I have just so much to say about Tuesday's season premiere of The Bachelorette (Shania Twain stan Mike got sent home? The straightjacket guy didn’t make a single joke about being ready to be committed to Clare? Bennett only managed to mention Harvard one time?), but there’s one scene that really needs to be discussed, and that’s what went down between Tyler C. and Yosef. Over the years, we’ve seen a pattern emerging in the Bachelor franchise, and that’s that pre-season drama never actually gets left at the door.
On Rachel Lindsay’s season, Blake and Whaboom faced off about who was just there for fame. When Colton Underwood was the Bachelor, Hannah B. and Caelynn traded accusations about being phony liars. The night of Hannah Brown’s premiere, she sent a guy home after former costars Demi Burnett and Katie Morton spilled the social media tea. And during Peter Weber’s turn as the lead, Victoria P. and Alayah friendship-turned-frenemy status led to both of them leaving without love.
Now, as Clare Crawley began her romantic journey, another two contestants were immediately at odds — and they managed to take all of those previous storylines, throw them into one big, messy melting pot, and design some new drama of their own. It all started when Tyler C., a self-described cowboy and southern gentleman, revealed that some of his female friends back home had gotten DMs that hinted Yosef wasn’t here for the “right reasons.” Let's take a look at how this scene broke down.
Tyler C. Brought The Receipts (Kind Of)
Right off the bat, Tyler C. was ready to put Yosef on blast. Rather than thinking of it as starting drama, he seemed to reassure himself that calling out the other man’s “bullshit” was the only way to stop “enabling” it.
While Clare was getting to know Yosef, Tyler C. revealed to the producers that he “knows something that nobody else knows” about his fellow contestant. “If necessary, I’ll play that card to protect Clare,” he promised. (I'm sure protecting Clare was his main objective here.)
Speaking to some of the other men, he continued, “Coming into this, I was in a weird position to find out some stuff about Yosef. … A lot of being reckless on Instagram, and just like flirting with girls [that live from] where I’m from and that know me and who are like mutual friends.”
Tyler C. seemed ready to wait for the time to be right before getting into the dirt, but once Yosef was back and chatting with the other men, he simply couldn’t hold it in any longer. He asked if they could sidebar — well, he said, “Can I holler at you for a minute?” — and that’s when the trouble really began.
The "Confrontation," If You Can Call It That
The two quickly became shadows as they walked off together into the night, but despite Tyler C. insisting that he didn’t want to “make a scene,” their very obvious one-on-one conversation after a quick goss sesh drew a lot of attention from the other men. Standing just yards away, they began to hash out their dramas as all the other contestants looked on.
“Wonder what’s going on over there,” one man commented. “It was Tyler and Yosef.” A second asked, “Fightin’?” A third chimed in, “Already?” A fourth joked, “I need my popcorn.” (Luckily, someone actually brought popcorn for their limo exit.)
Quickly, Jordan C. broke the situation down for everyone who missed the crucial context. “Tyler came across some information, and he’s bringing it to that person specifically so he can handle it like a man, in my opinion.” Not everyone was convinced it was that mature of a move — but a chorus of voices dubbed the drama “juicy.”
Back over in the two-person huddle, Tyler C. was ready to lay the truth out in the open. “I live in Morgantown, and I know a girl. And she messages me, and she — you know, through a mutual friend — and she contacts me and she says, ‘Guys on the show are DMing me, are talking to me.’ And I’m trying to look out for her best interest and protect her feelings, because she’s had enough of her time wasted. So I don’t know that that’s your intention…”
Yosef was understandably confused. Is the her that Tyler C. wants to protect Clare? Is the her that he wants to protect the girl that reached out to him? Is the her a general representation of all womankind and Tyler C. the white knight sent from the heavens to defend our honor? He tries to get to the bottom of it.
“Listen, like, I get what you’re saying, I totally understand that, but I don’t remember that,” he said.
“I came into tonight trying to give you the benefit of the doubt,” Tyler C. continued, railroading the conversation forward, “and not just immediately come to it or take it to Clare. I’m trying to be as man-to-man about it as possible.”
I want to give Tyler C. his own benefit of the doubt and assume this confrontation really did come from the right place, but it’s hard to give him too much credit when his patience meant he waited all of two hours to bring the matter up instead of springing it on Yosef the second they both stepped foot into the resort. Yosef is also not exactly appreciative of the turmoil being stirred up, especially after he just assured Clare that he’s trying to be the best man he can be now that he’s raising a daughter.
“Regardless, there’s no substance to it,” he told Tyler C., then gave him a manly pat on the soldier to assure him that a tentative truce had been made. “I appreciate you bringing this up.”
Reader, He Did Not Appreciate Tyler C. Bringing It Up
Cut to: Yosef deciding to cut out the middleman and go to Clare directly.
