Brayden Bowers is so enigmatic it’s almost hard to describe him, and he’s the guy who has taken us on many a roller coaster ride in our journey together through Bachelor Nation. Bowers came in hot with shaggy hair, dangling earrings, and a dreamy smile in season 20 of The Bachelorette, and somehow even hotter in season 9 of Bachelor in Paradise.
Bowers first stole my heart on Charity Lawson’s season of The Bachelorette, and if you’re scratching your head reading that — I can’t say I totally blame you, but hear me out. I think he got the “bad guy” rep for many of the wrong reasons, and I’m willing to stand by that, even after his less-than-stellar actions on BIP in the latest episode.
I’m the first to say that BIP isn’t the same as other Bachelor Nation shows; it’s not about going after only one person and putting all of your eggs into that basket. Paradise is the place where you can feel different connections, and experience many dates to find your person; the whole dynamic of the series is to put a bunch of hot singles together and see what happens. No one has to put a ring on someone’s finger on night one — however, there’s a grey area that occurs when you’re building connections, telling someone how much you enjoy your time with them, looking at them like they might have actually hung the moon, and then giving those puppy dog eyes to someone else the very next day.
In fact, some of BIP‘s most juicy drama comes from that very thought this year — case in point: Kat Izzo, Brayden Bowers, Rachel Recchia, Tanner Courtad, and Davia Esther. Without getting too “in the waves,” I’ll sum it up by saying there have been a lot of bonds forming and ending in Paradise, and it’s happening quicker than you can ask Wells Adams for a drink. Still, this Brayden and Rachel thing has me questioning if my dreamy guy with Golden Retriever energy is stepping into his heartbreak era — or maybe more accurately, his heartbreaker era.
Say it ain’t so, Bray-Bray; I’ve been holding a candle for you since day one!
Is Brayden in his heartbreak era?
Brayden has been on quite the emotional roller coaster himself in this season of Paradise, and I just wanted to hug him — and maybe check out his earring collection — after Kat Izzo left my boy out there high and dry when the also-dreamy Tanner Courtad asked her out for a date.
She didn’t chat with Bray first, or check in after “forming a connection” with Tanner; she just left my guy out there, which hurt him. Now, I can feel you rolling your eyes, and telling me to get real, pointing out “they weren’t even in a real relationship yet,” and yes, I hear that. They hadn’t decided what they were just yet, but you could see that it upset Brayden not to have a voice in a story happening around him, and we saw a less tail-waggy version of Brayden in the days immediately after. We also saw Rachel dealing with some drama that she didn’t deserve, so when the “anon box” from Wells had a few notes that said Brayden and Rachel should make out, we were here for it.
In fact, we were here for them before BIP even started. If you remember, during After the Final Rose for Lawson’s season, they were in the audience together, and we were feeling the vibes then; we even ran to social media to see if something had formed between them, or if they were soon to be crowned our new favorite Bachelor Nation couple — but crickets were all we found.
Still, they were cute together, and I hoped that Paradise would be where they fell in love, because if I can’t date Brayden, I’m happy to cheer on Rachel while she does!
When Rachel and Brayden made out, it was hot — and the date card they got the next day, which allowed them to have a “connection” in becoming a pinata, brought out the best in both of them. Brayden is silly; he’s charismatic and dreamy — he’s a catch! Rachel is a stunner; she’s a bit guarded, but brings a lot to the table, and wants to ensure she saves a place for someone who deserves it. However, with Brayden, she let her walls down; she laughed and smiled and skipped like a girl falling for the guy who showed up and surprised her. We loved it, feeling like we were living out some Taylor Swift song. In fact — it felt like “Enchanted” and “That’s How You Get The Girl” coming together to form some epic mashup.
Rachel told Brayden she didn’t “expect anything” but that he’d surprised her, and she was glad they had grown to sort of build a friendship before going on this epic date. As she told him how much fun she had, and how his depth snuck up on her, he looked at her like he was hearing all of that for the first time — Rachel didn’t just see Brayden’s phenomenal abs, that super great jawline, and his smile; she saw him for who he was underneath all of that… beauty.
He looked like he felt “seen” for the first time, and as they kissed and walked off into the sunset together, you could tell that something big was happening.
The next day, BIP brought a new girl to the beach: Becca Serrano. She’d spent one episode on a season of The Bachelor, and promised that while the other romantic hopefuls might not have known who she was when she walked down, they’d remember her after. Don’t get me wrong — Becca is stunning, and I’m not here to say anything negative about her, but this is where the window for Brayden’s heartbreak era opens up, and for more than one reason.
Becca spoke to a couple of the guys before ultimately asking Brayden to go on a date with her, and he said yes, but asked to talk to Rachel first. He kind of spoke to Rachel, but it was more like a few seconds of Rachel grinning and bearing it, choosing to let him do what he obviously wanted to, and his not saying much else to her before skipping to carry Becca off to some romantic date. Oh, and that half-side hug? We felt that.
We also felt the steam coming off of Becca and Brayden’s tantric date. It was hot; I can’t deny that either, but it felt like it was missing something. Becca complimented all the things we all have about Brayden; his abs, and his general sex appeal, but whereas Rachel looked at him and truly saw him, this date for Becca and Brayden was more rooted in the physical.
We’ve had but mere moments with Becca, but she wowed Brayden, and while he had said he thought his date with Rachel was the most romantic, this one with Becca? He said it was even better, and that’s where a bit of the sting comes in for us. As we’ve said before, the producers this season are out for blood, but it stung to see Rachel questioning herself once again, while the guy she really felt something so substantial with was off feeling lots of intense things with another woman.
I think I can speak for many of us when I say we’ve been there. I can’t count how many times I’ve been Rachel, sitting back wondering how I could have been “the girl,” wishing I’d been more this, less that — just better, somehow.
Rachel was just hoping to “be better” for Brayden, and the thing is — she already was. So, as we see her upset, we wish Brayden had been better. He could have actually talked to her, sat down alongside her, and explained that he didn’t feel any differently, but would feel wrong not to see what the date with Becca had in store. That happens; it’s BIP, but he did Rachel a disservice by not communicating with her more clearly before he went on the Becca date.
Did he do anything wrong on the date? If you ask our Team Brayden and Rachel hearts, we might say he hurt them, but we can’t shame the guy for experiencing the date with Becca; she’s gorgeous, and it was all lined up for things to get perfectly steamy — which it did.
The Brayden-causing heartache era is a two-sided coin, though, because we think Brayden is giving himself a bit of the heartache era, too. Rachel seemed smitten by him for many reasons, and while the bond between Becca and Brayden might grow deeper, too, we wish he’d reserved some space for what he had built with Rachel so far.
Leaving us on quite the cliffhanger, we’re not sure what next week’s episode will bring, but we get the feeling that it’s not leading to sunshine and rainbows for Rachel and Brayden. Brayden seemed utterly swept up in everything happening with Becca, and we think we’ll want to pick out earrings with Rachel when we see the fallout next week. However, as I said above, these two did look adorable together during ATFR, so maybe we’re wrong, or maybe time apart brought them back together in the end.
Who knows? All we know for sure is that Becca and Rachel both have one thing on their mind: Brayden, and we can’t blame them, but it’s giving us “All Too Well” and “Last Kiss” vibes now, and we miss being enchanted.
Published: Nov 3, 2023 02:26 pm