As the headline teases, this article will very likely reveal the winner of Matt James’s Bachelor season. Go away if you don’t want that.
Free advice to future Bachelor and Bachelorette leads: When your season ends, delete all of your apps. Buy a burner phone. Hell, even learn how to live without music. Because you could end up like Matt James, the LimeWire of leads. As first alerted to us by the Bachelor sub-Reddit, James has somewhat inadvertently spoiled his current Bachelor season due to his public Spotify history, as he listened to and “liked†a playlist curated by contestant Rachael Kirkconnell. The playlist, titled Night Drive and available to stream here, features 77 songs that include Greta Van Fleet’s “Highway Tune†and not, like, the Cars, which makes us question its integrity. (Meanwhile, this writer’s most recent Spotify playlist is called Rhythm Revue, a tribute to WBGO’s perfect weekly jazz show.) Kirkconnell, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Georgia, has had minimal screen time during the season so far, only emerging as a front-runner this week as a group-date rose recipient. Kirkconnell is also white — James has repeatedly stated that he finds it “frustrating†that fans assume he won’t end up with a woman of color.
Funny enough, this isn’t the first time that a Bachelor-franchise season has been spoiled by the silly technological follies of its leads. Kaitlyn Bristowe’s infamous screwup in 2015 involved her posting a public Snapchat in bed with her season’s winner, Shawn Booth, several weeks prior to the finale. Years later, in 2019, a fan discovered that Colton Underwood ended up with contestant Cassie Randolph due to his public Venmo transaction history with her family members. What’s next? Resharing closets on Poshmark?