Major spoilers below for the season finale of The Bachelor.
When The Bachelor chose Arie Luyendyk, Jr. to be its Season 22 star, fan reactions were polarized, but he earned everyone's ire after that scandalous finale. Things outwardly ended with Arie, who'd somewhat surprisingly split with Lauren Burnham, proposing to Becca Kufrin after the Final Rose ceremony, though their happiness wasn't meant to last. After the production technically ended, The Bachelor continued following the couple and skeezily set up an explosive moment where Arie ended his engagement with Becca by confessing he needed to clear up his ongoing feelings for "runner-up" Lauren Burnham. And somehow, in some way, Becca apparently isn't holding a grudge. In her words:
[Arie's] a good person, I don't think he's a monster and purposely did this to hurt me and make me feel this way. But it's just the result of his actions. At the end of the day, I don't think he thought through everything of how ending things with Lauren would be, how being engaged to me would be and what breaking up with me and going back to her would be. I don't think he thought it through, but I don't think he did it maliciously to break my heart.
On that front, Becca Kufrin is being a hell of a lot more forgiving and understanding that just about anyone who watched the finale from home. Twitter was overflowing with fans railing on Arie for leading both women on by constantly expressing his love for both. Fans also called out Bachelor producers for setting Becca up for her crushing public embarrassment by having her think she was heading to a romantic weekend getaway, only to pull the romantic rug out from under her. ABC was big on promoting the "raw footage" used here, in which Becca dropped a few dumbfounded F-bombs as Arie awkwardly tried to explain his selfishness, and it all felt like a really cheap way to manufacture as much drama as possible. As if Arie breaking up with Becca under any other circumstances wouldn't be devastating for her.
During her interview with People, Becca Kufrin talked about the shame she experienced during those moments. And while she may not think Arie is a monster outright, she has no problem judging the way he handled things. (Like, every single thing.)
It was embarrassing the way he broke up with me with the full cameras and crew around. There was a better and more tactful way to do it. A breakup is hard enough, and to have it all filmed and have to re-watch it and know that people all across the country are watching you get your heart broken, it is embarrassing. It's not fun. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It was like a slap in the face. I wish he would have been more honest with me. From the questions I was asking, I would have appreciated the full truth. I was obviously blindsided like, 'Did I miss something? I was asking you these things and you didn't tell me. What did I miss? How could I have not seen any of this to the extent of how it played out?'
Not to mention how much airtime that emotional turmoil took up. Despite being told to leave the rented house multiple times, Arie stuck around and offered more limp apologies while trying to eke out Becca's feelings for dramatic effect. And somehow, the cameras just kept rolling, while Chris Harrison remarked on the show's social media success.
Becca also talked about how, during the weeks that she and Arie were actually engaged and together away from the show, Arie was giving Lauren's social media more attention than necessary. He apparently admitted to still having feelings for Lauren, and didn't think he could move beyond all that without clearing up how he'd handled things in the finale...or at least the first half of it, in which he ended things with Lauren. So Becca had inklings, though she didn't expect Arie to just give up like that.
So where in the world is this warped love triangle going to go from here? We're not sure, but fellow Season 22 contestant Bekah Martinez further thickened the plot by putting Arie on blast after the finale aired for privately messaging her on social media after taping had finished.
Bachelor fans will get to hopefully find out something concrete when ABC airs its "After the Final Rose" special on Tuesday, March 6, at 8:00 p.m. Check out the STD that keeps most people off The Bachelor, and to see what other new and returning shows will be hitting primetime soon, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
