Golden Bachelor Mel Owens is down to the wire — and he’s still figuring out whether Peg Munson or Cindy Angelcyk Cullers is The One.
While picking up where he and Cindy, 60, left off in Antigua after the fantasy suite cliffhanger about whether he’s really ready to tie the knot again, Mel, 66, assured her that he enjoys her company.
“I love spending time with you. I love being with you,” Mel told Cindy in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek of the Wednesday, November 12, season 2 finale. “You’re sharing, caring, smart, but it’s a difficult situation. I am torn between you and Peg.”
Cindy admitted that the sentiment was “hard” for her to hear, as she’s “wrestled with trying not to shut down” in the environment — but vowed to “still remain present” and to “still remain open and vulnerable.” Mel, for his part, shared that he appreciated her.
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“You’re a brave soul for sticking through it,” he said. “It’s hard to find a partner, but it could happen here, right?”
The sit-down conversation came on the heels of the pair’s boat excursion to swim with stingrays, where Cindy shared in a confessional that she hoped to better understand Mel’s “plans” for their hypothetical future together.
“I’ve told him that I’m falling in love with him,” Cindy said. “I have no idea if he feels the same way that I do.”
Mel had shared a similar sentiment during his previous fantasy suite date with Peg, 62, where he wanted to lower her “tough exterior.” Peg, meanwhile, worried that Mel wasn’t “emotionally available.” While initially remaining tight-lipped about their connection — telling Peg their romance was going “good” and promptly changing the subject — he later admitted that he “really” likes her “a lot.”
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The pair ultimately spent the night together — after kicking out the camera crew, of course — and Mel gushed the next morning that the date “exceeded” his expectations.
After Peg and Mel debriefed their night, where they opened up about their respective divorces, she gushed in a confessional, “I feel like we understand each other better now. … All of my concerns definitely got answered last night.”
Ahead of the finale episode, Mel exclusively shared in his Us cover story that he created a pros and cons list of his suitors while making his final choice.
“It was tough, and I’m just trying to figure out who is going to be the best fit for me, who I would enjoy,” he told Us. “The hometowns are all great. But there’s that magnetism that pulls you in that direction no matter what, and it’s a little bit more toward one person than the other, so I went with my gut.”
In Mel’s perspective, the ending is an emotional one — and, in true Bachelor Nation fashion, not one to be expected.
“You won’t believe how we get there, not mechanically, but how we get there emotionally,” he said. “There’s some movement and twists and turns.”
The Golden Bachelor season 2 finale airs on ABC Wednesday, November 12, at 8 p.m. ET.
