THE BACHELORETTE RECAP—EMILY MAYNARD FINALLY PICKS HER MAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week on The Bachelorette, Emily puts us out of our misery completes her journey to find true love by getting engaged to her little brother Jef with one “f” and sending Arie packing before his final date.

Throughout this season’s finale, Chris Harrison repeatedly told the live audience and viewers at home that this was “the most dramatic finale in The Bachelorette history.” I’m not quite sure why this was any more dramatic than any other final episode, especially when it became obvious about three weeks ago that Jef would be the winner, but at this point Chris is probably as jaded as the rest of us and just going through the motions.

Jef got the first chance to woo Emily’s family. Although he showed up looking like Ponyboy from The Outsiders, he managed to say all the right things and win them over. Emily’s father and brother seemed pretty skeptical at first, but in the end they all gave him their blessing to ask Emily to marry him.

Arie didn’t fare quite as well. He seemed really nervous around the family, bumbling through conversations about cloudy days being the best for fishing and the like, while Emily sat there counting down the minutes before she could give him the boot. Perhaps foreshadowing his imminent departure, he also gave Emily the worst gift ever—all of the now dead roses she had given him through the season. Emily’s dad and brother again seemed pretty skeptical, with her brother calling Arie a “smooth talker,” but in the end they also gave Arie their blessing to ask Emily to marry him.

After meeting the two men, Emily’s family pulled a Switzerland and wouldn’t tell her whom they thought she should pick. The only thing her mom told her was that maybe it was too soon to get engaged to anyone and that she probably shouldn’t confuse Ricki by introducing her to either of the men yet.

Next up, Emily had some one-on-one time with Jef. Although she was a little unsure about letting him meet Ricki, the producers won out she relented and a fun afternoon was had by all. Jef showed us that the secret to being a great dad is just giving a bunch of high-fives and throwing on some pink goggles, and Emily looked ecstatic that he and Ricki were getting along so well.

At the end of their day together, Jef gave Emily a coffee table book about Curaçao (thanks Curaçao tourism board) with doodles of him and Emily drawn onto the pages. Seriously – are they not allowed to spend any money on these gifts? Seeing the two of them laughing and hanging out together, it was so obvious that she was going to pick Jef and not surprising when she sat down with Chris Harrison to tell him that her mind was made up and she didn’t want to have another date with Arie.

While it seemed that Emily genuinely didn’t want to embarrass Arie by having him go through with a proposal when her mind was already made up, the producers weren’t going to let her get off that easily. In one of the most awkward “dramatic” scenes in Bachelorette history, we got to watch Arie getting ready for their final date by making a love potion while talking about how sure he was that they would get married. Emily then showed up and let Arie rub some of the potion on her arm before breaking up with him. To his credit, Arie was polite but chilly after Emily dropped the bomb.

With that bit of awkwardness behind her, Emily was ready to profess her love to Jef. She gave him the final rose and said yes to his proposal. After that, Emily, Jef and Ricki walked hand in hand like a perfect little family while Peter Cetera’s The Glory of Love played. Awesome job, editors!

Since the finale was pretty anticlimactic, I was excited when Chris Harrison told us that the After the Final Rose would have some shocking secrets. (Did I mention that this show was three hours?) Unfortunately, he lied to us again. The shocking secrets are that Jef and Emily are still in love and planning a trip to Africa with Ricki to do some missionary work, and that Arie went to see Emily in Charlotte, but then chickened out and just left the diary he kept during the show on her doorstep. Maybe it is shocking that on a show where half the couples are broken up by the time the After the Final Rose show happens, everyone seems happy and genuinely supportive of one another. Still, I was hoping for a little more drama.

 

—By Kimberly MacDonald