SPOILER ALERT: Warning, this article contains spoilers from the season finale of The Bachelor and After the Final Rose. Proceed at your own risk.
Nobody said falling in love is easy. Sometimes you have to humiliate your brand new fiancée on television in front of millions of people in order to find true happiness, and that’s just the path that Arie Luyendyk Jr. took on the stunning season finale of The Bachelor.
After proposing to and then eventually breaking up with Becca Kufrin on Monday night’s three-hour finale, Luyendyk flew to Virginia Beach to let runner-up Lauren Burnham know that it’s actually her that he’s in love with.
Arie explained that he felt “confidence” coming from Becca and chose her as a “safe decision for my future” — presumably one in which his wife actually speaks more than three words at a time. But it seems that love is as mute as it is blind, and Arie successfully begged the blonde beauty to take him back.
And so, after demanding all season that he was ready to be married, even kicking off contestants like Bekah M. and Kendall for potentially not being ready to be engaged after a few weeks of dating, Arie was unable to be with his fiancée for even two months before changing his mind and entering a relationship with another woman.
Not just a casual relationship, though, but another engagement altogether. On Tuesday’s After the Final Rose special, Arie proposed to Lauren live on the air and she said yes.
Before the proposal, Lauren spoke up more than she had all season in order to defend her man’s “bravery and honesty” in the way he handled the whole situation. Bachelor Nation, on the other hand, couldn’t disagree more.
Bekah is all of us #TheBachelor #AftertheFinalRose pic.twitter.com/xITYJEQhiW
— Michelle Collins (@michcoll) March 7, 2018
The entire world right now. #TheBachelor pic.twitter.com/cTqLMwcy4n
— Trent (@BarstoolTrent) March 7, 2018
Arie has proposed twice in less than 6 months. Ross Geller looks pretty good rn #TheBachelor pic.twitter.com/jBYDgfhqfu
— Kath (@GrapesOf_Kath) March 7, 2018
Chris Harrison: I can’t imagine what’s going through your head right now.
Lauren: Me either.You can’t make this shit up.
😂😂😂 #AftertheFinalRose #TheBachelor #TheBachelorFinale
— Cari (@MsCari0908) March 7, 2018
As shocking as it all was, it’s perhaps the perfect ending for a season in which people rolled their eyes at most things Arie did anyway. And it’s hard to deny that Lauren and Arie’s personalities are a boring match made in heaven. Plus all the drama gave Becca the chance to be named the new Bachelorette. As Arie would say, “I love that.”
