After a very rocky road to love over the last few weeks on The Bachelor, Colton Underwood finally narrowed down the competition to one woman during part two of the season finale: Cassie Randolph! If you've been watching the former NFL player's season from the start, hopefully his top choice shouldn't come as a surprise. Like, at all.
As a reminder, Colton showed a strong interest in Cassie from the moment she stepped out of the limo and presented him with a literal case of the butterflies on the very first night. The move earned her a rose, and the rest of their one-on-one dates throughout the season made it painfully obvious just how much Colton, 27, was into the 23-year-old aspiring speech pathologist. They had chemistry to spare, but in the end, it wasn't enough to save them from a few devastating setbacks.
During Colton's visit to Cassie's hometown of Huntington Beach, CA, he clashed with her father, who made his doubts about the future of Cassie's relationship with Colton obvious (he also refused to grant Colton his blessing to propose to Cassie). The following week, her dad made an impromptu visit to her hotel room in Portugal to further explain himself, which only muddled Cassie's already-confused feelings about Colton even further. She ended up self-eliminating and shattered Colton's heart in the process; he'd declared his love to her just moments before, saying, "I care for you. I love you. I want it to be you at the end of this."
The heartbreaking end of their date led to Colton's infamous fence jump, and it seemed like the end of the road for Colton and Cassie. However, the season 23 finale confirms that the pair are in it for the long haul, fence or no fence.
Emotions are running high
