Many a season has been telegraphed by The Bachelorette spoilers beforehand, but this one feels a whole lot different for several reasons.
Thanks to the nature of the Internet and the (purported) winner himself, we may be witnessing a relationship that was over before it began.
If you dig hard enough, Bachelorette spoilers are out there every year, and not that hard to find … but only if you’re so inclined.
You typically have to at least go out of your way to visit one of the notable celebrity gossip sites that post this inside information.
Not this season.
Thanks, ironically, to the show’s increasing popularity with age on social media, keeping secrets a lot is harder for producers.
As such, numerous celebrity news sites – including perhaps the biggest of them all in TMZ – revealed the ending very early.
Not just rumor-style “spoilers” either. We’re talking about photos that reveal the final rose recipient as none other than (spoiler) …
Garrett Yrigoyen.
Okay, so what’s the problem? Don’t we often watch the show for the drama and all the twists and turns, even if we know the outcome?
Yes, but again, this season is a bit different, because … well, Garrett Yrigoyen has been under intense scrutiny since day one.
If you missed the controversy surrounding Garrett’s Instagram activity, the guy “liked” a whole bunch of things that are pretty offensive.
We’re talking anti-immigration, fat-shaming, and transphobic memes, and pics suggesting Parkland student David Hogg is a “crisis actor.”
Those posts originated from a conservative Instagram account titled MericaSupplyCo, not Garrett, but dude hit the heart icon often.
AGAIN, hasn’t this happened before? Aren’t off-screen social media scandals involving contestants almost an annual thing?
Yes. But …
As was the case last year with Lee Garrett’s racist tweets surfacing before Rachel Lindsay’s season, ABC had to know about it.
In Lee’s case, he might have even been cast because of it, knowing it would inflame racial tensions before be was dispatched.
Pretty bad if you think about it, but at least the point was for him to be dispatched, be labeled a racist, then beg for forgiveness.
In Garrett Yrigoyen’s case, his cringe-worthy likes are a much bigger issue because … he’s not here to get kicked off the show.
He received Becca’s first impression rose on the season premiere, a distinction that often goes to eventual final rose winners.
Garrett Yrigoyen is also being given very positive, go-the-distance style treatment from the editors in general. Cringe-worthy.
After reports of Yrigoyen’s Instagram activity went viral this spring, he went into damage control mode and posted an apology.
According to Garrett, he didn’t realize “the power of a mindless double tap,” and said this is “not a true reflection of me and my morals.”
Becca, too, came to his defense.
Kufrin said all the right things, encouraging the audience to be “open” to every contestant, despite all the noise on social media.
She cleverly mentioned that filming the show was great in that it let her get to know the guys “without any added fodder or any distraction.”
Sticking to the script, Becca swears she fell in love with two men and people need to watch The Bachelorette to see it all play out.
She promises she got to know the “real” Garrett, but seamlessly pivots to the rest of the men and the “journey” as a whole.
All of which rings hollow.
Becca’s attempts to shield Garrett from backlash – and distance herself from him – are as obvious and desperate as it gets.
Will it work in the end?
That remains to be seen. Will Bachelor Nation accept this man as her true love, rather than a closeted bigot and misogynist?
Can Becca herself reconcile her undoubtedly strong feelings for Garrett with the fact that he’s a racist conspiracy theorist?
You can’t base your life around what others think, but when everyone thinks your fiance thinks David Hogg is a crisis actor …
Even more broadly, can the show still be successful if we know who wins from the onset and that person is reprehensible?
Needless to say, B&G already faced an uphill battle when it comes to making this work in the real world, and it’s about to get steeper.