The Bachelorette's ninth season starring Desiree Hartsock will end Monday, August 5 with a two-hour broadcast and the After the Final Rose special beginning at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.

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The remaining portion of the two-part finale will begin with a crushed Desiree attempting to pick up the pieces of her journey on the show following the shocking and sudden departure of Brooks Forester, whom she admitted she had fallen madly in love with. However, Drew Kenney and Chris Siegfried are still in the picture, and both men have declared their love for and willingness to commit to Desiree.

During a Thursday conference call with reporters, The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison talked to Reality TV World about Brooks' decision to walk out on Desiree and what's to come in tonight's finale, which promises to be the weirdest ending the franchise has ever seen. To read what he had to say, click here.

Below are some additional highlights from Chris' call. Click here for more.

It has been said all season that it was clear Desiree had an amazing connection with Brooks and you could just tell she was crazy about him. In turn, it seemed like Brooks was invested in her and the process, so was it obvious to you that Brooks was going to dump her as it was happening or was there still a little mystery involved where you didn't think he'd go through with that?

Chris Harrison: You know I, I knew there were red flags, you know, warning signs that something was amiss and something was a little off.  You know, when I would talk to her, I am trying to think -- wait, if I even brought it up in Munich or probably in Barcelona, I was trying to think there like, "Chris and Drew and [Zack Waddell] professed their love."

But at some point, all three of the final four had professed their love.  And then I said, "Well what about Brooks?"  And she said, "No."  And I said, "Well that's" -- you know, I just kind of kept bringing that up and she kept really reassuring me that he would affirm his feelings in other ways non-verbally.  And then she kind of just, she felt sure.

So while I knew there were red flags and there were warning signs, in no way did I think this was going to happen.  I don't think anybody saw this coming, you know, I kind of took her word for it that she was pretty sure about him.  And nothing led us or, I think, any other producers to think that this guy was going to really just do a 180 and bolt. 

But there were definitely signs along the way that she was much further along than he was and [found it] much easier to express her feelings than he was.  You know, I mean, we even showed it in our last episode when they were again making up those adjectives -- the verbs that, you know, he said jogging at the same time she said running.

Just the fact that by the way they needed that kind of silly game to even express their feelings at this point in their life is a red flag to me.  I mean, as a grown adult, if you can't say or can't look a woman or look a man in the eye and say, "I have serious feelings for you," and instead, you need to say, "Do you like me? Check yes or no" -- like we're in grade school -- that to me is a red flag of maturity as far as a relationship goes. 

And you know, when you look at Chris and Drew, they have no problem expressing their feelings whether it's to pull them out in a song or anything else.  And you know, Brooks is really struggling with that, and again, I don't know if it's just -- or if he has deeper issues.  But there's definitely issues there to be shared.

I was wondering if some of Des' reaction was more of a shock -- that she just found out that he wasn't interested and therefore somehow became more interested in him. Because at that time, she felt like he was the only one for her.

Chris Harrison: Yes I mean, look, I am the last person that's going to tell you I figured out women or one's emotional state at this point.  But you know, I do think that to a certain degree, Brooks was someone she had to chase a little bit.  And that definitely made him more intriguing. 

He wasn't, it definitely wasn't the bad boy syndrome where you're trying to change or fix the bad boy.  But there was a certain, I think, degree of fixing him, chasing him -- a guy that she knew has trouble committing and a guy that never really gave her everything verbally and emotionally that she wanted. 

You know, whereas Drew and Chris were all over that, and again, why women wouldn't go straight to a guy that's giving them everything they want, I will never know.  But maybe you can answer that in your column someday.  But Brooks was definitely a little bit of that, I really do [think].  And the more he was breaking up with her, the more she tried to profess her love, and I think that is a very interesting dynamic. 

And again, one of the things that makes this show so beautiful is we all saw that.  We all saw the warning signs ahead of time.  I don't think any of us could say we were that blown away that Brooks pulled this considering the way he acted all along. 

It was a little bit of a curve ball but not the biggest surprise in the world.  And it's just one of those things -- why do women or why do men for that matter chase after something that is not perfect and not there when you have two things that are.

The situation kind of sounds like how I don't want to go into a club that will have me as a member. 

Chris Harrison: Exactly.  That's why they have the velvet rope up and that's why they have a line when nobody's inside.

I want to know how this affects Brooks' chance of becoming the next The Bachelor star.

Chris Harrison: Well, I mean, you definitely have to wait and see what happens next week to be sure.  But one way is that obviously he has trouble committing to a relationship -- that would be a red flag for sure.  And, you know, although I think he was sincere in coming on the show, he definitely has that trouble when push comes to shove of expressing himself and really letting himself be vulnerable. 

That's something that [Sean Lowe] did really, really well and something that Des did really well.  They allowed themselves to really be out there and be open, and it's a weird process that if you go through it guarded and you're thinking about what America's going to think -- You know, who's going to judge me? What should I do? What's the cool thing to do on camera? -- it's going to be a colossal failure.

And the reason these last two seasons have been so good is just because of, you know, our Bachelor and Bachelorette.  They have really allowed themselves to be so open and, you know, I just don't know if Brooks has that in him.

When do you think Brooks truly made up his mind that he needed to go home?

Chris Harrison: I think before he went and saw his parents.  And I hadn't heard that until I saw the episode, the cut, because you know the way it works for me.  I was home; He was on the hometown.  And I was already flying to Antigua and I had, you know, gotten wind from one of the producers that they were going to go back and talk to his parents again. 

And then by the time I landed in Antigua a day later, I heard that it had not gone very well and that I was going to have to go talk to him when he got to Antigua in another couple of days. 

And so, I thought, "Well that's not very good."  Now that I've watched it back, just watching and listening to the words that were spoken and watching his body language, I think in his mind he was made up.  He was set that he was going to leave walking in there and he just needed that reassurance.

You said that in next week's finale episode, you'll have a conversation with Des about where she goes from here.  Is there any other teaser you can kind of give us about that talk?

Chris Harrison: Well, I mean, obviously the other big issue is where do we go from here?  What does she want to do?  Are we going to pack up our bags and be done or does she want to continue on?  But the main thing is, you know, where does that leave her with her relationships with Drew and Chris, who absolutely know nothing about what just happened. 

And I know she's hurting, but she also owes it to these two guys to let them in on what's going on.  And again, the main thing is, do we call it quits and how do these guys play into that?  So those are the main questions that we kind of have to answer and deal with immediately.

Des' brother Nate made for such good TV, and normally in the process, this is when you guys call in the Bachelor or Bachelorette's family to meet the final people and stuff like that.  So was her family already there?  Will we see her family and their reaction to what happened?

Chris Harrison: Her family had not arrived yet because that was kind of a separate week they would come in, you know, the following week.  Because we were still essentially on the exotic date while we stayed in Antigua.  It was really a separate week where we would. 

Because those exotic dates, they take a full week and then the next week, you know, typically you would have those last dates and then the family and all that stuff.  So no, her family was not in yet by the time that Brooks had talked to her because that was supposed to be her last overnight date.

Well that's a little too bad.  I kind of was hoping for a brother vs. Brooks clash at the airport.

Chris Harrison: Well maybe it's too bad that she told her brother, you know, that she didn't need his help this time, and maybe if he had met everybody, then he would have saved her the trouble of this one as well.

Do you think viewers will look back on Brooks in the way that they looked back on Brad Womack at first when he dumped his Final 2 bachelorettes or do you think people will respect this as just sort of a natural process that for whatever reason he was there for the right reasons but it didn't pan out?

Chris Harrison: You know, I don't know.  I hate to date ourselves, but when Brad did what he did, there really wasn't any social media, so you didn't get that instant response.  The response kind of came after the tabloids and the magazines.  And that, you know, it filtered out in a different way back then, whereas now, you get that immediate reaction. 

And I don't know, maybe I am wrong, but I haven't seen a lot of anger towards Brooks.  I don't know, maybe you have, but I haven't really felt that.  And when I was there, I wasn't mad at him.  I didn't think, "God, what a jerk," so I don't know.

My opinion, I just have my own, and part of it was being there and then part of it's watching Twitter and everything else.  But I think people were disappointed and people were upset for Des, but I don't think that he really came off as a bad guy -- maybe a guy that can't articulate his feelings very well and makes a two-minute breakup last over two hours.  But other than that, I don't think he's a bad guy.

The Juan Pablo Galavis train seems to have left the station with...

Chris Harrison: It has left Venezuela.

Right.  There's definitely a ground swell for him to be the Bachelor.  Is it something you guys are thinking about?

Chris Harrison: Sure, yes.  I mean, you couldn't help [it].  But here, again, I go back to social media and it's a great thing to have now, where we get that instant feedback.  But you also kind of get that -- it's funny, you know, Tuesday morning, whoever leaves, say Zack [for instance].

When Zack left, the next morning, I was inundated with Zack has to be the next Bachelor -- he's so sweet da, da, da.  And then, you know, after The Men Tell All, it was Juan Pablo -- he's the greatest.  And so, you get a lot of that.  So you have to be careful not to have this knee-jerk reaction, which is why we're really careful about not making a decision like that and making it right away.

The good news is, we don't really have to, because the show doesn't start production for quite some time after the show is done filming.  So obviously, Juan Pablo is a candidate.  Zack's probably in the mix, and again, I am saying this because this is well-above my pay grade. 

But we take our cues from our fans and definitely because we want to give people the show that they want to see.  And we want to give them a leading man or a leading woman that they want to follow, so he's definitely up there, and there was a strong reaction to him.

But there's also three other guys in the mix now with Brooks, Drew and Chris that, may, you know, depending on how this thing falls out, you never know how the audience is going to react to them either.  So right now, it's kind of strong, but things could definitely change in the next four to five days.

To read the other two portions of Chris Harrison's The Bachelorette interview, click here and here.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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