The finale of Katie Thurston’s season of The Bachelorette had the potential to be the most boring in franchise history.
It ran for three hours, yet we knew within the first 45 minutes that Katie would be giving her final rose to Blake Moynes.
Fortunately, the After the Final Rose portion of the broadcast delivered some delightfully unexpected drama.
Even if you didn’t catch the episode, you’re probably aware by now that Katie unloaded on Greg Grippo, who had taken himself out of the competition before the Fantasy Suite round.
Katie hurled just about every accusation she could think of at the New Jersey native.
She accused him of using the show as a platform to launch his acting career and of presenting a fraudulent version of himself.
She even called his manhood into question, arguing that he took the easy way out instead of offering her a proper goodbye.
Some of Katie’s complaints contradicted each other, so there’s no way that all of them could be true, but at the center of the tirade was a very clear message:
Katie was really, really pissed off.
It’s not the kind of rage one customarily sees from people who are newly and happily engaged.
And as we all know, there’s a very thin line between love and hate.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that so many viewers jumped to the conclusion that Katie is still in love with Greg, and she settled for Blake as a sort of Canadian consolation prize.
After all, if Katie were as ecstatic as she claimed to be with Blake, there would be no need to publicly berate her ex, right?
Now, Katie is responding to those rumors, and she hopes to make it very clear that she has no residual feelings for Greg, and her relationship with Blake is on a firm footing.
“I was very honest with Blake leading into every single episode and we watched some of them together,” Thurston recently told Us Weekly.
“[Greg’s exit episode] we actually got to watch a few weeks ago and we watched it right before going into filming After the Final Rose, so there was a lot of emotions that I felt that I didn’t feel in the moment with Greg.”
It makes sense that Katie would wish to re-litigate the Greg situation after watching the breakup from a third-party perspective.
But while she may have benefited from the opportunity for a do-over, Katie seems to have forgotten an important flip-side to the reality TV coin:
Every emotional outburst lives on forever, and her season will likely be remembered more for the Greg drama than for anything else.
“And that’s what people need to remember is After the Final Rose is about kind of speaking your own truth and getting it out there for that final closure,” Katie continued.
“And really that’s what Greg and I both were able to do. And we’re ready to just close that door forever and move forward,” she added.
“You can be happy and in love in your relationship, but still be upset with how someone treated you in the past and you want to speak on it.”
Well … After the Final Rose can be about demanding closure.
Or it can be about taking the high road and showing — rather than telling — the world just how happy you are with the choices you’ve made.
Obviously, Katie opted for the other road … and that has made all the difference.
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