The Bachelor: Jason and Molly defend themselves

ABC trotted out Jason and the gang one more time last night for the second After the Final Rose special -- and it was no Jason Lovefest, that's for sure.

We got a handful of rejected ladies from earlier in the season who were there to give their opinions, but no Melissa. And there was no shortage of audience members ticked off at Jason. The question is, was there closure for angry Bachelor fans?

Naomi, Stephanie, Nikki, Erica, and Kari (don't even remember her!) weighed in. Stephanie thinks Jason made the right decision. Erica said he should have "taken a minute" to think about it. Naomi, who is tight with Melissa, said she "literally wanted to punch him" but admitted that in the closing weeks she could really see that Jason had a "a thing for Molly." Kari thought it took a lot of integrity for Jason to come out in front of the nation and say that he made the wrong decision.

The audience memebers weren't as understanding. Audience Member 1 said if he was torn between the two women, why propose to Melissa and put her through that. Good point. Audience Member 2 said that Jason made the right choice, even though it shocked us. Audience Member 3 was angry that Jason "didn't think about it before." She pointed out that you don't go from being devastated on the balcony one minute to asking someone else to marry you the next. Another good point. Audience Member 4 said she had tears in her eyes and thought Melissa was so cute when she jumped around and screamed at the proposal, so the breakup was hard to watch. Audience Member 5 (a guy) said he would never propose to someone if he had cried over someone else. That was "unnacceptable" in his opinion.

Stephanie responded that even so, it's better to decide now that it's not right than to wait a year after you're married.

Another good point. So confusing!

So Jason comes back out to face the angry mob. He admits "it's not the classiest thing in the world, but I had to follow my heart." There are things he would do differently if he could go back, he said, but he doesn't regret where he is now.

After they replayed his exchange with Melissa from Monday's ATFR show, Jason said, "I'm not proud of what I did to her, no one deserves that. And I hate that I did that to her, but I made the right decision." He said after he got into it and it didn't feel right, he felt it was wrong to lead her on further. And he knew going into the show that he'd hurt people, but he never thought he'd hurt her.

When host Chris Harrison pointed out that a lot of people feel angry about what he did, he says those people are entitled to feel what they want, but "that's what was going on with me and I don't feel like my feelings were wrong either. And that's what I was feeling at the time."

He said he felt really close to Molly but didn't see "that emotional piece that was kind of lacking" but then right before she left, she opened up to him a little more and that's when he started thinking, "Oh my God, what was that?" He said it didn't change what he felt for Melissa at the time, but that what he was feeling for Molly started growing. Then he started realizing, "Oh my God, it was her."

That's all understandable, just sucks for all of them that it had to play out on national TV (good for us, bad for them!).

As for Molly (left), he says things are great and she's his best friend (take that, Jillian!) and she challenges him.

Melissa was invited to the show but said everything's still too raw. Here's the statement Chris read: "Strange as it may sound, I'm doing really well. I don't rgret anything that happened over the past few months, because I know I wouldn't be where I am today had none of it happened."

Then Molly comes out and we have to rewatch the stuff where Jason tells her he just dumped Melissa and wants another shot with her. She talks about how she felt heartbroken after New Zealand and couldn't talk to anyone or vent, so she came to ATFR because she wanted closure." She said she never expected what happened.

Why did she take him back after she'd been rejected? She said her feelings for Jason didn't just go away, she still felt the same as she felt when they left New Zealand. In other words, the heart wants what it wants folks, so get over it.

So here's where they stand - they are in love, they are happy, they talk all night long on the phone, and she's moving to Seattle soon.

As a parting gift, Chris gives them the actual tent they spent the night in early on in the show (getting to first base fully clothed, Jason and Molly insist).

Geez, with record ratings you'd think ABC would at least spring for a nice trip!