Re: Colton Underwood & Cassie Randolph - Updates - FAN Forum

[Lucas15]

This is Part 2 of my impressions of Cassie (& Colton) resulting from my weekend binge watch of Young Once; this part deals with the 8 episodes of Young Once released 2016. I've focused only on Cassie rather than clutter this with other characters:

IMO we are probably aware of like how many times she like uses the word like in her speech patterns but it was sort of interesting to note that many of the others on Young Once Season 1 spoke exactly like she does – exceptions being Caelan and Tony (who is from Alaska) – it seems to be a CA thing (IIRC it was first attributed to the “Valley Girl” phenomenon of some years ago).

IMO the word “relationship” has a more significant meaning to the students at Biola than I had expected. The expectation seems to be that you don’t get into a relationship unless you feel that it would end up serious, leading to an engagement in turn leading to marriage. If the relationship wasn’t clearly headed there you broke it off and looked for one that could. Relationships not headed there didn’t last long or never got off the ground. When Cassie talked about “relationships” she framed this from her background not necessarily mine. I might use a phrase like “committed monogamous relationship” whereas a Biola student might call it just a relationship. I saw no evidence of people dating multiple people – they would more likely hang out as friends unless it developed into a “relationship”.

As presented in Young Once season 1, Biola students saw attending the college as a hunting ground for marriage prospects (“Everyone around here is trying to find their spouse. It’s like a marriage hunting ground.” – this was repeated at the beginning of each episode) and catching that dream was expected to happen by the spring semester of their senior year (the “ring-by-spring” culture at Biola as well as other evangelical Christian colleges). Marriage takes place after graduation. This may be a biased view of Biola as the whole idea behind Young Once season 1 was to show how conservative Christian students dealt with relationships and ultimate marriage, but each episode starts out with that theme repeated – just in case you didn’t remember it from the previous episode.

All the time Cassie was filming Young Once season 1, she was going to college at Biola and also had a job. IMO she did not come across as confused and indecisive on Young Once season 1 – certainly not to the extent that she seemed to be uncertain when we saw her on The Bachelor.

I somehow had the idea that Young Once season 1 began with Cassie and Caelan together and ended with them breaking up, but that is completely backwards. They were already broken up at the beginning of Season 1 episode 1, got together by the end of episode 1 and ended up together at the end of episode 8.  Cassie showed very little of the PDA we saw with Colton; she seldom touched or hugged Caelan (save for one hug near the end). The scene with them agreeing to get back together was rather devoid of emotion, IMO.  I wondered if she did it more because she was filming a show about Christians navigating relationships but she was not in a relationship and seemingly had no other prospects for one if she didn’t go back with Caelan.

Almost immediately after getting back together Caelan started criticizing her on things she did that he felt inappropriate – the first time it was her drinking. He said it wasn’t about trusting her but rather not trusting the guys who might hit on her when out with only her girlfriends. IMO it was pretty obvious that Cassie didn’t like Caelan’s criticisms and possibly saw them as a lack of trust in her; she pushed back pretty hard but failed to change Caelan’s position.

They showed Cassie’s photoshoot with Michelle – something she IMO had a lot of fun doing and couldn’t wait to show Caelan the pictures from it. He thought the first picture was fine but the second one she showed him had her in short shorts with (as she admitted) half her butt sticking out and Caelan criticized her for that. She felt it was no less appropriate than being in a bikini but Caelan didn’t seem to agree. Cassie was not happy about this criticism either.

These were two examples where Caelan seemed to find something to criticize her for and IMO it was pretty clear she didn’t like it anytime he did it. They didn’t exactly have big arguments, but I think it was pretty clear they disagreed and nothing was ever shown about how they resolved these differences.

One cute insight into Cassie was in a scene with Tony (the guy from Alaska). Tony hated his dorm and in the scene he bought himself and Cassie ice cream cones – and proceeded to throw his at the dorm (not hitting it though – it landed in the grass). Cassie did the same with hers but then told Tony she’d make him two cheeseburgers if he’d go back with her and clean up the mess on the grass.  He did – and she made him a double cheeseburger. It was sweet how Cassie handled Tony who was really being a jerk.

