Pilot Pete’s journey came to a dramatic ending in a two night special. His final two women remaining were his two front-runners from the very first episode, Hannah Ann and Madison. The finale took place in Alice Springs Australia, where the women had one last date and one meeting with the Weber family before Peter’s final decision. First up was Hannah Ann’s meeting with Peter’s family. Peter’s mother, Barb, his father, Peter Sr., and his younger brother Jack all traveled from LA to be there and meet Peter’s final two prospects. When Hannah Ann walked through the door, his whole family (especially his mother) just completely fell in love with her. She told them how much she loved their son, how much she wanted what was best for him, and how much she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Obviously, his parents were overjoyed with this girl, calling her “an angel on earth” that “God sent for Peter.”
The two talked for quite some time. Maddie continued to tell Peter how hurt she was by the situation, and she admitted that she did not know how to move on and get through everything together, despite the fact that she was in love with him. The two agreed to just see how the day went, so she agreed to come in and meet his family. His family did not take to her. Peter’s father expressed doubts about their compatibility, Peter’s brother Jack expressed doubts about how different their lifestyles are, and Barb expressed doubt about Maddie as a person just simply not being right for Peter. Her values, her beliefs, her lifestyle, her ultimatum – Barb told her that she was not right for Peter in any of these ways. She told him that the last thing she wanted was for anyone to change Peter, and she feared Madison would unfortunately do this.
After Madison left and the family was all alone, they (or more specifically, Barb) told Peter exactly how they felt: Hannah Ann was the clear and only choice for him. They did not think Madison and him were a match at all, and the only way that this engagement would be successful would be if he asked Hannah Ann to marry him. This was an interesting development considering Peter was clearly more in love with Madison throughout the entirety of the season, so this was definitely not the answer he wanted to hear from them.
The next day, Madison and Peter had their date. From the beginning, something was clearly off. Madison told the camera that she loved Peter so much she was willing to do what was best for him in order for him to be happy. And she believed that in order for Peter to be happiest, he needed to let her go. She told him this in an emotional conversation where both of them cried profusely because they knew how strong their love was. And yet, Peter did not go after her. He let her go.
I am pretty sure that everyone watching this go down was expecting Peter and Madison to somehow end up together. Whether that ended in an engagement or not, I think we just could see how much more powerful their connection was than with any of the other women. So imagine Bachelor Nation’s surprise when Peter walks away from that conversation, very torn up, and still decides somehow that the right course of action is to propose to Hannah Ann. Whatever his thought process was, I cannot tell you. All I can do is (sadly) report to you what happened. Yes, he got down on one knee and proposed to Hannah Ann. He promised to love her forever, and she happily accepted.
If you watch the Bachelor, you know the episodes are two hours long. This proposal happened at 8:20. Obviously, the episode was just getting started, and things were about to take a turn for the worse. After the commercial break, what we knew was coming finally happened. The break-up. And boy was it tense. Basically, about two months after the two got engaged, Peter and Hannah Ann had a break up on camera. Peter told Hannah Ann that he was really struggling with mourning the loss of the other relationship (Madison) and while he thought he would be able to get over it, he still could not get her out of his mind. In the end, he told her that he knew he wouldn’t be able to give her the kind of love she was giving him, so he had to let her go. Hannah Ann went off. She told him off for not being true to his words, not being trust worthy, and taking away her first engagement. She left in a fury and he sobbed the entire time. It was difficult to watch.
When Hannah Ann spoke during After the Final Rose, it was more of the same. Peter basically sat quiet and sullen and let her speak. She expressed frustration towards Peter for not giving her all the details before proposing, and thus not allowing her to fully know what she was saying yes to. She told him that if he wanted to be with a woman, he was going to have to learn how to be a man first.
After Hannah Ann’s part was over, Maddie came on. It was revealed that Madison never truly fell out of love for Peter. Chris Harrison brought the two back together, and they talked live about how they did not really have a relationship at the moment, and they were going to try and take baby steps going forward, but they both still loved the other. Barb had a lot to say about this. She bashed Maddie and said that the editing on the Bachelor made her look really good. She told the audience that there was a lot that was not aired that day in Australia as to why the family disliked her so much. Maddie spoke up and said she would not be torn down for having values, and handled the situation with grace and class. Peter eventually spoke up and told his mother to stop. He told her that he loved Madison, and that should be enough. Barb responded with a short but conversation-ending refute. She told him that sometimes in order to succeed you need to fail first.
The show ended with a bitter Barb sitting in the audience, a shocked Chris Harrison trying to salvage the situation, an angry but composed Madison continuing to smile, and a saddened Peter looking defeated and broken. There was no conclusion on Tuesday night as to whether Peter and Madison were together, but later that week, both Madison and Peter logged on to Instagram to confirm that they would not be continuing their relationship. Poor Peter. Poor Madison. Poor Hannah Ann. Everyone walked away love-less.
Personally, I feel bad about the situation. I feel bad for all parties. I feel like Peter got a lot of hate this season, and while he did make a couple major mistakes (especially proposing to Hannah Ann) I think it is important to remember that 1) he did not get to pick his women in this cast (which most believe was the worst Bachelor cast in history) and 2) I think he genuinely was looking for love and got blindsided by how hard he fell for two different women. I think it is hard to judge when we do not really know what it is like to be in their shoes. I do not feel like this season was a waste of time, but I do feel really sorry about the way it all ended. I think it is a shame, and I hope everyone finds love some day. Well, that’s all for Pilot Pete’s season! Thanks for riding with me!