This post contains spoilers from Tuesday’s episode ofThe Bachelor.
The momentBachelorviewers have been waiting for all season started to unravel on Tuesday.
This week would take place in Iceland with three women who all told Clayton they were falling in love with him. “I think I might be falling in love with all three of these women, and I also might already be in love with Susie,” the Missouri native admitted to the cameras.
“I don’t know, can you fall in love multiple times at the same time? I don’t know. But I know it’s time to let my walls down, quit being guarded,” he said.
RACHEL’S FANTASY SUITE DATE
Rachel received the first date of Fantasy Suite week, and she and Clayton went up in a helicopter.
“Rachel and I have the strongest physical connection,” he told the cameras. “You can’t separate us if you tried.”
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Clayton and Rachel touched down on snow-covered mountains and made out. Then they headed 400 feet down into an active volcano.
“I think I am falling for Rachel,” Clayton confessed in an on-camera interview. “I look at how she continually expresses herself, she shows me so much love. I’m going to try to dive into that fully.”
ABC/Ricky Middlesworth
Clayton realized that if he didn’t tell the flight instructor, 25, how he felt about her, he might lose her. And Rachel hoped for more from Clayton, too. “I really, truly feel like I have done nothing but be vulnerable this entire time, and I just need him to give a little bit back,” she told the cameras.
Later over drinks, Clayton laid it all out for Rachel.
“I don’t feel like I was able to be 100 percent transparent when I was with your family,” he began. “I’ve kind of come to terms with what I am feeling and I kind of wish I had told you earlier. I was kind of holding onto it so I’ll just come out and say it, like, I’m falling in love with you. I am and I have been.”
That long build-up caused Rachel to say, “You just scared me.”
But they kissed and Clayton proceeded to invite her to the Fantasy Suite — and Rachel said they should “definitely” spend the night together. “I feel like I have searched my whole life to feel this way,” Rachel told the cameras.
The next morning, Clayton called his night with Rachel “near-perfect,” adding, “Everything went exactly as I hoped it would go. We talked about so much. We had a strong connection. Felt like a dream.”
As they parted ways, Clayton shouted to Rachel, who was in her hotel room, that he loved her, and she echoed the sentiment. “I just couldn’t have imagined it going any better,” Rachel said in an on-camera interview of her night with the Bachelor.
GABBY’S FANTASY SUITE DATE
ABC
They decided to go to the Fantasy Suite together, which turned out to be an igloo with a hot tub.
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SUSIE’S FANTASY SUITE DATE
Before meeting with Susie, Clayton realized, “I told two women I’m in love with them. I also know that I could feel that way with Susie and so now 1,000 percent I’m going to absolutely shatter somebody. I just don’t want to hurt anybody.”
Being the last date of the week left Susie, 28, guessing whether Clayton slept with and/or confessed his love for the two other women. “I’m just in a dark place,” she told the cameras. “I just want to get to the bottom of everything.”
“At this point, I’m so all in with Clayton,” Susie said in an on-camera interview.
Clayton called the date “perfect,” telling the cameras: “The love for her is on another level.”
Then, Clayton told Susie as much over dinner.
“The more that we’ve spent time together and spending time with your family, I realize, like, how serious things were getting,” he said. “And the more I thought about it [I] realized that it was that night I was also falling in love with you. You’ve made me feel what I haven’t felt in so long and this was so exciting.”
The former football player continued, “I am in love with you and I’ve wanted to tell you. It scared me to think the longer I wait, she doesn’t know how I feel. I want her to know.”
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That surprised Susie. “I honestly didn’t expect to hear that,” the wedding videographer said.
Susie also wanted to know where Clayton stood with the other remaining ladies. “Do you feel that same way with somebody else or have you like slept with another woman?” she asked. “These are things I think would be impossible to move forward towards an engagement. If I’m sharing your love with somebody else, I don’t think that I would be comfortable.”
Clayton owned up to his actions. “Yes, I have slept with someone else here, and yes, I’ve expressed feeling towards someone else with falling in love,” he declared.
“If you feel like you’re in love with me, it doesn’t make sense to me to sleep with somebody else,” Susie said.
Clayton tried to explain that he connected with each of the women in different ways.
“I have such strong feelings for you, very strong feelings,” he said. “And I can tell you that right now I am the most in love with you. And I really felt like this can be it.”
But Susie didn’t feel she could continue on with Clayton. “This is something very big to me and like I don’t think I can get past those things,” she told him. “I just don’t think I can.”
Clayton wished Susie told him about her feelings on the subject sooner. “I feel like I did what I did but had I known how important that was to you, that that was absolutely a dealbreaker, I would’ve changed the way that I approached things because I know what we have,” he said. “I mean, I’m sorry that I went and did that. I ask for your forgiveness because I don’t want to throw something away that we have.”
Susie doubled down on her feelings and said she still didn’t think she could move closer to an engagement with Clayton. Eventually, she got up and walked out.
When they reconvened, Susie admitted, “I probably should’ve had that conversation just about what sex means to me earlier on but I didn’t know that you were feeling so strongly. I don’t feel like I can leave here with you.”
Susie abandoning their relationship made Clayton think she “invalidated everything that we had,” adding, “If it was really true, like I would think we’d work through something like this.”
Realizing she’d made up her mind, Clayton walked Susie to the car. “I don’t even know who I’m looking at anymore,” he said to Susie.
Still, she assured, “This was real for me.”
But Clayton believed “this is how it’s supposed to end and I’m done.”
After Susie left, Clayton stated he lost faith in the process: “My heart’s not in it anymore.”
The Bachelorcontinues Monday (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.
source: people.com
