Bachelor Australia - Season 5 - Matty Johnson - F1-F4 - Discussion - *Sleuthing Spoilers*

SugarAndSpice wrote:It still really could go either way between Laura and Elise. The season has been quite bizarre thus far. IMO its either because:

A. The chemistry with Laura was so obvious, they've focused on the drama and everything else
OR
B. Matty doesn't find his F1 until he takes Elise on a SD, so TPTB have to focus on all the drama and everything else leading up to Elises date.

Well, it could be option A. If I recall pre-season, there was a lot of talk about Matty's choice being very obvious from early on and that the editors were going to have a hell of a job to try and cover it up. I wonder, if that's the case, whether TPTB have just gone over the top with the focus on silly dramas in an overt attempt to distract viewers from Matty and Laura's connection. It's possible IMO.

I'm not convinced it's option B until we see him with Elise. It worries me, a lot, that she has consistently been off his radar and probably still would be if she hadn't initiated the fishing game. If she's doing the chasing then there's a big risk the interest is a bit one-sided. Personally, I thought he was friendly and polite with the fishing game, like he is with all of them, but I didn't see a spark there. Again, JMO.

Enough wrote:Sharlene think Elise is the front runner:
Who do you think will win?
I think while I was in the house, I really felt like Elise was front-runner. I haven’t really seen the girls with Matty, on their own. In the house it was Elise but watching it on screen I look at Laura and Tara and think they have a strong connection with him.

http://www.nowtolove.com.au/celebrity/tv/the-bachelor-australia-2017-sharlene-mik-exit-chat-40107

Personally, I found Sharlene to be a very unusual girl and would question her judgement based on what we saw of her tonight. What on earth could she have seen while she was still in the house to even consider Elise a 'front-runner'. That's very odd imo.

Sharlene could well be saying Elise is a front runner because of the depth of conversation she knew was going on between the girls and Matty while they were in the mansion. And she could well be saying that because she knows Elise is in the F2 per spoiler which is yet to be proven.

Yes to the average viewer Elise as a front runner makes absolutely zero sense because the producers have refused to show any time she had with Matty on the screen with the exception of a few...but that's the edit. In reality IMO Elise along with other girls had time at the CP with Matty which we were not shown. The girls IMO know who is into Matty and who isn't.

It's obvious that Matty is into Laura big time but is Laura into Matty as much in this stage, IMO no. I would venture that Elora is the most vested girl in Matty at this point...jmho.

If Sharlene is correct and Elise is seen as a front runner, well there must be A LOT of stuff that we are not being shown between them. But if she hasn't had an SD or SQT how could she be considered a front runner?

ssin0547 wrote:If Sharlene is correct and Elise is seen as a front runner, well there must be A LOT of stuff that we are not being shown between them. But if she hasn't had an SD or SQT how could she be considered a front runner?

@ssin0547....that's why i said in my earlier post that it could be she is using insider information about how far Elise made it but I am also convinced they talk about conversations they have with Matty during the CPs. We will know how much depth Matty and Elise have to their relationship starting next Weds, as in it will come up that I am sure as to why it took him so long to give her a date. At least it did when Matty was on GL's season, it's was his perceived cockiness at the M&G Epsiode just because he dared put his hand in his pocket when he met GL for the first time on the red carpet

Just finished the latest ep. I am looking forward to Elise. Elise comes across very natural to me like she is just being herself. Laura seems so forced and like she just wants to win. 

That said, I still think Laura is F1. It just seems very surface-level still to me. Something missing between them and I think it's that *it* factor - I just don't see it. It's more that there's been nothing shown really with anyone else that makes Laura stand out so much rather than their actual connection (which I find to be less than past F1s and leads at this point shown). 

I am interested to compare to Elise with Matty especially if she is indeed in F2. She just comes across more "real" to me but I think it sucks she has to initiate and work to even get a SD (her dad too!). I think she deserves better than that. Hopefully Matty realizes that too. Will see...

@allaboutlove, just read your comment in the SC thread but will ask this question here. So do you think the hockey-yacht date had been pre-planned for Elise already and the producers were always going to have a front runner and dark horse script. Please note I am including the filming schedule below just to illustrate my point.

I ask because that yacht for Elise's SD had to have been booked well ahead of time IMO due to pre-planning. I know they can run off and rent/buy hockey gear in a matter of days but looking at the filming schedule of the dates that were planned week of March 26th appeared to be the following:
Alix's SD
Matty Sister coming to the house to talk to the girls
Kiddie GD / Laura SQT

So IMO that week of April 2nd had the following dates planned:
Overnight 2nd SD
Bachelor Bush Race
Tara second SD
GD for 4 girls with their parents

Since that Tara's date was on Saturday, April 8th, then IMO that GD with the parents had to have occurred before it in order for Elise's hockey yacht date to occur on Tuesday April 11th.

I just find it hard with how IMO tight the filming schedule was for them to last minute decide that it was going to be Elise on that yacht date. IMO Matty was going to take Elise on the Episode 10 SD especially how custom that date was for her. We will see if Matty addresses this but the dad talking to Matty about a SD on camera could have been producer instigated but I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out like you said.

If Ep 10 date with Elise was planned ahead of time it feels like it is the producers who are doing this. It's just ridiculous to me that any lead, even one who talks about slow-burn, would wait to have a single date with someone he is interested in (and not give one soon after she asks for one). 

