‘The Bachelorette’ Finale Recap: Tayshia Is Engaged!

Look at how far we’ve come, friends! When this season of The Bachelorette started, Clare was handing out the roses, the contestants were holed up at the La Quinta Resort, and…oh, we haven’t left the La Quinta Resort? OK, well. 

The finale picks up in medias res. Ben is Back, and he’s just told Tayshia he loves her. She claims she’s not sure what to do with that information…and then promptly invites him to the rose ceremony and makes out with his face. Yeah, if Ben was Back looking like that I’d do the same. 

Ivan and Zac are appropriately confused when Ben—and not Brendan—shows up to the rose ceremony that night. A situation that becomes even more confusing when Tayshia asks Ivan to step aside with her. Uh oh. Away from the others, Tayshia explains there’s a red flag with Ivan she can’t get past: their different views on religion. He also agrees it’s a roadblock, and they break up without a single tear. The hell????? Where was this conversation last night?????

And so, Tayshia gives the final two roses to Zac and Ben. 

The next step is for both men to meet with Tayshia’s family, but the visits are fairly uneventful. Zac and Ben are both charming guys, so there’s not a lot of conflict to mine there. (And cheers to Zac for respectfully informing Tayshia’s dad that he will be proposing without doing some old-timey asking for his blessing bullshit.) 

In fact, Tayshia’s dad sits down with her the next day and says the family really liked both men; their concern, really, is whether or not she is ready for marriage again. It’s a fair question: They saw how much pain Tayshia went through with her divorce, so it’s understandable they’d want the best for her. 

And she brings this heaviness with her into the date with Zac. He picks up on it right away, and does his best to keep her in the moment as they learn a ballroom dance. Later that night, Tayshia opens up about all of her fears and anxieties about the future and commitment. Like, what if he loves her now because she’s ambitious and then she decides one day she wants to be a stay-at-home mom? Zac’s answer: It’s his nine-year sober anniversary, which is the most important thing in his life because it means he can face his fears and not run away. This tweet sums it up:

I mean, how can you argue with that? Not Tayshia—the next day she breaks up with Ben before their date even begins, telling him that her heart is elsewhere. Ben is No Longer Back. A little shocked she didn’t ask for a fantasy suite date with him (just a quick one!) to be sure first, but that’s her journey. 

When she meets up with Chris Harrison, though, her mood is hard to read. She says she’s never felt true love like this before, but her face says she’s scared? Harrison asks what’s going on, and she just gives a sort-of whimper and says she’s ready. 

But when he shows up, whatever was going on before seems to go away. Tayshia seems so genuinely happy and emotional when she says, “I know that I told you that I love you, but it’s more than that. It’s this wild, wild love that I have tried to come up with so many reason to not believe…and that I deserve love with a man that won’t run away.” 

Zac proposes, Tayshia cries and says yes, and…that’s it, folks! What a wild, wonderful season. 

Anna Moeslein is the senior entertainment editor at Glamour.