A Precap of Clayton's Season of The Bachelor

I have a feeling it's going to be a messy one.

Dec 29, 2021

Ok, y’all, I cannot believe we are rolling straight into another season of this damn show, but here we are! I have to say, I am warming up to Clayton. Not only does the season trailer give off hot mess vibes, but it is clear production is back in their element with traveling and being at the mansion. Hopefully, we benefit from that and have fewer audio issues, repeat dates, and stir-crazy contestants.

If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend watching the trailer for this season. Not only are there tons of catty drama, but it kind of seems like production spoils at least one of Clayton’s top picks? Who knows. We got Colton’s fence jump with a voiceover of a woman screaming before we realized it happened in the middle of the night with very few people around.

Before each season starts, I like to read through the bios, make some predictions of who I think Clayton might pick, and also offer some thoughts of how I think the season will go down, so that’s what this newsletter will entail. As a reminder, I watch spoiler-free, which means I usually only read the bios we get on ABC’s website because if you start to Google too much, or go down an Instagram rabbit hole, you see spoilers pretty quickly.

My Picks for Clayton

Before I get into who I think Clayton might gravitate towards, I have to say I looked up about half of these women on Instagram (thanks to Bachelor Data who was following most of them) and they all got the Instagram aesthetic on lock. It’s obnoxious. I guess I don’t know too many people whose IGs don’t look like they’re an influencer (myself included, although I don’t make many feed posts) but usually we get a handful of contestants who know nothing about looking compelling on social media. Not this time, these women know their angles, understand how to use Facetune, and have several go-to presets they use when uploading.

If you were to judge these women off their Instagrams without reading their bios, you might jump to some pretty shallow conclusions, but these women are highkey too good for this franchise. We have former a Olympian, nurses, a physician, an entrepreneur who created a new workout, a pilot, the list goes on and on. I’m so used to the job titles that are jokes (though there is at least one of those) and the vague marketing specialist titles (which is coincidently actually my job title) that I read through these bios shocked at how smart and talented these women seem. It almost left me wondering what made them leave their jobs to be on this show that is known for editing people (women especially) in horrible ways. My best guess, as we head into the third year of a global pandemic, is that a break from the real world sounded really enticing to most of these women and the risk of putting your high paying job, or dope career on hold for up to 12 weeks probably felt like more of a blessing than a curse.

I’m surprised by the amount of diversity we’re getting with these women as well, there are several Black women wearing their natural hair, even one with locs! However, still, no body diversity and most of the women are in their mid-twenties, like always. Despite the diverse cast, the trailer still felt rather white, so we’ll see how far these women of color go.

Enough of my judgments, here are the women I think Clayton could pick.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a 32-year-old real estate advisor in Colorado. I think Clayton might gravitate to her mostly because of her looks. I know Michelle was a tall, athletic, biracial Black woman, but something tells me if Clayton has a type, it’s blondes. And yes, I did ask all my friends who knew him from Mizzou who he seriously dated for “research purposes.”

She is career-oriented, liked to travel, loves petting a good doggo, and allegedly speaks 12 languages (girl 🙄). Seems like the type of woman that is just cultured enough for Clayton’s tastes, but not so much that he won’t be able to relate to her.

Hailey

Hailey kind of looks like Cassie from Colton’s season. She’s a pediatric nurse in Florida and is ready to find her match. She’s family-oriented, much like Clayton and her bio says she’s got a bubbly personality, which would be a great balance to Clayton’s shy guy tendencies.

She does describe herself as Taylor Swifts’ biggest fan, which is a red flag for me personally, and likely one for Clayton too, since he apparently loves hip hop, but maybe they can find some common ground when it comes to musical genres.

Eliza

Eliza is from Berlin, Germany. Described in her bio as soft-spoken, I’m not sure personality-wise she’d be a match for Clayton, but she is beautiful, well-traveled, and wants a long-lasting love like her parents, who have been together for 25 years. What’s not to love!?

Susie

Susie is casually a Jiu-Jitsu champion, so I fully expect to see her kick someone’s ass on this show. A wedding videographer from Virginia, her bio was all about doing the unexpected. Her stint in the pageant world makes her a perfect fit for this franchise and likely means she’ll go far. I’ve also dissected Clayton’s trailer a few times and she’s in it a lot, which makes me think she sticks around for a while or is the center of a lot of drama. Time will tell!

