On The Bachelor, Arie’s journey to find love has taken a strange detour. He proposed to Becca and then changed his mind, dumping her and trying to get back with Lauren. “I feel a little bit like a monster right now,” said Arie and the world nodded in agreement. There has been a lot of fall-out from Arie’s public take-backsies. For instance, people were Venmo-ing Becca cash so the girl could buy herself a drink, nearly 10,000 people retweeted a Minnesota state rep’s promise to draft a bill banning Arie from Minnesota, everyone tweeted at the wrong Lauren, and then some genius purchased billboards across L.A., Minneapolis and Times Square calling Arie out for being a jerk. 
 
 Here’s what happened on After the Final Rose: 
 
 What Did Becca do to ABC? 
 
 Not only did Becca not get to go to Machu Picchu, but then she got dumped on prime time television. The producers clearly wouldn’t let Arie leave so Becca could cry in peace, and then, as an eagle-eyed Bachelor watcher noticed, the producers sent Becca home from L.A. in a middle seat. They probably made her give Neil Lane his diamond ring back. Clearly someone in production has it out for her. Back in Minneapolis, Becca flips through photos of her time with Arie, crying her eyes out. She watches video footage, reads her diary and generally throws herself a well-deserved pity party. 
 
 Arie’s Journey 
 
 Arie hopes he didn’t ruin things with Lauren by dumping her, proposing to another woman, and then extraditing her back to the U.S. so he could talk about making babies with his newly-minted fiancée. He hopes he didn’t make it worse by staying with Becca, the woman he proposed to. Arie goes to knock on Lauren’s door and when he sees her she throws her arms around him. She knows he dumped Becca and since she is clearly not a girls-before-guys sort of girl, she is happy to have him back. They sit on her couch and Lauren asks Arie why he chose Becca in the first place. Arie says Becca was very confident in their relationship and Lauren once showed some doubt, so it was pretty much her fault. Lauren smiles as though that makes sense. So Arie made a “safe decision” for his future and then instantly knew he made the wrong decision. Once he had confirmation from Lauren that she would take him back, he broke up with Becca. Now, he loves Lauren again. And she wants to be engaged. Just like that. 
 
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 The Women 
 
 Chris Harrison bravely calls five of Arie’s ex-girlfriends to the stage to share their thoughts. Needless to say they were not particularly impressed with Arie. Caroline, who has done an A+ job prolonging her fame by calling out Arie at every occasion, thinks he’s a big meanie. Bekah calls him “incredibly manipulative” and “ridiculous.” Seinne was horrified that Arie threw out his relationship with Becca like it meant nothing. Bekah said that if he didn’t love Becca, he shouldn’t have proposed. Even Chris Harrison admits that Arie made “a bone-headed error.” Since at least a few of the women are still under contract with The Bachelor and its spin-offs, it’s a little disingenuous when Chris Harrison asks them whether or not they should have aired the excruciating breakup. Kendall claims the women all know their relationships are public on The Bachelor and that it was good to see how strong Becca was in the situation. Um, sure. When Chris Harrison asks the women what they want for Lauren and Arie, Bekah says, “I hope Lauren gets out of there as soon as possible!” and the audience erupts in cheers. 
 
 Saint Becca 
 
 Becca graciously agrees to share her experience with the home audience. Chris Harrison asks her to tell him where it hurts. She smiles and says it has been hard, but it’s all part of her story now. He tells her that strangers on the internet have donated $6,000 to her drink-the-pain-away fund and she instantly donates it to cancer research. When Arie comes out, she allows him to hug her, and accepts his feeble apology. She says she would never want any ill-will for anyone. Nonetheless, some viewers may have been left hoping Bekah, Tia and Caroline would girl-gang up on him and kick him in the shins at least once backstage. 
 
 The Blame Game 
 
 Arie blames Becca for encouraging him to get closure from Lauren, which led to their rekindled romance. Then Arie blames The Bachelor for feeling pressured to make a decision. To speak to that, Chris Harrison invited Bachelor Jason and Molly Mesnick on stage. Jason famously dumped Melissa Rycroft to marry his runner-up Molly. Jason and Molly agree that it should have been done in private and Chris Harrison shrugs while the thought bubble above his head says, “Ratings, man!” Arie says that he didn’t watch the show last night, because he didn’t want to have to see his “bad decision.” 
 
