Sometimes, your entire life has been leading up to one pivotal moment. For Bachelor Colton Underwood, it was jumping the fence. For 23-year-old Nathan from Washington, it was watching Bachelor Colton Underwood jump the fence. Both dreams came true Monday night.
It was around the third week of the ABC reality series that Nathan decided to start the Twitter account @DidColtonJump, made entirely to document whether or not the show finally aired in full the moment they had been teasing all season. Ultimately, it went down during fantasy suites, when Cassie decided to go home, leaving Underwood heartbroken. But it was a long, long road to get there.
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On February 5, Nathan kicked off the account with a short, simple answer to what would end up being a big question: "Did Colton Jump Over The Fence?"
No. But he had us going there for a second. #TheBachelor
— Did Colton Jump Over The Fence? (@DidColtonJump) February 5, 2019
A week later? No dice.
Nope. Let’s try again next week. #TheBachelor
— Did Colton Jump Over The Fence? (@DidColtonJump) February 12, 2019
Soon, the hopelessness set in.
Nah. Why do I let myself get so excited each week? #TheBachelor
— Did Colton Jump Over The Fence? (@DidColtonJump) February 26, 2019
The account was just saying what everyone was thinking, and Underwood even got in on the fun, frequently teasing the fence jump and even referencing @DidColtonJump on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s podcast, Off The Vine.
But on Monday, it was confirmed. The fence jump was happening — we had to get the unofficial expert to weigh in.
"That whole scene leading up to it was so sad I almost felt bad being so excited," Nathan told Refinery29 via email Tuesday afternoon.
While there was obviously a sense of relief that came with the moment, Nathan was quickly overcome with a different emotion: admiration. "It was an athletic feat," he said of the actual lift off itself.
Ahead, he breaks it down, beat by beat.
"First off, as you can see in the first picture, he’s just casually walking towards it," Nathan explained. "He’s not speed walking, jogging, or running. He’s just walking. He has no momentum."
"Now let’s look at the second picture. Colton is 6’3”. That fence is easily standing at 6’5”. He just does a minor squat before jumping. He barely bends his knees," Nathan pointed out. "Keep in mind that this man is in dress clothes. I don’t know if you’ve ever worn dress clothes, but it’s nearly impossible to do anything athletic. There’s no give in the outfit. Yet here he is bounding over this fence. Third, in my whole life I’ve never seen a person jump over a fence without using their legs at some point. He swings his legs over so effortlessly it’s ridiculous. That’s some Americans Ninja Warrior stuff."
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Nathan also pointed out an important fact that makes this whole thing even more impressive:
"Let me also quickly take you back to earlier in the episode when he was with Tayshia and said he never stretches. He was not warmed up at all before this. I mean he was so not warmed up AT ALL. And still cleared it with ease...I personally tried to clear some fences earlier this week and I’ll tell you it did not go nearly as well. If he doesn’t get a call from an NFL team after this then I don’t know what they’re thinking."
Nathan gives credit to ABC and the production team for flawlessly dragging out this moment, and then actually delivering. It was "an amazing moment" — so amazing, you almost forget that it wasn't the finale of the show. The Bachelor continues tonight with Women Tell All, but let's hope the fence has some things to say too.
As far as the account itself? Nathan "has a couple of tweets up his sleeves" for the remaining weeks, but consider his final rose already given. He and Colton-jumping-the-fence got the fairytale ending we'd all been hoping for.
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