The Bachelorette Recap: Katie Thurston’s Journey Begins
Katie Thurston is ready for love! After her time as a contestant on Matt James’ season of The Bachelor, Katie Thurston is officially The Bachelorette. Welcome to season 17 Bachelor Nation fans, let the journey begin!
Here is the scoop on the episode 1 recap of Katie Thurston’s season of The Bachelorette!
Katie Thurston is Ready For Love
Katie Thurston is ready to find love. She tells audiences about growing up with a nontraditional family. She says that her parents divorced when she was a baby and that she went to five different elementary schools, so she never saw a typical healthy marriage growing up. Now, after making her way in the world she is ready to find love of her own and start a life with someone!
It is time to meet the guys! Here is the first look at some of the guys Katie Thurston will meet.
Connor B., 29
First, we meet Connor B. Connor is an 8th grade math teach who loves his students. When he is not teaching he also dabbles in music and also plays songs on his ukulele!
Karl, 31
Karl is a motivational speaker from Miami, Florida. He brings along a portrait of himself and Katie together.
Brendan, 26
Brendan is a firefighter from Toronto, Canada who also enjoys playing hockey!
Andrew S., 26
Andrew S. is a professional football player who likes to have fun by talking with a British accent. He even quotes Bridgerton! So Andrew, if things don’t work out with Katie, I will burn for you.
Mike, 31
Mike is a baseball player and he also owns a gym. While he respects that Katie is very sex-positive, Mike is a virgin and is saving himself for marriage.
Justin, 26
Justin is an Investment Sales Consultant who spends his free time making art. He is spending his time in quarantine creating a painting for Katie. While we can’t see the finished product, he is clearly painting something with roses!
Tre, 26
Tre is a software engineer who loves his family. He even gets a little choked up talking about his parents and their long marriage! Tre is also very excited about Katie and he says, “She’s got it.”
Greg, 27
Greg is a marketing sales rep from New Jersey and he is the youngest of four siblings. He has lots of nieces and nephews and he is ready to start a family of his own.
After the audience meets these eight great guys, it is time for Katie to meet her men too! Katie exits a limo wearing a beautiful red gown and takes her place ready to greet the guys. While she waits, she mentions that she is nervous to start this journey by herself.
Don’t worry Katie, help is on the way! Former Bachelorettes and now hosts of the show, Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe surprise Katie and the three sit down for a pep-talk. Both Kaitlyn and Tayshia encourage Katie to keep an open mind and not to rule any guys out right away. Tayshia even mentions that her fiance Zac Clark was not on her radar night one.
Katie says that she is looking for a confident guy who has a great sense of humor, but who also understands her serious side. She also mentions that she is open to kissing the guys on night one.
After the hosts share more advice with Katie, they say the iconic line, “Let the journey begin!”
Now Katie Thurston is ready to meet her men!
Katie Thurston Meets The Guys
As Bachelor fans know, this introduction is very important and you want to make a good impression. Some of the guys are prepared with gimmicks so Katie will remember them for sure!
Michael, 36 gives Katie a watch and tells her that it’s a precious family heirloom. Thankfully, he is only joking, but he still leaves Katie with some sweet advice saying, “Time’s precious, be happy, spend it with the people that you want to be with.”
Then Tre, whom we met earlier, arrives in a big shiny truck. He’s not driving it though, he pops out of the truck bed that is filled with ball-pit balls saying, “I’m here to have a ball with you.”
Later Andrew S. Arrives in a vintage car and introduces himself to Katie using his British accent before revealing his real voice.
Then Katie meets James, sort of. A huge present is wheeled up to Katie, and from inside James says, “I wanted to make sure I was present for you tonight.” He tells her that she will have to come find him and open her gift inside, so James is still a mystery.
Next Katie meets Cody, who has clearly done his homework. Cody introduces himself to Katie similar to the way she introduced herself to Matt. He then introduces Katie to someone who’s “been a huge part of my life, helped through a lot.” Then, Cody introduces Katie to his inflatable doll named Sandy which Katie finds hilarious.
The final gimmick comes from the final man out of the limo, Connor B. He emerges wearing a cat costume, catering to Katie’s love of cats. No good introduction is complete without puns, so it’s fitting when he tells Katie that it’s, “So mice to finally meet you.” Get it?
Katie Thurston’s First Night
Now it is time for the cocktail party! Katie hits things off right away with a number of the guys, and she is also very sweet with the ones who are a bit nervous. Greg presents Katie with a beautiful rainbow pasta necklace made by his niece, which she loves.
She and Tre relax in the truck-bed-turned-ball-pit. The two cover first-date topics like their middle names and family.
Also, Justin shows Katie his painting which is now a heart of roses and he snags the first kiss of the night!
As expected, the night has some low points too. Jeff shows Katie his RV which she generously describes as, “definitely lived in.”
Also, cameras suddenly cut to what appears to be an argument between Aaron and Cody. Aaron says, “I don’t like you, bro. Like, I’ve never liked you,” and later adds, “It’s not my fault that I don’t like you.” Unfortunately, we do not get to see how or why this disagreement started, so we will have to tune in next week to hopefully get some answers.
By now, the first impression rose is sitting on a table in front of the guys and some of them are getting nervous. It is crunch time and some men have not spoken to Katie yet.
Thankfully Katie’s evening continues to improve. She spends more time with Connor B., donning a pair of cat ears of her own, and they kiss quite a bit. His whiskers even get all over Katie’s face, but she doesn’t mind.
Katie also finally opens her present with James inside and she is pleasantly surprised that he is so handsome and so charming!
Also, Katie gets to know Michael more bonding over pets and Michael reveals that he has a 4-year-old son. They talk about kids and Katie shares that she indeed wants to be a mother one day.
First Impression Rose
After a long evening of getting to know 30 guys, Katie has a decision to make. Picking up the first impression rose, she walks into the room where a small group of men are sitting. Everyone thinks that she is going to give it to Connor B., but she surprises the guys and fans when she pulls Greg aside.
Katie’s coveted first impression rose goes to Greg and the two share a kiss. Later in his confessional, Greg is beaming in disbelief and he is so excited!
Katie Thurston’s First Rose Ceremony
Finally, the evening is coming to a close. Katie Thurston thanks the guys for taking the time to come out and meet her and also adds that if they do not receive a rose it is nothing against them. She also emphasizes that she wants her journey to end in an engagement and that she hopes they all understand the seriousness of the situation.
Katie gives roses to Tre, Michael A., Thomas, Garrett, Connor B., Andrew S., James, Justin, Quartney, Karl, Mike P., John, Kyle, Andrew M., Josh, Connor C., Brendan, David, Aaron, Christian, Hunter and Cody.
The guys who do not receive a rose are Austin, Brandon, Gabriel, Jeff, Landon, Marcus, and Marty.
A Closer Look At The Bachelorette Season 17
After the episode, we also get to see a more in depth trailer for the season and it looks as wild as ever! It looks like this season has everything! We can look forward to laughs, tears, kissing in the rain, the guys getting their armpits waxed, Katie wearing a wedding dress, and even a Nick Viall cameo.
But maybe the most surprising part is that Blake M. from Clare and Tayshia’s season is going to recreate Say Anything outside of Katie’s window!
I am so excited to see what happens next week! Who do you think is the front-runner in the race for Katie Thurston’s heart?
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