Okay before I start off, I’d like to kindly request that no one attack me for my views on a show as trivial as The Bachelor. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, including me, so today I will be sharing my opinion of The Bachelor finale which aired this past Tuesday. I am by no means an expert when it comes to all things The Bachelor/Bachelorette. This is the first season I ever watched of anything Bachelor related at all and from the first episode, I was hooked. I am a huge fan of cringey reality TV, so you know I immediately fell in love with the series. I absolutely love the drama and seeing the girls fall so hard for Peter when he’s obviously not as interested. But from the beginning, I was never a huge fan of Hannah Ann. She seemed fake and too bubbly for my taste (sometimes I try to put myself in the male perspective and visualize whether or not I’d be attracted to certain contestants, I know I’m weird). But at the end of the day, I don’t think Hannah Ann deserved such a tragic ending.
So for those of you that don’t really watch The Bachelor, this season’s finale came down to two contestants, as usual, which included sweet, “angel on Earth” Hannah Ann and religious, virgin Madison P. From the beginning, it was obvious that Peter Weber had an instant connection and fascination with Hannah Ann. She was given the first impression rose on night one and Peter always seemed to take her side when drama ensued. Madison also seemed very well liked by Peter from the beginning and she even seemed to be liked by his family when he brought her to his hometown to visit his family for his parents’ vow renewal ceremony. Boy were we wrong though. It later turns out Peter’s parents, especially his mother, are extremely attached to Hannah Ann when they meet her during one of the final episodes. Given that Madison is saving herself for marriage, doesn’t drink, and doesn’t party, Peter’s family is highly concerned that their values just don’t align. During fantasy suites week, Madison basically gave Peter an ultimatum stating that if he slept with either of the two other girls, she didn’t know if she would be able to proceed with their relationship. This is what fantasy suites is all about, though. It’s a time for Peter to get to know about each of the three contestants off camera, which does sometimes include intimacy. This happens every season and I don’t know why Madison thought it wouldn’t happen this time. When she presents this ultimatum, she also fails to mention her virgin status and her plans to wait for marriage, which I think add more gravity to her request, rather than her seeming like a control freak. After Peter confesses that he was indeed intimate prior to their date, Madison walks out and it seems as though she is not coming back.
In between this episode and the next, Madison received a lot of praise for not compromising her values when it came to her relationship with Peter. People applauded her for leaving and walking away. Of course, anyone with a brain could tell based off of the sneak peaks of future episodes that Madison is not, in fact, done with the show. In fact, she not only returns once, but again at the end of the season. From fantasy suites onward, Madison makes all their dates and hangouts about Peter’s intimacy with the other girls. She is unable to enjoy the time they’ve been given together because of his actions. After meeting Peter’s family again, Madison decides she cannot move past fantasy suites week and decides to leave. Again, Madison is received with so much praise for her ability to walk away. Peter is left with Hannah Ann as his only choice, but it is evident that he still has feelings for Madison. He tries to move past these feelings and decides that Hannah Ann is the right choice for him. As he’s getting ready to propose, he is met by Chris Harrison who tells him he doesn’t know if Hannah Ann will be coming after all. This is supposed to be the big plot twist that we’ve been waiting for since day one. Oh no, Hannah Ann “might” not show up. Big whoop. We all know she will most definitely show up, otherwise there would be no show. I don’t know about you all, but I was hoping maybe Victoria F. was pregnant or maybe Hannah B. was back in the picture. What would have been the perfect ending, in my opinion, would be if Madison returns at the last second for the final rose ceremony and presents Peter with a very difficult decision to make. But of course, this doesn’t happen and Peter is left with the option of proposing to Hannah Ann or leaving empty-handed. For the sake of the show, I think Peter chooses Hannah Ann even though it’s obvious he is not fully over Madison at this point. Fast forward to present time, and it turns out Peter and Hannah Ann called it quits quite early on in the engagement. Peter was unable to fully match Hannah Ann’s level of commitment and decided it would be best to end the relationship. But it’s still so obvious at this point that Peter has not completely moved on from Madison.
