Dear Barb: I have underestimated you. Week after week, when I saw you on the TV screen, the same tired line - "Bring her back to us!" - were said while you were sobbing. (opens in new tab)-I thought you were a typical bachelor mother, sincere, tearful, and overly invested in her son's romantic life. Barb, you are a force of nature. Barb is expressive, determined, and bold. Barb had a revamped haircut for "After The Finale Rose". Barb knows who she is. Barb is the true heroine of this season. We are all Barb!

Initially, I thought Barb's "take her home" outburst was an anomaly, a moment of emotional overload caused by too much wine on an empty stomach (after all, dinner on "The Bachelor" is not accompanied by food (open in new tab). He is passionate, energetic, vulnerable, and more sure of his feelings than his son. Peter Weber's season was marked by hand-wringing, mumbling, half-hearted declarations of love followed by half-hearted proposals (while Hannah Ann Suras was charming in a cocktail dress, wearing a hoodie and (opens in new tab)). Barb, by contrast, knows exactly where she stands.

Take, for example, Barb's revenge haircut, which she performed on "After the Final Rose." Clearly devastated by the change in attitude after her son proposed to Slass (I'm disappointed too, Barb!) ), she changed her hair from blonde to a dark, deep brown. Thrasse, whom Barb described as her "daughter," is no longer the woman she was, and Barb is not happy.

By comparison, this was the happiest moment of Barb's life (honestly, this is genuinely sad in hindsight) - the moment Barb welcomed Slass as her own daughter. At the time, Barb was a bold, outgoing blonde.

Yes, Barb did show up on "After the Final Rose," but probably just to check on Surus. Barb is a woman betrayed, a woman who gained a daughter but lost her soon after, and a woman who is seriously considering disowning her son.

And honestly, 'refreshing'. Sluss deserves better. I am deeply disappointed in Barb's son. If I had a son who proposed to a woman he said he loved a few days after being dumped by another woman, and then promptly dumped his wonderful fiancée for totally whacky reasons, I'd be pretty pissed too!

A full hour and a half passed before Barb spoke up (although, really, her face said all that was needed), but when Chris Harrison finally asked her opinion, Barb did not hesitate. Barb told Chris Harrison, Peter, Madison Prewett, and half of America that Prewett was rude, late, wildly unclear about her feelings for Peter, and that Peter's family, Peter's friends, and Barb were all convinced that it would not work!

Now, the people who were in the room were all convinced that the situation would not work out!

Now, I understand that Barb is happily married (Peter may have mentioned it once or 12,023 times), so she is unlikely to be part of the Bachelor franchise-even (opens in new tab) The Bachelor: The Golden Years ( (opens in new tab) feels like it was made for Barb, but I'd like to see more Barb in my own life. She could focus on her new favorite son, Peter's brother Jack.

This has become an ode to Barb.

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