Everyone, I’m going to say it. This season’s finale of The Bachelor actually sounds like it could be the most dramatic finale in The Bachelor’s history. Clayton Echard already made franchise history early in the season – when he took the rose from Cassidy Timbrooks after she lied to him – and it looks like he’s about to do it again, with an ending situation that never happened in The Bachelor. not in The Bachelor. Bachelorette before.
MAJOR SPOILERS ahead, so be warned!
Clayton Echard and his last three – Susie Evans, Gabby Windy and Rachel Rekkia – are heading to Reykjavik, Iceland for their Fantasy Suite dates, and now we’re coming to the part of the season that’s been teased all along. The commercials seem to show Evans self-destructing after learning that Echard was in love with all of them, followed by the confession of protagonist Windy and Rekkia that he was also close to each of them. However, at this point, we know better than to trust the promo, right? Because the rumored ending, according to Reality Steve, shows Evans making history for the franchise:
Susie is persuaded to stay and at the final rose ceremony she declines Clayton’s offer and Clayton leaves Iceland alone.
Wait, what? We knew it was possible that Clayton Echard would remain single – even Bachelor Nation graduates predicted this. But convincing a woman to stay only to be rejected at your latest rose ceremony? Cruel! Not surprisingly, Teddy Wright expressed concern about this infuriating “Women Tell All” about whether Echard was okay.
It is unknown why, if Susie Evans is the last woman standing, she did not attend the rose ceremony where Clayton Echard is apparently making her confession. Was it just another editing stunt by the dastardly producers of The Bachelor, or did she leave and then come back? We’ll have to watch to find out, but Reality Steve indicated that this would be an ending never seen before in The Bachelor or The Bachelor:
Not only did Susie not get eliminated in Final 3, she does something we’ve never seen in the show’s 45 previous seasons: turn down the host’s offer.
While it’s true that the protagonist’s proposal was never rejected, The Bachelorette’s protagonists don’t propose at the end of the season; they offer the last rose. Thus, in the case of this show, despite the offers being rejected, not a single protagonist’s final rose was ever rejected, which would make Clayton Echard the first protagonist in the franchise to be turned down as a result of their final selection.
If this rumor is true, Clayton Echard will also have the distinction not only of being the first to take the rose, but also that his first and last roses will be rejected. Even before Echard arrived at the bachelor’s mansion to greet the limousines, he offered a rose to Sally Carson when she expressed her regret at coming to the show. In the end, she refused his rose and did not even go to the mansion.
So now that we apparently know that Susie Evans is turning down the offer, is this for Clayton Echard? Not so fast. Jesse Palmer hinted during “Women Tell All” that even he doesn’t know how this season will end, which makes me think there might be jokes when we get to The Last Rose.
The drama isn’t over yet, and I know I’ll be watching when The Bachelor returns at 8:00 pm ET on Tuesday, March 8 on ABC ahead of its two-day finale next week.