Here’s who Rachel gave her final rose to during the “Bachelorette” finale

By Cmollysmith

August 8, 2017

By Cmollysmith

August 8, 2017

Spoilers from Monday’s The Bachelorette finale lie ahead!

It’s been a long road, hasn’t it Bachelor Nation? But, at long last, Rachel Lindsay handed out her final rose during The Bachelorette finale.

So who did Rachel pick? Eric, Peter, or Bryan?

Drumroll, please.

You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you? We have to go through what happened with the runner-ups first, of course.

Rachel eliminated Eric first, and told him “It’s hard to say goodbye when I have such strong feelings for you. It’s just that I have stronger feelings for the other guys that are here.” He thanked her for helping him open up and promised her that she’d get what she wants. He added, “Truth be told, I’ll always love you,” and had a lot more sweet things to say when he joined Rachel at the live finale event.

*WE’RE NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING*

Then, she and Peter had a big fight in which they still couldn’t sort out that whole getting engaged thing. She’s said this whole time that she wants a proposal by the end of this process, and while he cares deeply for her, he just wasn’t ready to pop the question. So they called it quits — and honestly, it was pretty damn heartbreaking.

There were a lot of tears, and it seemed like they really cared for one another, but just weren’t in the same place emotionally.

“My biggest fear in this entire thing is saying goodbye to somebody that I’m not supposed to say goodbye to. Peter has me questioning, am I forcing myself to do something that I don’t want to do? I just feel like I’m making a big mistake,” she said in a confessional.

But watching it now, Rachel told host Chris Harrison:

"It was frustrating then and it's really hard and frustrating to watch now. It's no secret that I did care a lot about Peter, but to be back at the place that I've been at before, the exact last relationship that I had before, and to be in that same space of you don't know what you want with me. You see a future with me. You think that I'm this and I'm that and I'm everything that you want in a future, but you don't want to take the risk to build a future with me. Like, I don't understand it. It's frustrating."

Peter then joined Rachel at the live finale event, and Rachel explained her frustrations to him. He said, “I wanted that future. Those are things that I saw, having that time with you and having those experiences with you…it’s just a difference at that point of what would be that next step to get there. I wanted to proceed to see what a future would bring. There’s just one huge piece that had to happen first.” Plus, a whole lot more.

*You bet your bottom rose that we were E-M-O-T-I-O-N-A-L watching that*

With Peter out, that left Bryan — but did he propose to Rachel?

Now, we’ll take that drumroll for real.

He sure did! But, before he did, he had a lot to say:

"Rachel, when I first stepped out of that limo, I knew I was in for the ride of my life," he told her at a Spanish castle, as one does. "When we first kissed, it was literally like a chemistry bomb had just exploded and I just knew that first night with 100% certainty in my heart that we definitely could be something special. You are everything I could ever want in a woman, a wife, mother of my children. I am completely, head over heels, totally, absolutely in love with you. I just hope you feel the same."

She said, “My heart has never been more confused than it has been this week. I’ve always been drawn to the excitement of gambling my feelings on the complicated relationships and you know, it’s the damaged connections that have offered me the chance to always run away and that’s why when I met you, it just seemed too perfect and I was trying to find cracks in what seemed like the perfect foundation.”

“And I really, really had to do some soul searching, deeper than I ever have before to find the courage to challenge myself, but this love has been so mature. It’s tested me in ways that I couldn’t have even imagined and I always said that I would know that the person that I’m supposed to be with is someone I could never picture my life without so right here, in this moment standing with you, I see my forever.”

She went on to tell him how much she loves him, and he proposed. To which, she gladly accepted and offered him her final rose. The pair then spoke about the season and their future at the finale event, and that’s a wrap on The Bachelorette Season 13!