 The Happy Couple 
 
 Lauren joins Arie on stage and they say they are in love and their love is stronger than ever and they have moved past his little mistake. (Hopefully Becca is somewhere far, far away where she can’t hear this malarkey.) Then Arie gets down on one knee and proposes to Lauren. He slips a massive ring on her finger. Arie’s family and Lauren’s family sit in the audience and clap politely. Chris Harrison congratulates them and can’t help but hope this engagement lasts a little longer. 
 
 And The Bachelorette Is… 
 
 The Bachelorette is coming back for another dramatic season this spring and they are going to need a star. And that star is… Becca. At least that explains why she was so darn nice to Arie. 
 
 Contact us at editors@time.com. ||||| Sometimes the best way to understand how something works is to think about all the ways it could’ve been different. Such is the case with the supposedly unedited scene from Monday night’s finale of The Bachelor, a half-hour long spectacle of human misery and producer-driven exploitation. 
 
 When Arie Luyendyk Jr. decided to break it off with his fiancée, Becca, after the usual rose ceremony conclusion of the season, the rest of the episode could’ve been your typical glossy Bachelor package. If you’ve watched enough Bachelor, it’s easy enough to imagine what it would’ve looked like. We might have seen footage of people weeping prettily, framed attractively by local foliage. We could’ve seen shots of Becca taking off her ring, and a cut to Arie with his head in his hands. It would’ve ended with a shot of Arie walking down a road, perhaps wiping a single tear from his eye, followed by a shot of Becca standing on a balcony, her face crumpled despondently. That alternate version of this episode would have been plenty of exploitation porn for The Bachelor. It would’ve been sufficient to mark Arie as a villain and to launch the redemption narrative for Becca’s inevitable turn as the Bachelorette. 
 
 That vision of the breakup between Arie and Becca, that familiar Bachelor construction of a sad moment between two people? That’s not what happened. 
 
 What we got instead was an excruciating split-screen scene of the entire final moments of two people’s relationship with one another. For 30 minutes, The Bachelor finale gave us footage from one camera focused on Arie’s face and another on Becca’s, so that we didn’t have to miss even a moment of their pain. The hardening of Becca’s face as she listened to Arie say that he “wanted to see if [it] was a possibility” to get back with Lauren? Saw it. The sudden turn into mortification as Becca realized this entire exchange was being filmed? Saw it. We could see Becca trying desperately to walk away from the cameras, and we could see Arie look to a producer for guidance before he walked after her, bringing more cameras with him. We saw Becca warn him “don’t touch me,” and we saw him continue to dejectedly follow her around, oblivious to her wishes. The decision to air this entire breakdown, from not one but two camera angles at the same time, amounted to a producer-level decision that if some human exploitation was good for the show, the maximum possible onscreen torture would be even better. 
 
 Again, nothing about this was inevitable. The most obvious way it could have been different is that Arie could have broken up with Becca off camera. He should’ve had the decency to understand that no person ever wants to experience a totally unexpected breakup from their fiancé, and if it must happen, then they absolutely do not want it to be filmed for a national audience. Even more than that, Arie should’ve had the basic self-preservation instinct to understand that this was an unimaginably bad idea for his own narrative. There was no universe in which watching joyful footage of him proposing to a woman and then watching him immediately, stonily, informing her he just can’t stop thinking about someone else, would’ve made him look sympathetic. 
 
 But more importantly, the episode did not have to look the way it did. The wrenching “unedited” split-screen footage had no purpose except to give the Bachelor audience the maximum number of voyeuristic vantage points for someone’s private agony. The lengthy clip of an empty hallway, overlaid with audio of Becca weeping, was cruel. Watching a camera crew following Becca down to a bedroom, capturing shots of her frantically stuffing her belongings into a suitcase, felt like watching a stalking crime in progress. And through it all, we got short clips of Chris Harrison watching from inside a room with a live studio audience, saying things like, “believe it or not, there’s actually much more to come.” Harrison tried to look as shocked as the rest of us as he said it, but the wolfish delight underneath shone through. 
 
