Is The Bachelor forcing Clare Crawley to hide something about herself? During Monday night's hometown dates, Clare's sister Laura was really awkward and basically wouldn't let her mom say anything. "Ugh, how rude, what a terrible daughter/sister she must be," the Bachelor painted her for America. But there could be more to the story than that. My money is on the show's producers wanting to cover up Mama's Spanish speaking ability as much as possible so they enlisted Laura's help. Of course, Laura's not a real actress so she struggled with the role a bit and it was awkward, but the main thing is that they didn't really want Mama to talk, and that could be for two reasons. One: so as to not alienate the viewers (though I'm pretty sure we're all fine with reading subtitles? We've been doing it all season already.) So the most probable answer is two: to try to cover up just how much of a frontrunner Clare is.
As hard as Juan Pablo has worked on his English this season, he's just not very good at holding a deep conversation in it yet. A large part of the reason Sharleen left was that she didn't feel they were able to communicate well enough. When it comes to finding love, especially in the short time frame of the show, communication is paramount, so it would only make sense that whomever JP was able to communicate the best with would be a serious contender. This season my bet is it's Clare, because she can speak Spanish.
Say whaat?
Here's what we know about Clare's Spanish ability:
1. HER MOM IS MEXICAN
Therefore, Clare has some Mexican in her blood, something she mentioned in the first episode but was never brought up again.
2. SHE'S CLOSELY TIED TO HER HERITAGE?
Among the puppy Instagram photos on Clare's feed is her handiwork in making traditional tamales. So... she's in touch with her roots? Just go with it.
3. LIKE JP, SHE GOES BILINGUAL ON INSTAGRAM
Juan Pablo captions every photo of his in both English and Spanish, something Clare has done in the past. On Christmas she posted a photo captioned "Merry Christmas!!! Feliz Navidad!!!" For the record, the caption also included "Merry Christmas" in Hawaiian. WHO IS THIS POLYGLOT?
4. SHE CAN SPEAK SPANISH BECAUSE... SHE JUST CAN
All other "hints" aside, in the very first episode, Clare speaks Spanish. She shows a photo of Juan Pablo to her mother before she leaves for her grand adventure and Mama says it would be nice to have some men like him in the family because of her own heritage.
Clare confirms her mother's statement by saying something in Spanish with a perfect accent. My rudimentary Spanish skills couldn't make it out which makes me certain that it wasn't a stock phrase, but that Clare was actually responding in perfect Spanish. Which would make sense because when your mother doesn't speak English as a first language, OF COURSE you're going to be taught her native language as a child.
5. So Why Hide that Clare's Bilingual?
Why haven't we seen Clare and JP speak Spanish all season? It's probably because she's too good at it. I have no doubt that she and JP have probably had long conversations in Spanish, but the viewers aren't going to see that because then we would know who wins in the end. We've gotten to see plenty of Andi and Sharleen and the other girls ask JP what certain Spanish words mean, and get all excited when they can reply "si!" to something, but we haven't seen any contestant actually engage with him in his first language.
Imagine you're thrown into a situation as a non-native English speaker where you have to pick a partner... and one person there speaks your native language. Obviously you're going to gravitate toward that person as you continue in this foreign situation. How can JP not pick the only girl there with whom he can truly communicate? Clare's likely the winner by default.
Images: ClareCrawley/Instagram; ABC
