Honey Gangsta, I have waited all week for your recap! It's my first time posting here and I just had to let you know how awesome you and your recaps are! And I totally agree w/ your assesment of Brad and the girls. I don't mind that he didn't pick one, it's just the way he handled DeAnna that upset me. She obviously had a broken heart and he was so darn COLD to her. He gave no answers to her questions and kept telling her how much he would miss her? Huh?
I thought I liked him more than any other Bachelor up till now. He seems just as self involved as all the others now. I feel silly being so involved w/ the stupid bachelor too, but I just feel so sorry for DeAnna. Jenni too, but she seems like she's over it, DeAnna, not so much. Oh, and him telling her his heart was broken too? GAH! Idiot!
PS
I will miss your Bachelor recaps!

Loved the recap, he is an idiot, but I'm actually posting for a whole other reason. Mary and Byron (the middle-aged season of the Bachelor) are in the news (just saw the article this morning on MSN, but I can't post the link):

Apparently she was arrested for drunkenly punching him in the face. Loves it.

ive gotta admit, i didnt see a single episode of the show because of my f-tarded work schedule, but i read every single recap. brad was an absolute douche! he is never going to find love being so set on feeling the 'magic'. i agree with your whole analysis honey gangsta. i think he is hopelessly immature (owning a bar with his brothers...hmmmm) and unless he figures out what love actually entails in a REAL WORLD situation, he will be alone and absolutely desrve it. i seriously hate guys who toy with women like this, even if the girls knew what they were getting into.

Honey G, I'll miss your amazing recaps of the Bachelor! I'm looking for your fab writing skills re: other programs, so I'll be able to get my fix of your hilarity!!! Keep up the great work!

I know we talked about this before and we disagreed about Brad’s decision, or rather his stance and explanation of his decision. But after reading your detailed thoughts on the whole thing, I’m starting to come over to your side. I think you’re right in saying that if he thinks DeAnna (blink, blink, blink) deserves better, why would that not inspire him to be better? To be that man that she deserves? It probably wouldn’t be that hard, since she’s already enchanted with him as is (no education and all). If he didn’t feel butterflies when he was with DeAnna at all, why was she in the final 2?

I think his past behavior and life choices should have foreshadowed all of this (of course, this all in hindsight). When he was introduced, he said something about how in his town, it was college or working, and then followed it with – I knew college wasn’t for me. So he walked away from it and went to work. Even his occupation was determined by his brothers who set up successful businesses that he fell into. I think because DeAnna wasn’t living next door and he couldn’t see her for another 3 months, it was too much work for him to stay with her so he ran away. Just like he ran away from college and figuring out what HE wanted to do with his life. Instead, he just does what’s right there in front of him. Perhaps this could also explain why a “successful” handsome guy like him, in prime age is not married. Maybe if he was walking by a church one Saturday morning and saw a beautiful woman in a wedding dress and his family happened to be in that very church and he was dressed appropriately and there were no football games on TV that day, and the temperature was right, then maybe he would fall into getting married. Otherwise, I don’t see much hope for him.

I bet the only reason he even came on the show was because his brothers encouraged him and ABC promised him publicity for his business.

Grow up Brad. Think about how your actions affect others. This wasn’t all about you and your feelings. You brought other people into this and now you are responsible.

One question – do you think the next bachelor (cause we must go on, being that this method is proven to never work) will be shocked at how painful it is to hurt other people’s feelings?

One more comment - I really need this explained to me...

How can JenEye be so sure she wants to marry Brad, and spend the rest of her life making him happy since the infamous Betina's boring date, yet not be sure is she loves Brad when he takes her home.

How HOW can you be ready to marry a man you can't for sure say you love?

No wonder the bass fisherman, Byron, and new bass fishermanette, "sweet Mary Delgado" haven't tied the knot.
I wasn't able to post the article, but yahoo news reports that Delgado was arrested for punching out the man she has been living with for three years..not the bass fisherman!

What a sham to put them on the show to "prove true love is found on The Bachelor!"

I, like you, heard Deanna say she's tired of being That Girl (who readies the man for the next woman). She was wrong, though. He ain't ready for NO women. Girls yes; women no. This guy is self-absorbed, petulant, and immature. Does his family cut his meat for him, too? Deanna and Jenni should count their lucky stars that he didn't pick either of them. They were both acting like children, especially Jenni, but fate intervened before this loser made a complete mess of her life. I'd bet money that you could line up a string of his past girlfriends and every one of them would say the same thing: immature. Mama spoiled him. Baby of the family. No backbone. Needs to grow up.

