The season 21 finale of the reality television show, “The Bachelorette”, left fans more angry than ever before and is facing huge backlash.
The finale premiered on Sept. 3 on ABC. The bachelorette featured this season was Jenn Tran. Tran was a former contestant on season 28 of “The Bachelor” starring Joey Graziadei. Tran was a part of the final six women in Graziadei’s season, but was eliminated prior to the week of hometown dates.
This season’s finale was said from the very beginning to contain something that has never happened before. Show host, Jesse Palmer, has emphasized for weeks that the finale was going to send a shock through Bachelor Nation, which it most certainly did. However, fans didn’t really know the depths of just how crazy this finale would get.
Tran is a 26-year-old physician’s assistant student from New Jersey. It was announced in Graziadei’s season finale back in March 2024, Tran would be the next Bachelorette. Tran started the season with twenty-five eligible bachelors, and was down to the final two in Tuesday night’s finale. The remaining two contestants were Devin Strader and Marcus Shoberg.
Strader is a 28-year-old entrepreneur from Texas. Shoberg is a 32-year-old Army Ranger Veteran from North Carolina. Those who have been following along this season know these final two men are now considered to be two of the worst final two in the history of the show.
From the very beginning of the show, Strader was always the prime source of issues and drama. Many of the contestants made their dislike for Strader very known. Contestant Sam McKinney was always calling Strader out saying he wasn’t there for the right reasons. Earlier in the season, contestant Aaron Erb gifted Strader the self-help book “Principles for Self Growth.” At the time Erb received a ton of backlash in the media for doing that, however, once Strader’s true colors were revealed at the finale, eyes were opened to the validity of Erb’s actions during the season.
Shoberg was a fan favorite for a majority of the season, but has repeatedly admitted to Tran that he is not as far along in their relationship as Tran would like. Shoberg’s insecurities were very evident throughout the entire season.
Tuesday night’s finale began with both Strader and Shoberg meeting Tran’s family. During Strader’s visit, Tran’s brother could not give him his blessing to marry his sister. Additionally, Tran’s mother repeatedly told Tran not to marry Strader, as it was too soon. In the moment, Tran was very reluctant to her mother’s advice and denied her, saying she wanted to be engaged to Strader.
Shoberg’s meeting with Tran’s family was just as awkward. Tran’s brother and mother enjoyed Shoberg, but could not support nor understand why he could not confess to loving Tran.
Tran had her final dates with both men, but one did not start or end well. Tran was hopeful that at some point Shoberg would confess his love for her and be engagement-ready. He did confess his love, but it was too little too late.
This left Tran with one option, to get engaged to Strader, which was exactly what she thought she wanted. Just before Tran was to meet Strader, she admitted she was going to break tradition and be the one to propose to him. The episode took a turn for the worse immediately following that scene. After commercials, we were cut to Tran bawling on stage. She then admitted she and Strader did get engaged, but it was broken off by Strader over the phone soon thereafter. He had fallen out of love with Tran and no longer wanted to be with her.
This exact moment was when the night took a turn for the worst. Strader came out on stage to meet Tran for the very first time in person since the engagement was broken off. Tran was less than thrilled. Tran, who cried for the remainder of the evening, exposed Strader for the terrible person he is. She even exposed him for going clubbing with another contestant and a former Bachelorette contestant almost immediately after calling off the engagement.
Think it couldn’t get any worse? After the heavy and heated discussion, the production crew still decided to air the clip of their engagement, forcing Tran and Strader both to watch the moment unfold yet again, under unpleasant terms.
Social media was sent into an uproar Tuesday night following the finale. Fans are angry at the production team for still showing the engagement while Tran sat through it. Fans are also beginning to take back what they said about other contestants and anything good they said about Strader. Some of this season’s contestants took to their own social media posting about how they knew Strader was bad all along.
All things considered, this finale was one of the worst and most shocking yet. Some can compare it to Arie Luyendyk’s season when he got engaged to Becca Kufrin, but went back on his decision and instead broke off the engagement to choose another finalist, Lauren Burnham. Unfortunately, you can compare as much as you would like, but Tran is left heartbroken and was forcefully exploited at the finale of her own season.
Many rumors and speculations are circulating through the media about what actually went on and when the truth will be revealed. No individual should ever be forced to endure what Tran did. Truth and reality told, this season was a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode at the very end, when two of the worst final contestants proved to be far from husband material.
