Win Or Lose, Caelynn Is Going To Impact This Season Of The Bachelor

Bachelor season is in full swing, and now that Colton Underwood and his contestants are four weeks in, there has already been untold amounts of drama, a few emotional confessions, and even a little international travel. But now that the contestant pool has been significantly narrowed down from night one, it's time to start thinking about a winner. At this point, it seems like there are already some serious front runners, including a certain beauty queen from North Carolina. So what are the chances that Caelynn wins The Bachelor, given the presence of a few other frontrunners?

Well, she seems to have a pretty decent shot. Not only did she hit it off with Colton from the very first cocktail party, Caelynn's strength and vulnerability during her one-on-one with Colton has made her a fan favorite.

But while Colton has obviously not skipped all the way to the end of his season and announced a winner early, here are all the clues that Caelynn makes it pretty far.

Caelynn is all over this season. Yes, some of that is because this Hannah B. drama made for prime reality TV fodder (however regrettable the subject matter), but aside from that, Caelynn’s been followed pretty closely by the Bach cameras, and her footage often makes the final cut. This could certainly be because she’s sticking around for awhile — after all, producers don't include someone who won't advance the story. But the more producers show her, the bigger the connection to her story is, whether it leads her to the final rose or something else even more momentous.

Caelynn was Colton’s first kiss of the season, so that has to mean something.

Even the ongoing drama between her and Hannah B. hasn’t seemed to made Colton change his mind about her (poor Hannah B. on the other hand, seems to be on the wrong end of the fallout).

If you were brutally dumped on national television, would you really post sweet memories of your time with that person on Instagram? Maybe not — and so far, Caelynn has nothing but positive things to say when she reflects back on her time filming The Bachelor on Instagram. And while another frontrunner, Cassie, is comfortable joking about engagements and Neil Lane, Caelynn's feed is full of cute pics of her and Colton, including one with her lovingly admiring his pirate chest (all credit for that cheesy pun goes to Caelynn).

There's also the fact that when Caelynn opened up about her sexual assault, Colton responded by listening and being completely supportive (though let's be clear, this is how everyone should respond to someone explaining a past trauma). He showed how much he does care about her, even if it hasn’t been that long since they met, and it seems to have impacted Caelynn, who wrote on social media that she's grateful to Colton for "not just listening, but hearing me."

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in December, host Chris Harrison opened up about the impact Caelynn sharing her sexual assault story would have on Colton and the show. “We were all very much taken aback. So was Colton, and that kind of prompts things in Colton's life," said Harrison. He then went on to say that the conversation would “change the course of the entire show."

Yes, "prompts things in Colton's life" is classic spoiler-avoidance-speak, but it does strongly suggest that Caelynn has a huge impact on Colton and his aim on the series, which is to ultimately choose someone to spend his life with. That could mean he realizes she is the one, it could mean something else entirely, but what it absolutely means for now is that Caelynn is going to be a significant focus as the series rolls towards that Final Rose.