This Season’s First Bachelorette Recap

Bachelor nation is in for a wild ride. The  beginning of Clare Crawley’s season of, The Bachelorette, started October 13th. Based on what has been going on in the world, we know that this season is not going to progress in the same way that others have in the past. 

Right from the beginning, we see how COVID-19 has affected this reality TV show. Clare was anxiously awaiting her call to see when they would be able to start filming.  When filming began, her and all of her contestants were put into isolation. Once they tested negative and quarantined for the appropriate amount of time, they were able to start filming!

This season there are 31 men that start on Clare’s season. Quickly, fans learn that all of them have infectious personalities, even in their COVID isolation rooms! We are first introduced to them as they’re nervously awaiting their test results. All of the men had nothing but adorable things to say about Clare. 

When we all saw and met all of the contestants on their way out of the limo, I already know fans were already picking their favorites. One crucial detail to this episode’s drama was the introduction of Tyler C. Now, if you remember, there is already another prominent, memorable Tyler C. from Hannah Brown’s season of the Bachelorette. Fans quickly were apprehensive about this new Tyler because as you may remember, Hannah’s Tyler stole the hearts of almost every fan that watched her season. This new Tyler C. came out of the limo ready to start drama. Rumor has it that one of Tyler’s mutual friends from back home got some interesting Instagram DM’s from another contestant. Yosef, another contestant on this season, was accused by Tyler of not having the right intentions for being on the show. Now, whether you think that Tyler C. was trying to protect Clare’s feelings by starting drama is completely up to you. What we do know is that Clare wasted no time engaging in this drama. She quickly heard from Tyler that there may be a problem, and immediately sat down with both Tyler and Yosef to sort it out. Once she heard what she needed to, she left to engage with the other contestants.

Oh and how could I forget! Dale. Dale won the first impression rose, but who didn’t see that coming. Immediately after he walked out of the limo and met Clare, Clare turned to Chris Harrison and said she thinks she just met her husband. She could not stop thinking about their first encounter, and even while she was meeting other contestants, there was a voice over in the background about how she could not stop thinking about Dale. 

There was one contestant that particularly took offense that he did not get the first impression rose and that was Blake. Over quarantine, before the season even started being filmed, Blake reached out to Clare to see how she was doing and to make sure that she was okay being alone during the tough times of the pandemic. She addressed in the first episode that she really appreciated that he was thinking about her because no one, other than him, reached out to her to make sure she was okay. She also said she really admired that he broke the rules of the show (to not talk to Clare before the season started to be filmed) and risked not being able to be there in order to make sure she was okay. When Clare announced that Dale had gotten the first impression rose, the defeat in Blake’s face was very apparent. Thankfully, he still got a final rose, but it was very obvious that he was hurt he didn’t get that special first rose.

There was also an interesting part of the show that wasn’t really addressed at all during the episode. There was a contestant that wore a straight jacket literally the entire night. He wore it for his first encounter with Clare, but then decided to not take it off. At all. Even in the professional pictures, he is wearing the straight jacket. It wasn’t a huge part of the episode, just one that I thought was particularly interesting.

Now, let's get back to the drama between Tyler and Yosef. Yosef said that he didn’t remember contacting anyone on Instagram and that his intentions are true. Clare did not linger with this drama much at all, but at the end of the episode, it becomes apparent as to how she felt about the situation. During the final rose ceremony, Tyler and Yosef were standing right next to each other. The last person out of the whole group of men to get a rose was Yosef. Tyler did not get one at all, which means that Clare did not care for him stirring the pot on the first night. As Tyler was leaving, he spoke about how he just wanted to protect Clare and her feelings.

In typical Bachelorette fashion, the end of the episode focused on the drama filled episodes to come. It seems as though contestants are commenting on Clare’s age in a negative way and there are hints as to Clare’s season ending sooner than expected. We will have to see what happens in the weeks to come!!

Xx Emma Stratton