 The other takeaway of the scene was that while Bachelor producer Mike Fleiss and others at ABC may have been gleefully touting the history-making unedited scene for days ahead of the airing, actually watching the footage immediately called its “unedited” status into question. More than once, one of the cameras following Arie or Becca cut to black. Were those, mercifully, a few brief moments where a camera was turned off to protect one of the two people on the screen? 
 
 Probably not. The most telling black screen came after Arie walked outside the house, apparently to finally acquiesce to Becca’s repeated requests that he leave her alone. He exits the house. His half of the screen goes to black. When it flickers back on, there he is, walking back into the house to confront Becca once again. What other conclusion could the audience reach, except that the camera had briefly cut in order to cover up the intrusion of a producer, prodding Arie to keep this ratings gold going? What seemed initially designed to show us a real moment between two people ended up doing something very, very different: It became a presentation of a man being puppeteered by reality-TV producers, and it became an indictment of a franchise plummeting to new depths of ratings-mining cynicism. ||||| All season long, the ratings for ABC's The Bachelor have been down compared to its previous season, as BuzzFeed News reported last week. So when the glossy gossip magazines, led by Us Weekly, began reporting — on Us's cover, no less — that Arie Luyendyk Jr. was going to propose to one woman during the finale and then change his mind afterward in order to date the woman he'd rejected, the leak seemed like a tactic designed by the show's producers to drum up interest in this wilted, uneventful season. After all, spoilers for The Bachelor are always out there, particularly as reported by Reality Steve, but through some sort of social contract, mainstream gossip rags never spoil the show. (Us did not reveal who was proposed to and who was jilted, only that Arie had changed his mind.) 
 
 Well, the strategy worked: The finale ratings spiked over the show's shriveled season average, drawing an audience of 7.8 million viewers and a 2.2 among 18-to-49-year-olds, the demographic advertisers seek. Of course, that is still down from Nick Viall's season finale last year, which brought in 8.2 million viewers and a 2.6 in the demo. But this season's Bachelor, dragged down by Arie's lack of charisma and odd choices in dates (one group date took place in a bowling alley in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida), had a lot to overcome. Its season average is still way down — 6.2 million viewers and a 1.7 compared to 2017's 7.3 million viewers and a 2.3. 
 
 Monday's finale took place over three hours, with Arie proposing to Becca Kufrin at the end of the second hour, which is always the way it goes. But then the show broke with tradition in its third hour, which usually is an After the Final Rose live update on how the engaged couple (and the ex) are doing. ||||| Bachelor Nation, it’s official: We have our next Bachelorette! 
 
 WARNING: The following contains Bachelor and Bachelorette spoilers. 
 
 After a truly roller-coaster experience on The Bachelor, Becca Kufrin has been confirmed as the next lead of The Bachelorette. The announcement was made Tuesday during the live After the Final Rose conclusion to Arie Luyendyk Jr.‘s season. 
 
 Of course, Kufrin, a 27-year-old Minnesota-based publicist, was at epicenter of the most shocking season to come out of the ABC franchise yet. On Monday’s explosive three-hour finale, Luyendyk Jr., 36, sent millions of devoted viewers into a tailspin when he pulled a switcheroo: Two months after proposing to Kufrin, he realized he was still in love with his runner-up, 26-year-old sales executive Lauren Burnham. He decided to break things off with Kufrin to pursue a relationship with Burnham — allowing every second of the brutal breakup to be captured by the cameras. 
 
 Though many fans were outraged at Luyendyk Jr.’s decision, Kufrin doesn’t harbor resentment towards him, telling PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s issue that she just wants to put that chapter of her life behind her — and move onto the next. 
 
 RELATED: The Bachelor‘s Becca Kufrin Breaks Her Silence After Arie Luyendyk Jr. Ends Their Engagement 
 
 “I went through all the emotions. I was mad for awhile, I was so sad and down for awhile, I was pissed for awhile,” she says. “At this point, I want this chapter of Arie to be done and close it and put it on the shelf and put it away.” 
 
 “I’m still going to feel a sense of compassion for him because I did love him,” she adds. “But at this point, I want him to be happy, I want to be done and not have to worry about them anymore. They’re going to be together and do their thing. I want to move on and have my person that I can focus on and live my life with.” 
 
