If you’ve watched cable TV – or, honestly, been on Twitter – in the past two and a half months, then you’ve heard about the current season (Season 15) of The Bachelorette. Our Bachelorette, Hannah Brown, was a contestant on Season 23 of The Bachelor earlier this year, and I, for one, was stoked to see her picked. “Hannah B.” was my personal favorite from the recent Bachelor season, and surely, a great love story would be in store for her as the next Bachelorette.
Well, maybe. But it has been an entertaining season, and throughout, I’ve been discussing my thoughts on the episodes and contestants with Substream Digital Content Editor Logan White and contributor Scott Waldman. On Monday, July 22, the show’s “Men Tell All” episode aired, and before the two-part finale next week, Logan, Scott, and I wanted to share our personal highlights from the show.
Below, we each share our top three moments from Season 15 of The Bachelorette, diving in to the greatest scenes with our favorite – and least-favorite – contestants.
(BTW – there are spoilers below.)
Logan’s top three moments from Season 15 of The Bachelorette
Logan White: I’m the only one on this list who did not put something specifically about Luke P. in the top three, which was by design – because I was like, “well I could do top three moments where two and three are her yelling at Luke and number one would be sending him home, right” – but that was too easy. If we want to start with number three, which is her chugging the wine with them arguing amongst themselves, which – is one of my favorite scenes, just a nice little, brief, two-second – but it’s a phenomenal scene from this season.
Scott Waldman: I remember watching that scene specifically with Kelli, and being very, very, very smiley – so, that.
Molly Hudelson: Logan and I, throughout this season, have been live-Snapchatting and texting each other every episode, and I think that was one of the only episodes where we were like, “YES! This is good – we get you, girl, we relate” – that was one of the times I did not feel like I was gonna throw a brick at my television.
LW: Yeah, I enjoyed that scene…. That was the moment where I was like, “Hannah, you’re finally doing what all of us have been doing, which is wanting to do nothing but chug alcohol while you make terrible decision after terrible decision” – which has essentially been this entire season.
SW: Yeah! What I don’t want to do in this article – one of my pet peeves for music critics or TV critics or film critics or anyone who’s a critic in general, is sometimes they just say mean things without a foundation. Obviously for Luke P. it’s different, ’cause his foundation is like an Alt-Right foundation, so that’s open, I think, for this kind of shit… so I don’t want us to be hypocritical and basically be assholes when talking about assholes.
LW: Yeah. Luke is easy, we could do all this and no one would look at that and go, “Ah, that’s shitty of them” – but if we were gonna start talking too poorly on Hannah, she’s gotta have some dumb decisions, I think she’s made poor decision after poor decision, but I don’t want to sit here and be like, “she’s actually the dumbest person in the world.”
LW: If we’re gonna do my second favorite moment of this show, it would have to be the entire saga with the windmill. When they started advertising that, my first thought was, “Oh my god, she’s gonna fuck Jed in the windmill.” Jed is not my favorite contestant on this show – so when it turned out to be Peter, I thought, “you know what, honestly – good for him.” He’s a great guy – well, he’s a great guy on the show. When she was talking to Luke about it and she was like, “You know I fucked a guy in a windmill, and we did it a second time” – that’s all I needed from her. The [moment] where she looked at him and basically said, “Fuck you” – that was all that I needed. That was my second favorite moment because that was when she basically realized she didn’t have to answer to Luke, and hopefully never has to answer to him again.
MH: Yeah. And I think – this is something I sort of hinted at in mine – but The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, they love to be sort of secretive about “what happens in the fantasy suite”, and Hannah was like, “No – I had sex – twice” – and she wasn’t dancing around, she was like, “Yeah – this is what happened.”
SW: That’s a very good point. I want to extend on that – pun intended – so basically, with that point (pun intended), they often do a lot of these really Christian people on the show, who don’t want to talk about that. She’s an openly Christian person on the show and she did that, so I think that that’s extra badass.
MH: There was a whole article on Slate that was basically like, how revolutionary it is that, A, Hannah is open about having had sex on this show, and B, that she is Christian and having had sex.
LW: My best moment is when Mike and Hannah went on their one-on-one date in Scotland. It was an amazing time, it was a great time. It was one of the more pure moments on this show for me, I think, just because – Mike is such a good guy, and I think we all knew Mike was a great guy, but that date was when he was opening up to her and just being like, “this is a great time, I’m so happy to be here with you.” It was phenomenal – and like I said, I’m not mad that she sent him home, because I do think he’s too good for her, just based on how she’s been acting – not with her excursion in the fantasy suites, but just in general, how she’s been acting with the other guys, and she’s been – in my humble opinion – keeping the wrong guys around. I hope he’s the next Bachelor, we can only hope, and that’ll be my favorite thing ever, if they do Mike justice like that.
