On Monday night, the internet erupted during a particularly horrifying season finale of “The Bachelor.” Arie Luyendyk Jr. proposed to winner Becca Kufrin. And then six weeks later, he changed his mind and blindsided her in front of a camera crew that eagerly captured the breakup, as he explained he wanted to get back together with runner-up Lauren Burnham.
The furious reaction from fans was swift, especially over Arie’s choice to dump Becca on camera and ABC’s decision to air the emotional footage. So on Tuesday, the network gifted audiences with a couple hours of extra programming for a live “After the Final Rose,” where everyone — mostly Arie — tried to do damage control.
During the live two-hour special, host Chris Harrison sat down with Arie, Becca and Lauren to discuss everything. Honestly? It just made things worse.
1) Arie revealed that he reached out to Lauren behind Becca’s back.
Arie proposed to Becca around Thanksgiving. But as they spent more time together, he started to have doubts. At some point, Becca told Arie she would be fine if he reached out to Lauren to get closure. Then, on New Year’s Eve, Arie sent Lauren a private message on Instagram and asked if she would be willing to talk on the phone. Hesitantly, she agreed.
This phone call apparently set everything in motion — while we don’t know what was said, it gave Arie the confidence that if he dumped Becca, Lauren would be there waiting.
“As soon as I heard your voice, I was like, ‘Ohh … I’m in trouble.’ Because there’s no denying that I love you so much,” Arie later explained to Lauren.
A week later, he told Becca about the phone call and confessed that he still had feelings for Lauren. Still, he obviously didn’t explain the extent of those feelings, as Becca thought everything was fine — they were still looking at houses together. Then, shortly after, they got together for what Becca thought was a romantic couples weekend … and he dumped her.
Eventually, Becca told Arie she forgave him. As you can imagine, his “blame Becca for working” and “reaching out on Instagram” explanations went over really well on Twitter.
2) In his breakup with Becca, Arie acted like he didn’t know if Lauren would take him back.
The show also featured a pre-taped scene of Arie going to Lauren’s hometown of Virginia Beach to see if she would give him another chance after he dumped Becca.
“I’m terrified,” he confessed to the camera outside Lauren’s house. “My biggest fear is that I go to Lauren and it doesn’t work out and that I risked it all.”
But then Lauren opened the door and jumped into his arms, giving him a huge hug. As it turns out, they had talked on the phone again, and Lauren already knew he had broken up with Becca. It took only a few minutes of conversation before she happily agreed to get back together, and they started making out.
3) Arie’s weak explanation about why he filmed the breakup.
The biggest source of anger among “Bachelor” fans — and former cast members — on Monday was the fact that Harrison kept boasting that they would show the entirety of Arie surprising Becca with a breakup, in the first entirely raw, unedited scene in reality TV history. So fans were treated to stomach-turning scenes of Becca breaking down and trying to escape the cameras.
Harrison brought up multiple times on Tuesday that he and the network had “gotten a lot of heat” for airing the footage, though the other contestants emphasized it was Arie’s choice to film the breakup. (A “Bachelor” producer confirmed this.)
So why did Arie bring the camera crew along? “I think that the reason why I did it in the way that I did it, was because I wanted everyone here and at home to know that this was on me. And it wasn’t on you,” Arie explained.
Hmm. If he wanted to be so transparent and truly take all the blame, why didn’t he film that pivotal phone call with Lauren on New Year’s Eve when he was having second thoughts? Or their follow-up conversations in which he told her he broke up with Becca?
4) Arie and Lauren are so blissfully happy that they didn’t watch Monday’s finale.
Arie and Lauren also got their time together on the live special, where they cuddled and kissed, and acted like the whole “he messaged me on Instagram while he was engaged to someone else!” was a really adorable story.
Never mind that it seemed Becca had no clue they talked until a week later — the new couple wanted to assure everyone that, despite the extreme backlash, they couldn’t be happier. And they confirmed they didn’t watch Monday’s finale. So, lucky for Arie, he didn’t get to see the damage he caused Becca, and Lauren won’t know, either! The two plan on leaving the country for a few weeks and staying off social media, so maybe they can live in denial.
5) Arie followed up his “heartfelt” apology to Becca … by proposing to Lauren in front of her.
Becca probably winced a lot during “After the Final Rose”: When Arie begged to get back together with Lauren and assured her he was “1,000 percent” over Becca. The part where Arie said if there’s one thing he regrets, it’s the fact that he proposed to Becca. The line where Arie described Becca as “the wrong decision.”
While Arie and Lauren will try to live happily ever after, ABC announced at Becca has been named the new Bachelorette — the season kicks off May 28.
