The biggest moment in bachelor history occurred this in this years season finale. Tears were shed, dreams shattered, and hearts broken. This years bachelor featured Arie and the finale featured his difficult choice between finalists Becca and Lauren. Spoiler alert for those still waiting to watch what drama ensued this season.

In The Final Rose Finale Arie gave his final rose to Becca and left Lauren to return home heart broken after he had told both women that he loved them. Arie decided to make things official with Becca right away and proposed when giving her the final rose. Although he still had feelings for Lauren, he decided that a public infront of thousands of viewers would be appropriate and romantic, Isn’t that just the sweetest?

However following the proposal, Arie could not stop thinking about Lauren and within a few weeks he took a leap of faith and told Becca that he couldn’t be with her and he had to break things off and try to be with Lauren. Becca and Arie’s break-up was aired uncut and unedited to bachelor nation, this was honestly over shown, it took up probably an hour of air time and it was all Becca crying and telling Arie to leave, but he just cared about her so much he could leave her like that and respect her wishes.

Although some feel like showing Becca’s raw emotions like that was a complete invasion of privacy and distasteful, I disagree. Every single person who signs up to be a part of this show signs away their right to privacy and agrees to full film access to their lives and the shows occurrences. In the After the final rose additional airtime Becca acknowledged this fact and said it was important for viewers to see exactly what happened.

Although the season finale ended there due to air time, they were granted an additional 2 hours the following night to follow-up on what happened next with Arie, Becca, and Lauren

Was Aries choice really a leap of faith though? Was there any way for Arie to be assured that Lauren would take him back? Well this “leap of faith” as we found out occured after a call to Lauren to check up on her and clear his conscience for hurting her.

Becca had a chance to come into the spotlight and share her feelings of what happened. Since the break-up Becca has received an outpouring of support from bachelor nation receiving money having billboards posted for her. She had the chance to face Arie and ask him why this happened the way that did. He said that he was very sorry and he should not have given into the pressure of the show and proposed publicly.

Arie and Lauren were then provided the spotlight and asked about how they were handling the hate that Arie was facing especially through social media. They both said they were just focusing on each other and their relationship. At the end of their interview Arie stood Lauren and proposed to Lauren in front of everybody and everyone watching home at home. I think… I think he had just said that his last proposal not two months earlier should not have been public? Does this guy just not learn? Lauren did say yes and they are now happily engaged.

Was this change of heart really the “first time” in bachelor history that this has occurred though? Although this claim was made throughout the entire finale, show host Chris Harrison interviewed previous bachelor Jason Mesnick who originally chose one girl but changed his mind for the runner-up and eventually married her instead. The ridiculous propaganda for this finale was built on a throne of lies and drama and then immediately torn down by the producers themselves when they brought Jason back into the arena to discuss Aries decision.

There may be a happy ending for Becca after all who was chosen to be next season’s Bachelorette and was surprised by being able to meet a handful of the guys she will be choosing from in the upcoming season.

Although I have never watched the Bachelor previous to this season finale, I really enjoyed and appreciated the amount of respect that was shown from all of the women toward each other and toward Arie despite the mistakes that he made. Seeing that kind of female empowerment from each of those women and the relationships they built with one other gave me a more positive outlook on the show and I hope to see more of that portrayed in the media in the future.