MH: Yeah. I would love to see him as the next Bachelor. Although I kind of fear like – what if all the contestants on The Bachelor suck? – but I do want that for him. He is so great, and I want him to be the Bachelor, if only for redemption for how he didn’t get picked in this season.
SW: I don’t have insider info… but I have a feeling it’s either him or Peter, unless Peter wins. That’s my honest prediction, but I’ve been wrong.
LW: I think both of those make sense. I think I joked awhile ago in our group chat – what would happen if it was Luke P.? – but I don’t think they would do that. I think that just wouldn’t make sense. If Peter were to lose, he would be a great candidate for it, too, so I would be content if it were him or Mike – but I would obviously watch it either way, now that I’m hooked on this ridiculous series. I could see both of those making good sense.
SW: I think Peter’s family was way wackier than he was – they’re uber-Christian too, and he’s nice, but nice isn’t good TV, and he’d be more boring, but I would like him just because he seems nice. But I would rather it be Mike, for every single reason on the planet… what a way to have the first African-American Bachelor be him.
MH: He’d also be the first veteran Bachelor – Mike is an Air Force vet.
Molly’s top three moments from Season 15 of The Bachelorette
MH: My number three moment on the Bachelorette this year was Hannah and Jed writing a song together during hometowns. So I will give the caveat that Jed is maybe not a super great person, for having a girlfriend and also for going on this show to further his music career – you’re supposed to go on this show to find true love and find a spouse – but I really loved this moment because writing a song about someone can be super romantic, a really great way to tell that person how you feel; creating or building something together with your partner is a good chance to bond and make memories together – and writing a love song with that person? I mean – come on, you are just making some beautiful, new, loving, romantic memories together. I thought that was a really sweet moment – I know that was not a popular moment in terms of ones the crowd loved on the show, but I thought that was a really sweet moment.
SW: Your justification for it makes sense for you; I don’t like Jed at all, as an artist manager and as a former artist, because I don’t think he’s sincere and the infidelity- but you open it up by saying he kind of sucks, so because of that, I’m cool with it. Counter-argument, that’s malicious, but opposite of counter-argument – he does suck, so I support it.
LW: Yeah. I would agree with the sentiment that he sucks. I think it was a generally sweet idea. I don’t like that they were the two that did it – but like you said, the idea of writing a song for somebody is one thing, but writing a love song and writing it together – it’s a sweet moment, it could be a really cute thing. However, given that it’s Jed, I’m like, “ugh.” It was really cringe-y to me; I think it’s really cringe-y to watch, I think it’s still a sweet moment, but even if it was a perfect couple, I wouldn’t want to watch them write it together, ’cause I think that’s really uncomfortable, but maybe just ’cause I’m gonna die alone.
SW: They “write it together.”
LW: Right – we’re using the term them “writing it” very loosely – I thought it was a cringe-y moment, but I agree with Scott…. It’s a sweet moment, in general, but Jed does suck.
MH: My number two is another moment about our fave Mike. I think it was the third episode, it was pretty early on – and Mike is talking to Hannah at the cocktail party, and he just opens up. He shares that his ex lost a pregnancy and he felt a lot of guilt about it. I thought that the way he opened up was really stand-up and respectful. A lot of people struggle with being emotionally unavailable, and I think Mike was able to be vulnerable in a way that was still really classy and respectful, and not in a way that was like, “I’m gonna dump all my problems on you” but “Hey, I’m sharing this about myself because I want you to know who I am.” Like Logan said before, Mike is just a class act throughout the season – he gets sent home and he’s not an ass about it. He’s sad but he’s classy about it. I really liked that moment early on because I feel like it really showed his character.
SW: I agree.
LW: Yeah, I would say – the biggest thing is, one, when you say he handles him being sent home with grace – the biggest thing is he actually goes, he doesn’t come back like Luke does. He doesn’t leave the premises and go, “I’m coming back” and barge back in. He just goes, you know – so one, that’s respectful – but yeah, in a way, opens up to her, he seems genuine. He was doing it because he actually wanted to and not as a play up, “I’m gonna do this and you’re gonna feel guilty for me” – like you said, I think he really wanted her to know, “this is where I’m coming from, this help shaped me to be the person I am, and I just want you to know” – not like a Luke P., manipulative, “I’m gonna do this and you’re gonna keep me around because I lost a baby”, kind of thing, so… I miss Mike, is what I’m saying.
