As we head into tonight’s Bachelor season finale, a number of lingering questions have left fans divided:
Was Hannah Ann putting on an act for Peter’s family?
Was it wrong of Madison to conceal her feelings on premarital sex until so late in the competition?
And of course — what’s the freakin’ deal with Peter’s hyper-emotional mom?
Usually, by this point in the season, we’ve heard so many The Bachelor spoilers that we have a pretty good sense of how the finale will play out.
But this time around, things are different.
As Chris Harrison keeps reminding us, Peter doesn’t even know how things will play out this time around, so it stands to reason that Reality Steve and the other pundits are in the dark, as well.
If you watched last night’s episode, you know that Madison eliminated herself from the competition following an awkward meeting with Pilor Pete’s family.
Of course, if you stuck around for the preview of tonight’s episode, you know that Madison returns to complicate his decision.
Obviously, the Weber clan is staunchly pro-Hannah Ann, but viewers are considerably more divided.
In fact, judging by the reactions on social media, Bachelor Nation is about as about as indecisive as Peter himself.
Neither woman is widely despised, but some folks say Madison is just what Peter needs, while others feel he would have a hard time acclimating to her ultra-conservative lifestyle.
Some believe Hannah Ann deserves the final rose for making herself so open to him, while others believe Peter needs a partner with a bit more complexity.
“Peter likes challenges and Madi is playing Hard to Get! He’s going to pick Madi because He loves the chase! They both deserve each other..Just saying,” one viewer remarked.
“If I have to vote, it would be Hannah but I don’t think Peter is that into her. Madison is too strange and too different in beliefs from Peter,” another commented.
“Neither he doesn’t love the one and the other one keeps leaving so there you go,” a third chimed in, in response to a question about which woman Peter should propose to.
“Watching last nights episode. And I absolutely love Madison as a person,” one Facebook commenter opined.
“That being said she isn’t the one for Peter. He should chose Hannah Ann. They are [100 percent] better together. Too many doubts with Madison and I don’t think it’ll work.”
And then there’s the question of Barbara Weber.
As you know Peter’s mom has been taking a thrashing on social media, with many fans complaining that she’s too involved in the selection, or that she had formed an unfair bias against Madison before the two of them even met,
“Not her place. Just like it isnt her place to tell Peter and beg him who to choose. He doesn’t need side influences and needs to think for himself,” Chelsea Nicole Nothrop remarked on Facebook.
“His mother was way out of line. As Peter told his family, he was the one with those girls for two months and got to know them. Not his family. They are only seeing one side of the situation,” Donna Earle Randolph remarked.
“It is alright to give advice but not to ‘tell’ someone who they need to spend their life with.”
Of course, there were some pro-Barbara voices in the crowd, as well:
“It’s her son and I feel she’s just giving him some motherly advice,” Rebecca Watson remarked.
Perhaps because of Madison’s fundamentalist belief system, religion and morality were very much up for discussion this season, and you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the conversation occasionally turned ugly.
“Peters mom told Madison she didn’t want her to change him, for what the better? She made no sense she supports her son being a Male whore and partying every weekend,” wrote one Facebook user.
“If he ends up with one of the two when you get married all that party life is supposed to stop along with the sleeping around. His mom pissed me off”.
Perhaps we would all do well to rid ourselves of the idea that all marriages must look or sound a certain way, or that there’s one specific pattern of behavior that must be followed by every husband and every wife.
In all likelihood, Barbara was so pro-Hannah Ann and anti-Madison because she feels she knows her son better than anyone else, and she may be right.
When she cautioned Madi that Peter likes to party, she wasn’t necessarily casting judgement.
It could have been her way of cautioning a young woman about a side of Peter she hasn’t seen yet, and might not find terribly attractive.
Barbara and Madison seem to share the same concern — namely, compatibility, while Peter seems to be basing his decision-making process solely on emotion.
That might be fine be fine in the early days of most relationships, but since marriage is the goal here, practical concerns should enter the equation at some point.
Of course, we might be joining everybody else in singing a different tune tomorrow, based on the events of tonight’s episode.
Here’s hoping that whatever transpires, Peter makes his decision with eyes wide open and appropriate concern for the feelings and futures of both ladies.
Oh, we should specify that when we say “both ladies,” we mean Hannah Ann and Madison, not Madison and Barbara.
Can’t be too careful when it comes to Pilot Pete.