Lifestyle, Movies
‘Bachelorette’ finale: Jenn chooses between Devin and Marcus, and there’s a huge twist
Sep
Spoiler alert: Buckle up, Bachelor Nation. Here’s a recap of what happened during “The Bachelorette” season finale and “After the Final Rose.” After weeks of goofy group dates, over-the-top individual dates and countless cocktail parties, it’s time to finally see whether a Raleigh military veteran finds love on “The Bachelorette.”
All summer long, 31-year-old Marcus Shoberg has been in the spotlight alongside men from around the country pursuing the heart of Jenn Tran in the 21st season of ABC’s hit reality show.
Marcus had quite the connection with Jenn — and arguably had the strongest chance of getting her final rose — after having the first limo entrance and the first one-on-one date. Most notably, he also was the first man that Jenn admitted to being in love with. But Marcus was slow to share his true feelings for Jenn.
So, after revealing that he wasn’t quite ready for an engagement, did Marcus lean into his feelings of love for Jenn?
Or did she end up walking away with Devin Strader, a 28-year-old freight company owner from Houston?
From 25 men to two, it’s time for their journeys to come to a close after they meet Jenn’s family during Tuesday’s final episode.
It’s sure to be the Most Dramatic Ending Ever. How could it not be? So, who got the final rose? Is Jenn engaged? And where do things stand now with the love triangle following filming? Once more, here’s your spoiler alert: Here’s your last chance to avoid reading about the season finale.
Where we left off before the finale
‘The emotional conclusion of Jenn’s journey’
View this post on Instagram
Marcus meets Jenn’s family
When it was time for Marcus to meet Jenn’s family, even Jenn was nervous. “I don’t know if my family is going to buy into our relationship,” Jenn said before their date. “Hopefully Marcus has had some time to think, and if I get an ‘I love you’ from Marcus today, it’s going to change everything.” Marcus was determined to put his best foot forward.
“I’m not in love with her right now but I do have strong feelings for her and I do see a future with us, but I also have uncertainty and reservations. And trying to explain that to them so close to a potential proposal is going to be a difficult thing,” he told producers. Jenn’s brother said he was concerned that his sister — who he says has had a past with emotionally unavailable men — was falling into a similar pattern. When Marcus is asked directly if he’s in love with Jenn, he tells her mother and aunt that he wasn’t certain, but that that his feelings for Jenn were real. He though it would be “possible” to get to that next step.
As host Jesse Palmer put it, Jenn left both dates with more questions than answers.
Devin’s last date with Jenn
By this point, Jenn and Devin are in a good place and continue to profess their love for one another. After a spiritual date, the two wrapped up the night with Devin giving Jenn a symbol of their journey — a jade necklace from their first one-on-one date earlier in the season.
Jenn is touched. But is it enough for Jenn to be convinced that he’s the one? What about Marcus? He still weighs heavy on Jenn’s mind.
Jenn & Marcus have the tough talk
Jenn went into her final date with Marcus even more conflicted.
And Marcus is still confused. Jessie, the host, sat down with Marcus to see if he could help him sort through his feelings. Does he love Jenn? Or is he just scared to say so? “Part of me really does love Jenn,” Marcus tells Jesse. “It’s about getting to a point where you can love someone and be unafraid. I think it’s about loving someone fully and loving someone with, you know, certainty and that’s kind of where I’m torn.” Jesse warns him that he might lose her if he doesn’t tell Jenn his feelings.
Before their date officially started, Jenn confronted him in his hotel room to get more clarity on where things stand as a potential proposal is 24 hours away. “There is an engagement tomorrow and I don’t know what that means to you. I don’t know where your head is at,” she told him. “I know you keep saying that you’re hopeful for it and that you want to get there with your feelings but it’s like, we’re running out of time.” In what quickly turned into an emotional conversation, Marcus admitted that he was slow to think about their future. But he tells Jenn he does want her to be a part of his life, because he does love her. Now Jenn is really confused, and she can’t look him in the eye.
