The Bachelor star Arie Luyendyk Jr. eliminated Seinne Fleming and Bekah Martinez, and Jacqueline Trumbull also decided to quit the competition before hometown dates, during Monday night's Season 22 broadcast on ABC.
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Jacqueline, a 26-year-old research coordinator from New York, NY, decided to leave the show on her own terms because, although she was smitten with Arie and extremely emotional over the idea of not seeing him again, she had doubts about whether their relationship could work out in the real world.
Jacqueline also feared their romance hadn't progressed to the point of her feeling comfortable to introduce him to her parents, as other bachelorettes seemed totally confident in their connections with him.
"I came here open to love but I certainly didn't expect it. I feel like I did find love here; I just don't know if it was the love," Jacqueline said, adding that she "kind of sucks at being happy."
"I didn't lose interest. I still have such strong feelings for him. This doesn't feel right. I don't know what I'm supposed to say or even if I'm making the right decision. He is so unbelievably lovable. 'Hi, Arie you're perfect in every way, but I'm still not sure if I can marry you.'"
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Arie later sent Seinne, a 27-year-old commercial real estate manager from Newport Beach, CA, packing during their one-on-one date in Tuscany, Italy, right after she confessed she was falling in love with the 36-year-old pro racing driver turned real estate agent from Scottsdale, AZ.
"I was blindsided because I felt like today went really well. I think Arie and I could have continued our relationship, but I'm realizing through this it's not easy for me to express my feelings when it comes to relationships," Seinne said in her final words.
"I feel like I'm really trying and we could have gotten there, but I guess for him, it wasn't fast enough.
And Arie finally ousted Bekah, a 22-year-old nanny from Los Angeles, CA, during a three-on-one date with Kendall Long, a 26-year-old creative director from Los Angeles, CA, and Tia Booth, a 26-year-old physical therapist from Weiner, AR.
After giving Kendall a rose early into the date, Arie had to choose whether to give Bekah or Tia his last rose of the week in Tuscany during dinner.
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"It's hard for me to accept that this is over, that this journey is over for me," Bekah said as tears streamed down her face.
The Bachelor episode began with the seven remaining women learning in Tuscany that there would be no Rose Ceremony. Instead, there would be three one-on-one dates as well as a group date -- with a rose up for grabs at each.
Jacqueline was stressing early into the week because she said while she was close to falling in love, she wondered if she was just falling in love with the idea of being in love.
Becca Kufrin, a 27-year-old publicist from Minneapolis, MN, then discovered she'd be accompanying Arie on the first one-on-one date of the week. To say she was excited was "an understatement."
The pair drove around in a red convertible, and Arie was hoping to re-establish the passion and chemistry in their relationship. Arie felt they were "stuck" in time and needed to progress in order for him to feel comfortable enough visiting her hometown.
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For their date, Arie and Becca walked through the city of Barga and had a picnic on top of a hill. Becca thought Arie was easy to travel with and she really felt like they were boyfriend and girlfriend. She was crazy about Arie and didn't really know how to process her emotions.
Becca told Arie that she wouldn't have stayed in the competition if she couldn't envision herself with him at the end of all this, and it didn't take long for Arie to kiss the bachelorette and realize there was still a spark between them.
"It's someone I really envision falling in love with," Arie told the cameras. "It was a really great day, but was it enough?... If we can keep moving forward, I feel comfortable giving her the rose."
That night, Becca revealed that bringing Arie home would be the first time she's ever sincerely introduced a guy to her family as her boyfriend.
"I'm falling for you," Becca said during the dinner. "It's not easy to admit, but the way that it's headed, I can see a future with you. I can see this at the end of the day."
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Arie sealed the deal with a kiss and said Becca's declaration made him really happy. Arie wasn't aware that Becca felt that deeply for him, and it gave him confidence in their relationship. Arie saw another side of Becca that night, and he gave her a rose.
"I'm falling for you and I can't wait to meet your family," Arie told the bachelorette.
Arie said he absolutely made the right decision, and Becca was "pumped" to take Arie home because she could envision him as her future husband.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline was questioning whether she was compatible with Arie and if a relationship was even feasible after the show.
Jacqueline couldn't promise Arie that she was ready to introduce him to her family, so she wondered if it was time to leave. She began having doubts about their future during their one-on-one date in Paris, but she was so smitten with him at the time that she ignored her concerns.
