'The Bachelorette' Finale Recap: Kaitlyn Gets Engaged To Shawn Booth
— -- "The Bachelorette," Kaitlyn Bristowe, has found love with Shawn Booth.
She accepted a proposal from the 29-year-old personal trainer from Connecticut on the season finale of the ABC series on Monday night.
The romantic moment came after Kaitlyn spurned Nick Viall, now a runner-up on The Bachelorette for two consecutive seasons.
When Kaitlyn chose Shawn as the winner, she told him, "The truth is you light me up and make me laugh and, most importantly, you allow me to be myself."
"The truth is I never want you to question what we have ever again because I am completely yours," she added.
Shawn popped the question, Kaitlyn said yes, and they enjoyed a nice, long kiss. To make it really official, Kaitlyn awarded Shawn the final rose.
"I feel like the happiest guy in the world!" Shawn announced. "We're in love," Kaitlyn chimed in.
On the After the Final Rose special that followed the finale, Kaitlyn said she felt as if it was Christmas morning, because she could finally go public with her relationship with Shawn. Their immediate plans: just "living life" out in the open, together.
The proposal brightened Kaitlyn's mood after a tense breakup with Nick, with whom she'd famously had sex in Dublin, Ireland. She said to him, "I want to find something that has gone wrong and the only explanation that I have is my heart is just with somebody else."
Kaitlyn emphasized that she didn't regret any of the moments they'd shared during the season, but Nick, a 34-year-old software sales executive from Chicago who joined the competition a few weeks in, wasn't buying it. "You took things from me," he declared.
Furthermore, he argued, "It's not fair for you to tell me that what I feel, you feel the same. 'Cause you don't. If you did, you'd have a ring on your finger right now."
As he departed in a limo, Nick dramatically put the engagement ring back into its box and tossed it aside. "I'm the world's biggest joke," he said to himself.The whole scene called to mind last year's After the Final Rose special, when Nick upset then-"Bachelorette" Andi Dorfman by asking her how she could sleep with him when she knew she wasn’t in love with him.
The season finale began with Kaitlyn, a 30-year-old dance instructor from Vancouver, introducing both men to her family in Los Angeles. Her mother, father, stepmother, stepfather and sister first met with Nick.
Kaitlyn told them beforehand that she'd slept with Nick in Dublin, which could have made the meeting incredibly awkward, but that turned out not to be the case.Kaitlyn's mom was surprised that Nick was in the picture, and she didn't have a flattering opinion of him, based on his previous appearance on The Bachelorette. During a private moment with him, she said that he had come off as "possessive" and "jealous" during that season.
However, Nick won Mom over by explaining how he'd formed an emotional connection with Kaitlyn from the beginning, and was in love with her. Because he'd shown such emotion while expressing his feelings for Kaitlyn, her mom changed her mind about him and gave him her blessing -- as did Kaitlyn's dad in a later conversation.
Kaitlyn's mom had Nick on the brain when it was Shawn's turn to be grilled by the family. She was concerned with Shawn's jealousy over Kaitlyn's relationship with Nick, as well as the fact that Kaitlyn had told him about her night in Dublin with Nick.
