Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Bachelor finale.
Season 27 of The Bachelor came to an excruciatingly painful end on Monday night as the Bachelor himself, Zach Shallcross, took tremendous heat under the lights of the live finale.
In case you’ve been (wisely) not following the show: Zach spent the previous episode enforcing his no-sex policy on the final three women, a no-sex policy he then broke with Gabi by having sex with her, followed by a confession to Kaity that he’d broken his no-sex policy with Gabi, which Kaity understandably didn’t enjoy hearing, then Zach wound up eliminating Ariel, who had abided by the no-sex policy. It was quite a troublesome decision-making pattern from Zach.
Obviously, Gabi was greatly affected by Zach basically telling the world about their intimate night, though his intentions were simply to be truthful with Kaity. However, Gabi revealed two things during the finale that makes all this even more eye-opening.
Spoilers to follow.
First of all, as Gabi recovered from tears after watching the episode in front of a live studio audience, Zach joined her and host Jesse Palmer to answer some questions. This obviously led to Gabi telling Zach, and the world, why she felt so hurt — and it wasn’t just from not being crowned as “the one.” First of all, she explained that their intimate night, despite taking place during Fantasy Suite week, was supposed to be between just them, partly because of Zach’s no-sex rule. Gabi explained, “I was brushing my teeth, you came up behind me, you kissed me on the back of my hand and said ‘This is just between us,’ I said ‘Yeah, this is just between us.’”
Of course, it wasn’t just between them, because Zach told Kaity about it in front of the cameras the very next day. Now, Kaity and the world know.
Gabi also expressed, “This is more than just a TV show to me. I felt ashamed.”
However, another revealing moment that may have made things even worse for Gabi happened after she departed the live show last night.
After the studio audience watched the taping of Zach and Kaity getting engaged, Kaity materialized in front of the live audience, and she and Zach discussed their future together. That’s when Jesse Palmer asked Zach when he knew that Kaity was “the one,”which happens to be the same question Zach was asked Wednesday morning on GMA. His answer to both interviewers was consistent, at least; he knew Kaity was destined to become his wife during their Last Chance date.
Thus, another Zach lie revealed.
Zach actually told Gabi during their Last Chance night — which took place the night after Kaity’s date, and after ABC had some serious technical difficulties, which was likely a sign — that he was still uncertain whether to pick her, or Kaity. Now, was Zach playing up the suspense to benefit the show? Or did he just figure, somehow, that this illusion of uncertainty would hurt Gabi less, despite making it so much worse instead by saving the pain up for the moment where he dropped to one knee for “the one” woman (ie, Kaity), while giving the boot to the other (surprise, Gabi!).
The Twitterverse took exception to Zach basically admitting he was lying to Gabi, as if she hadn’t suffered enough. Especially after she poured her heart out in sorrow, which had led Zach to tell her, “I look back at everything, and the way I handled things was completely wrong. There’s no excuse.” He later added, “From the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry.” Great.
The fact is that even after that apology, he proceeded to admit — twice — that he knew before his last date with Gabi that she was not “the one,” yet he very strongly played this up as if he’d had no idea what decision he was going to make. Thus, even after Gabi left the live show, Gabi still couldn’t escape a sneak-attack from Zach.
Now, Zach is engaged to Kaity, and hopefully they’ll live happily ever after. In the meantime; listen, Gabi, you will find true love somewhere, though it might not be on ABC’s technically-difficult Bachelor franchise.