Chris Harrison does his part and meets with Madison in Alabama where she shows regret for how things went down. He asks if she’d be willing to go to Los Angeles to meet with Peter, and of course, she does not hesitate. On After the Final Rose, Madison and Peter tell the audience that they still have strong feelings for each other and just are going to take things one day at a time. Big whoop, again. What a let down of an ending in my opinion.
From the very beginning, we were led to believe something major was going to happen at the final rose ceremony, and all we get is that Hannah “might” not show up when she in fact does. And then Madison comes along super predictable and re-enters the show for what feels like the 15th time. Call me crazy, but she doesn’t seem as super devoted to her values like everyone is making her out to be. 2 Corinthians 6:14 is a pretty popular verse in the Christian community that states, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” If Madison were true to her values, I don’t think she would have gone looking for a Christian man on a show like The Bachelor especially after recognizing Peter as the Windmill Guy from Hannah B’s season of The Bachelorette. She signed up for the show knowing his past and what happens during fantasy suites week. To give Peter an ultimatum was completely unfair to the other women still in the running. It’s unfortunate having to share a man as I know I could never do that, but this is what they signed up for. Before Madison joined the show, she should have really evaluated whether she could truly share a man like this given her Christian values. It’s honestly hard for me to believe that she went into this show thinking she’d walk out with a humble, Christian man. And it’s even harder to believe that her extremely religious parents backed up her decision to go on the show.
Like Peter’s parents stated during the After the Final Rose episode, the beginning of a relationship is supposed to be the happiest and most exciting part of a relationship. Given the relationship’s rocky start, it’s hard to believe that things will get better. I think Madison will hold onto this emotional trauma for a long time and will even hold it over Peter forever. Even if Peter hadn’t slept with the other girls, I don’t think Madison would even be okay with Peter having been in love with the other girls. This show just isn’t made for people like Madison to find their Christian husbands. But now that Peter and Madison are going to give this relationship a shot, I just hope she doesn’t try to change him into someone he’s not. Relationships are all about compromise, but Madison doesn’t seem to be doing any compromising on her end. Peter said he would be happy to wait till marriage to be intimate with Madison, but we haven’t seen much of any compromising on Madison’s end. I was totally rooting for Madison since the beginning, until she presented Peter with that unfair ultimatum.
I’ll be honest, I kind of feel like Madison was a homewrecker in this season. I know, how can a Christian girl with such strong values be a homewrecker? Well, if Madison would have just gotten a hold of herself and her emotions and showed up to the final rose ceremony, Peter would have chosen her and not led on Hannah Ann. And don’t get me wrong, Madison has every right to walk away, but she comes back every time, so she’s only confusing Peter and his emotions. If she would have walked away for good the first time, Peter would have been able to move on and focus on Hannah Ann. I think Peter subconsciously knew Madison would come back around, so he continued to hold onto that hope, which ultimately ruined his relationship with Hannah Ann.
At the end of the day, even though I found Hannah Ann to be somewhat rehearsed and childish, I don’t think she deserved that terrible ending. Part of me thinks the only reason Peter chose Hannah Ann was just so that he didn’t leave empty-handed. If he still had feelings for Madison, he should have never chosen Hannah Ann. It would have been better for him to go home single than choose Hannah Ann as his backup plan. We’re just lucky that Peter broke it off with Hannah Ann before Madison came back into the picture, because Lord knows he probably would have broken off the engagement at any point if Madison came back, and that would have been even more unfair to Hannah Ann. This was her first and supposed to be only engagement and Peter ruined it. Unlike Hannah, Peter had options. Throughout the whole season, he kept begging the girls to open up and to be real with him. It’s easy for him to say, given that he’s walking away a winner regardless. To ask every single girl to open up and give this everything is unfair, given that most of them will walk away empty-handed, especially Hannah Ann. She kept pushing and giving the relationship everything she had and look where that got her. I think Peter was right when he said had they met outside of reality TV, their relationship would have worked out. Had there never been a Madison to compare Hannah Ann to, I am confident Peter and Hannah Ann would have had their happily ever after. But of course, boys want what they can’t have and Peter so desperately clung onto the prospect of being with Madison.
Even though I don’t think the whole Peter and Madison duo is going to work, I hope they prove us wrong, because I would love to see Barbara as Madison’s mother-in-law! What a finasco that will be!