Jacqueline didn't trust her feelings since The Bachelor is such an accelerated process, and so Kendall advised her to talk to Arie.
"I always sabotage good things," Jacqueline noted.
Jacqueline therefore paid Arie a visit in his hotel room. Over a glass of wine, she shared with Arie how he had swept her off her feet. Jacqueline said she was falling for Arie, but at the same time, she was not confident enough in her feelings to bring him home.
Arie was surprised and disappointed to hear that Jacqueline struggled to see herself in Scottsdale, AZ. She worried she would come to regret a relationship with him.
Despite being "outrageously attracted" to Arie, she wasn't convinced they were right for each other, and so she gave him multiple kisses goodbye.
Arie really liked Jacqueline and didn't want things to be over, so he told her that he would miss her and welcome her back with open arms if she ultimately regretted her choice to leave.
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Arie just wished the bachelorette was willing to stick around for the rest of the week and explore their romance a little further. At least Arie believed their connection was strong enough to see that through.
The next day, Arie took Lauren on a solo date, and once again, he said he was really physically attracted to her. Arie, however, needed Lauren to fully let him in, or else it wouldn't make sense to visit her hometown.
Arie just scratched the surface of getting to know Lauren in Paris, so he gave her another date in Tuscany in order to dig deeper.
For their date, Arie and Lauren rode bikes, and she was trying to let her walls down. Lauren just didn't want to get heartbroken again, and so she was "freaking out" about her relationship with Arie, but the pressure was on for her to be open and vulnerable.
After the couple played soccer with local kids in the streets, Arie felt conflicted. He needed some type of breakthrough at dinner in order to feel good about giving Lauren a rose. He found Lauren incredibly hard to read, but he had such strong feelings for her.
Arie's feelings for Lauren were so strong, in fact, he became afraid to tell the bachelorette what was in his heart.
At dinner, Arie asked Lauren how she was feeling, and she said she was terrified and had trouble connecting her emotions with her words.
"After our first one-on-one, I felt very strongly about you and I knew there was something different about you. And then the way I feel now, every time I'm with you, it's obvious to me that I'm feeling like I'm starting to fall in love with you," Lauren finally shared with Arie.
Arie's reaction was strange, and definitely one for The Bachelor history books. Instead of smiling and kissing her, Arie looked shocked and concerned -- and he left the table!
Lauren confessed she was very confused, and she started to cry right then and there. Lauren wondered if she had said too much, and she immediately regretted being so open.
When Arie returned, however, he explained to Lauren why he was "a little off." He confessed he was just "nervous as hell" because it was so easy to picture sitting down with her family and being with her.
"I just felt some things I haven't felt in a really, really long time," Arie explained of his decision to walk away from Lauren at dinner.
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"If I was off or not myself and not put together, it's because I feel vulnerable with you. And to hear you say you're falling for me makes me really, really happy. And I really do, really do, see something between us. I'm falling so deeply in love with you, it's crazy."
Arie then gave Lauren the date's rose, and she was blown away by his honesty. Lauren knew there was potential to grow deeper in love with the Bachelor, and Arie was thrilled that Lauren was finally "all in."
Arie concluded the date by gushing in a confessional, "[I] just want to grab her and tell her that I love her. I'm really excited to meet Lauren's family. They could be my family! That's a crazy thought, but hopefully this is the start of something amazing."
The third one-on-one date of the week in Tuscany belonged to Seinne.
Arie's dates with Becca and Lauren set the bar really high, so he was looking for some clarity with Seinne. Arie was crazy about the bachelorette and was really impressed by her. He found her to be worldly and grounded, and they also had a lot of fun together.
For their date, the couple looked for truffles with a local man and his dogs. Seinne acknowledged that her feelings for Arie were "new and different" and that they felt amazing.
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After the adorable dogs dug for truffles, Arie and Seinne were invited to the man's house for a traditional family-style Italian dinner.
Arie helped a couple of women prepare pizzas, and in the meantime, he confessed that he was not in love with Seinne. However, Arie didn't deny that he could get to that place with her soon. As Seinne sat at the table, she was grilled with questions about her feelings for Arie.
When Arie and Seinne got some time alone later that night, Seinne revealed how love wasn't expressed freely in her home and so she grew up to view love as a sign of weakness. But after spending time with Arie and a loving, close-knit family, she began viewing love as strength.
Arie didn't want to pressure Seinne to open up to him that night, but he really needed to know how she was feeling in order to make a decision.
