A Precap of Grant Ellis' Season of The Bachelor
We're back and the lead is Black (again)!
Hello good people! I feel like It’s been way too long and I miss the Bachelor Nation mess.
I’m about to sound like an influencer, but there are a lot of new faces around here, so I want to take a moment to thank each of you for being here (new and old).
I started this newsletter five years ago after the clusterfuck (btw, we cuss here) that was Matt James’ season. I felt like some of my favorite Bachelor Nation podcasts, recaps, and pop culture blogs weren’t nuanced enough in their takes of how terrible those last few episodes of his season were. I believe that lack of nuance was due to an overwhelmingly white group of creators with big platforms recapping these shows. So instead of complaining about it, I sought to change it. And now we’re here!
About Me + My Introduction to The Bachelor
My name is Brittany, but friends and Bachelor Nation can call me BK. I grew up watching The Bachelor here and there with my mom and stopped abruptly after Juan Pablo’s season (the show was a bit too misogynistic and white for my taste). Then, in 2017 when ABC named its first-ever Black Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay, I started watching again and haven’t stopped. I’ve live-tweeted most seasons but didn’t start formally recapping until Katie’s season. You can read those blogs here.
When I’m not watching Bachelor Nation shows, I’m likely watching other reality television shows (lately, The Traitors, Real Housewives of Potomac, and Real Housewives of Salt Lake City). When I’m not doing that, I’m likely writing words elsewhere or eating good food.
What To Expect From This Newsletter
A true recap. I’m not going to go off on tangents and forget the point I was trying to make. Nor will I use an entire newsletter to focus on one scene. Will I get every second of every episode? Probably not. But I won’t miss the big stuff! I’ll do my best to get the recap up two days after the episode airs.
My unfiltered opinion. I’m a Black woman, based in the Midwest. I watch these shows through that lens. I hate that we saw the conversation between Matt James and his father with very little context of their relationship. What Brendan and producers did to Natasha during Bachelor in Paradise was rooted in misogynoir. If something doesn’t sit right with me, I’m going to call it out and break it down in this space.
Spoiler-free baby! I do my absolute best to remain spoiler-free. It’s part of the reason why I don’t do deep dives on the contestants beforehand. Spend too long googling or on Bachelor Reddit and the entire season is ruined. I ask that you respect this by keeping your comments/replies to these newsletters spoiler-free as well.
Ok, now that we’ve gotten this housekeeping out of the way, on to the recap!
If you’re new here—or if it’s just been a while and you don’t remember—I like to publish my “precaps” about a week before a new Bachelor/Bachelorette season. My precaps give my takes on the cast: red flags, green flags, and predictions for the upcoming season.
But first, let’s talk about our lead, Grant Ellis. Is he not the finest Bachelor we’ve ever had?! He’s tall, a little goofy, has an infectious smile, and a good-ass job as a day trader. I’m into it.
The only thing I’m side-eying is that he is a self-proclaimed mama’s boy according to his ABC bio. I typically feel some type of way about men of a certain age proudly proclaiming their slightly unhinged obsession with their mothers.
Regardless, I’m excited to watch his season and hope they do a better job of telling his love story than they did Matt James.
Now let’s talk about the women…
I’ve read the ABC cast bios and watched the season trailer, and I am ready to judge these women solely based on the roughly 200-word paragraphs and 10-second clips I’ve consumed.
My Predictions for Grant’s Final Four
ALEXE
My first pick is almost always based on what the season trailer is giving and it was giving Alexe. Grant was singing to her, she was crying in confessionals and even seemed to ruffle a few feathers. As a bilingual speech therapist from Canada, she’s just interesting enough to keep Grant’s attention without overwhelming him.
ALLYSHIA
This woman was made for this show. She’s from Florida, has a real job that can be done anywhere (perfect for being available for brand trips), and is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white woman. Production has been giving us a lot of diversity lately compared to previous seasons, but I believe that’s about to end. We’re in Trump’s America again and BN’s mostly white, Christian fanbase likely wants to see a woman they can root for. I think this might be their girl. So, she’ll go far enough for America to fall in love with her, but not so far that we can’t picture her starting her love journey a few months later.
NEICEY
Her bio reads like Rachel Lindsay 2.0. She’s an overachieving pediatrician who has put love on the backburner. She’s got three dogs, and a fulfilling career, now she’s just missing a man. Grant likely won’t be hers, but maybe production will throw caution to the wind and give us back-to-back Black leads.
REBEKAH
Rebekah is giving face, lips, hair — we love to see it! That alone should earn her a spot in the top four.
Red Flags 🚩
CHRISTIANA
Y’all, this white woman from North Dakota is not here for that Black man.
KYLEIGH
She lived in Uganda for four months and I just know it was on a mission trip when she was 18. Waiting for someone to find the photos of her posing with Ugandan children like they’re puppies.
PARISA
Parisa looks like she might murder us all. It’s giving her friends — with heavy intervention from her mother — signed her up to be on this show and she cannot believe she got the callback and is doing this. I suppose that doesn’t make her a walking red flag, but this is my newsletter, so it does.
SARAFIENA
One of her fun facts was that she’s seen every Grey’s Anatomy episode at least three times. As someone currently doing a first-time watch of Greys (21 seasons and counting…) that “fun” fact scares me. That’s a lot of TV y’all.
Green Flags 🟢
J’NAE
She gives nice, normal, calm spirit. Probably a little too normal for this show, so I’m not confident we’ll see much of her.
LITIA
A venture capitalist is typically an automatic red flag, but she’s a Black woman, so I’m biased.
ZOE
Zoe kind of seems too good to be true — mechanical engineer, model, breaking gender barriers on her high school wrestling team. It’s giving another well-rounded (but potentially boring) contestant. We’ll see!
Season Predictions
Grant really won’t be able to choose. The big question the trailers have been teasing is Grant’s seemingly game-time decision of which woman to propose to. We have yet to hear any promises that Grant’s ending is the most dramatic/heartbreaking/inspirational/whatever ending we’ve ever seen. So, it might end up being pretty tame. Still, I think Grant’s decision will come down to the wire and it’s something special from his girl that tips him in one direction.
The women will shed tears, but Grant will shed more. Grant seems like an onion, there are a lot of layers there. By the end of this journey, I think he will have shed them all in a way he never has had the opportunity to before. Although many of his tears are juxtaposed as sad or negative, I think we’ll get some happy tears from him as well.
More than half the cast are women of color, but somehow they won’t be the focus. While I hope to see more intentional stories being told about contestants ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds, I’m not going to hold out too much hope. This is a franchise that keeps casting openly homophobic, climate change deniers, so my expectations aren’t too high.
Grant’s season of The Bachelor starts Monday, January 27. Excited to be back recapping for you all!
Really hope they don’t try to exploit grant’s complicated relationship with his father this szn. The promotion has really been lacking for his premiere. Such a shame.