 Becca Kufrin ABC/Craig Sjodin 
 
 RELATED: See the Engagement Ring Arie Luyendyk Jr. Gave Becca Kufrin — Before Breaking Her Heart 
 
 Now, Kufrin is taking her journey to find love to a whole new level — and she says she’s “ready” to be the Bachelorette. 
 
 “It does scare me,” she admits. “I’m sure it would [scare] any human, knowing that I was just engaged, I was in love. But I have so much love to give and I want just a partner in life. I’m not afraid to date these guys and find the one who is the best fit for me — I welcome that with open arms.” 
 
 “The grand gesture of the engagement, of course, does freak me out a little bit,” she adds. “But that being said, I went into Arie’s season being as open as I could be so I want to do the same in this next chapter.” 
 
 RELATED VIDEO: Audience Members ‘Boo’ Arie As He Talks to Becca But Caila Quinn Says She’s ‘Behind Him All The Way’ 
 
 But there’s one thing Kufrin wants to be extra “mindful” of throughout. 
 
 “I want to keep in mind, the people who I really do fall for and have strong feelings for, if was them how would I want to be treated?” she says. “And I want think about the bigger picture and the outcome. Is it best to say ‘I love you’ to two people? I don’t know. If I do feel that need, I want to make sure I’m 100 percent sure and keep in mind their feelings. I want to keep their needs and emotions at the forefront.” 
 
 Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette is expected to premiere later this year on ABC. ||||| Stephanie McNeal is a social news editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. 
 
 Got a confidential tip? Submit it here. ||||| Someone — or some group — really doesn’t like Arie Luyendyk Jr. 
 
 In Los Angeles and Minnesota, 16 billboards went up early Tuesday in reaction to last night’s season finale of The Bachelor. Clearly upset that Arie first proposed to — and then dumped — their native daughter Becca, one (or more) Minnesotans rented out 12 billboards in the snowy state to express their displeasure. 
 
 Lynette Rice 
 
 Another two billboards were rented along the 710 freeway in East Los Angeles while two more were scooped up on the 5 freeway near Orange County. Why those particular areas? That’s all that was available for such a last-minute transaction, admits a spokesperson for Outfront Media. 
 
 Sadly, the fan (or fans) who took out the billboards has chosen to remain anonymous. Maybe the rejected bachelorettes pooled their per diems? 
 
 Anyway, the drama is not over yet. The finale for The Bachelor will continue tonight on ABC.
– Bachelor fans were in for a plot twist of epic proportions during Monday night's season finale, during which this season's Bachelor, Arie Luyendyk Jr., proposed to Becca Kufrin—and then, during the final hour of the show (filmed two months after the rose ceremony), broke up with the completely unsuspecting Kufrin because he decided he'd rather be with the runner-up ... while camera crews filmed the whole thing. It was aired unedited, meaning viewers got to see every bit of Kufrin's shellshocked reaction—and those viewers were not happy about it. It's not clear who raised enough money to pull this off, but Entertainment Weekly reports that there are now 16 billboards scattered around Southern California and Minnesota (Kufrin's home state) reading, "Arie... not okay, just leave. - Everyone." The statement is a reference to Luyendyk's insistence on sticking around after the breakup despite a sobbing Kufrin asking him to go. Viewers also sent Kufrin money for wine, BuzzFeed reports, while Time notes that a Minnesota state rep has promised to draft a bill banning Luyendyk from the state. Vulture, which called the breakup scene a "spectacle of human misery," notes that while it was supposedly unedited, Luyendyk's half of the split-screen cuts to black after Luyendyk does, at one point, finally leave the house; when the video comes back, he's heading back inside, presumably at the direction of a producer. "What seemed initially designed to show us a real moment between two people ended up doing something very, very different: It became a presentation of a man being puppeteered by reality-TV producers, and it became an indictment of a franchise plummeting to new depths of ratings-mining cynicism," writes Kathryn VanArendonk. BuzzFeed notes that the show's ratings have been down all season, and by "destroying" Kufrin in the finale, it did manage to boost those ratings. On Tuesday's After the Final Rose live special (spoiler alert!), People reports viewers found out Kufrin forgave Luyendyk and, predictably, was named the next Bachelorette; viewers also got to see Luyendyk and runner-up Lauren Burnham, predictably, get engaged.