My wife and daughter were addicted to this season of ABC’s show The Bachelorette. And, since I was in the room watching last night’s 2 hour finale, I have to admit it became a guilty pleasure(?) or me as well. I admit I am a hopeless romantic but that comes in handy when you have been married for 27 years.

If you are not familiar with the Bachelorette (or its counterpart the Bachelor), the show picks one woman who is looking for love marriage and happily every after and then introduces her to 30 guys who will vie for her affection over the course of 2 months. They go on dates in small groups at first and then increasingly spend more and more alone time together as the weaker members of the herd are thinned out. At the end of each episode there is a rose ceremony where some of the guys get a rose and stay and the others are, in effect, voted off the island by the one judge who is the bachelorette.

ABC was lucky to have at least one scoundrel (and one hero) on the show this year which no doubt led to higher ratings. Wes, a country western singer, admitted on camera in scenes not seen by Jillian, this season’s center of attention, that he was on the show to sell CDs. He also apparently admitted to some of the other bachelors off camera that he had a girlfriend back home. So the big drama this season was when one of the bachelors could not sleep after being dumped until he told Jillian to watch out for that snake. So we get the tall handsome Texan hero riding in to save the damsel while the other bachelors hide behind some “man code” crap.

It made for some pretty good TV, but that was just the side story to the show’s ultimate conclusion where the bachelorette is dressed in white and waiting the last two contestants who are bringing her an engagement ring. The show is geared so the guys know that they have to put themselves out there. They have to express their love or go home. But, of course, someone is going home anyway. The show leaves a trail of broken hearts which you get to watch breaking. It is a bit like doing a reality show on skydiving but revealing to the contestants that you only brought one parachute. Good guy Kiptyn was the runner up. He finally got to the point where he could express his love but was told (with a ring still in his pocket) that she had fallen in love with Ed while waiting for him to make up his mind. “I love you”. Geronimo! Splat.

In this season there was extra drama in the last episode as one of the last men asked to leave (Reid), the 2nd runner up so to speak, comes back with his own ring and proposal. Reid had not gotten to the point where he could say that he loved her until he was sent home so he was able to talk the producers into letting him have one more try. A surprise entrance, a surprise declaration of love, a proposal, tears, rejection. Geronimo! Splat.