Honorable Mentions

I do not think these women will find love with Clayton, but their bios were too dope not to mention! Here’s to hoping they stay long enough to make a little cash on Instagram.

Ivana

Ivana is a Bar Mitzvah dancer from Queens, New York. She seems like such a quirky fun chick and I’m just glad that we’re finally getting a Black contestant like this. So often in scripted and reality TV, Black women are delegated to being characters who are promiscuous, unlovable, the sidekick, or the mother types that take care of everyone else but are falling apart themselves. Usually, white women are the only ones who get to be quirky and fun. I hope she’s on our screens for a hot minute.

Kira

Kira is a physician that is too good for this show, but I hope she lasts as long as possible because, after these last few pandemic years, no one deserves this kind of break like she does. She has degrees from Harvard, UPenn, and UNC-Chapel Hill. She casually taught herself hieroglyphics as a child and loves nachos, a great pairing with Clayton’s love of pizza, which is literally the only thing we actually know about him.

Marlena

Marlena is probably my favorite, she’s a former Olympian, runs her own real estate company, and has visited more than 15 countries. She also has fantastic hair and I believe is the first contestant to ever have locs in this franchise. We love to see it!

My Predictions

We don’t know much about Clayton, he’s a former SEC football player, he went to Mizzou (MIZ!) and still lives in Columbia, Missouri. I did find out recently that he minored in Spanish and was pretty fluent in the language in college, not sure if that’s still the case. We also know he’s back in school getting his MBA per his ABC bio.

Regardless of how obnoxious and over the top the edit of him leaving was during Michelle's season, I think the guy’s tears were legit, and therefore, I do believe he deeply wants to find his person and have a family. He seems guarded and shy, so in some ways, 30 women all coming to him will probably end well for him. So well apparently that he falls in love with three different women and is intimate with at least two of them, potentially before fantasy suites. The mess we love to see!

Here are my predictions for Clayton’s season of The Bachelor.

He will chase after someone. Maybe it’s because his name is so similar to Colton’s, or the way the trailer was put together, but I don’t think Clayton’s final love comes easy to him. While I’m not sure he ends the season engaged, I do think that he might be engaged once his After The Final Rose episode airs. It seems like Clayton shares a bit too much info with his final few and that may lead to him having to make a game-time decision and chase after the woman he really wants to pursue.
Clayton will be easily manipulated. You know how the longer you watched Colton and Katie’s season, the more it seemed like production didn’t like them? I fear something similar might be the case with Clayton. It’s not that I don’t think he isn’t a well-liked guy, he seems to be, but I do think Clayton was likely in over his head when production for his season started. After seeing how ABC execs dragged their own lead on live television during his segment on Michelle’s After The Final Rose, I think that was only the beginning and it’ll get much worse once we get into the season. Yikes.
Clayton and his final pick will move quickly. I’m talking Bachelor in Paradise wedding in the summer, moving in together immediately, and getting pregnant within a year quickly. As I do with every lead, I started following Clayton on IG the other day and he’s selling his condo in Columbia, this already leads me to believe that he’s no longer living in the city, or potentially the state because why would you show where you live to thousands of followers? I lived in Columbia, Missouri for six years, it is not that big of a town and when Clayton posted the listing for his condo, I immediately knew where he lived. Be smarter, babes.

Well, that’s all I got! I was not looking forward to this season at first, but not only will it be nice to root for a fellow Mizzou Tiger (I’ll try my best not to mention that every week) but he’s got some wonderful women vying for his heart and like I’ve said numerous times already, the trailer looks like a straight-up mess and you can’t go wrong with that!

What are you’re predictions for the season? Anyone you’re rooting for in particular? Let me know below!

Lastly, a request: I’ve loved how this little newsletter has grown throughout Michelle’s season. Thank you for every share, comment, like, and retweet. If you enjoy reading BK’s Bach Takes, please, send it to a friend or family member who may love it too! Tell your Twitter followers, or share it in an online forum you frequent. Digital word of mouth is still the best marketing there is and I really do appreciate it!

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