Courtesy/ABC

The watercooler moment of Tuesday has to be last night’s two-hour season finale of The Bachelor and the aftermath in the After the Rose live one hour special.

This had all the earmarks of a soap opera and in fact, it was with Juan Pablo being the most and painted as the most, despicable bachelor the show has ever seen, which actually made the whole thing more of a train-wreck than usual!

In the season finale, Juan Pablo after the helicopter date ride with Claire, apparently said some inappropriate and offensive things to the finalist.  From all accounts it was something along the lines of  “I don’t know you that well, but I love hooking up with you.”

Clare is upset about it and comes to the realization that maybe he is not truly in to her more than physically.  Later, Juan Pablo comes to her hotel room, prior to the next day’s final rose ceremony.  Claire wants him to clarify if she is into her more than just having sex, to which he dances around the issue. She looks like she is ready to bolt and tell him to get out, but instead he someone convinces her with his minimal words of what she apparently wants to hear!

When it’s time for the Rose Ceremony, Claire goes to meet him and he says, “You are an unbelievable, amazing woman.  I wish the Earth sucked me today (HUH?) because this is the hardest decision ever. I appreciate you being here and trusting me all along.  I got to find who I think is best for me and I have to say goodbye to you.”  And then came the drama with Claire finally lashing out and Juan Pablo:  “This entire time I’ve stuck around because I believed in you and the other night on our last date, I needed that reassurance and I gave you the opportunity right then because I was scared to death. And for you to sit there and tell me that you could see yourself in Sacramento … I  saved this moment for the man of my dreams and I thought that was you and I thought I knew what kind of man you were. I lost respect for you. What you just made me go through I would never want my children having a father like you.”   As Claire walks away, Juan Pablo utters, “I’m glad I didn’t pick her!”  Even the in-studio live audience watching this play out, applauded Claire for walking out on Juan Pablo!

As for Nikki the other finalist, she gave Juan Pablo a card with sweet sentiments in the hotel room, the night before the final rose ceremony!  She told him, she loved him.  She wanted Juan Pablo to say it in return.  He said nothing, but gave her little kisses.  She was left crying.   Yet, she still continued to say, she knows how much he loves her and he is the man for her!  WHAT?

In the end, Juan Pablo offers Nikki a rose, not a ring.  He prefaced it with,  “I listened to your dad and what he said to me: ‘Juan Pablo, if you’re going to propose to my daughter you have to be 100 percent sure.’   And that made me think a lot.  I have a ring here in my pocket and I’m not going to use it. I’m not 100 percent sure I want to propose to you, but at the same time I’m 100 percent sure I don’t want to let you go.”‘

So after all of that, in the After the Rose live special, Nikki reveals Juan Pablo has yet to tell her he loves her.  They have been dating for the last four months though.  Juan Pablo tells host Chris Harrison to basically stop talking over him twice! And Juan Pablo still refuses to talk about any details of what his relationship with Nikki is.  Former Bachelor, Sean Lowe is in the audience clearly annoyed at the behavior of his successor.

From a disrespectful bachelor, to women being needy, to women standing up for themselves, to a puzzling cliffhanger, was this finale truly the best soap opera of the month or the worst soap opera ever seen? Let us know your thoughts on Juan Pablo? Claire and Nikki? And if the whole series should finally go away?