ABC/Craig SjodinFather knows best in some circles, but not necessarily in Jake Pavelka's.
"I feel that I have probably met my future daughter-in-law today," dad Jim said after meeting one of the two ladies his airline pilot (and Dancing With the Stars contestant!) son was pondering a future with.
Let's just say, the family was really into her, Jake seemed really into her (in love, in fact!), and she was ready to spend the rest of her life with Jake.
So was Papa Pavelka right?
Of course not. What do parents know, anyway?
While it was Tenley Molzahn, 25, whom the Pavelkas thought fit right into their tight-knit dynamic, the rumor mill was right.
Jake is engaged to Vienna Girardi, 23, after popping the question with a Neil Lane-designed princess-cut diamond during the final rose ceremony, which aired tonight.
Forget the Rozlyn drama, forget Ali's premature departure. The moment we were all waiting to see was which girl, Tenley or Vienna, was the first to be escorted by Chris Harrison over to Jake.
Because, in this game, second is always best.
Alas, it was Tenley, emotionally scarred by her first husband and unsure she could love again, who in all her ivory-clad, strapless glory was unwittingly the first one to face Jake.
But while she got the proverbial slap in the face, not one of the two rings an indecisive Jake picked out, she at least had the right attitude, saying she didn't want anything less than a guy who loved her through and through, without a doubt.
And Jake thought something "just didn't feel right" with the squeaky-voiced college admissions officer from Oregon.
The emotional connection was there ("My heart still hurts for you," he told her on the After the Final Rose special), and they obviously didn't seem to have much trouble with the surface romance, but Jake was feeling the fire for Vienna.
He pretty much admitted, however, that Tenley was so perfect in his eyes ("I put her on this pedestal") that he felt he needed to be a certain way, while with Vienna he could be completely himself.
Perhaps because when it came to maturity, he could be the boss in that relationship? (We're just thinking in print here.)
"Jake will see the mistake he made, and I feel bad for him," Tenley said as she rode out of the Bachelor's life—until their contracts reunited them, that is.
But take away the psychology of the whole thing and the circumstances under which Jake and Vienna met, and you've got yourself a lovely proposal.
"Vienna, I love you with everything I have," Jake said as he got down on one knee before her. "Will you marry me?"
And Vienna, who apparently knew she deserved this moment all along, could only cry and whisper, "Oh my God, oh my God...Yes."
(Cue "On the Wings of Love" by Jeffrey Osborne.)
(Originally published March 1, 2010, at 8:12 p.m. PT)