Arie realized Seinne was logical and he led with his heart, but he really tried to think this one through. When discussing what their future would look like together, Seinne said she wouldn't want to take Arie away from his career, family and friends, and so she'd be willing to consider a move.
Arie then asked Seinne if they had enough time to take their relationship to the next level of a hometown date, and she said she was ready.
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Seinne didn't want her romance with Arie to end, but Arie felt that something was "off" between them. He found her amazing, but the level of his emotions were not the same as what he had experienced on his previous dates with Lauren and Becca.
Arie decided to deny Seinne a rose, telling her that she had done nothing wrong but his feelings just weren't where they should have been at this point in the process.
"I'm just following my heart, and I'm so sorry," Arie said.
Seinne was surprised because she thought their relationship was developing, and she wished Arie had addressed his doubts to her earlier on. It was a hard goodbye because a connection definitely existed, and Seinne seemed a little frustrated with the Bachelor.
When the girls at the hotel saw Seinne's suitcase get taken away, Bekah cheered that her odds just went up with two roses on the three-on-one date.
Tia told the cameras that Bekah did not seem serious about this journey, and Tia would not be okay with Bekah getting a hometown date when she didn't even seem ready to get married and settle down.
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Meanwhile, Kendall felt she and Arie had a lot of catching up to do because she wasn't feeling confident in what they had.
The date was not an activity. Instead, Arie just received time to talk to each girl individually. First was Kendall, who had no issue with their chemistry.
Kendall, however, wanted to know how their lives would look after the show. She said she's not a fan of long distance and would be willing to move to Scottsdale so they could be close to each other.
When Tia got time with Arie, she warned him that Bekah had the potential to break his heart because of her lack of experience.
Tia didn't harp on Bekah's age or alleged immaturity, but she wanted Arie to know that advancing Bekah was not the right choice for him to make considering he's looking for a wife. Tia pointed out that Bekah had never even been in love before.
Tia wanted to protect Arie's heart and not be petty, but Arie clearly didn't want to discuss another woman during their precious alone time together.
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Tia felt like she was Bekah's big sister, so the Arkansas beauty admitted her name came up during her conversation with Arie.
After Tia repeated her feelings on Bekah and Arie's romance, Bekah broke down into tears, upset about how people weren't seeing her for who she really is. Bekah insisted she was crazy about Arie and also ready for marriage.
Bekah felt "hurt and misunderstood," and she went running and crying into Arie's arms.
Arie worried Bekah's family would be skeptical of him and the show, and she didn't deny that fact since her parents weren't sure one can fall in love so quickly. But Bekah told Arie that her parents wouldn't be phased by their age gap as long as they cared for each other.
Once Arie returned to the group of three women, he gave the first of two roses to Kendall, saying he was very confident in what they had and he loved their talk.
Tia didn't see that move coming, and she confessed she would be furious if Bekah got the last rose over her. With a rose in hand, Kendall left the date, and then it became a two-on-one.
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During the dinner portion of the date, Tia opened up to Arie and said, "My love for you grows every time I see you, and that's why I'm excited to see you. I feel I'm giving a piece of my heart to you. And I want you to protect it."
She later vented to the cameras in a confessional about Bekah, "It sucks to feel like you're being compared to someone that is not even ready for this, who is not even mentally ready to take that next step in a relationship."
But Bekah wasn't going to go down without a fight because she, also, was falling in love with Arie. During her private conversation with Arie, she told the Bachelor that she wished he had more faith in her.
"I really hope Arie is falling in love with me. I think I am somebody who is absolutely ready for marriage and ready to start a life with someone, and I'm hopeful I might get the opportunity to do that with Arie. I want to take him home to meet my family," Bekah said afterwards.
It then became time for Arie to hand out his final rose of the week in Tuscany. Arie explained that while his choice was difficult, he was confident in his decision.
With that being said, Tia got a rose and Bekah was eliminated from the running for his heart.
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When Arie walked Bekah out, he said "I'm so sorry," and Bekah replied, "It's okay. I know it's going to end well for you. I know it is."
Both individuals broke down into tears after saying goodbye. This marked the first time Arie cried in his The Bachelor season.
"I think I've been talking myself out of being with Bekah for a long time. It's hard because I don't see our lives fitting together, but I really, really like her. She made this fun and she captured my heart. It just sucks," Arie disclosed in a confessional.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski