The Bachelor angers fans with ‘dramatic’ and ‘annoying’ cliffhanger

‘Don’t ever waste our time like that again,’ one fan tweeted

The Bachelor fans were left infuriated after the show concocted an incredibly dramatic cliffhanger that ended up being “for nothing”.

During the latest episode of the popular ABC reality dating show, which premiered Monday (18 March), Joey Graziadei was reunited with the women he had already sent home in the franchise’s popular “Women Tell All” segment.

The episode typically offers the eliminated women an opportunity to break down the season’s drama in front of a studio audience while also airing previously unseen footage.

“Now, last week, we all watched as Joey had his three overnight dates with Daisy, Rachel and Kelsey A. And everything seemed to go so well until Joey returned to his room to find a note on his door from Kelsey that simply said, ‘We need to talk,’” Bachelor host Jesse Palmer explained, recapping the previous episode’s cliffhanger.

“Could those four words derail Joey’s quest to find love? Will his greatest fear that he could love someone and have it not be reciprocated actually come true?” Palmer questioned. “Well, with Joey’s entire journey now hanging in the balance, we didn’t think it was right not to give you the answers to those questions. So tonight, we are heading back to Tulum [Mexico].”

In the playback clips from the end of the Fantasy Suites episode, Joey’s shown reading the note left by Kelsey A requesting to speak with him.

“There’s something that I need to talk about with Joey,” the 25-year-old from New Orleans tells the cameras. “I don’t want to blindside Joey ever. I just want to be honest and tell him everything that’s on my mind. It’s really important.”

Kelsey A and Joey Graziadei on ‘The Bachelor’ (Disney)

Meanwhile, Joey is seen anxiously pacing around his hotel room, waiting around for Kelsey. “It could be bad things, could be good. I don’t know,” he tells the cameras. “But usually when someone writes, ‘We need to talk,’ it’s scary, and you think it could be something went wrong.”

When Kelsey finally knocks on his door and the two sit down to talk, she cryptically begins by saying: “I feel like we kind of made a promise to each other about being honest, about communicating our feelings and communication in general... and I just wanted you to know exactly how I feel about it all.

“I just wanted to tell you how much I miss you when you’re not there.”

Once she finishes, Joey lets out a big sigh of relief. Kelsey then envelopes him in a hug and apologises.

“I want to hear what she’s saying. And I just can’t at this time because of how scared I am, and I don’t like that I got that off of simple words that meant nothing,” he tells the cameras. “When I do get to that point of thinking something so bad can happen, I shut down. It makes you question everything. And it’s going to take time, I don’t just snap out of these, not when it’s this real of emotions.”

Kelsey later tells the cameras she feels “bad for stressing him out”. “If I could do it over again, I would’ve wrote the letter differently.”

“So ur telling me that dramatic ass cliffhanger last week was for no reason,” one viewer tweeted.

A second said: “All that building up for absolutely nothing? this is a joke.”

“Kelsey girl don’t piss me off THAT WAS SO SILLY,” a third added, with another writing: “Don’t ever waste our time like that again. That was actually so annoying.”

Others defended Kelsey, blaming the situation on the show’s producers. “The producers after forcing Kelsey to write that note and make Joey spiral for no reason,” one wrote, alongside a gif of two women hysterically laughing together.

“Kelsey got royally screwed by the producers. They convinced her to do this stupid note and she fell for the trap,” a second argued.

The Bachelor season 28 finale airs Monday (25 March) at 8pm PT/ET on ABC, with the episode available to stream on Hulu the next day.