ABCThat was more brutal than we could have possibly imagined.
Arie Luyendyk Jr. struggled through that entire finale, through every final date, through every moment of his decision between "undeniable love" Lauren and "makes more sense" Becca. Now that we know who he ends up picking after first not picking her, it feels like his decision was between who he really loved and who he just felt was the right practical choice.
Lauren always had trouble opening up, and Becca just made everything so easy. Even Arie's family told him to pick Becca, but Arie has always obviously loved Lauren despite her barely speaking to him, so it always felt like he was going to pick her.
Instead, he picked the girl who made more sense, only to later realize he made a big mistake.
But let's go back a bit.
Arie tried to let Lauren down easy, and she was "so confused." She told Arie she still loved him, and he said "I love you too." He then went on to propose to Becca. Becca was so happy, declaring that her new name had a ring to it while Arie asked when they were going to start having babies.
Then, we watched a video of Arie and Becca happy together—playing games, cuddling in a hammock, making pizza dough, all the classic kinds of home videos you see a distraught movie character watching after his girlfriend gets murdered.
But something was amiss.
"I go to bed and I think about Lauren, I wake up and I think about Lauren," Arie explained.
We then watched Becca arrive at a meeting spot alone, waiting for Arie to get there, telling the camera how happy she is and how in love she is and how excited she is to see Arie.
Finally, Arie arrived, and he sat Becca down to talk. She immediately knew something was up, so he kinda got right to the point. He obviously missed Lauren, so he wanted to see if he could make things work with Lauren.
Here's a few of Becca's very apt responses:
"Are you f--king kidding me?"
"What the f--k?"
"Oh f--k. You gotta be kidding me."
"Oh my f--king god."
"F--king embarrassing."
"I hope you find what you want. It's clearly not me."
Maybe the worst part was when Arie said he didn't want to be half-in with somebody, and so when Becca asked if he would be half-in if he went back to Lauren, his answer was straight-up no. He got engaged to this woman! He asked her when they were going to start having kids!
And then, after he broke Becca's heart into more pieces than seemed possible, Arie just stuck around, wondering if she was OK as she cried, as if him sitting awkwardly on the couch was going to make her more OK.
They ended up sitting down together again, as Arie just kept saying he was sorry and Becca kept crying and wondering why the hell he was still there.
Now let's get one thing straight: that should not have been on camera. Of course it was great for the show and for this narrative, but for the sake of the human people who are supposedly taking part in the show, it should not have been on camera. It made us want to throw up and we don't even have a horse in this race.
Honestly, it was made all the more terrible (for Arie and Lauren) by the fact that the night ended without Arie going back to Lauren, as we know that he does. Instead, we got left with Becca sitting in studio with Chris Harrison.
Clearly, we're all Team Becca at this point (If you're not, you didn't watch that 40 minute break up very closely or at all) but we'll have to wait until tomorrow night to find out what happens when she sees Arie again and when Arie attempts to reconcile with Lauren. We'll also have to wait to find out how much we care!
The Bachelor finale continues tomorrow night at 8 p.m. on ABC.