MH: Same.
SW: Yeah – he’s awesome. The only thing I didn’t like about him is that he kind of threw that other Luke (Stone) under the bus for leaving.
LW: He did.
SW: Aside from that, I liked him. He implied that the other Luke (S.) was not man enough, or whatever, and I thought that guy was literally just standing up for himself. Aside from that- I still give him an A, not an A+.
LW: Yeah, that would be a blemish. I think that was a little bit of a weak moment for him, but we’re gonna look at it on the grand scheme of things.
SW: We’re human.
LW: If that’s his biggest flaw… he seems like he was the only contestant that would’ve fought Luke P. if things went south, and I was gonna be a big fan of that.
SW: I would’ve loved to have watched that almost as much as someone beating up Donald Trump.
LW: I do, and I don’t think that Luke would’ve stood a chance. That would’ve been a good time.
SW: Oh yeah, he would’ve gotten – I think that Tyler would’ve annihilated him, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V67eThktnMw?start=374
MH: My number one was also Scott’s number two – there was a very publicized moment from the show where Hannah says, “I have had sex, and Jesus still loves me.” She is just completely going on this absolute tirade at Luke P.; they’re on a date, it’s supposed to be the fantasy suite night. At this point we know that Luke P. is very religious; he had told Hannah this story of hearing the voice of God and finding his faith in the shower. So they’re on this date and he reveals that it would be a deal-breaker if she’d had sex with any of the other guys, and finally, she stands up for herself against Luke P.’s complete slut shaming, and she goes on this rant that they’re not married, he doesn’t own her body, and her having had sex doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t love her. I mentioned that The Bachelorette loves to not – like in general, historically, this show loves to not talk about sex, but Hannah is sex-positive here, which I thought was cool. But yeah – it’s her coming to her senses and realizing just how awful Luke P really is.
SW: ‘Cause we need a reminder, right?
MH: Right, right.
LW: Yeah. That was one of my favorite moments, just because I had been waiting for that for so long, because she deserves to do that. [He’s been] such a frustrating character all season, so it was great to see her finally be like, “You know what dude, NAH – you don’t get to do this, you don’t get to continue manipulating me and telling me that I have to fit your perfect mold of what a religious woman is and what it would take to love somebody”, so I respect her for that. But we’ll see…. I hope he never comes back on TV ever again. Any show, ever.
SW: He will, he’s good TV – they always bring people back, unless his family is like, “bro, you were horrible on this, and we’re obviously horrible people because we raised you – we don’t want you to do this, so don’t do it.”
MH: On The Bachelor earlier this year, this girl Demi was kind of the universal hated character and she even came back on The Bachelorette.
SW: She had redeeming qualities, though – like that’s the thing. Yeah, she was kind of bitchy and Corinne was also more of a B-I-T-C-H – but… Luke P., the only people that would like him are fundamentalist Christians, that’s it. No one else will like him – unless you like him. In which case, no, I love him.
MH: No, absolutely not.
LW: Me too.
SW: I was being silly.
Scott’s top three moments from Season 15 of The Bachelorette
SW: Every time that Luke P wasn’t on the show.
SW: I feel like I should mention Luke P. in number 2, too, because that was like the consistent thing with the “fuck that guy” thing, and I like that part… oh, the shower scene, maybe.
MH: Mmm, yeah.
LW: Love it.
SW: The fore-showering scene. And it’s perfect because then I use number one to talk about the things that I don’t want to say out loud anymore.
SW: Tyler (and Garrett) – Tyler (and Garrett’s) smug smug smug smug (did I mention “smug”) attitude towards the aforementioned/adouchecanoementioned Luke P. made me smugly smugly smugly smugly smile. FUCK. THAT. GUY. P.S.- Devin deserves an honorable mention too for (literally) calling Luke P. a “douche canoe”.
MH: I like that.
LW: I’m a big fan, let’s do it.
MH: Yeah, yeah.
SW: I intentionally put Garrett in parentheses, ’cause I didn’t like him as much as Tyler. Remember I was like – in the beginning, I didn’t like him, and then in the end, I did? “We can always trust what Hannah wants”… but I think that that’s good.
