Katie gets engaged but still appears to have some ex baggage on the Bachelorette finale

I don’t know about you guys, but three hours is a lot, right? I feel like this “Finale/After The Final Rose” could have been cut by an hour at least. As it stands, we got a breakup, a proposal, and a really painful couples therapy session. Also a lesson about how never to cross Katie’s Aunt Lindsey, never, ever.

On the upside: Okay, Blake was never going to be my first choice—or fifth—but he was kind of winning me over by the end there. Maybe it was the way he kept saying “aboot” like a true Canadian, but I could see how the chemistry between the pair could going to work. Plus he’s a wildlife manager. Hard not to like. I feel like the inevitable result was so obvious that the whole “Greg may be getting cold feet” plot at the end seemed completely fabricated. Granted, after evil Aunt Lindsey, even Tayshia and Kaitlyn wondered if Katie’s family had scared him off (although Tayshia seemed kind of embarrassed to read that from the teleprompter). I kinda hate people like Aunt Lindsey, the ones that think they can say whatever they want (telling Blake “you’re nothing,” for just one example) under the guise of, “Hey, I’m just being honest.” No, you’re just being a jerk. Good on Blake for handling it as well as he did. At least Katie’s mom seemed nice.

But then Katie had her post-show showdown with Greg, and we can see that maybe high-volume no-holds-barred conflict is just a thing in the Katie family. This pains me, because I really liked Katie all season, but I did not like her performance tonight. We know she has a pretty prominent Twitter habit, so maybe she just read way too many rumors about Greg’s acting career or that he was there for the “wrong reasons” or whatever. But someone who is engaged to someone else should not have that much simmering resentment toward an ex. And since Greg was calmer, he stated his case clearer, that he just wanted her to put aside all the Bachelorette stuff for a moment and talk to him like they were in an actual relationship that night. Not saying he was completely in the right, but neither was she. (Let’s not forget the old “I just love looking at you” line after he tore his heart out.) Although Greg was spot-on when he said tonight that if he was the one, Katie would have gone after him or said what he wanted her to say (she said it to Blake, after all). But overall, it was the most uncomfortable thing I saw on The Bachelorette all season, and if I was Blake that conversation would strike me as a red flag in my fiancé.

I know that this is the point of the entire show, but I hate the way the Bachelor franchise holds up the engagement at the end of the season like a shiny new car or something. Yes, it makes for fun planning errands like going ring shopping with your old girlfriend/matchmaker, but no matter how you look at it, it’s really soon. And most of us realize that love at first sight takes a lot of work to last. So, honestly, best of luck to the happy couple, I wish them all the best in Canada or Africa or wherever they end up. And here’s hoping Blake will be stocking up on alcohol for future holiday family gatherings (that’s what I do for mine).

Stray observations

• Justin’s breakup was inevitable, but it was still kind of sad. Even he wondered if he made it to the finale two by default.
• Tayshia is a beautiful woman, but what was up with that backless ringleader jacket?
• “More with Katie and Greg when we return”: No thank you.
• Man, the crowd really seemed behind Greg at the end there, right?
• Lighting that creepy Zozobra thing for Blake and Katie’s final Bachelorette date was just odd. Honestly, what a weird finale.
• I’m in Chicago, so honestly I did miss some of the beginning due to tornado reports. But why couldn’t those have happened during the Katie-Greg battle?
• One moment where you just know that Blake is a nice guy: Making sure Katie was okay after the “contentious” conversation with Greg.
• Also liked Katie’s shoutout to Tayshia and Kaitlyn, who are 100x better than Chris Harrison and will be hosting Michelle’s season as well, yay.
• And that’s a wrap on Bachelorette season 17, everyone! Thanks for reading, it was fun (kind of?) but I always really enjoyed your comments. Please come back next week when I drop in on the Bachelor In Paradise premiere to see how our old pals Connor, Tre, and James are doing. And that Bachelorette promo for Michelle looked fun, didn’t it? Should we give this show yet another chance?