At the end of Young Once season 1 Caelan told Cassie he had an offer to play basketball in the Philippines and he asked Cassie to go with him. They didn’t show her declining the offer but she did off camera. The last scene of them showed Caelan telling Cassie that he had decided to not accept the offer (but the offer would have allowed him to still accept it a year later) and that he had declined to be able to spend the next year with Cassie. That was the only time that I recall seeing any affection from Cassie towards Caelan and it still fell miles short of what she showed Colton, and that was how season 1 wrapped up.

I do believe that Caelan loved Cassie but think she had a lot of reservations about him, and getting back together for filming didn’t change her feelings and reservations. We’ll see this reflected on season 2.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR4dntMF0fs&list=PLRPw1gAIyNLbyGlLlUtLZaFAg4FAO3eTJ

[Jolena]

Looks like we won’t be getting any cuteness pics from the happy couple over the next few days or more because according to Vassies IG story that she just posted it looks like she is going on a get away with her sister.

[Julie81]

Looks like we won’t be getting any cuteness pics from the happy couple over the next few days or more because according to Vassies IG story that she just posted it looks like she is going on a get away with her sister.

She’s not going on a trip. They were talking about Stagecoach, which is a country music festival close to LA that is in about a month.

[Bachhh022]

Looks like we won’t be getting any cuteness pics from the happy couple over the next few days or more because according to Vassies IG story that she just posted it looks like she is going on a get away with her sister.

She’s not going on a trip. They were talking about Stagecoach, which is a country music festival close to LA that is in about a month.

Yep! & Also it seems like according to a tweet from Colton today he will be at stagecoach this year too.

[Cocoasneeze]

@Lucas15

Thank you for your post. I've heard many people, that Biola, and similar, Christian universities are basically a hunting ground to find a husband. Reading your post, it seems like Cassie's fears about not being allowed to be herself, feeling controlled, being forced into a format that just isn't her, were really genuine, and just maybe the time frame of bachelor and "getting there" brought back unresolved feelings from her College years. Jmo

[Lucas15]

@Lucas15

Thank you for your post. I've heard many people, that Biola, and similar, Christian universities are basically a hunting ground to find a husband. Reading your post, it seems like Cassie's fears about not being allowed to be herself, feeling controlled, being forced into a format that just isn't her, were really genuine, and just maybe the time frame of bachelor and "getting there" brought back unresolved feelings from her College years. Jmo

IMO the "ring-by-spring" is sort of common to all evangelical Christian universities and what gives rise to it is that such a university is a great opportunity for an evangelical to find another evangelical spouse who understands their views on religion; once they graduate it's a lot harder because there's a less concentrated pool to choose from. The pressure to find a mate is not just on the women to find a husband - it's equally on the men to find a wife. The quoted phrase “Everyone around here is trying to find their spouse. It’s like a marriage hunting ground.” was actually said by Tony - one of the men on Young Once.

But absolutely I think all that Cassie has expressed about unhealthy (for her) relationships and her fears of losing her sense of self can be seen in her years before The Bachelor via her relationship with Caelan. IMO this is one time where a trait was not merely exaggerated and depicted on "the show" by TPTB for drama - it was really Cassie and her real feelings.

[Lucas15]

Two more clips of the season from cassie + colton Twitter (@cassieandcolton):

ATFR Part 1: https://twitter.com/i/status/1110330525292601348

ATFR Part 2: https://twitter.com/i/status/1110363993355350022

[Lucas15]

Prelude to Young Once season 2:

IIRC Young Once season 2 was filmed in the August – September 2018 time frame with filming ending shortly before filming for The Bachelor began. Also IIRC Cassie found out she would appear on The Bachelor after she was done filming Young Once as she was a late pick.

