to face the firing squad, the audience boos him, which is understandable. Jenn then says that she discovered he had begun following her Bachelor co-star Maria on Instagram the day after their breakup. She tells him that his actions “completely invalidated our relationship” (messy!), and he looks appropriately guilty as he acknowledges, “I failed you.”. But as she points out, she also learned that he was out clubbing in New York with Jeremy, despite his claim that he needed time to process their breakup. His justification, “Am I not allowed to live a life?” is an instant classic. Ladies and gentlemen, there aren’t enough face palms in the world. ( ).
When the show ended, Devin said he “had a lot of doubts,” but Jenn claims she never told him that or that he never wanted to get engaged in the first place. Jesse tries to help Devin by asking him what went wrong. Devin acknowledges that he was “regretfully late on letting you know,” but all she does is give him a glare and tell him that she still wanted to marry him even though “you had one foot out the door the entire time.”. He told her things that didn’t work out, and she has been devastated to see the show again and hear all of those things.
Devin tries to compliment her on how much she’s “flourished” and keeps saying that he’s hurt too, but at this point, it all sounds a little phony. As he intervenes, Jesse consoles her and compliments her on being a “strong and powerful woman.”. To our shock and horror, they actually play her proposal! 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. He asks if they should watch it after all. She laughs at how ridiculous this is. “Do I have a choice?”. Could we simply have a conversation with the Golden Bachelorette and end the day, ABC? Did they really need to fill the entire three-hour slot?
Devin also went ahead and proposed since he already had the ring from Neil Lane and everything, but we blacked out from second-hand embarrassment during the proposal. Oh my goodness, this hurts so much. Though Jenn is proud of herself for asking that man out, Jesse wants her to feel “empowered” by seeing her take the lead on the proposal. However, she notes that “that man doesn’t exist anymore.”. Devin, well, he really should just stop talking now. She’s sure she will find a man who will keep the promises he makes to her. Giving us a glimpse of The Golden Bachelorette, Jesse attempts to tie a lovely bow on everything. We apologize, but Joan, we still find it difficult to taste anything.
