The Bachelorette Finale: Who Did Rachel Lindsay Choose?

The Bachelorette finale finally revealed Rachel Lindsay's pick: Was it Bryan Abasolo, Eric Bigger or Peter Kraus?

By Lauren Piester Aug 08, 2017 2:33 AMTags

Rachel Lindsay finally got her happy ending.

After many tears and much heartbreak, it was revealed during tonight's finale of The Bachelorette that Rachel gave her final rose to the same guy who got her first rose all those weeks ago—a chiropractor named Bryan Abasolo.

While Rachel had already revealed that she's happily engaged now, it wasn't an easy road, and it certainly wasn't an easy finale for anyone to watch. In fact, we have a feeling it was probably hard for Bryan to watch, since the finale was heavily centered around Rachel and her runner-up, Peter Kraus.

She couldn't get over his unwillingness to propose, and he couldn't get over his rational thinking about how it doesn't make a ton of sense to propose to a person after knowing them just a few weeks. That said, if that's how you feel, why are you even here, Peter? 

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In a Bachelor/Bachelorette finale first, Rachel joined Chris Harrison live on stage as the finale aired, allowing her to chime in throughout the three-hour broadcast. After Rachel previewed how difficult things had gotten with Peter, the music got all dramatic and we were back in Rioja with Peter asking how she would feel if he couldn't propose. 

Rachel tried not to cry but eventually let it out, and explained that the fact that she was so upset just made her realize how strong her feelings actually were for him. For Peter, that emotion "went a long way," and he was happy to accept the key to the fantasy suite, which we were not expecting her to give him. 

They looked pretty thrilled the next morning as they cooked eggs and cheers'd their coffee mugs. Rachel even chose to go makeup-free as she kissed him and sent him off while she wondered about his (very, very reasonable) issues with proposing. 

Up next, Bryan and Rachel explored some vineyards on horses, and at first all seemed fine. Then things got awkward as they discussed how things went with her family, and Rachel just really seemed checked out. Bryan totally noticed that, and on the live show, Rachel explained that she hadn't yet gotten out of her head about Peter. She had been ready to send him home before she realized how much she cared about him and wanted to spend more time with him, so she had trouble forgetting about Peter while she was with Bryan. 

Anyway, when she was with Bryan, it was so blah that it was hard to root for them as a couple. But Bryan still got the first rose, and somehow, Peter got the second one. 

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Poor Eric didn't quite make it to the final two, and Rachel explained to him that she did love him, but she wasn't in love with him, and she loved the other two guys more. But then Eric responded so damn well—thanking her for being open and showing him that if you allow yourself to be open, you experience great things—that Rachel wondered if she made a mistake. 

And like honestly, we wondered this too. Peter's great and hot and all that, but if Rachel wants a proposal and he's not ready to propose, that's kind of a big deal. 

Eric then joined Rachel on the live show couch, and we suddenly realized that they had done away with After the Final Rose and combined the reunions with the finale itself, meaning Rachel's choice wasn't coming until the very end. And that's when we died a little bit inside, and we kept on dying as Eric explained that he was all in on Rachel until she sent him home. His heart was broken his whole life, until he met Rachel and she filled his heart with love. 

It was cheesy as hell but damn did Eric make it work. It even felt like Rachel was about to wish him luck as the next Bachelor, and we could see it, TBH. We also wouldn't be mad at it. 

Back in Spain, Rachel was still all confused about Bryan vs. Peter (we JUST realized those are both characters on Family Guy). She loves Peter (as do we all), but he's not ready, and Bryan's totally ready. Peter is, however, ready to journal, and someday we're gonna need to read that journal. 

While Peter journaled, Bryan and Rachel took a hot air balloon ride while Bryan fully anticipated what everyone would be saying about him when this show aired: "The way I am with her is, you know, if you wanna call that confidence or charm, so be it. But it's just me." 

He gifted Rachel with a handwritten Spanish dictionary with words like "husband," "wife," and "forever," and Rachel dutifully repeated the words back to him. It was fine. 

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But then as Peter and Rachel explored a beautiful church together, the connection with Peter just felt a lot more legit. Rachel was just really irritated that she couldn't get Peter to say he'd propose, and it felt a little bit like she wanted him more than she wanted Bryan, but she wanted what Bryan was promising her.

Then, Peter fully admitted he wasn't ready to propose to her the next day. Rachel was confused by his talk of dogs and a family and their future if he wasn't ready to commit to her. Peter said that he decided way too recently that he was in love with her to be ready to propose, since he was determined to only propose and get married once in his life.

Then he asked Rachel if she was sure she wanted to marry him, and she said she couldn't answer that. And honestly it proved his point, and proved that Peter's probably bad for this show. He's too logical, too knowledgable about how badly other relationships have gone after the cameras stopped rolling. 

While it seemed like there was nothing more to say, there was so much more to say. Peter didn't want to lose Rachel, but he also wasn't ready to propose, but he might propose if he thought it was the only way he could keep her.  

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On one hand, Rachel was demanding a lot from him when she couldn't give him the same thing back, but he also called possibly proposing to her the next day a "sacrifice." It soon became clear that this wasn't going to work, but only because they got to an impossible crossroads. She even told him she loved him and had trouble saying goodbye, but knew that if he proposed the next day, it was only because he knew she wanted him to. She walked away, he threw off his sweater, and it was probably the saddest thing we've ever seen.

Everything was bad, but it was such good TV, even if we then had to watch her get engaged to the guy who definitely seemed like her second choice. But that came later. 

Peter first had to join Rachel on the couch, and they had to have a very tense conversation in which Rachel revealed that there were, apparently, more issues than what we saw on screen. 

She was offended by Peter saying she was settling for a mediocre life by just going after the ring and the proposal, and he regretted saying that one line, but he didn't regret the conversation. Rachel just thought maybe this life isn't for him, which might be very true. 

Anyway, after all that, there was still the actual proposal to get to, and we quickly had to get over the fact that it felt a little cheapened by everything that just happened. 

But like, he arrived with the same Spanish words he greeted her with on night one, and she called him the perfect foundation, and he pulled out a pear-shaped ring, and soon they were engaged. Good for them! Good job them! 

But like...is it silly to hope Bryan was wearing ear plugs during all that Peter stuff? 

Check back later for more from tonight's insane finale, and come back tomorrow as E! News is sitting down with Rachel and Bryan to get all the scoop on their engagement, what's next for them and more!