A grown man with a fairytale Cinderella/Prince Charming complex is not the definition of a good catch... doesn't matter how much money he has.

Who knew Bettina's father was such a good judge of character??

Great recap job this season!

You have a good argument. I was not being too hard on Brad, as I felt what he did was better than the countless other guys taht didn't even date a month, or get an After the Rose special taped because they'd already dumped the chick. And I don't really like DeAnna. But, I think that she has to realize that it's a tv show, and Brad is prompted to say alot of the things he says, both to their faces and in confessionals. Of course he's not going to sit there halfway through and say he's not into any of them, and there are no sparks, etc. I also didn't think about it until I read your recap that when DeAnna was there, he was way more into horsing around with his brothers than spending time with her. He's like a big kid.

I think your point about him being immature and not willing to put effort into making a relationship work were spot on though. It is suspicious as to why he wasn't already married, but the same can be said for the countless "beautiful, successful" ladies that go on these shows too. He definitely was throwing out all the typical guy lines for a breakup.

Carmstrong -- As far as Mary and Byron go, I am pretty sure that Byron is the fiance that she has been living with for the past 3 years, as they got together on the Bachelor in 2004. They said on the special that they had a house in Tampa, among other places, I think. Of course I think they also said they were getting married in November, so who knows what is bullshit and what isn't. I do remember during his season that there were all these scandalous stories about him being a huge player in the National Enquirer and other credible news sources such as that.

All in all, it definitely lived up to its billing as the most shocking finale ever - I didn't see it coming, and I didn't feel like I wasted any more of my time watching than I did knowing Bob Guiney or Travis Stork dumped their girls 2 weeks later. Great recaps, and your pictures had me cracking up - "We miss you at the Dizzy Rooster."

First things first...HG, great job recapping all season. Often, I enjoyed your recap more than the show. The network should compensate you!

WHERE DO I BEGIN!!! I guess with this observation...Brad, you are a sack of shit. I feel duped by you too! This is the first season I have watched all the way through since season 1 or 2. I usally watched only the season premiere - or only the advertisments for the premier - and validated my suspicions the guy would be a fake A-hole. BRAD HAD ME CONVINCED he was WAY less of an A-Hole than all the others; boy was I wrong. Brad is a douche bag of the WORST kind. He was stealth in his douche baggery!

HoneyG, I agree with all of your reasoning on why things went down the way they did - Brad's immaturity, self-centeredness, his TOTALLY typical "guy" excuses (wherein he thinks he can some how walk away still being viewed as a "nice" guy) and his COMPLETELY UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS about what love is, and the work that needs to go into a relationship in order for it to have half a chance. Frankly, the only red flag about Brad I had at the start was his declaration he WOULD propose to someone at the end. That - in and of itself - evidences his unrealistic approach. However, his NOT wanting to continue to DATE Deanna (or any of them) shows how little HE is willing to invest in any relationship. Thus, the reason he can't commit. Thus, the reason he is still single...and breaking many hearts along the way.

I never liked Jenni, though I think she did deserve to know that he didn't pick either one of them. But I feel SO SORRY for DeAnna.

Finally, I feel like an idiot that I am so invested in feel ANYTHING about a REALITY TELEVISION show.

Brad. YOU SUCK. And any idiot gal in TX who wanders into the Dizzy Rooster and gets hooked up with you, after having ALL THIS EVIDENCE about how duplicitous and immature you are, DESERVES YOU and the broken heart you will surely provide to her as well.

DP Hooker: Ok, went back and read the news article, and you are probably right. She got drunk and punched the fisherman in the mouth. Guess he called the police, as she was arrested and released. Why am I obsessing about this article?

Wow. Just wow. I think this is sad for everyone involved (including the fairy-tale-hungry viewing audience).

I have been in a similar position as Brad many times before, so I empathize with him (don't stone me!). I'm a multitasker and that includes my dating habits. I like different types of men, so I end up dating 2 or 3 at the same time. Together, they make the perfect guy, but of course one guy doesn't have all of the traits I'm looking for. I think that was Brad's dilemma. He liked two different types of women and couldn't see choosing one over the other because whichever woman he chooses, he'll feel like he's missing out on what the other woman has that he likes. That's the curse of having too many options.