“At the end of the day, like I know that I love you,” Marcus tells her. “I want to be the type of person that fights for it. Like I want to do this with you. I want to give it a try. You know, I don’t want to give up on us.” After taking a moment, an overwhelmed Jenn decided it was too little too late because “she was sick and tired of investing so much time and energy into someone who doesn’t feel the same way.” And ultimately, Marcus said when he was honest with himself, he can’t live up to what Jenn said she needed.
“I opened up my heart to you every second that I got, and I think I got lost in it and maybe gave too much along the way,” she told him. “And I’m at a place where I feel like I’ve been at my entire life is giving and giving and trying to prove myself to somebody. “I know that I’m worth it. I’m done hinging my future on somebody being afraid to lose me. I’m done waiting around somebody to get there. I’m just done.” Jenn calls it quits with Marcus.
Marcus & Jenn at ‘After the Final Rose’
Even months later, when the two saw each other for the first time after their breakup, he admitted how difficult it was to realize he let “everything fall apart” but that it was the right thing to do. “I feel like we kind of realized at the same time that I just wasn’t giving you what you said that you needed and you know, I think I was lying to myself a little bit there,” he told her during the live finale. “But I’m happy that we kind of came together and realized what needed to happen. “I’m super proud of you for for choosing to do so,” he continued. “And I’m happy that I got to be a part of that in a small way because you really did end up choosing yourself and your own happiness and your own needs and it didn’t matter what I wanted or you wanted at the end of the day.”
Would it have made a difference if Marcus said “I love you” sooner? Jenn says ultimately her heart was in a different place. She tells Jesse that she doesn’t regret ending things with Marcus. So does that mean she and Devin are end game?
Surprise twist in Bachelorette finale
But in a surprising twist, Jenn decided she didn’t want Devin to propose. Because SHE wanted to be the one to pop the question.
“I’ve always in the past have let the guys dictate the terms of the relationship and dictate my emotions and my feelings and my choices and I’m done doing that,” she told Palmer.
“I just want to make a gesture so that he can really know where my love is. I want him to know that I’m going to fight for him everyday and I’m going to choose him everyday.”
Yet, ABC didn’t air the proposal until fans got to hear from Jenn during the live finale about what transpired after the proposal. A distraught Jenn says that she and Devin left Hawaii engaged, but that they no longer were together.
“It was the happiest day of my life. I thought that I found the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with…and then I think essentially like as soon as we left Hawaii, things were just like different. It kind of felt like he was just pulling away,” Jenn explained through tears. “I promised my life to somebody that I thought was going to put every effort into the relationship and I just feel that.”
The day before the two were supposed to have a private getaway trip, she says Devin called her to call off the engagement.
“He basically said that he didn’t love me anymore and didn’t feel the same way and felt like something had been off since the second that he proposed. He regretted getting engaged and I didn’t know…For the past month, I’ve been trying to empathize with the way he had been feeling, trying to wrap my head around why he could switch up like that.”
Even after suggesting that the two take a step back from an engagement to just date, she said he didn’t want to fight for the relationship anymore.
While face to face during the finale — their first conversation in over a month — it was very difficult to watch the two talk through what exactly happened on screen and off screen. Notably, how he followed Maria Georgas on Instagram the day after their breakup (yes, that Maria who was also on Joey’s season of “The Bachelor”).
“This past month, every Monday night, my heart is broken over and over again, whereas you don’t give a crap,” Jenn tells Devin.
And to dial up the drama even more, ABC aired the proposal while Jen watched it through tears — a production move that did not go over well on social media.
Despite how hard it was to rewatch the day that she thought was the happiest day of her life, Jenn said she remained hopeful that she will find the love she always wanted.
“I am very proud of that woman there who chose a man at the time was giving her everything that she ever wanted, someone who treated her well and promised her the world. I do not regret proposing to that man on there, but what happened was that man doesn’t exist anymore,” she said.
“At this point, like, I do know what I deserve… and somebody else will be that man for me and I can find that person who will fulfill all of the promises he made me instead of leaving me with nothing.”