I could understand if it was Elise's 2nd SD but it's her first and that's nearly 6 weeks into filming. Matty had his 2nd SD in almost less time than Elise gets her 1st SD. Not only that, but Matty, even though a slow-burn, he got SQT in Ep3 (so week 2 of filming). So when comparing the two, Elise is like an intruder (funnily enough, I recall us debating that about her in the filming thread). So an intruder almost rather than a slow-burn like Matty who had time with the lead early on in the season and it was their relationship dynamic that was slow-burn rather than actual time spent together.

To me it feels more like the producers liked Elise and given her caliber of being an Australian hockey player, etc, they didn't want her to be MOT so they are showcasing her and perhaps needing a dark horse (since no intruders this season) Elise can be like Lana who was brought in to be Snez's competition. So given Elise has been on the show but MIA pretty much, I can see the producers treating her like a bit of an intruder and have a date late in the season and it can be personalized (hockey, lemonade stand) and intimate (hot tub) to get Elise to "catch up" somehow to Laura. 

Because the thing is, for me it's not so much that Laura and Matty have this grand love story. TBH, it's one of the least grand ones I've ever watched. It's more because Laura is the spoiled F1, Sportsbet odds, stats, and Laura having more time with Matty that it makes her the obvious one for F1 than the actual love story shown imo especially when comparing to past leads and their F1s around this time of filming I still don't see *it* with Laura and Matty (as in falling in love and this from Laura who said she does it easily I don't see it from her)

Contrast with Elise, she seems to be chasing Matty a lot. Getting her dad to help out too. Other than just being a "script", perhaps the producers saw Elise as being a great match for Matty and instead Matty was overshadowed by Georgia 2.0 (not my words, the edit from first episode TPTB left that comparison in) and his "type" (which, going by Matty's own words: the two women he has ever loved - Georgia and his other ex, both his "type" in that sense neither worked out and they broke up with HIM) So maybe Matty's type is off and maybe the producers tried to get him to see otherwise. Because the Georgia 2.0 seems be a thing with media and SM from what I've seen (regardless of whether accurate or not, it's still a thing). 

So if Elise does indeed get further (in F2 as media said) and if Elise is F2 it would be even worse than Matty 2.0, given she has less time with the lead and if getting to F2 only to be dumped and Elise saying she is falling in love (when she said it's not easy for her - so the opposite of Laura) then I honestly don't even know what to say other than it will be like Nikki 2.0 and Matty 2.0 combined. If Elise is F1? Then sure as heck there's a ton missing to make Elise that way given she hasn't even had a SD yet. Will be watching to see either way 

Completely agree AAL. Let's see what next week brings.

Why am i getting Richie season flash back vibes? Oh wait i know why its the bloody EDITING!!!!! Didn't they fire the editors of that season? If they are the same ppl then please get rid of them next year they are ruining Bach AU for me. The End. JMO

@ssin0547

@LeapofFaith they still have the same team/producers, etc from Richie's season which was new for the AU shows since production was taken over by the US. To me, that says it all, that the US now produces the show. It sucks because I love the AU shows

Hi, first time poster here but I've been lurking for a while so I thought I'd jump right into the conversation!

So interesting how we all see things so differently! I for one actually think Laura is superrrr into Matty, and I actually really like her. I think this is because I think our sense of humour is quite similar (self deprecating, perhaps mildly abrasive at times), and I see the way she is acting with Matty as similar to how I have acted in past flirtations/relationships - she nervous talks/babbles a lot but doesn't want to completely let down her guard and be really open/girly with him yet, probably out of fear of rejection. I see more of a facade of confidence, rather than outright arrogance. If this is the case then obviously it will tie in with her storyboard on the F7 group date, and we could see her relax/open up more in the later stages of the competition. All JMO

Definitely not anti Elise but honestly have not seen enough of her to truly get behind her, at this stage!

Quite obvious that Matty is head over heels for Laura IMO...I picked up on some interesting parallels between this season and GL's Bachelorette series, which I will leave here...

“You have incredible features, by the way” (Matty to Laura)/ “You are stunning, by the way” (Matty to GL)
“You’ve been on my mind a lot” (Matty to Laura)/”You’re always on my mind” (Matty to GL)
“I wanted to kiss Laura from the very first moment I saw her today” (Matty, about Laura)/ “I’ve been waiting all day for this moment” (GL, about kissing Lee)
“This has been the easiest first date I’ve been on” (Matty, to Laura)/ “I feel so at ease with him” (GL, about Lee)

Are they pushing a Laura is Matty's Lee story, rather than a Laura is GL 2.0 perhaps? IMO this could be an equally satisfying conclusion to the GL/Matty story...rather than picking a dark horse because he was in that position, he finally lets go of GL and gets closure by acknowledging that that first spark/initial attraction is important, and that GL was meant to be with Lee as he is meant to be with... (Laura, maybe)? Just a thought...

We all do love a good dark horse story, but Elise really needed to have been introduced earlier for the general public to back her I think. Even last year, Matty had SQT in Ep 3, played his Getting to Know Matty J game in Ep 4 (I think) and got the croquet date in Ep 6! So he was on the radar (or at least my radar, haha) pretty early on!