The Bachelor Finale Recap Season 24, Episode 12: Barbara Enrages Bachelor Nation

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Chris Harrison his promised for months that Peter’s “Bachelor” journey would end like no other, and he wasn’t wrong. At one point, Peter stood there at the final rose ceremony with no women. Would that be how his story ended?

It turns out there were plenty of twists and turns along the way. One hero emerged, one villain was exposed and some incredibly harsh words poured forth from the mouths of Peter’s parents before Chris signed off and reintroduced Bachelor Nation to the next Bachelorette, Clare Crawley.

And on every single one of those points, the internet exploded with reactions and outrage. And yes, we’re including the already-announced Bachelorette. After watching how Peter’s debacle of a season wound down, Bachelor Nation was ready to name a new Bachelorette and throw Clare back to the wolves.

There’s nothing to say that the woman they rallied behind couldn’t come forward for the next installment, or even a year or so down the road. There’s something to be said about that time to allow for closure and healing. Some could argue — and we would not disagree — that Peter coming into this season so quickly after Hannah Brown rejected him set him up for failure.

His own failings and inability to make decisions and be true to himself were also huge obstacles, but we think he was kind of a mess when he got into this. People talk about how most rebound relationships end in disaster. This entire season of “The Bachelor” was Peter’s rebound relationship and it ended … well, we’ll get to that in a second.

Final Rose by Default

If you had skipped the rest of the season, you might have been euphoric as Peter woke up refreshed and ready to commit his heart and soul to Hannah Ann, who clearly felt the same way. If you’d watched Monday night’s episode, you’d wonder what the hell he was talking about.

How can he say he’s so sure Hannah Ann is the one when he was ready to give his full heart and soul to Madison just two days ago? Dude was settling for who was left … without even telling her she was the only one left. How is that supposed to make her feel? How is that remotely fair to her or her feelings?

We get there are rules about what you can and can’t say in reality television, but dropping in that Madison left two days ago in the middle of a proposal is pretty shitty. If Hannah Ann had had two seconds to think about it, she might have remembered that it was one night ago he said his heart was torn.

Madison was gone and he was still torn in two? And yet, he was going to settle for Hannah Ann. When pressed later, he said it was because he didn’t want to risk letting her go. But you can not let her go and not propose at the same time, guy. Come on!

And then, to rub salt in the wounds, Peter ultimately called off their engagement because he still had feelings for Madison. Hannah Ann was nothing but devoted to him all season long and all she wanted was for him to lover her back. He couldn’t do it. Madison, meanwhile, didn’t love him and he couldn’t stop loving her.

Victoria Fuller played with his hearts and gaslighted him throughout the season and he took her into the final three. Peter has been making terrible decisions all along, being more attracted to trainwrecks and drama and people he argues with than the one person who has just stood there and loved him.

Hannah Ann the Boss

When given the chance to confront Peter, Hannah Ann was an absolute beast in being just as honest with her feelings about how he handled his season as she was with her heart. She had no interesting in hearing how “so sorry” he was over and over again for dumping all over her and settling for her because he couldn’t have what he really wanted.

“You took away from me my first engagement. You took that away from me ’cause I trusted you,” she told him. “That’s what you have continued to ask me to do. Be patient with me, have faith in me, trust in me.”

As Peter continued to lamely apologize, Hannah Ann laid into him. “Sorry for what?” she asked. “For not being man enough to follow through with your words, to not being true to your words? Not being true to your feelings? Is that what you’re sorry for?”

“I don’t need anything more from you. You’ve one enough damage. I’m done. Here you go, here’s this,” she said, giving him back the engagement ring. “We’re done.”

And what we loved more than anything was that she meant that. Not only done with him, but done even listening to him. “I’m sorry, but your words, you can’t be true to them, so why would I hear you out anymore?” she said. She even shut him down trying to get a final word before closing the car door.

A month or so later on the live finale, Hannah Ann continued to have harsh words for the outgoing Bachelor. “I should have really picked up on the first red flag you gave to me which was when you wanted to reach out to Hannah Brown to find closure with her,” she told him.

