Tayshia Adams has made her choice.
The leading lady of The Bachelorette is now engaged to Zac Clark after a whirlwind, pandemic-tinged season of reality TV that ended, quite simply, in the most boring way possible.
In a way, that's a compliment. We don't necessarily crave boring TV, but the past four seasons of this franchise have ended in such out-of-control ways that it's sort of nice to see two people just calmly get engaged. They tried to trick us with Tayshia getting caught on her words, but that was truly one of the most chill endings Bachelor Nation has gotten in a while. We got a season that ended with two happily engaged interracial couples and that feels like something to celebrate, even if we still feel a bit itchy for drama and have a lot of questions about Ivan's religious beliefs.
Let's go back to the beginning, shall we?
The episode first picked up where last night's episode left off, with Ben Smith back to tell Tayshia he loves her. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, so she told him to just show up at the rose ceremony and she'd figure it out. But Ben ended up not being the real twist, as he sailed back onto the show with no problem.
The twist ended up being the departure of Ivan Hall, who apparently expressed some kind of religious belief with Tayshia that she just couldn't deal with. We did not see this religion convo and we have not heard about what Ivan's religious beliefs are, but they were different enough from Tayshia's that they could not get past it, and he understood why he was being sent home, though we fear we never will.
From there, we met Tayshia's family and Ben and Zac also met Tayshia's family. It went fine! Ben had to explain why he got sent home, but that went...fine!
It was all just fine. It never felt like Tayshia's heart was really with Ben after Ivan's abrupt exit, so when she sent him home before their final date, it was just like...fine!
Then, we watched Tayshia and Zac ever so slowly get ready for the proposal, and they both talked for a long time with some awkward pauses (who told Tayshia to stop and freak out after "I know I said I loved you but...?") before they finally got to the meat of it.
"You've truly woken up my heart, and yes, it is real, I feel it too," she said. "And I want to make more traditions and jump into fountains all over the world with you. I'm ready to hail a taxi. I'm ready to start a life with you. But also, I love you, Zac Clark. And I'll do absolutely anything to keep that huge smile on your face, because you do everything to keep a huge smile on mine."
Zac then finally got down on one knee and proposed.
"The night of my hometown, you walked in, and my parents got to see that smile on my face, you gave them the best gift you could ever give them," he actually whispered. "They haven't seen me that happy in years. You did that. And the other night when we were talking, you spoke about this idea of someone choosing you, and I can't picture another day, another moment without you in my life. And if you'll let me, I'm going to choose you right now. I'm going to choose you tomorrow morning. I'm going to choose you next week and next year. I'm going to choose you forever, because I love you. Marry me."
Tayshia said (or rather screamed) yes, and we are genuinely thrilled for her. We're not losing our minds with shock and surprise, but we're pleased. And in 2020, that's sort of enough.
The next season of The Bachelor premieres Jan. 4 on ABC.