The Bachelor 2021 Power Rankings (Week 8 — Hometowns)

Here are my latest power rankings for Matt James’ season of The Bachelor.

All power rankings blog posts: week 9, week 8, week 7, week 6, week 5, week 4, week 3, week 2, week 1

NOTE: These power rankings account for everything that happens in the actual episodes. They do NOT take into account future episode previews or any spoilers floating around the Internet.

WARNING: SPOILERS from the eighth week coming.

Enjoy!

Source: Bachelor ABC Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/CLnZESbKFva/

1. Rachael, 24, a graphic designer from Cumming, Ga. (no change) — Although quite a few of the women have told Matt they are falling in love with him, Rachael is the only one who has heard it back. One telling moment is when Rachael’s father says “what [Matt’s] telling Rachael he could be turning around and saying to the other two or three ladies.” The key here is that Matt is not saying the same things to Michelle and Bri. That makes Rachael the undisputed frontrunner, and it doesn’t seem particularly close.
2. Michelle, 27, Teacher, Edina, MN (no change) —Matt has a strong connection with Michelle, and she seems to be the least likely of the remaining three women to leave of her own accord. When her dad asks her if she would say yes if he proposed now, she says yes without hesitation. She also tells Matt “I connect with you in a way that I’ve never connected with anyone before.” But when Michelle tells Matt she’s falling in love with him at the end of her Hometown, he does not tell her he’s falling in love with her as well. This is after Matt told Rachael he was falling in love with her three weeks ago. Michelle and Matt have solid chemistry, but she faces an uphill battle.
3. Bri, 24, a communications manager from San Francisco, Calif. (+1) — One thing I noticed right at the start of Bri’s Hometown is that the way she talks about their relationship, it seems like it’s still fairly early. Matt even says “I’m at a place right now with Bri that is comfortable, but we need to push past that.” That doesn’t quite sound like something you’d say to someone you’d be getting engaged to in two weeks. Nonetheless, Matt tells Bri’s mother that “the level that [Bri and I] connect on is different than the conversations and connections that I have with other women here.” Bri also tells Matt she’s falling in love with him, but he responds with his signature “thank you for sharing that with me” before leaning in for the kiss.

Sent Home:

• Serena P., 22, a publicist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (previously ranked 3) — We saw hints of this last week (the friend zone comment), but this week we finally learn that Serena is just not that into Matt. Although they have a fun Canada-themed Hometown date, she just can’t shake the feeling that Matt isn’t the one. One interesting comment is when Matt tells her “you are the person I’ve spent the most time with and that’s intentional.” This suggests that if she actually reciprocated his feelings, she could have easily made it to the end. But ultimately Serena eliminates herself from contention and walks Matt out of her place and into a limo. It was almost as if she was The Bachelorette and he was on her show! I suspect that if Serena hadn’t left of her own accord, she probably would have gotten the third rose over Bri.

Other Notes/Commentary:

• Rachael’s skydive landing looked extremely rough — I’m surprised she was able to brush it off so easily. Perhaps she really did need medical attention, but the episode just skipped that part.
• It’s good to see that they aren’t doing the whole ‘ask for permission from the parents’ thing anymore. It was always kind of awkward to have that happen with three other women remaining.
• Three of Matt’s Final Four are biracial women. Maybe that helped them bond with Matt since he is also biracial.
• Rachael is the overwhelming favorite at this point — I’m surprised the producers didn’t try to make it more suspenseful by playing up another relationship. However, in light of the news about the Rachael/Chris Harrison racism controversy, I think there’s a solid chance that Matt chooses Rachael but they break up soon after. It just seems like a very tough way to start out a relationship/engagement.
• In light of the above point, I’d like to re-up something I said last week…

There’s definitely a chance though that if things don’t work out between Matt and the remaining women, he could end up pursuing Heather outside the show. He did say that he values his good friend Hannah Brown’s opinion that they would be a good match.