‘Golden Bachelor’ Finale Recap: Does Gerry Turner Get Engaged?

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the finale of The Golden Bachelor.

Gerry Turner’s journey to find love has officially come to an end. That’s right, folks. It’s the finale of the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor.

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The man of the hour is still in Costa Rica, contemplating whether he’s going to propose to Leslie or Theresa. As he said last week, fantasy suites made the decision even tougher for him. Good thing he has his family to lean on for help this week, as they’ve traveled to meet both women before the potential engagement.

The finale is live, and there is plenty of Bachelor Nation royalty in the studio audience, from Trista Sutter to Rachel Recchia to Charity Lawson to Joey Graziadei. Many of the women from The Golden Bachelor are also in attendance, including Faith, who becomes emotional as she watches Gerry talk about this decision, knowing that she was sent home just before fantasy suites. In their reunion during the Women Tell All, she and Gerry had a very tearful hug and appeared to gain some closure. But, naturally, the wound looks like it’s still fresh.

Back to Gerry…his daughters and granddaughters are ready to know all about his connections with Theresa and Leslie.

Theresa is up first, and she seems to click with the family pretty easily. While speaking with Gerry’s daughters, she tells them that she’s fully committed to Gerry and she thinks they’ve had a connection since the very beginning. She tells them about her late husband and cries as she talks about the way she and Gerry have bonded over their very similar situations. This is reassuring to Gerry’s daughters, who tell their dad that they would never want to erase the memory of their mom for a new woman in his life. The fact that Theresa intimately understands that is special to them. They pry Gerry for information about what went down during fantasy suites, but he remains tight lipped, only telling them that things got “sweeter” after that time together.

That night, Gerry and Theresa have one final date together. They pop some champagne and spend time talking about the future of their relationship. Funnily enough, Gerry tells Theresa he had accidentally offered her orange juice with vodka in it earlier, when it had thought it was only juice. This reminds Theresa of a funny story about her teenage years with her late husband, Billy.

Gerry reiterates what his daughters said earlier, telling Theresa that he enjoys hearing about Billy because it allows him to get to know Theresa better. They agree their connection is made stronger by talking about their late spouses.

Eventually, Theresa brings up Leslie. She says she is concerned that there is still another woman in the picture, and she would be very hurt if he didn’t choose her. However, she also insists that she wouldn’t want a proposal unless Gerry was 1000% sure that he wanted to be with her. She admits she’s scared, and Gerry admits he has a lot to think about. But, he assures her he will not get down on one knee unless he is absolutely committed to her.

The next day, it’s Leslie’s turn to meet the family. She’s excited to see him, and she immediately eases the tension by telling them a story about getting more comfortable around Gerry when he finally said the f-word in front of her during their overnight date. Gerry’s daughters seem to like that Leslie brings out the playful side of Gerry, but they start to have their doubts during their one-on-one conversation with her.

While she seems to win over Gerry’s granddaughters, his daughters are having some reservations. When they ask her whether she’s ready to accept a proposal, Leslie becomes emotional as she recounts the moment Gerry told her “til death do us part.” She said it stoked some anxiety in her, because she’s never had that in her life before. But, ultimately, Gerry made her feel secure enough to decide she is ready for that.

His daughters think she may not be, though. They tell Gerry that they wonder whether she became emotional because she is nervous and unsure about their relationship.

Gerry admits the process has been hard. He wants to make sure he makes the right decision, which feels like a weight on his chest. He admits that the conversation with his daughters was a bit of a wake up call that he needs to figure out what he’s going to do.

As he’s saying goodbye to Leslie, he seems a bit off. She picks up on his change in mood and is a bit anxious as she leaves to get ready for their date.

When they see each other again, she’s hoping they can get back on the right foot. She wonders if it has anything to do with Theresa still being in the picture, which is making her nervous as well. Leslie doesn’t waste much time asking him about it when she sees him. Gerry is quick to apologize, saying that he has just had trouble processing the decision he has to make, now that the moment is drawing near. He didn’t want to bring the energy down and wants to start fresh for the night.

Leslie tries to move past it by presenting Gerry with a gift. She put together a memory book of all their times together, with pages left for the future memories they’ll make. He says every moment with her has been so much fun, and she tells Gerry he makes her feel whole. This seems to send him back into a spiral. He asks if there’s anything else she wants to say, and she tells him that she loves him very much. He puts his hand to his heart and tells her that is “such a special sentiment” — but he doesn’t say it back.

