What Happened at the “After the Final Rose”?

Throughout this whole season, outside of being off a week regarding the Ella exit from the show, I have told you everything that was going to happen. And it’s all come true. However, the one thing that had eluded me all season, was what form Jake choosing Vienna took. In my first spoiler column of the season on Jan. 6th, my guess was he probably proposed, but I wasn’t sure. For a guy that was hell bent on falling in love and finding a wife, and knowing that Vienna was the final one, back then I just found it hard to believe that Vienna was the final one chosen, but he left it at “lets just date”. I knew that he didn’t choose Tenley (that’s when you’ll see him pull a Mesnick next week, after he lets Tenley go). That was cut and dry. There was no Brad Womack job this season. He had chosen Vienna, but I wasn’t certain if there was a proposal, or just a promise to continue to see where things went.

Then the media tour started and it brought doubt into everyone’s minds. First for Jake, since he was being very coy in his interviews. Said some things here and there that made you think, “Hmmm, what’s going on here?” I mean lets be honest, how many of you have said over the last seven weeks, “Oh my god, he’s totally not with anybody. He looks so miserable in all his interviews. No way he’s still with Vienna or whoever. He chose nobody.” All the while, even though I noticed it myself, I tried to remind myself and everyone else, that Jake is not allowed to give away his ending. I tried not to put too much stock into his answers. He once said he came into the show on “Cloud nine, and left on Cloud nine.” Well, no one who left the show without a partner would say something like that, right? But then on the flip side, he threw out comments along the way of, “Hey, you know you don’t necessarily have to choose one of the 25″, and everyone started freaking out about that dissecting every syllable out of his mouth. All the while, I kept an open mind and thought, “It sure doesn’t sound like he’s with Vienna, but lets wait and see.”

Then came all the negative publicity about Vienna and her getting beaten like a red headed stepchild in the tabloids. Which then made everyone, including myself, question, “How in the world could he possibly have chosen this woman?” However, as I pointed out last week, remember that Jake made his decision back in November, and you couldn’t factor in everything you heard about her since, because Jake didn’t know any of that when he made his decision. So from that point I think people, although begrudgingly, began to accept that Vienna was the final one. But then the response turned to, “Well, he may have chosen her, but what’s their status now? But there’s no way he’s with her now. Listen to his answers. He’s saying this, and doing this, and his body language says this, and his mouth does this, blah blah blah”. And for a while, I didn’t know what their status was currently. All I knew was they left St. Lucia as a couple.

Jake was purposely being vague in all his answers because he knew what the final outcome was. For the first time all season, I will credit Jake Pavelka for one thing. He certainly pulled the wool over the media and the viewer’s eyes in his answers since the season started. After weeks of speculation and rumors galore, here’s a recap of what people have CLAIMED they heard happens in the end:

-They re-shot the ending after all the bad press came out about Vienna and had Jake dump her. Might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
-Someone out there (I think even commented on my site), that Vienna drops a bomb on Jake at the ATFR and dumps him. Brilliant.
-Some giant, boffo twist regarding Ali somehow playing a role in the final rose ceremony and her and Jake ending up together
-Jake is with someone who is NOT Tenley or Vienna, but was with someone from the show (preferably Ali for most people’s sanity)
-Jake dumped both girls, is with no one, single, and heterosexual
-Jake dumped both girls, is with no one, single, and says he’s gay
-One of the girls is pregnant and it wasn’t the one he chose
-Jake proposes to Vienna, she rejects him, so he asks Tenley back

The ridiculousness goes on and on and on. I’m sorry to burst your bubble. I told you it was Vienna on Jan. 6th, and I’ve never wavered from that since then. The “After the Final Rose” was taped this past Sunday in L.A., and I’m here to tell you this… I have a feeling some of you are going to be disappointed, since you’ve built this up to be some huge, gigantic, monstrous whale of an ending that’ll blow us all away. I said I have huge news regarding what happened at the ATFR taping, meaning, I knew what the final resolution was. And finally, here it is:

Not only are Jake and Vienna together and happy, but they are engaged.

Let the “boos” and hissing begin now…ha ha. Now what does this all mean? Not much really. I’m sure none of you will buy it, you all will expect them to be broken up by next week, and a lot of you will call it fake. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just here to report the facts. At the ATFR show, that is what happened. Jake says he’s happy and he and Vienna are engaged. I do not know the rationale behind it, I do not know what they said to each other, how Tenley reacted, what Jake said to each woman, etc. So please save the emails asking what else happened at the taping. I do not know, but if I did, I would tell you. All I know is the outcome, and that is that Jake and Vienna are happy and engaged.

Do I honestly think these two will last? Not a chance. Plenty of couples have been happy and engaged at the ATFR show, only to be broken up weeks/months later. That’s why I say it doesn’t mean much. I’ll believe their love when I see them walk down the aisle. Which has about as much of a chance of happening as Heidi Fleiss does of making friends with actual human beings.

However, one thing I’m pretty sure you can mark my word on: If Jake and Vienna are PUBLICLY broken up before Ali’s filming starts next month on the “Bachelorette”, you can bet your ass that Jake will show up on Ali’s season at some point to try and win her back. I’d be shocked if that doesn’t happen. That’s a ratings bonanza if I ever saw one. Hell, even after writing this, there will still be people thinking Ali and Jake deserve to be together and will not give up that hope until they die. Those people need serious, serious help and should probably stop watching “Titanic” over and over. So I guess for you people, you just need to hope Jake and Vienna break up within the next 4-6 weeks so he can make a return to Ali’s season of the “Bachelorette”. If they don’t, I guess your pipe dream is over.

So there. That’s basically the rest of the season in an nutshell. There’s nothing left to report and nothing left to crack about this season. I’ve never misled you at any point this season, and I feel I’ve done a decent job in showing you sides of the show that you may not have known about. Now, it’s time to turn my attention to this Rozlyn interview, which should be one of the more interesting interviews I’ve ever conducted. My plan is to have it up on Thursday, but things can get a little crazy. I will do my best.

Any questions, comments, emails, praises, criticisms, email me at steve@realitysteve.com. If you want to join me on Twitter, my address is Twitter.com/RealitySteve. Stay tuned for the Rozlyn interview later this week.