Colton Underwood's season of The Bachelor has been filled with the usual romantic shenanigans fans have come to expect of the franchise, but there were some twists with him as leading man. For one thing, Colton entered the series as a virgin, which is a fact that anybody who tuned into previous seasons of The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise knew well. For another, early footage of the season revealed that something would someday upset Colton so much that he would literally make a run for it over a fence.
The Bachelor kept teasing the big jump over the fence week after week, until viewers were dying to know what would happen that he took off, shocking host Chris Harrison, who you'd think had already seen everything after all these years as host of the Bachelor franchise on ABC. As was revealed in the March 4 episode of The Bachelor, Colton leapt the fence after a heartbreaking conversation with Cassie, who he'd intended to choose at the end of the season.
Cassie wasn't certain enough of her feelings for Colton after her dad traveled to Portugal to drop some fatherly advice about marriage on his daughter, and she made the devastating decision to take herself out of the running to receive the final rose and big proposal at the end of the season. Cassie left, and Colton was so upset that he wanted to escape all the prying eyes that come with starring in your own reality TV show.
As was clear in the episode that finally revealed the jump, Colton did actually put a lot of thought into what he was doing, so he's actually lucky that he didn't leap the fence and wind up falling 20 feet or onto dangerous terrain.
That said, Colton did reveal during The Bachelor: The Women Tell All special that he didn't really think he'd be able to escape the production team when he jumped the fence. Here's how Colton put it:
I actually thought I was going to like land on like a production tent or like the snack tent or there was going to be some audio guy like randomly waiting there for me, but there was nobody. And it was one of the best feelings.
Colton apparently really underestimated just how much the Bachelor team was in the middle of nowhere in Portugal, on a dark night when the show had no reason to set up tents on the other side of an adjacent fence. Well, I'm glad that Colton didn't land on anybody after he jumped the 8-foot fence. He's not a small guy, and he was moving pretty quickly. That might have really hurt and done some damage to both the jumper and the jumped!
Fortunately, nobody was injured when Colton made his jump, and he got to enjoy some temporary freedom from the cameras and Chris Harrison. Footage from next week's two-night season finale event clearly shows that Colton did return to the show, although the circumstances of his heartbreak mean that the finale should truly be something that has never been done in Bachelor franchise history. The leading man isn't supposed to reveal his pick in the penultimate episode, and his pick definitely isn't supposed to walk away from him! Where to next?
Of course, the tell-all episode wasn't actually going to tell all about what's still to come in the season, and Colton never answered the point blank question of whether he's still a virgin. He did elaborate on what was going through his mind after he had his heart broken by Cassie when he'd thought they were in for a great night in a fantasy suite. Here's how he explained:
I think the hardest thing for me was not being loved back. The feelings not being reciprocated or quite to where I'm at. So there was a level of frustration. It was confusing, it was hard. I think one thing I realized too, it's like just because you are The Bachelor doesn't make you invincible to people leaving on their own. You're not automatically just going to be in a relationship because you became The Bachelor. I think that becomes evident.
Well, it sounds like Colton learned a valuable lesson from his heartbreak with Cassie, although he might have benefited from learning that lesson much earlier in the season. A lot of the season saw Colton's various ladies warning him about some of the others trying to win his heart, and he didn't always seem to really understand what was going on beyond virginity puns. The rude awakening in this week's episode was painful, and perhaps it would have gone easier if it had come earlier.
Colton's comments do give fans plenty to speculate about during the wait for the finale to hit the airwaves next week. When the final episode of a normal season of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette usually airs, the lead must choose between two suitors that are madly in love and looking to get engaged. For Colton's finale, the two ladies seemed to be in love with him, but he probably won't be mooning over Tayshia or Hannah G. Not after the reveal of how he'd already set his heart on Cassie.
I'm definitely curious to see if Colton or Chris Harrison comes clean to Tayshia and Hannah G. about what happened when Cassie left. I wouldn't blame either woman if they were pretty mad at Colton after learning that he'd already decided on Cassie. Tayshia already had her fantasy suite night with Colton before Cassie's turn came, and she left feeling great about their relationship.
I can sympathize with how devastated Colton was about Cassie leaving, but I'm also not on his side now that it's come out that he's just stringing the other two women along, making out with them and letting them believe there's a possible future with him. The only thing that we can really say for sure about the finale at this point is that it will be something brand new.
Tune in to ABC on Monday, March 11 at 8 p.m. ET for the first part of the two-night Bachelor finale event. The second part airs the next night at 8 p.m. ET. For some viewing options you can go for once you're out of The Bachelor episodes for the season, swing by our midseason TV premiere guide.