He pulls her in for a hug, but it’s clear the energy has shifted. He releases her from the hug and tells her to “be happy,” to which she replies that she wants him to be happy too. He says it’s time for him to go and, as he leaves, she asks if there’s anything else he’d like to say to her. He tells her no, only that he has a tough decision to make.

But when he steps into the hallway, he breaks down. As he cries on the stairs, Leslie cries in her room. She tells the cameras she knows exactly why he felt off, but she doesn’t say why. Meanwhile, Gerry admits that he and Leslie have had “a rhythm” since the very beginning, and he knows that she would notice if something was off. Knowing that, he doesn’t feel right leaving without another conversation. So, he knocks on her door again and asks to come inside, because he does actually have something else to say to her.

(If you did not watch this live, be grateful! The commercial break on this cliffhanger was brutal.)

Gerry tells Leslie that he’s fallen in love with Theresa, and he’s decided he is going to propose to her. Leslie is devastated.

She tells Gerry that everything he said to her on their overnight date was a lie, referencing when he said he loved her and told her she was the one for him. He insists it was not a lie, because he felt it was true at the time. She asks where it went wrong, and he says it never went wrong. Both she and Theresa are wonderful, but only one is right. Leslie is fully heartbroken, and she laments that this is yet another time that someone did not choose her, wondering if anyone ever will. Gerry encourages her not to think that way, he but shuts him down, telling him she can think whatever the f*ck she wants. She tells him that he led her down a path, only to leave her there alone after saying he loved her just about 12 hours ago. She is only glad she didn’t have to go into the next day expecting a proposal. She still feels humiliated to be experiencing this heartbreak on national TV, and there is not anything he can say to make it better.

Whew. It’s one of the most intense rejections this franchise has seen in a long time. Once Gerry leaves, he breaks down with host Jesse Palmer, saying that he hasn’t felt this bad since his wife died. He says he may not be able to recover from taking such a good person and breaking their heart.

Leslie joins Jesse in the studio, still teary eyed as she watches the breakup back. She tells Jesse that she felt heartbroken and blindsided all over again watching it. After their overnight, she felt “100%” certain that he was going to choose her, and she felt that she made a good impression on his family. But, she reiterates that she felt something was off when they left that meeting, as if he had a wall up. She tried to justify it with his explanation about his decision weighing on him, telling herself she had no reason to think anything was off. Looking back, that’s when she should have known.

She tells Jesse she was especially disappointed because, up to that moment, she had tried hard not to get ahead of herself or take the journey for granted. She always told herself she might not be chosen. But after their fantasy suite, she really felt like she was the one. In fact, she says she left the next morning and immediately chose her engagement dress and wrote her vows.

When Gerry joins her on stage, they exchange a tearful hug. She tells him she fell in love with him for many reasons, but especially his integrity. She took his words very seriously, which made it more heartbreaking when she felt like everything he’d said during their overnight date didn’t mean anything. She reveals that there were many things said that were not on camera and, while she doesn’t divulge those conversations, she says they made her feel very certain she would be getting engaged.

She asks him what happened, and he reiterates much of what he said during their initial breakup. He adds that every rose ceremony became harder as he realized that his heart wasn’t nearly as prepared for the process as his head was. She was who he believed was his person, until she wasn’t. He says once again that nothing went wrong, and he didn’t know how else to approach the situation. While not perfect, he did the best he could.

Leslie tells him she isn’t sure if she can accept his apology, but she understands him. He says he will always cherish their memories, and Leslie admits that she is still glad he said he loved her, because it opened her up to finding love with someone else.

Now, Gerry only has one woman left. He’s preparing to get down on one knee and propose to Theresa, hoping that Toni is guiding him along the way. He tells the cameras he’s comfortable with how she would feel about it.

And just like that, Gerry proposes to Theresa and offers her the final (golden) rose.

The happy couple joined Jesse in the studio to chat about their life post-engagement. While they still haven’t moved in with one another, Theresa says they talk on the phone for several hours every night. Gerry talks about his overnight date with Theresa, explaining that was when everything changed for him as he made some “subtle realizations” that she was the one for him. Any concerns he’d had, she addressed them before he ever had to ask about them.

In a surprise turn of events, Gerry announces that he and Theresa will be getting married asap! And all of Bachelor Nation is invited. Their wedding will be televised on January 4, 2024 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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