“You sound actually ridiculous.”
So said Gabby to Clayton Echard on part two of The Bachelor Season 26 finale, which aired Tuesday night on ABC.
The finalist uttered these perfect words after Clayton learned that Susie was still in Iceland… despite the suitor previously choosing to leave the show after Echard told her he was in love with her — and had also just slept with Rachel and Gabby.
Once Clayton was made aware that Susie was still in the country, though?
He broke up with Rachel and Gabby to kick off the premiere.
Simultaneously.
While trying to defend his actions, Gabby fired back with the line above, while making her stance on Clayton and all his selfish behavior even more apparent when he asked if he could walk her to the car:
NO.
The finale then cut to the live After the Final Rose ceremony, where Gabby confronted her one-time lover.
“I truly felt that we were on our own journey,” she told him. “But watching it back, you were clearly pinning us against each other.”
Referencing the way in which Echard told all three finalists he loved them, Gabby added:
“When you say you love someone, you’re assuming responsibility to protect someone’s feelings and you didn’t do that.”
Exit Gabby, head held high, audience clapping furiously for her.
Enter Rachel on the same stage.
After watching herself bawl uncontrollably amid Clayton’s break-up in Iceland, Rachel said on air:
“I promise you that when you look back at this, it will haunt you. I gave you everything.”
She continued to tear into The Bachelor in front of host Jesse Palmer and those in the studio.
“You just completely disrespected me — not just as someone you love, but as a human,” she said, to more wild applause from everyone in attendance.
Clayton told Rachel he said he loved her because he felt those feelings at the moment, to which she simply replied:
“I just don’t believe you.”
With Gabby and Rachel out of the picture, Clayton set his sights entirely on Susie.
“Today I either leave alone or I leave with a wife,” Echard told viewers.
After Jesse delivered a handwritten note to Susie in her hotel room, she agreed to meet him in the countryside… where Clayton was waiting for her in a suit.
“I don’t want anything else,” Clayton said as he held her hand, preparing to propose to her. “I will never stop fighting for you.”
But Susie? She was done fighting.
“I’ve thought this through and I don’t think that I’m your person and I don’t think you’re mine,” she responded, emphasizing that it was over.
Clayton then walked Susie to a waiting vehicle in the rain, and Jesse reacted in alleged shock back in the studio.
“For the first time in history, our Bachelor was rejected and ends up alone,” the host intoned, waiting a beat and then adding: “OR DOES HE?”
Nope. He does not!
Because producers found a way to script a unique ending this time around, with Clayton coming back out on stage and claiming that “someone” reached out to him long after filming wrapped up.
He was shocked!
He was stunned!
He tried to act like this wasn’t the show’s plan all along, prior to the camera panning out and SUSIE WALKING THROUGH THE DOOR.
She mumbled some stuff about having to choose herself in Iceland and how she “always had love for Clayton” and how they just needed a “reset” and now?
“That’s my boyfriend,” Susie said when asked about her and Clayton’s status, later adding:
“It’s not Team Clayton or Team Susie, we’re together and we want people to root for us.”
We ended with Clayton saying he was moving in with Susie in Virginia and then Susie accepting his final rose and true love winning out in the end.
Editor’s Note: We’ll update this post in a few weeks when Clayton and Susie split up..
