In a shocking twist of events, last night’s part one of the two-night “Bachelor” finale finally gave Bachelor Nation the answer they’ve long been craving — who is Peter’s mother, Barbara Weber, crying about in that clip?
Since the beginning of the season, ABC has been teasing a clip of Mrs. Weber absolutely beside herself with tears, sobbing the following words, which will be immortalized in “Bachelor” history forever: “Don’t let her go!”
While the general consensus of fan theories was that the woman she’d be most likely to cry over would be Madison Prewett — she attended Peter’s parents’ wedding vow renewal during their very first one-on-one date way back at the beginning of the season and seemed to get along well with them — things went a different way when that famous clip finally rolled in full.
It turns out that it was … drum roll, please … Hannah Ann Sluss — whose undying love for Mrs. Weber’s son moved her to tears. Mrs. Weber cried so hard, in fact, that Peter had to ask her to stop! This woman was made for television.
Here is her heartfelt, incredibly moving speech to Peter, her firstborn son:
“God has answered my prayers and put the right person in your path,” she said. “Hannah Ann loves you with all of her heart. Don’t let her go. Don’t let her go! Bring her home. Bring her home to us! We will welcome her with open arms. We will welcome her with all the love in the world. All the love in the world. She’s a dream come true, and God has placed her there for you. That’s what love stories are made out of — someone that is so madly in love with you.”
Watch the clip above.
The reason Mrs. Weber is so worked up here is that she doesn’t want Peter to pick who she views as the wrong woman for him. In what has to feel like a real knife-twister for Madison, after she met Peter’s family for the first time, Mrs. Weber pulled her son aside and said these actual words to him: “She’s not here for you, bud.”
For context, Madison is a deeply Christian woman who has expressed to Peter, albeit a bit late in the game, that she is saving herself for marriage. She also gave him what many in Bachelor Nation, and Peter himself, have called an ultimatum: If he got “intimate” with any of the other women, she would have a hard time agreeing to marry him down the line.
Mrs. Weber didn’t like that, and specifically expressed to both Madison and Hannah Ann that she doesn’t want Peter or his betrothed to ever “change” each other.
As for the ultimatum, take a wild guess what Peter, who famously had sex four times in a row with former Bachelorette Hannah Brown in a windmill, ended up doing.
Part 2 of “The Bachelor” live finale airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.