‘Bachelor’ ends in cringe-worthy, hot mess: A rose, but no Juan Pablo love?

There was some speculation going into Monday night’s “Bachelor” finale that Juan Pablo Galavis was the most hated bachelor of all time.

Let that speculation now be put to rest.

Yep. He is.

Let’s just say that ABC’s latest hunky bachelor was darn lucky to escape with his life after facing a live studio audience that watched the show’s finale Monday night.

For one thing, at the final rose ceremony, Juan Pablo had a huge Neil Lane diamond ring in his pocket all ready to give his chosen love – KC’s own Nikki Ferrell or Clare Crawley, a hair stylist from Sacramento, Calif.

But in the end he just couldn’t hand it over.

So the Children’s Mercy nurse had to settle for the final rose – but no marriage proposal

declaration of love. And that’s all she really wanted, she had said. She just wanted to hear those three little words.

This is what she got: “I’m not 100 percent sure that I want to propose to you,” said Juan Pablo. “But at the same time, I’m 100 percent sure that I just don’t want to let you go. I like you a lot, a lot.”

She never did hear the word “love” from Juan Pablo, even during the live “After The Final Rose” show when host Chris Harrison did everything but hit the bachelor over the head to make him say it.

But Juan Pablo refused, much to the chagrin of the studio audience sitting well within striking distance.

“I don’t know what I’m looking at,” Harrison said at one point, looking at Juan Pablo and Nikki snuggled together in front of him on a sofa. “I would like to say you are in love ... but it’s awkward.”

The hot-mess of a finale reeked of awkwardness.

Clare – who said she didn’t want a rose, she wanted “forever” – let Juan Pablo have it in one of the most dramatic verbal smackdowns in “Bachelor” history.

You could almost hear the nation cheering.

The finale started out on a kinder note, with both women individually spending time with Juan Pablo’s parents, cousin, brother, sister, daughter and niece in St. Lucia.

Kinder, that is, until Juan Pablo’s honest, loving family members started throwing red flags at the women.

His mom, for instance, shared that the only reason the former pro soccer player took up the sport was because he was so hyperactive as a 4-year-old.

Oh, and my son is so honest that sometimes he says things that are a bit rude, mama told Clare.

Sometimes he is very rude, Clare said. “It made me cry,” she confessed.

“Me, too,” his mama said.

Red Flag No. 1.

“After talking to Juan Pablo’s mom I can’t tell you how comforting it was to confirm everything I felt about him and how I see Juan Pablo,” Clare said. “It’s good to know that I’m not the only one that feels that sometimes.”

(That’s good to know? Really?)

Juan Pablo’s warm, courtly father charmed Clare when he told her that “remember always that you will have a father in me. I will love your sons and daughters and if something different happens, you will always be in my mind.”

Something different?

Red Flag No. 2.

The family tossed more flags at Nikki when she arrived for her solo visit. First, though, she had to correct them: She’s from Missouri,

Kansas.

Nikki also had a sit-down with Juan Pablo’s papa, who all but told her that his son can be difficult.

“Let me tell you something, he’s not an easy guy. I’m telling you,” papa said. “He vocalizes what he wants, is always very specific in what he wants. He think he knew the truth in everything.”

How many red flags are we up to now?

Two more ...

When Nikki sat down with Juan Pablo’s cousin, Rodolfo, he asked her how much fighting she can take in a relationship and warned that sometimes Juan Pablo walks away from a relationship when things get rough.

Nikki shrugged off the friendly warning. No fighting, no passion, she said.

“They raised a lot of questions for me,” she later admitted. “But I think I know him on a different level. And it’s not a red flag for me.”

(After a commercial break, Harrison walked into the audience to poll people about what they’d seen of the finale so far. Said one woman: “This is going south fast. His whole family warned both of the gals against him and they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s OK.’ I don’t think it’s OK.”

Then all hell broke loose. Or as Harrison put it: “It is nothing like you’ve ever seen on ‘The Bachelor’ before.”

On her last date with Juan Pablo, Clare took a romantic helicopter over the lush island of St. Lucia. “I’m on Cloud Nine,” she gushed.

And then, the helicopter landed, the cameras and mics were turned off, and something bad happened.

Here’s how she described it.

