Spoiler alert! This story contains major spoilers about Jenn Tran’s season finale of The Bachelorette that aired on September 3. Watch episodes with your Hulu subscription if you’re not caught up.
ABC spent the entire 21st season of The Bachelorette teasing the finale moment when Jenn Tran tells her final suitor she can’t let him get down on one knee, and many guessed it was because Jenn wanted to be the one to propose. Well, that prediction turned out to be correct, but unfortunately that was when the whole three-hour affair went downhill. After Jenn sent Marcus Shobert home, what should have been a historic, liberating moment for Jenn was botched by ABC in a move that many Bachelor Nation members called “cruel.”
After Jenn Tran said she was going to ask Devin Strader to marry her, instead of progressing to that portion of the Season 21 finale, host Jesse Palmer explained that they couldn’t air the proposal without discussing with Jenn what had happened since filming ended. She revealed that Devin had basically checked out of the relationship just weeks after the cameras stopped rolling, and the engagement was over. Devin came out, and they exchanged some words about their split.
The host then tried to bring it back to Jenn Tran’s big empowering moment, saying that she’d made history as the first Bachelorette to propose, and no one could take that away from her. “What do you think? Should we all watch it together?” he asked, and after an excruciatingly long pause, as the footage began to air, Jenn exasperatedly asked:
Do I have a choice?
Of course she didn’t want to watch it, and at that point, neither did we. Bachelor Nation seemed to hate the disrespect ABC showed to Jenn Tran in that moment, with one X (Twitter) user pointing out how this move followed the show’s failure to include Asian representation when casting Jenn’s season:
The producers did Jenn dirty this season by casting the wrong guys for her and then on tonight’s 3 hour season finale they did the cruelest thing by showing that proposal.
What’s more, as the proposal played out, live footage of Jenn Tran sobbing was shown in a box in the corner of the screen. The word “cruel” seemed to be the first word coming to many people’s minds, with others saying:
- And while Devin is right next to her?! The Bachelorette this is just cruel – AnnieTangent
- Making her watch this with him is CRUEL – FLBlondie1986
- Why are they showing the proposal now like this is so cruel – cspangles
Jenn Tran’s whole season was themed around the physician assistant student — and the franchise’s first Asian American lead — having the main character energy that hasn’t always been given to Asians on TV. The tagline on the marketing for The Bachelorette was “The power is in her hands.”
It really didn’t feel like they left her with much of anything, though, as we were all forced to watch her promise everything to a man we already knew wasn’t going to keep his end of the bargain. Strangely, ABC felt like even more of a villain than Devin Strader in that moment, as more social media reactions included:
- They should not be showing this at all. Brutal. ABC do better – Chris_Tos19
- 1) Why the fuck are they making her relive this? 2) Why are they just zoomed in on her sobbing right now – afshadd
- They’re playing the footage of her proposing to Devin… Fuck. Fuck. Fuckkity. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck – ThePMDiaries
- I do not appreciate how the first Asian bachelorette is treated. They did Jen really dirty….. – Plant270011
- WHY ARE THEY MAKING JENN REWATCH THE PROPOSAL HER HEART IS BROKEN jesse i have a new hatred for this – yummysdaydream
- SHOWING HER THE PROPOSAL LIKE WTF IS WRONG WITH YALL – hotwasabi_
I can recognize the fact that ABC was put in a tough situation, having teased the proposal all season as well as wanting Jenn Tran to get her ultimate main character moment. It really felt like there could have been a more tasteful way to go about it. Another fan wrote:
Absolutely not. I know a lot of people really want to see the proposal but it’s absolutely not appropriate to play it, ESPECIALLY after those conversations, ESPECIALLY with Jenn and Devin there and ESPECIALLYYY with how Jenn reacted when Jesse brought it up … I feel so horrible for Jenn. They should’ve at least let her backstage if they truly needed to show the proposal.
I really hate this ending for Jenn Tran, because it should have been a celebration of her — regardless of whether or not she got engaged. Instead it felt super gross. Hopefully now that her season is over, she can get more closure.
As for the rest of us, we’ve got just a couple of weeks to wash the bad taste out of our mouths before Joan Vassos stars on the premiere season of The Golden Bachelorette, which hits the 2024 TV schedule at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, September 18, and can be streamed the next day on Hulu.