The 22nd season finale of “The Bachelor” featuring Arie Luyendyk Jr. premiered on March 5th. Now that everything has sunk in, I have a few ideas that this season might not have been as genuine as the others. Or, as genuine as reality tv can get.
Quick recap: Arie proposed to Becca Kufrin during the season finale, but after a month and a half of their engagement Arie called it off. Only days after, Arie began dating runner-up Lauren Burnham. On the live “After the Final Rose” episode, Arie proposed to Lauren (with Becca in the audience), and she accepted.
Now, I do not approve of Arie did whatsoever. Even though Becca was announced as the next Bachelorette, he still blind-sighted her, broke her heart, and made false promises. For me personally, engagement is a one-time thing and because of that, I don’t believe you should get engaged if you’re not 100% committed.
Arie even admitted that he didn’t know he was going to propose to until three hours beforehand. If he really struggled with his engagement decision, he shouldn’t have proposed at all, and rather asked Becca to continue their relationship. The big question is: why didn’t Arie just pick Lauren in the first place?
Here's my theory. “The Bachelor” has been around for 16 years and every time there’s the same predictable storyline. Twenty-five girls, one guy, and an engagement at the end. Arie’s season was incredibly dry and boring, as he really had no personality and all of his relationships seemed the exact same.
Above all, the amount of viewers has been slowly dwindling since 2013. “The Bachelor” franchise needed something big, unexpected, and never done before on the show to gain a popularity increase.
I think the producers planned this ending from the very beginning. They’ve known Arie for five years now. He was an option for both the season 17 and season 19 Bachelor. By the time this season came around, the producers knew they could trust Arie to do something as scandalous as he did.
I am 100% certain that they told Arie, “Pick your second choice, but you can end up with your first choice eventually.” Besides, Arie had much stronger chemistry with Lauren over any other woman on the show, so it was odd he didn’t pick her in the first place.
After show airs, the bachelor and his fiancée are always given weekend getaways to spend quality alone time together. Never in history have these weekends been filmed. Oddly enough, Becca and Arie had producers film their personal weekends. I believe this was so they could capture their relationship before and after the breakup to make it seem more authentic.
Now, I don’t think that either Becca or Lauren were in on this because their emotions and reactions were so genuine and raw, but Arie definitely knew he was going to do this from the start.
Finally, the new Becca as the new Bachelorette needed a legitimate heart-breaking story. How convenient that Becca had her heart broken by Arie, just in time for another suitor from “The Bachelor” franchise to sweep her off her feet. How magical…
