It’s the End of the World
Hello friends!
Well, actually, it’s just the end of the season, and I can’t wait to be done.
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
From the last episode, we know that Clayton can’t stop thinking about Susie, and he’s hoping for another chance.
When Susie Met Clayton
Jesse tells Susie that Clayton’s been a wreck without her, and she agrees to have another conversation with him.
This time around, she defends herself.
She tells him he’s a “good human,” but the way he treated her changed her feelings toward him. He made her question her intuition, and she felt like an awful person. “It was humiliating…I felt like a stray dog that had come into your home, and you were shooing me out.”
“If you just have love for me as a person, how can you treat me like this?”
Clayton apologizes, and says he didn’t mean the things he said.
Then he launches into his speech—the same speech he gave Gabby and Rachel, about how their love is worth fighting for.
“Is there any way you can give me a second chance?”
She appreciates him being genuine, but she’s not ready to give him an answer.
Heartbreak Special: Two for One
Despite spending hours convincing Gabby and Rachel to stay at the rose ceremony, Clayton has now decided that his heart is with Susie and he needs to dump them immediately.
He meets with both of them at the same time, and breaks the bad news.
Points for efficiency?
He tells them he’s realized it’s not “feasibly possible” to be in love with three women at once.
To paraphrase Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer, this information would have been much more useful to them a few days ago.
Gabby has nothing to say to him, and she leaves the room.
Clayton follows her, because apparently Gabby isn’t allowed to have the last word.
She tells him, “I can’t believe anything you say…you asked me to stay because you were pissed and your pride was hurt because Susie left.”
He insists that he does love her, but she’s not having it. “That is bulls**t!”
He offers to walk her out, and she gives him a disgusted look. “No.”
Gabby in the Spotlight
Now that Iceland’s done, we’re back in Los Angeles with a live audience.
Jesse Palmer announces Gabby, and the crowd goes wild. When she comes out, her first order of business is a big hug for Grandpa John.
Side note: She’s wearing a black dress with long silver earrings, and she looks stunning.
Clayton comes out.
She tells him she feels she was misled. He withheld information from her, and she feels betrayed.
He gives her a quasi-apology: “I’m incredibly sorry that you feel that way.”
He feels terrible watching it back, and insists he had good intentions.
By now, Gabby has seen all the episodes, so she knows he told Susie he loved her the most. She holds him accountable for his shifting emotions. “When you say you love someone, you’re assuming responsibility to protect them, to care for them, and to not hurt them. And you didn’t do any of those things.”
Rachel’s Breakup
We get footage showing us Rachel’s reaction to Clayton’s double breakup in Iceland.
She’s crying, and she tells him, “When you put me in this car today, I’m not going to just stop loving you.”
She promises that when he looks back on letting her go, “This is going to haunt you.”
She fought for him and gave him everything, and in return she gets another one of his quasi-apologies. “Rachel, I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Her mascara is running, she’s trying to wipe away her tears, and Clayton doesn’t even offer her a tissue. Instead, he walks her out.
It’s a wrenching goodbye, with Rachel saying she’ll never stop fighting for him.
Rachel’s Time in the Spotlight
Back to the studio, and now it’s Rachel’s turn to tell Clayton exactly how she feels.
She describes herself as “collateral damage,” and calls his actions disrespectful.
Clayton says he’s incredibly sorry, and her response is blunt: “I just don’t believe you.”
Rachel’s parents are in the audience, and Jesse asks if they’d like to share any thoughts with Clayton. They decline, because neither one has anything good to say to him.
Jesse offers Rachel the final word, and she doesn’t hold back. “You told me that I was the first person that you said ‘I love you’ to in six years. I had no reason to ever doubt you. So, did you tell me that you were in love with me because you wanted to sleep with me?”
He flatly denies the charge. “No…I felt those feelings for you then. I believed it, I really did believe I felt those feelings.”
Is That a Proposal?
Now that he’s broken up with Gabby and Rachel, Clayton’s ready to commit to Susie.
While the show is an endless hype machine, this time the “most dramatic season ever” label actually applies. For the first time in Bachelor history, the answer is no.
TL;DR
I’ve lost patience with Clayton, with this season, and with this show. So I’ll just leave you two videos that sum it all up.
I’m ecstatic about one, and deeply disappointed with the other; I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
I’m taking a little break for a family vacation, but I’ll be back with a recap of The Courtship next Thursday.
Cheers!
Need to catch up on prior episodes? Here’s the list:
| Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 |
| Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Free Bingo Cards! |