“So really, looking back on it, our engagement involved three women. Me. You still being in love with Madison and proposing to me. And you needing closure with Hannah Brown. That’s three women involved in our engagement I was completely blindsided to. So word of advice, if you want to be with a woman, you need to become a real man.”

Madison’s Regrets

But that’s not how Peter’s journey ends, because Chris Harrison took the redeye (we’re being as dramatic as he can be) to talk with Madison and update her on Peter’s story where she admitted that she regretted walking away from him. When she found out he’d gotten engaged and broke it off, she said, “It breaks my heart, it’s good, a bunch of things.”

“He ended his engagement because of his feelings for you,” Chris told her. “I think in his dream, he would be with you.”

“That’s a lot,” Madison replied. “I mean, if we had a second chance at this, I’d take it in a heartbeat.” And so she did.

Once again, Peter went from being “so, so sorry” to Hannah Ann to smiling and embracing Madison, while also telling her he was “so sorry.” Is he really sorry, or is that just something he says to try and smooth things over? Is he learning anything from this experience about how his inability to be genuine and truthful with these women is hurting them, and that they exist and matter, too.

In the end, Madison and Peter decided to take it slow, which is probably the smartest decision he’d made all season. Where does it go from here? Neither of them addressed their deal-breaking differences that caused her to walk in the first place, nor the fact that by standing by her values, she was asking him to bend his to fit. He said he’d do it now, but will she bend at all to meet in the middle?

Barbara Bites Back

Barbara became public enemy number one after fans accused her of manipulating Peter with her tears during the family meetings with Hannah Ann and Madison. She was unapologetically not at all a fan of Madison, and that continued throughout the live show. It was perhaps a bit unfair that they kept a pop-in screen of her face in the bottom corner of so much of the episode, so we could see her reactions in real-time, which included rolling her eyes at Madison.

She did applaud Hannah Ann standing up for herself, so we at least know she can acknowledge when her son screwed up. But she did not back down on not really liking Madison at all. Weirdly, she made it about Madison making the family wait three hours to meet her in Australia and then not being able to say she loved Peter.

Madison was incredibly conflicted that day, unsure if she should continue on the journey and how her truth and her values could line up with standing by Peter. The day was not about Barabara or the Webers, but by making her complaint about her being made to wait while Madison and Peter talked it out and Madison not apologizing to her, Barbara tried to make it about her and how Madison treated her compared to Hannah Ann.

To her credit, Madison still did not apologize to Barbara because that moment wasn’t about Barbara. We’d argue that Barbara should have been more concerned that Madison didn’t seem that into Peter than how she personally felt slighted by Madison’s perceived lack of courtesy to her.

Family relations are important, but we have to applaud for Peter standing up to his mother (and father) and saying that this is his journey and he has to figure it out on his own. Bachelor Nation lit up on social media with allegations that Barb whispered to her husband (in Spanish) to also say something bad about Madison to help her out. She is not out here making fans!

“Chris, he’s gonna have to fail to succeed. That’s it,” Barbara amazingly said right there on live television. “Chris, all his friends, all his family, everyone who knows him knows it’s not gonna work. So we’ve been trying to help him. Would we want it to work, yes, but–“

Peter cut her off at that point, but her point had been made. She thinks this is a huge mistake. Is she right? Quite possibly. Will Peter have to find out on his own? Absolutely. And like we said, we’re encouraged he’s decided to take things slow because there are a lot (a lot) of things he and Madison will have to work through to make it work.

Love isn’t always enough; it also takes honesty, compromise and understanding. Time will tell if they have enough of those as well.

While Peter and Madison decide if they can figure out love, Twitter took no time in deciding they did not love a whole lot of things about this finale, while absolutely falling in love with Hannah Ann.

She may have been quiet through much of the season, but the drama-free woman stole Bachelor Nation’s heart with her fiery passion, her conviction, her sense of self and her grace and poise under fire at only 23 years old. We’re not gonna lie, we’d back her as a future Bacholorette, too.

Check out how Bachelor Nation is processing the end of Peter’s wild journey below:

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