As exciting as it is to jump into a new season of The Bachelor, the season really gets going once our lead — in this case, Matt James, a New York-based realtor, philanthropist, and friend of Tyler Cameron — actually begins dating his contestants. A good one-on-one or a group date moment says a lot about whether or not a contender will stick around, so it’s officially time to start watching closely. And one of the women to watch is Bri Springs, a 24-year-old communications manager from San Francisco.
In a clip from the second episode of 2021, Bri kisses Matt during a date and describes him as “the most gorgeous man” she’s ever seen. They’re still constrained to activities within the Nemacolin Resort bubble, so of course, their date is a little unconventional — it looks like they get adventurous on an ATV and then enjoy some champagne in a hot tub. In and of itself, the fact that Bri gets the first one-on-one date is also a sign she’ll go far: historically, Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants who nab the first solo dates at least make it into the top five, and they definitely tend to form early connections with their leads. But this isn’t the only evidence that Bri’s in it for the long haul. Follow me closely here, because we’re going to break down some promos.
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Bri appears prominently in several teasers for the season; as we all know, her one-on-one date and a confessional from the premiere both make it into the extended trailer, and she appears in almost every promo. But there are at least three other kisses between Matt and Bri that we haven’t seen in the season's first two episodes. He cozies up to her in both this trailer and this one (both are embedded below), and it’s worth noting that Bri is wearing different outfits in each scene. In the first, they kiss during a stolen moment on a couch; in the second, Bri wears dark blue, Matt is shirtless, and they appear to be on a different couch. This time, alone.
As always, this year's Bachelor previews include several glimpses of Matt kissing faceless, mysterious women, but an Instagram fan account with the handle @bachelor_addict first identified Bri in a second-long snapshot of Matt kissing someone in bed. She’s also wearing what looks like the same dark blue dress and earrings. If this isn’t convincing enough, the sleuth behind the YouTube account Bachelor Fantake caught a seemingly small detail from their couch kiss: a drink that looks like either a mimosa or some kind of juice. It’s also clearly light outside, and while contestants do often go on daytime dates, all of these clues together seem to imply that there's a decent chance Bri makes it to the fantasy suites.
According to her ABC bio, Bri works for a "well-known social media company" and enjoys hiking and swimming. She first connected with Matt during the cocktail party portion of the premiere. “I just couldn’t imagine myself doing this journey and this experience if it were any other person to be here,” she said, adding, “It’s important to me to see diverse love stories because it’s not something that I saw so much growing up.”
Chris Harrison also teased that Bachelor Nation would “really fall for Bri” in his annual Meet the Women livestream, and called her the “total package.” And after her first one-on-one, we’ll certainly have more insight into whether Matt’s to really falling for her, too.