This year's episode of The Bachelorette: Men Tell All was mostly a pointless recap of all the petty man-drama this season, but there was a very important Bachelorette promo at the end of it. With just two episodes left to wrap up Katie Thurston's season, the preview explored the dramatic fashion in which things end. While Thurston has stayed pretty level-headed all season, she's pushed to her limits in the next couple of weeks... to the point where she threatens to leave the show. Sadly there's no Colton Underwood-style fence jump, just Thurston in a locked bathroom asking to go home.
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Here's what Bachelor Nation needs to know about the drama to come — especially since there are some major format changes from previous years.
Someone else decides to leave The Bachelorette.
Michael Allio just exited the season of his own volition, but he may not be the last contestant to do so. The promo showed Thurston saying, "I'm losing you" while she was shown talking to Blake Moynes. Greg Grippo was also shown storming off, and Justin Glaze fretted, "I don't even know if I can do this." The promo seems to be suggesting that one of Thurston's finalists may leave early, perhaps causing her to want to leave as well. "I am done," she shouts at the camera crew in one moment before shutting herself in the bathroom. "I want someone to book my flight home."
Katie's season wrapped filming early.
Thurston conceivably may leave the show early, because according to Us Weekly, filming for this year's Bachelorette wrapped a week ahead of schedule. "Katie was in control and made sure the men she wanted were there and the men she wasn’t interested in, she sent packing," a source claimed to the outlet. If she didn't quit, perhaps she realized who she wanted to end up with and just sent the other two men home at once instead of dragging it out over two weeks.
There won't be a dedicated Fantasy Suites episode.
Usually Fantasy Suite week gets its own episode, but with just two weeks left, the Fantasy Suites will be sharing screen time with the Hometown dates episode or the finale rather than getting dragged out for two hours. That further suggests that someone left early or Thurston sent multiple people home at once — there was apparently not enough content to give Fantasy Suites its own episode.
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The Bachelorette finale won't be two episodes.
In some previous seasons, finales have been spread over two nights, but Thurston's season will wrap up neatly in a single episode on August 9. It will be three hours
No word on whether there will be an After The Final Rose special.
There isn't a dedicated After the Final Rose special listed so far either, however the finale will be three hours long, so it's possible the final hour is reserved for the usual after-show. That said, Tayshia Adams' season also didn't have a wrap-up episode, but that is hopefully a COVID-era anomaly. It's also possible that with Los Angeles County's COVID cases on the rise again, and the region's return to indoor masking, that the logistics of filming an AFTR-style special are still in flux.
And yes, Katie's Bachelorette season is shorter than usual.
Between Allio's exit and Thurston reportedly cutting the season's filming a week short, things are going to speed to a close at an unusual rate for this series. Sometimes we're all begging for a Bachelor or Bachelorette season to end (looking a certain pilot's trainwreck season), but Thurston's has been pretty enjoyable thanks to her candidness and the addition of Adams and Bristowe — two genuine experts in this field — taking up the hosting mantle. The bummer is that we only get to enjoy this season for two more weeks, instead of the usual three and a double finale. But perhaps that's actually for the best.