‘The Bachelorette’ Season Finale Recap: Katie Thurston Gets Engaged! [Spoilers]

The Bachelorette star Katie Thurston got engaged at the end of this year’s season on Monday night.

Thurston had a hard time moving on from Greg Grippo‘s self-elimination and even wanted to go back home. Though Grippo expressed his love for Thurston, he said he did not feel validated enough, which is why he decided to leave the show.

Michael Allio was another contestant who decided to leave the show because he didn’t like being away from his young son.

Grippo’s exit was devastating for Thurston, to the point where she begged for a plane ticket home.

“In that moment, I completely blamed myself,” she said during the season finale’s “After The Final Rose.” “You start to question yourself and your worth and you have what felt like back-to-back men that I was falling for leave. You start to wonder ‘What if?’ and do you leave to go chase them?”

Even though Thurston struggled to move on, she stayed for this week’s season finale, where she had two men to choose from; Blake Moynes who was originally in the last season and Justin Glaze.

Moynes and Glaze were worried that Grippo’s exit might influence Thurston’s final decision.

Moynes declared his love for Thurston and vowed not to leave.

Thurston broke her own vow not to say “I love you” with more than one contestant remaining and told Moynes she loved him.

“I was saving it for the one,” Thurston told co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe. “My heart officially belongs to Blake.”

Thurston proceeded to tell Glaze that her feelings for Moynes grew stronger and that she could no longer move forward with their relationship.

“I was looking forward to today, however, I did have my overnight with Blake and in that, I did tell him that I am falling in love with him,” she explained. “That is something that I can only say to one person. You are someone I wanted to explore things with, but given how I now feel about Blake, knowing I am in love with him, it wouldn’t make sense to have us move forward.”

“I just hope you know how special you are and how much you bring to the table. I hope [Blake] knows what he has in you and that he doesn’t take you for granted,” Glaze responded.

Before proposing, Moynes met Thurston’s family.

“There’s a lot going on in my head right now, but I love Katie,” he told her family. “There’s no doubt in that. I just hope we’re both ready for an engagement.”

Later that night, Thurston said she believes Moynes is her “soulmate.”

The next morning, as Moynes was looking for an engagement ring, he said he was worried about “forever” with Thurston; co-host Tayshia Adams told Moynes to “let her go.”

“I can’t give you what you came here for,” Moynes told Thurston the next day. “Because you deserve a lot more than that.”

“You deserve the world and I’m excited to support you and be there for you every day moving forward,” he said and got on one knee.

During the “After The Final Rose” episode, Thurston and Grippo have a reunion. She sits on the couch with him without looking his way. Thurston reflected on the show and said she realized she gave enough validation to Grippo.

“For you to do a 180, I feel like you were looking for the perfect opportunity to escape because you were never ready for an engagement,” she said. “I don’t think you know what love is, because that was a time I needed you the most and you ran away.”

She continued, called  Grippo a liar and accused him of gaslighting her while expressing the “anger I have watching this back and seeing the way you treated me, using me to get the experience, the exposure, dare I say the acting practice at my expense. It was pretty good until the end when you … walked away.”

Thurston then explained that she had heard rumors that Grippo was a “confident, cocky” person.

“I felt like you were playing the Bachelorette role with me instead of just being Katie,” Grippo said. “I just wanted something real, at the end of the day.”