In the aftermath of Arie Luyendyk’s stunning reversal, The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special was guaranteed to be literally unprecedented.
With the dust still settling from the most painful 40-minute scene in the history of reality TV, what could the ABC hit do for an encore?!
Having dispatched his first fiancee, Arie wasted no time trying to lock down a second on night two of this five-hour finale event.
Would Lauren Burnham, spurned on The Bachelor finale for Becca, go along with his grand switcheroo and grant him another chance?
Would The Bachelor spoilers, which accurately predicted Arie ending his engagement with Becca Kufrin, be proven right once again?
Indeed, and indeed.
By 8:30, we’d seen Arie travel to Virginia Beach, hurriedly explain his dubious actions to Lauren, and have her take him back enthusiastically.
Oh, okay. Cool!
In need of some filler, Chris Harrison brought out Tia Booth, Caroline Lunny, Bekah Martinez and Kendall Long to gauge their reactions.
Bekah thinks Arie is a tool and Lauren should run for the hills. Seinne thinks that Arie playing up the big “risk” he’s taking was nonsense.
All five of the guests seem to genuinely like Lauren, LOVE Becca, and loathe Arie for being a disingenuous, indecisive waffler.
Yup. Pretty much.
Then s–t got real. For the second consecutive night, Becca was kind (brave, strong) enough to face the music … and her former fiance.
Drum roll please …
Becca wasted no time putting the screws to her ex over the timetable of his now-infamous “reaching out” to Lauren during their engagement.
Arie’s explanation of “wanting to get his thoughts in order” before doing what he needed to do came across as marginal at best.
She also took him to task for so quickly closing the door on their relationship – their engagement – rather than trying to open it.
Luyendyk did own the fact that he proposed when his heart wasn’t in it, chalking it up to the enormous pressure of the moment.
An explanation is not an excuse, as she pointed out and he openly admitted, saying he’ll always regret what he put her through.
All is forgiven?
Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, a duo that certainly knows what Arie and Lauren are about to go through, sat down for more filler.
The highlight of which was Jason recommend that Arie get out of dodge for a few weeks, and Chris Harrison adding, “or a few years.”
Finally, after an hour and 15 minutes, Arie and Lauren took the stage together to tell us her side of the story – and where they stand.
Long story short: Totes in love.
Lauren professed her love, praising Arie’s bravery, honesty and respectfulness, and saying she trusts him with her heart completely.
CRICKETS from the audience.
Haters gonna hate, as they say, but Arie says he’s gonna shake it off. So to speak. His paraphrasing of that was “it doesn’t matter.”
Not only are Arie and Lauren together, they seem remarkably content with that fact and the unconventional route they took to get there.