All Hail Queen Gabby

After an extraordinarily chaotic rose ceremony, Bachelor Clayton Echard managed to convince both Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia to continue their relationships with him immediately after shattering their hearts. However, a mere few days later, Clayton changed his mind. He had a conversation with Susie Evans and begged her to give him a second chance, then went to break up with Gabby and Rachel at the same time.

“I’ve done what I thought was best and followed my heart,” he started. “I’ve caused so much pain, and I wish that I could take it all back.” At this point, the women sensed what was happening. “It’s not feasibly possible for me to be in love with three women,” Clayton continued, adding that they deserve to be given someone’s entire heart and that his “heart is no longer here, it’s with Susie.”

Rachel didn’t have much to say, holding her hand over her mouth while trying to make sense of the situation. Gabby, on the other hand, was ready to unload. “That’s it, I think, for me,” she said before walking out of the room. Not content with having emotionally devastated two women several times over the course of a few days, Clayton followed Gabby to continue their conversation. “I actually don’t know who you are at all,” she told him. “I can’t believe anything you say, at all.”

She continued to verbally eviscerate Clayton, asking him why he begged them to stay if he knew he wanted to be with Susie. “One day it was going to be my decision, and now it’s your decision so it’s easier,” she said, referring to her initial decision to leave during the rose ceremony. She kept going, understandably uninterested in listening to Clayton’s reasoning. “You sound actually ridiculous,” she shot back when he tried to say he did genuinely love her. When he asked if he could walk her out, she delivered a blunt “no” before throwing on her black coat and leaving Iceland.

The two faced each other again during the After The Final Rose ceremony, where Gabby continued her takedown of Clayton, claiming she felt “misled” and “betrayed” because he wasn’t as transparent as he’d claimed he was being. “I can do nothing more than apologize for what I put you through” Clayton said. Gabby responded that she didn’t think Clayton was malicious, but that she gave him the chance to be honest that his “transparency had conditions.”

She continued to press Clayton about his decision to tell all three women that he loved them.“You were pitting us against each other, it really seemed like a competition, and which I’d expressed I didn’t want to be a part of,” Gabby said, adding that she felt “extremely dismissed.” She then finished the segment with one of the greatest soundbites in franchise history. “When you say you love someone, you’re assuming responsibility to protect them, to care for them, and not to hurt them, and you didn’t do any of those things.”

Back in Iceland, Clayton returned to a tearful Rachel who had things of her own to say. She spoke about love (“It doesn’t come to everyone in their life and I felt it”) before then reliving the rose ceremony. “What you put us through at the ceremony… I was the only one who chose to stand there, and you told me that you were willing to fight for this, and I believed you.”

At this point, Rachel was in disbelief that she had been so committed to their relationship despite all the drama and indecision. “I fought for you in front of your parents, when I was heartbroken and telling them how much I love you,” she said tearfully. “I fought for this every single day, and you never once for me. I held onto what little you gave me.”

It was then that Clayton escorted Rachel to a car that would take her away from Iceland. Still, Rachel seemed distraught and bewildered that Clayton truly wanted her to leave. As she was being driven away, she told the cameras, “He didn’t even shed a tear, he didn’t cry, he just walked me out, I loved him, he didn’t love me at all. I may be heartbroken but at least I had an answer.”

Rachel then got her chance to speak to Clayton at After The Final Rose, calling his behavior disrespectful and lacking in empathy. “You wanted to give us transparency, but you left out the most important thing,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes, I felt like I was watching someone just get completely blindsided.”

She went on to recount all the times that Clayton broke her heart: once at the rose ceremony, and then again during the group breakup. She also revealed that she no longer had any feelings for him. “I just want to start out by saying, none of these emotions are for you, or about you, it has nothing to do with any lingering feelings, because I became collateral damage in your journey for love, that was the most completely selfish journey.”

Say what you will about Clayton’s indecision, but it brought about two of the greatest reads in Bachelor history.