Apparently in between season 1 filming and season 2 filming it appears that Cassie and Caelan broke up again. While season 1 ended with them "together" they seem to already be broken up when season 2 began. There's a partial quote from Cassie's Instagram (Source) that may shed more light on that breakup after season 1 and prior to season 2 where she talked about that specific time frame:

snip
While we were never officially a couple again, there was a time last spring that we considered getting back together, but that didn’t work out. I was open to staying friends, but he understandably thought this was too hard. Just because we didn’t work out doesn’t mean we now hate each other and don’t care about the other. It just wasn’t right for us. Since I was the one saying we couldn’t be together, this was extra hard for him. Relationships are complicated and navigating isn’t usually straight forward. We were on and off for so long that turning it off for good was a difficult decision as I truly didn’t want to regret giving up if we were meant to be. But certain things were unhealthy and it became clear we were supposed to move on.

There was an interview of Caelan by a Philippine interviewer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDLVzg0p-mY&feature=youtu.be) that was posted to YouTube on Oct 11, 2018 in which Caelan alludes to having played in China, returned from that and was then preparing to play for the Philippines (and he was actually in the Philippines when he did the interview). It appears to me that after he and Cassie broke up, he went to China to play, returned and then committed to play for the Philippines. Young Once season 2 was filmed after his return from China and before his departure for the Philippines. Cassie posted about season 2 in her Instagram post (referenced above):

snip
Over the summer, unexpectedly and out of the blue, we were contacted by YO and learned they were considering a S2- a follow up on some of the original cast. This again put Caelan and I directly back in each other’s lives as our social circle overlaps. One of the storylines highlighted is our drawn out/complex relationship and the challenges of us staying friends post breakup and whether it is possible or not. We filmed for several weeks prior to Caelan heading to Asia to play pro basketball and before I found out that I was cast for Bachelor. The timing of everything was completely chance. I care very much about Caelan and I want nothing but the best for him and his life.

[Julie81]

My pastor’s daughter recently graduated from (in December) Pensacola Christian College. Her husband still attends. Yes, husband. They are 20 and 21. Nothing is wrong with that, but as others have said upthread, these conservative Christian colleges, although don’t push it themselves, the students definitely put pressure on themselves to marry by the end of their four year term. This college is super conservative and actually dont want coeds together. There isn’t even dorms for married couples so they have to live off campus. Males and females are restricted from even touching each other. It’s extreme, but she received a soccer scholarship so that’s where she went. Anyways, I do see where Cassie could have reverted back to the mindset of her college days while in the bachelor bubble. From just what my friend had told me, her experience has been crazy.

I don’t know about y’all, but I want to know what Cassie and Colton filmed already!

[Lucas15]

snip
I do see where Cassie could have reverted back to the mindset of her college days while in the bachelor bubble. From just what my friend had told me, her experience has been crazy.

I don't know if I will be able to capture it but watching Cassie on episode 1 of Young Once 2, I felt she was much more like the Cassie I saw on The Bachelor than she was on season 1. That's probably understandable because Young Once season 2 threw her back with Caelan after close to a year apart, and basically breaking up all over again with a finality that wasn't there before - and that breakup happened mere weeks before filming on The Bachelor started.

[suzq]

The timing of this makes sense -- I have heard that those living in Southern California are more likely to be late picks for the show since they already live close to the Bachelor mansion and have shorter prep time.

[Bachhh022]

The thing is I feel like Colton and Cassie have talked about her show and her past relationship just based on interviews and her saying colton has shown her what a healthy relationship looks like. I remember before the finale Colton was asked about young once and he seemed super unbothered and secure, saying if that was her relationship and she decided to leave it and pursue something different, good for her.

In a way I feel like colton can relate to Cassie, seems like Cassie being called back for s2 pushed this (not so healthy) relationship back on her because of the storyline they wanted to push, kind of how the mess with Tia and Colton happened in paradise (I mean the producers even had bibi give colton a rose just to force that storyline)... so I could definitely see colton relating to her there and being understanding.

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