There’s never any benefit in getting roped into the drama or a confrontation on this show (seriously, when will the contestants learn that they go furthest when they focus all of their time on their own connection with someone they’re hoping to get engaged to in just a few weeks), but there is something to be said for getting the first word in.
Instead of waiting to see where Tyler C. landed on the issue (are they pals? Is his waiting to talk to Clare going to look like his waiting to approach Yosef which means there’s a 2-hour ticking clock already counting down?), Yosef took matters into his own hands.
“I have no idea what mini-McConaughey was saying,” he insisted in a confessional. (Point for "mini-McConaughey.") “I’m not here for high school drama. I’m not here for, ‘Oh my god, you messaged someone.’ But I can promise you one thing: Nothings going to get in the way of Clare and I enjoying this evening.”
Not even Riley, who was talking to the Bachelorette when Yosef walked up. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but something’s come up, and I really need to talk to you for one minute,” he told Clare.
While walking her away to a secluded area, he explained, “Something’s been brought to my attention by Tyler C. … and I just want to hit it head on, because I feel like he’s trying to drag my name through the mud. … But I just wanted to be honest with you and tell you what’s going on.”
Let’s be clear, though: This isn’t Clare’s first rodeo either. She’s been on four different seasons of this franchise, and she knows all about squashing the drama before it starts. Though she’ll let some of it play out for the producers’ sake, she’s all not interested in doing the back-and-forth he-said-he-said that comes with trying to parse out what exactly the truth is. Instead, she gathers both men in the same for the second half of their showdown.
Do You Even DM, Bro?
Once she’s got both men on the same couch — and herself firmly planted between them as mediator — she’s ready to get the party started. “Something has been brought to my attention that you were talking to him about talking to a girl during quarantine,” she said, getting right to the heart of the controversy. “What was it exactly that she said to you?”
Tyler C. scrambled to explain there was a “video that had been sent, like, repeatedly [that] seemed to be a mass message [saying], ‘Hi, good morning, beautiful, hope you have a good day,’” but... that’s where we need to pause for a second.
All of this time is being spent on litigating whether or not someone sent a video being a simp to a bunch of Instagram hotties? Or is Tyler C. just too much of a ~gentlemen~ to make it clear that the video was distinctly less PG-rated (I'm thinking more along the lines of 90 Day Fiancé star Colt Johnson’s infamous “Good morning, my dick” texts)?
That’s not the part that Clare gets hung up on, though. She just wants to verify the facts as they’re laid out. “Did you do that?” she asks Yosef, who pretty much dodges the question.
“First of all, I mean, if I was going to message someone, they would respond to me,” he clarifies, which is just an absolutely abysmal start. He continues, “I have more respect for myself, and I wouldn’t do that to myself.” No mention of respect for women on the receiving ends of such hypothetical messages, but sure.
He does his best to make it clear that he brought the issue to Clare to make it clear that his intentions “remain true” and he wants to set an example for his daughter. He fits in all the buzz words he can: “My intentions remain true.” “I have to set an example for my daughter.” “I’m here for you.” “The main thing is: Do I have a girlfriend? No.”
When Clare takes a page out of Hannah B.’s book and asks him if there’s a girl that thinks she’s his girlfriend, he says the answer is another no. “I have nothing to hide,” he says, smirking and shrugging. Tyler C. remains unconvinced.
“But how reckless would I have looked —” he tries to jump in, ever ready to stand up for women everywhere — but not Clare. She doesn’t need him to defend her, and she’s already over whatever this social media mess is.
“Guys, can I interrupt you for a second? I feel like there are still a lot of men here that I haven’t spoken with. … I don’t wanna keep this going, but I know you guys probably have some words to talk out yourself. I have some things to think about. … So do what you gotta do. I’m gonna continue chatting. And I’ll talk to you guys in a little bit.”
The Takeaway? Clare Is A Pro
And with that, Clare has pulled off an expert-level lead maneuver. While remaining polite and friendly with both men, she dismisses them with a thank you and lets her smile drop immediately as she turns to walk away.
The Bachelorette has made it clear that, at age 39 (she's 39 in case you didn't catch that in the season preview), she’s not wasting any more time when it comes to love. And she’s definitely not wasting anymore time on volleying accusations back and forth between two guys she’s not that invested in when she already declared another man her husband the second that he stepped out of the limo.
Clare has been around the block when it comes to love and when it comes to Bachelor Nation — and when it came to extinguishing this particular issue, she was practically a professional. While she did ultimately end up keeping Yosef around at the rose ceremony, we can only assume it was for one reason, and that’s to spread the word to all of the other men in the house that she’s here to find her husband, not to play referee to anyone else’s interpersonal relationships.
Images: ABC