2020 has been crazy. I don’t think that anyone is denying that. A lot of people, including myself, have been using television and movie watching (and binging) to get through some of the tough times. One way that I have done that, especially in the last month or two, has been watching the Bachelorette. The usual Monday nights with rose ceremonies and lots of drama has been thrown out the window for Season 16, however, for a lot of reasons. In this article, I am going to break down what you’ve missed in episodes one through four and how to get prepared for the rest of, in the words of our patron saint Chris Harrison, the “craziest season ever.”
Bachelor Nation may say that 2020 was cursed from the start. Peter Weber, the bachelor of Season 24, was a dark horse pick to be the bachelor after he came close to winning Hannah B’s heart on Season 15 of the Bachelorette (it’s like a complicated family tree but with marriage and windmill sex). His stint as the Bachelor was objectively terrible, ending on March 10th (less than a week before the world shut down) with the whole bachelor fandom hating both him and his mom. Then, for the first time in years, Bachelor Nation had to go a summer without seeing the drama,love, and Wells (look him up he is so attractive) on the Mexican beaches.
Okay, now that you have some context, let’s talk about Clare Crawley, the original Season 16 Bachelorette. Her season was completely casted and gearing up to go when Peter’s season was coming to an end – even some of the guys who were going to be competing for her heart had been announced to the public. Unfortunately, this little thing called an international pandemic got in the way, and the season that was supposed to start airing in May never came. Then, much to the delight of fans everywhere, the show began filming in late summer. And when that happens, spoilers start to drop like bombs. The biggest takeaway from the spoilers was that Clare was going to find love so quickly, she would leave, making room for another Bachelorette to take her place. Without surprise to any fan, this did happen. Clare left with Dale Moss after he proposed to her during episode 4, and in came the second woman of Season 16: the one and only Tayshia Adams.
This is where I get a little biased because I am Tayshia’s number one fan. Tayshia is a fairly new member to the Bachelor Family, as she was one of the contestants on Colton’s season of the Bachelor, Season 23 in early 2019, and then appeared to find love in 2019’s Bachelor in Paradise Season with a failed Hannah B’s season contestant, John Paul Jones (JPJ). The TayPJ relationship didn’t last much after paradise, and they called it quits before the end of 2019. Now Tayshia is ready to find love with one of the guys that Clare didn’t send home or fall in love with in her four episode run as the Bachelorette. So, to get you ready for S16E5 and beyond, here are some quick Tayshia facts. First, Tayshia has been married before, and the breakup was civil, but heartbreaking. Second, Tayshia graduated from Concordia University in Canada with a degree in biology and was a practicing phlebotomist (someone who can draw blood) before she joined Bachelor Nation and is now an interior designer. And third, Tayshia is 30: the perfect age for most of the guys who she will be mingling and trying to find love with because they are all between ages 29 and 39. Clare was the oldest Bachelorette, and while most of the guys on her season were younger than her, none were that much younger, which is much different from past seasons of the show, where some contests were as young as 22 or 24.
With that, you are officially ready to see Tayshia at her first rose ceremony and begin her journey with the guys! Happy watching Bachelor Nation!