WARING: potential spoilers ahead!
As a nation, we take our Bachelor Australia finales very seriously.
And as a nation, each and every year we are forced to face a deluge of pesky spoilers from a variety of outlets determined to ruin our national sport.
This week, The Bachelor Australia fans were plunged into darkness after The Daily Mail published a set of photos purporting to show fan favourite Laura Byrne being whisked away by a Bachelor producer for a romantic weekend away in The Blue Mountains with Matty J.
Their extremely detailed timeline of events, which you can read in full here, is certainly convincing although no photos of the pair physically together have surfaced.
Laura insists she was at her sister’s place up the road from her Rose Bay digs in Paddington while Matty claims he was in his spiritual home of Bondi all weekend.
“I was in Bondi the entire weekend, so I definitely wasn’t away that weekend,” the 30-year-old explained during an appearance on Nova’s Chrissie, Sam and Browny’s show.
Ok, so far so good.
Maybe Laura just really enjoys sleepovers at her sister’s place, even though she lives around the corner from her. You’re never too old for a slumber party, right?
But we’re going to have to deduct a point off Matty for posting an old photo from the snow on Sunday evening as news of the suggestive photos broke.
“Look I wasn’t at the snow, that was an old pic it was from a few weeks before,” he confessed of the decoy pic.
The devil is in the detail… Eagle-eye fans were quick to point out Matty is wearing the same snow gear from a few weeks ago (see below).
Look, we’re not going to lie. Things are looking pretty grim.
But we’re going to go out on a limb here and repeat the age old adage of reality TV – there’s always a plot twist at the end and the winner is never the obvious pick.
Laura has been a stand-out from day dot.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from years of sitting on the couch and being a self-appointed Bachelor expert it’s this – whoever you think is going to win, it’s always the opposite. We’re looking at you Lana Jeavons-Fellows, Nikki Gogan and of course Matty Johnson.
We’re stilling clinging onto hope that Bachelor hasn’t been ruined.
The show’s ultra-light beam Cobie Frost has also given us a glimmer of hope that the ending hasn’t been ruined after all.
When we caught up with the delightful coal mine operator, she told us one of her very good mates has ended up with MJ.
“He’s dating one of my girlfriends so I will see him and it’s all good,” Cobie explained.
While she refused to name names, she then went on to tell us that she was besties with Tara Pavlovic in the house.
“I spend most of my time with Tara and I’m really good friends with Simone,” she said, NOT mentioning either Laura or Elise.
It’s not much, but we’ll damn well take it!
In another kind of reassuring update, just yesterday Tara was nearly neck-and-neck with Laura as the bookie’s top pick.
Today, Laura has snuck back up to the top.
In conclusion, we can speculate til the roses dry up but we’re going to have to hold our horses til the grand finale next week.
The Bachelor winner odds (via Sportsbet)
$1.42 Laura (out from $1.40)
$3.30 Elise (in from $6.00)
$4.60 Tara (out from $4.00)
$21 Florence (out from $17.00)
Could Tara be the surprise winner?
