After months of rumors and weeks of teasing, Blake Moynes finally made his "surprise" arrival on The Bachelorette Monday, and, to the surprise of literally no one, managed to secure a spot in the house. As part of his plan to woo Katie Thurston into letting him join her season a few weeks late, Blake sat Katie down and told her that he had "been pretty vocal from the beginning, as soon as you stepped out of that limo, about what I thought about you." But... was he? Because I tried to look into everything Blake actually said about Katie before showing up on The Bachelorette, and it's not much.

It's no secret that fans have been shipping Katie and Blake ever since Katie debuted on Matt James' Bachelor. Blake knows it, Katie knows it, and the Bachelorettte producers definitely know it. But if Blake has had a massive crush on Katie this entire time, he's been hiding it pretty well.

I scoured the web to try to find anything Blake had said about Katie before it was confirmed that he was spotted on Katie's Bachelorette set. I listened to podcast interviews, went through his tweets, his Instagram posts, Reddit. And still, this is all I found.

The Twitter Exchange

This isn't exactly Blake saying anything about Katie directly, but he did respond to her tweet from January warning her mom not to watch the episode where women were tasked with writing steamy scenes for Matt. Nothing extraordinary, but it's worth noting that Blake didn't respond to any other contestant's tweets all season (at least not publicly).

The Instagram Likes

Blake first acknowledged the fans shipping him with Katie on Instagram in January right after Matt's season premiere, commenting on this meme back in January with a simple "Lollllll."

Over three months ago, right around the same time Katie was announced as the new Bachelorette, Blake liked a fan comment on one of his Instagram photos, suggesting that "Blake should hook up with Katie the new bachelorette."

The Podcast Shoutouts

Like all Bach alums, Blake has been making his way through the podcast circuit, but, while he's voiced his admiration for Katie before, he hasn't been super explicit about a potential crush.

2/11/21 — Chicks in the Office: "I like what Katie's about on Matt's season because she's just very open [about sex]."

• Appearing on Chicks in the Office, Blake briefly mentioned his admiration of Katie for her sex-positive attitude on The Bachelor, but, when pressed on who he'd want to see in Paradise, he gave a basic non-answer and didn't mention Katie at all. (Keep in mind, this was after Katie was sent home, but before she was announced as the next Bachelorette.)

2/16/21 — Mouthing Off with Olivia Caridi: "I like what [Katie's] about."

• Fellow Bach alum Olivia Caridi tried to get Blake to open up about his social media interactions with Katie on her podcast, but he avoided giving any specifics. At the time, he was still teasing a potential appearance on Bachelor In Paradise, and said that he wanted to go in open-minded and open to all potential connections.

I'm not sure what Blake was trying to do by saying he liked "what she's about," but instead of calling bullshit on his declarations to Katie from the episode, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he was just trying not to come off as too creepy. Gonna be honest though, I'm not sure a couple shoutouts on podcasts and a few Instagram likes really constitutes being "pretty vocal" about your feelings for someone. Though, given how sparse his social media presence is to begin with, I guess any specific comment is a lot coming from Blake.

My best guess is that maybe he's been more vocal in the DMs, and when talking personally to other Bach alums. Katie did say that he slid into her DMs after she was sent home on Matt's season to tell her she did a great job. (She told Nick Viall on The Viall Files this week that she wasn't into it at the time, and that he didn't really express much romantic interest either.) Sounds like we're going to have to wait until after the season's over to get the full story.

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