Bad Proposals and Broken Promises

As a long-time fan of the Bachelor (and previous recapper), I’ve taken it upon myself to recap Hannah Brown’s season. So here it is: the Rose Recap of Season 15 episode 12.

The episode starts very quickly, both boys pick out rings with Neil Lane, and are on their way to the proposal 6 minutes into the episode.

After Hannah's minor freak out where she asks to stop the car, the proposals can begin happening. I don't think that anyone was surprised when Tyler stepped out first. Disappointed, yes. But not surprised.

As Tyler starts to give his heartfelt speech, it strikes me how cruel this format is. Tyler is telling Hannah that she's the only woman for him, while the entire audience knows that she is going to break his heart in just a few short seconds. And she does.

Tyler reminds us all that he is the most stand up guy by respecting the choice that Hannah made and wishing her happiness and success. And he is a man of his word. All throughout this season, he has been so supportive on Twitter. Even though Hannah broke his heart, he still admires her and respects her (which maybe this me getting on a soap box but if someone's respect towards you is dependent on their relationship with you, that's not respect, it's manipulation).

Instead of giving a speech, Jed plays his guitar and sings a new song, which I think means that just using songs he sang on the show, he'd have a full EP. Of course Hannah accepts. There's some vlog footage of Hannah and Jed in Greece, and it is so painful knowing that there's almost an hour left in the episode and it going to be about Jed and his dishonesty.

When I saw the Arie/Becca breakup footage, I never thought that ABC would do something like that again, because it felt too personal and invasive to me. And while this footage is also from a Happy couple Weekend, the difference is that Hannah didn't try to blindside Jed; he knew what he was getting into when he showed up.

Jed addresses the Haley situation and says that even though they took two trips together, and she met his parents, and he said I love you, she wasn't his girlfriend. Which I can't tell if Jed is lying about how he classified this relationship to make it seem better to Hannah or if he actually considered Haley to just be some girl he was casually hooking up with. Neither one of those options are good looks, and Hannah agrees. She takes of the engagement ring and announces at the live show that she and Jed are no longer together.

My heart breaks for Hannah because breakups and being lied to are hard and humiliating. And Hannah had that happen to her in front of millions of viewers. But when Jed comes out to talk to Hannah, she stands her ground but still acts with kindness towards him. She doesn't bring up anything besides his dishonesty, which considering that its a live show, I admire her restraint and levelheadedness.

Finally, Tyler comes to speak to Hannah. And she asks him out to coffee or drinks or something, and I'm not sure how to feel about this. Some time after Ben Higgins and Lauren broke up, he said something along the lines of that while he cared for the women on his season, he could never date another one of them because he had chosen someone over them at one point and that's not a great dynamic to bring into a relationship. But if that's something they both think they can handle, good for them.

On a personal note: this is the last Rose Recap for Hannah's season. Paradise was the first show that I blogged about and I'm happy to be getting back to those roots soon. Can't wait to see some of my favorites from Hannah's season, along with you, next week!