It seems to me that women can't understand this thinking because most women feel like if a guy has 7 out of 10 qualities that they love, that's good enough. They either then try to change the guy so he'll hopefully get the other 3 traits (i.e., nag him to death because he doesn't have those 3 missing traits) or they suffer in silence. Men with options don't settle. Period. And that's what we're seeing with Brad. He's looking for a woman that has 100% of what he wants and instead of seeing that as unrealistic (like all the groaning, disapproving women in the audience), he thinks that's a realistic desire.

So that's basically what it comes down to: Brad wants perfect and the people who think he's a jerk think his expectations are too high, childish, unrealistic, etc.

I don't fault him for not falling in love. I have a problem with how he handled the situation. I know he can't tell the women that he DOESN'T like them, but he really wants to be able to reject them and be the Good Guy. You can't have your cake and eat it, too, Brad. That's the sucky part about rejecting people who have fallen for you. They will be bitter and angry. And you just have to take it as the rejector. So in his quest to be the Good Guy, he gave the women a lot of platitudes and up-played his feelings for them to avoid them feeling bad about his rejection. Bad move. When people have feelings, they can't hear "this isn't going to work", especially if that's said nicely. They're going to grasp at anything that will give them hope.

He went way beyond the call of Bachelor duty in misleading Jenny and DeAnna into thinking they had a chance of being The One for him. He spent a lot of time drawing out these women's emotions and encouraging them to fall for him, while he kept himself (and his emotions) in check. I think he got scared when they both started wearing their hearts on their sleeves and he realized that his feelings didn't match theirs.

Both Jenni and DeAnna thought that if they laid their hearts on the line, that would give them the advantage. However, I'm wondering if one of them had played it like "I really like you and would like to see where this is heading", if that would've relieved some of the pressure off Brad. Because despite him claiming to want a wife out of this, he reacted to their laying it all on the line like a true commitment-phobe. And I understand how that feels, because that's me.

I tend to draw intense feelings from the guys I date. I care about them, but am not in love with them (like Brad, I probably have unrealistic expectations of love, too). I'm hoping that their feelings are contagious and that I'll return them one day...but when it doesn't happen, I get really sad and have to dump them. To explain the underlying reason for the behavior, I'd be here all day but I can write that it's all based on fear of making a long-term commitment that ends up being a huge mistake and not being able to reverse it. Ironically, it's people who really hold marriage and commitment sacred that drag their feet the most.

Lastly, GREAT RECAPPING JOB, Honey Gangsta!

You actually made it worthwhile for me to watch this show. (I haven't watched since the original Trista/Ryan Bachelorette.)

I hope to see you recapping another show soon.

thanks for the recap, hg! i'm so glad we have you for the Race!

i agree with you, blahblah. i think the girls professing their undying love was their undoing. just as i always think the people who fall in love on this show are insane, i bet that somewhere inside him, brad realized these girls just couldn't be normal if they a) fell in love in such a short time, and b) fell in love with him period, perhaps? i used to always question what the hell was wrong with guys i dated if they liked me too much too soon. it's just plain creepy.

also, why does everyone assume these people are being honest in their interviews? brad may have been evasive, but he also may have been trying to spare further hurt feelings, in his own socially inept way.

whew.

poor byron. i always thought mary was kinda crazy.

see you all next time, on... the bachelor!

Wow, I'm kinda surprised that there is so much passion in y'alls comments.

Um, hello? A bunch of media whores FINALLY serve up the ending I have been waiting for for all 48 seasons of this truly ridiculous show. I do not give an airborne fornication about how any of them feel, or if anyone's feelings are hurt, I watch this show for the torture factor. Brad is awesome, as far as I am concerned, and I hope, I hope, I hope that next season the Chosen One says "no" to the proposal (or what-have-you). Then my Bachelor fantasy will be complete and I can finally quit depending on over-the-top meltdowns (hi Hillary) to sustain my interest.

Great job on the recap, HG. You funny.

thanks for the recap--I missed these episodes, and when the whole thing blew up, so good to know what I missed from your perspective. that last cap of brotherincestlover says it all! typical, typical, guy--why are we all bums! Ok, and some girls too--blah-blah--guess people always want what they can't have, and when you can have it, you don't want it. Maybe the girls were bad lovers in the fantasy suites, maybe Brad wanted to be the biggest douche he could possibly be (and that goal he achieved) maybe they were all they could be in the fantasy suite and he was done . . . whatever, mainly wanted to thank you, HG, and may I add, I think blah-blah should be the next bachelorette--give the guys a dose of their own medicine.

funny how every day, being single doesn't seem so bad . . .