Note: This post is all about the finale of The Bachelorette, including who won.
Actually, make that third best. For the first time, there were still three men remaining at the start of the final episode. But contrary to many people’s expectations, bachelorette Rachel dismissed Eric first, leaving obnoxious smooth-talker Bryan and basically perfect-dude Peter left. It was one of the more obviously uneven contests, with every frame of the show reinforcing how awesome the latter was, and how dispiritingly milquetoast the former. And honestly, the bachelorette usually makes the wrong choice by the end of the season, so Rachel ending up with the lesser guy wouldn’t be that surprising, but it’s rare that an excellent guy is even in the final mix. So naturally, many of us thought she would surprise us yet again, choosing Peter. Then, again, sometimes this happens:
sometimes the hero turns out to be the villain in the final reveal https://t.co/RTuGR2JSNg
— Choire (@Choire) August 8, 2017
Yes, after a tense and painful interview wherein Rachel and Peter did everything but say, “I love you, the format of this show is forcing you to choose the other guy,” Rachel ended up picking Bryan. Of course, she had to, because Peter told her he needed more time than the insane weeks-long span of the show to propose to her, and Rachel decided to settle for second best rather than go through all that messy actual relationship stuff, meaning they broke it off before it got to the last rose ceremony. (The A.V. Club may or may not have an opinion as to what went down, obviously we’re keeping it very close to the vest, indeed.) So let’s just end this by reminding everyone that Bryan was literally on a reality show called The Player back in 2004. So yeah, he seems like a good bet, Rachel.