If you’re an avid member of Bachelor Nation, you already know that Clare Crawley is this season’s Bachelorette and, dare I say, the most mature Bachelorette ever – and not just because she’s the oldest. In last night’s episode Clare called out her men in ways that no Bachelorette ever has, which comes as no surprise after her iconic exit from Juan Pablo’s season. Instead of trying to keep the peace for the sake of television, Clare isn’t afraid to speak her mind.
The first cringe-inducing moment of the night came after the first group date, when Clare gave a toast that was followed by an awkward silence in which no one tried to pull her aside. The poor girl literally had to ask if anyone wanted to pull her aside before Bennett was the first to step up (side note: I’m so here for Bennett right now, those glasses are ?). For a group of men all trying to date Clare, they were awfully comfortable to just hang out as a group.
During her one on one with Bennett, Clare still couldn’t shake the awkwardness of earlier, so she went back out to confront the men. It felt like a teacher lecturing her students. Yosef tried to cut in and “speak for the group” when Clare, obviously annoyed, cut him off and said, “You don’t need to speak for the group, you need to speak for yourself. If you guys all want to hang out with each other you can do that and I can go home and go to bed.” Yikes.
While this one was hard to watch, I completely understand where Clare was coming from. The Bachelorette is essentially 30 men competing over one woman, and they should be showing her they care by taking initiative to talk to her every chance they get.
To continue on the theme of awkward encounters, Clare’s conversation with Brandon was painful to watch. In case you missed it, after a group date Clare was chatting with Brandon when she candidly asked him what made him want to come on the show, to which he said he immediately signed up when he knew Clare was going to be the Bachelorette. When Clare asked what about her specifically made him want to sign up, all he could come up with was a lame, “First of all, you’re obviously absolutely gorgeous.” Clare was rightfully annoyed he couldn’t come up with anything else and sent him home on the spot.
While, to Brandon’s point, he did just meet Clare and doesn’t know much about her, I would be put off, too, by a guy who can only comment on my looks. I don’t know about you, but this whole conversation made me cringe. Clare made it clear that she’s not here to play and won’t be going easy on these guys. She even says that her “saving grace” is that she knows what she wants, and won’t keep someone around if there’s no connection.
From night one, Clare made it clear she is not here for games and fully intends to find her husband by the end of this. Based on last night, I’m confident she’ll do just that.