“Juan Pablo leaned over and whispered something to me. But what I thought was going to be sweet, kind, loving words was not what came out of his mouth. And I’m just shocked,” she said.

“He chose to tell me something that no one woman wants to hear, that he really doesn’t know me. And some sexual thing ... I don’t even want to repeat. It was insulting, it was offensive and it just made me feel awful.

“Every single woman deserves to be treated with respect. I’m not just an object. Maybe I have him all wrong. Maybe he’s not the man that I thought he was. I’m so confused right now and I really don’t know what to do next.

“If he can’t tell me that he knows me well and that this relationship goes further than a physical connection, I’m outta here.”

When Juan Pablo showed up at her hotel room later that night, his first clue that he had screwed up was when Clare would not kiss him at the door.

You could hear applause from that live studio audience watching with Harrison.

In a long, awkward conversation, she challenged him on his feelings toward her. If you can’t tell me we have something more than just physical attraction, I’m outta here.

And lo, he managed to sweet-talk Clare with a lot of circular talk and by telling her that of course, he wanted her there with him. “I know if I end up with you I’m going to have a baby in a year and two months,” he teased her.

“Twins?” she said, giddily, eyes sparkling.

Back in the live studio audience, former bachelorette Sharleen Joynt, who walked out on the show when she decided Juan Pablo wasn’t smart enough for her, told Harrison that the scene with Clare was “pretty painful to watch.

“Just to watch a girl’s intuition ringing and she just ignored it while he was quite patronizing to her, frankly. I just wished she had stuck with her guts,” she said.

His last date with Nikki had its low moments, too, starting with Nikki admitting that one of her biggest struggles with Juan Pablo is that he’s too cautious with his feelings.

You’re too guarded, she told him as they took one last romantic yacht cruise together.

She confessed to a “weird mix of feelings” about a man who couldn’t tell her that he loved her but could also make her feel so comfortable.

“I know how I feel about Juan Pablo. I know that I love him,” she said. “I just want to hear it from him.”

She tried like the dickens when he came to her hotel room later that night, but he wouldn’t budge, even after she gave him a handwritten card expressing her feelings.

She signed it, “I love you, Nikki.”

He whispered: “Thank you.”

She looked like she was going to hurl.

(Now what did we do with those red flags?)

Clare was the first to stand with Juan Pablo at the final rose ceremony.

After telling her how pretty she looked, he got all mopey, saying “I wish the Earth sucked me today because this is the hardest decision ever. I appreciate you being here and trusting me all along.”

And the look on her face said, “Oh crap, this isn’t going to end well.”

“I’ve been very honest with everybody, and at some point somebody’s going to go home. And I have to say good-bye to you,” he said.

When he tried to reach out and hug her she stiff-armed him. The studio audience watching applauded again.

Then she let him have it.

“This entire time I’ve stuck around because I believed in you. And the other night, on our last date, when you came over and we spent our last hour together, I needed that reassurance. And I gave you the opportunity right then, because I’ve been scared to death.

“And for you to sit there and tell me that you could see yourself in Sacramento and you could see our babies ...

“I saved this moment for the man of my dreams. and I thought that was you. And I thought I knew the kind of man you were.

“I lost respect for you. Because, I tell you what ... What you just made me go through, I would never want my children having a father like you!”

She walked away like a queen who had just dressed down an unruly subject.

And court jester Juan Pablo sneered: “Whoo! I’m glad I didn’t pick her! Whoo!”

Nikki got the final rose, but not the proposal she had hoped for. But she seemed OK with that when she and Juan Pablo appeared together in front of the studio audience.

And as Juan Pablo resisted every invitation from host Chris Harrison to declare his love for Nikki, viewers at home could almost feel the bad feelings rising in the audience.

They had nothing but love, however, for Andi Dorfman, the Atlanta attorney who left the show on her own after her “fantasy” overnight date with Juan Pablo.

Her reward: She gets to be the next "Bachelorette." Filming on the next season is expected to begin this week.

After the rough ride of this season’s “Bachelor,” Harrison wanted to “clear a few things up” with Andi.

“You do know this is going to be on television, don’t you?” he laughed.

“And if you fall in love, don’t be afraid to say that!”

This story was originally published March 10, 2014 at 10:34 PM with the headline "‘Bachelor’ ends in cringe-worthy, hot mess: A rose, but no Juan Pablo love?."