The Bachelor: Um, Why Did Arie Walk Out of the Room After Lauren B. Opened Up to Him?

Nothing like finally opening up about your feelings for a person only to have them get up and walk away without any explanation, right? That's exactly what happened during Monday's episode of The Bachelor when Lauren B. — after struggling to be vulnerable about her feelings — tells Arie how she feels about him. Arie's response? He promptly stands up, walks outside, and paces around a bit. Wait, what? Was he nervous? Overcome with emotion? Or, as some fans wondered, letting out a fart? In any case, poor Lauren is left at the table to wipe away tears and wonder what the hell is happening.

As viewers, the next thing we saw was Arie sitting back down at the table, not really offering any reason for his exit, and then . . . dropping the L bomb?!

"I feel vulnerable with you, and to hear you say that you're falling for me makes me really, really happy," he says. "I really do see something between us. I'm falling so deeply in love with you. It's crazy."

Curveball! People have tossed out all sorts of theories about Arie's exit, but personally, I'm in the camp that thinks he probably stepped aside to talk to the producers about whether or not he should tell Lauren that the feelings were mutual. As Bachelor fans know, the "L" word is typically avoided by the show's lead until the final episode. Even though producers have said there are "no rules" about that, the Bachelor usually waits to say "I love you" until he's standing with his final pick during the proposal.

Case in point: former Bachelor Ben Higgins got a whole lot of heat after he told both of his final two women that he was in love with them. At the time, host Chris Harrison said that as producers, that was just a sign that they did their job well. "We facilitated these relationships and we allowed that to happen, and that's our goal," he said, explaining that if Ben had come to him for advice, he'd probably have discouraged it only because it might create problems for him down the road. Meanwhile, Arie's tossing all those unofficial "rules" and norms aside, opening up about his feelings to help Lauren feel reassured before they even get to the hometown dates.

We can't be sure of Arie's reasoning, of course, so while we're all left guessing, let's just enjoy all these hilarious reactions and theories, shall we?