The Bachelorette ceremony ended in shocking fashion Monday night.
In the finale on September 3, Zen Tran chose Devin Strader over Marcus Sjoberg.
She is also determined to turn the romantic mood around for her ambitious husband.
“You were always the same, our love was always there, and I never doubted for a second how much you loved me,” Jenn told Devin in the episode, adding on air:
“I love you so much, Devin, but I can’t allow you to propose to me. I’ve chosen to go on this journey myself, and I’m at my best when I’m with you…
“I want to fight for you every day. You are everything I dreamed of but never knew I could have. I want to wake up and choose you every single day for the rest of my life.”
Then Tran proposed to her by putting a wedding ring on a seashell, and Devin said, “Of course” he would marry her “a hundred times over.”
Hurray, right?!?!? It’s a really happy ending, right?
You’re wrong, folks.
ABC edited the ceremony into an “After the Final Rose” segment that featured Jesse Palmer sitting in the studio with Tran.
“It was a really tough few months. We left Hawaii engaged and I was very, very happy. It was the happiest day of my life,” Tran said, describing what happened after that fairytale ending.
“As soon as I left Hawaii, things changed. It was like he was leaving. All his promises about moving somewhere together and planning a future.”
Jen continued, “My efforts were inconsistent. I called less, texted less. I was confused.”
The first Asian-American single woman in history spoke her mind through tears, eventually telling Devin that she had called and called off their engagement.
“He basically told me he didn’t love me anymore, he didn’t feel the same way, and that something was off,” she said. “He regretted getting engaged, and I didn’t know.”
Wow, right?
Devin came out to see Jen for the first time in weeks, and the tension between the two ex-lovers was palpable.
“What I don’t understand is everything you did after you broke off our engagement,” Jenn said, noting that he started following former Bachelor contestant Maria Georgas on social media.
“Not only was it disrespectful to everything we shared together, but I couldn’t understand why he would do something like that. It completely invalidated the entire relationship.”
Devin didn’t directly respond to the criticism, but he didn’t hide how big of a mistake he had made.
“I let you down,” Devin said. “And that’s all I can say. But everything I felt for you was real.”
However, Jen is suspicious of Devin’s intentions and feelings, noting that he had previously asked for “time and space” to “process his feelings” but then went to a club in New York City.
“When I left the show, I had a lot of doubts,” Devin said. “I was honest with you about that.”
Devin claimed that he “hid all feelings of doubt” during and immediately after filming The Bachelorette ended.
“It’s hard for me to sit here and deny that you’re accusing me,” he said. “I regret it was too late for me to tell you. I can’t help but sit here and take responsibility for my shortcomings.”
To her credit, Tran was forthright in her approach to the debate.
“I wanted to spend my life with you, have a family with you, and you didn’t feel that way,” she told Devin. “You had one foot out the door the whole time. … It broke my heart to see you on TV every Monday night telling me the lies.”
After the commercial break, Devin said:
“I didn’t come here to save face. I have nothing to gain from coming here other than to make sure you’re okay. That’s why I came here.”
He concluded his mea culpa as follows:
“I watched this beautiful girl blossom. Watching you was amazing. I realized how inadequate I was in the real world. … I watched you grow, and then I watched myself contribute to your decline.”
As the finale wrapped up, Palmer applauded Jen’s strength throughout her journey despite the heartbreaking conclusion.
“You showed us all what it means to be a strong and powerful woman,” the former Bachelor leader said.
