It's a Bachelorette season—or should I say seasons?—like no other. In 2021, Katie Thurston is the first of two Bachelorettes, followed in the fall by fellow Matt James contestant Michelle Young. You'll remember Katie, whose season premiered June 7, 2021, as the straight talker who wasn't afraid to put the other girls in their place—and, oh yeah, the girl who hilariously brought a vibrator to meet Matt on night one. If you're here because you're wondering if Katie got engaged—or if you just crave spoilers in general—you're in the right place.
First, some context: Thurston's season comes at a turbulent time for the Bachelor franchise. As the first Black Bachelor, Matt James's season was meant to be historic—but instead, it was marred by bullying and, later, the racist social media activity of James's winner Rachael Kirkconnell. (They broke up, but it seems they're back together now, FWIW.) Chris Harrison went on Extra to defend Kirkconnell's behavior—something even Kirkconnell had begged people not to do—and tried to mansplain the situation to former Bachelorette, and Black woman, Rachel Lindsay. (Lindsay has now said she's removing herself entirely from the franchise). Harrison was suspended as host, which is why he isn't on Thurston's season—her hosts are former Bachelorettes Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe—nor on Bachelor in Paradise. The day after Thurston's season began airing, ABC confirmed that Harrison will not be returning to the franchise at all.
Ahead, everything you wanted to know about Katie Thurston's season, start to finish. Spoilers ahead, obviously.
Does Katie get engaged?
Let's get straight to the big question, shall we? Namely, did Katie find the man of her dreams on her season and get engaged to him?
Yes, she did! Per Reality Steve: "Katie definitely got engaged at the end of this. And unless she breaks up before the finale, which I guess anything can happen, but she’s happy and engaged as we speak, so I’d expect that to last til the finale you’d think."
Reality Steve is usually, but not always, correct about his end-of-his season predictions. But even outside of that, we know that filming ended a week ahead of schedule. Obviously, we don't know why—but it's possible that Thurston was so certain about her decision that she didn't want to waste any time.
Katie, for her part, revealed to The Hollywood Reporter: “I found love more than once, I’ll say that! Through it all, everything happens for a reason, and I am happy.”
And even though Katie ends up engaged (more on who she gets engaged to in a minute), the ending may be...messy. “The end gets crazy. It’s, like, not traditional at all. And I’m like, ‘What the f—k is happening?’" Katie said on Nick Viall's podcast. She also said she got her "heart broken."
Says Reality Steve: "We know who she eventually ends up with, but how she gets there is another story. Seems like it’s gonna be pretty messy."
Who wins Katie's season?
The even bigger question! According to Reality Steve, the final contestants are—drum roll—
- Justin Glaze
- Michael Allio
- Greg Grippo
- Blake Moynes
And the winner of Katie's Bachelorette season, according to Reality Steve, is...
Blake Moynes.
If his name sounds familiar to you, it's because Moynes was a contestant on the last season of The Bachelorette, falling first for Clare Crawley and then for Tayshia Adams. Crawley left her own season to be with Dale Moss, leaving Moynes heartbroken—and Adams ultimately rejected him too. Meaning that Moynes gets engaged to Katie (yay!) while his ex watches (oof).
Nick Viall questioned Moynes' ~intentions~ on Us Weekly's podcast about The Bachelor. "Blake is going to get crap, obviously, for someone who fell in love with Clare without validation, fell in love with Tayshia, without validation. So, when he’s [saying], ‘I’m in love with Katie,’ it’s fair to question.”
One thing is certain: Thurston and Moynes were in communication before her season. "I definitely knew who he was, which also Tayshia’s ex-boyfriend! So that’s weird," Thurston told Us Weekly. "We had chatted before, but usually what happens is, like, the guys will reach out to the women once they’re eliminated and be like, ‘Good luck, you did great.’ Like very generic, you know? And so to see him, I was like, ‘Why is he here?’ Like, ‘What’s happening?’”
She went into more detail on the Chicks in the Office podcast. “I will say coming off my season with Matt, people were really shipping [Blake] and I before...So I was a little familiar with who he was and his background.” But she was still thrown when he showed up, she added. "I was shocked. I was not expecting that at all."
What happens between Katie and Greg?
Grippo, for what it's worth, may just turn into a late-stage villain. On Viall's podcast, Katie noted that there will be another villain towards the end of the show: "I tried to get rid of the villains. I tried to get rid of them... ‘Boom, boom, boom, go,’ and then they just keep reappearing."
![the bachelorette abc's "the bachelorette" stars greg craig sjodinabc via getty images](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/gettyimages-1233076514.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.667xh;0,0.0216xh&resize=768:* "ABC's "The Bachelorette" - Season 17")
During the overnight date portion of the season, Greg apparently has a "meltdown" and goes to Katie to explain that he doesn't understand why she might pick anyone else, per Reality Steve. "They have a blowout fight during the overnight dates which essentially causes him to leave the show and it upsets Katie a lot. Maybe she really was set to pick him but saw this side and realized better. But nothing about this fight is going to look good for Greg." RS says he's been told it may be the worst fight that's ever been seen on the show.
Added RS: "All I know is Greg basically eliminates himself after the blowup with Katie that went on for hours. I have no idea what they’re going to show. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of it, but how they show it, and who they choose to focus on and where their edit is biased towards will be interesting."
