The Bachelorette is one unwieldy ride of a show, wherein contestants are oftentimes not who they seem (uh, Girlfriend Guy Scott), or exactly who they seem, even though the Bachelorette doesn’t want to believe it (see: Luke P.). One contestant on Hannah’s season of The Bachelorette who has thus far flown under the radar despite somehow becoming a fan favorite early on in the season is high-haired Bachelorette contestant Garrett Powell. So is he who he seems to be?
It’s interesting to think that the Alabama-born golf pro, who was the first to step out of a limo on Night One, is still kickin’ it on the show now that the season’s at its all-important midway point, and yet, as viewers, we’ve still not really gotten to know who he is. A big part of this, no doubt, is the fact that the season has quickly become the Luke P. Show, with a great amount of precious Bachelorette air time devoted to the born-again Christian and his shenanigans — which is also, incidentally, why Garrett has slowly started to get more screen time over the last few weeks.
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Unfortunately, even Southern gentlemen like Garrett, he with hair-to-the-high-heavens, aren’t immune to the drama — and his upcoming entanglement with Luke P. is something to be concerned about. The relatively soft-spoken contestant won Bachelor Nation over early on in the season with his sweet Southern charm and easygoing personality, and by largely keeping himself out of any unnecessary house fracas. He’s proclaimed that his focus is on his relationship with Hannah, which is admirable, but the wear and tear of having to deal with guys like Luke P. is really starting to take its toll, and become the focus of his time on the show.
For example, Garrett got pretty fiery in week 5, when the men packed their bags (and their emotional baggage) and hightailed it to Scotland. The previous week, Garrett opted to deliberately not talk to Hannah about the Luke P./Luke S. drama during the evening portion of the group date, though he was also the one who brought up the “elephant in the room” to the other men after the rugby date. Clearly, Luke P.’s obnoxious behavior is getting to him, and he’s getting a lot more vocal about it.
When Luke P. snagged the second one-on-one date of the week, for instance, his fellow contestants weren’t exactly thrilled. There were plenty of eye-rolls from the guys the morning he headed out to meet Hannah. But while the other men tried to keep their questions and conversations with the Luke-Ness Monster to a minimum (“You excited about your date?” someone asked blandly), Garrett wasn’t afraid to threaten Luke more explicitly.
“Be a man and keep our names out of your mouth,” he demanded of Luke P., who quickly adopted a “who, me?” facial expression as he reassured the men that he would never speak poorly of any of them. (Of course, minutes later, viewers watched him do that exact thing, naming the men who had wronged him in one way or another.)
Garrett’s managed to be a gentleman with all the other men in Hannah’s long parade of Bachelorette rejects (he memorably told Cam that he “didn’t appreciate” it when the wannabe rapper crashed a group date during the second week), but if his screen time continues to be contingent on other men’s drama and not his own relationship with Hannah, he may not be long for this Bachelorette world.