The Bachelor alum Nick Viall has revealed he believes Katie Thurston and Blake Moynes had met in person before Blake's joined Katie's The Bachelorette season.
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Blake appears to hold up a radio to serenade Katie with music while she's standing on a balcony in a nod to the 1989 move Say Anything, and it seems Katie recognizes him right away.
Well, according to Nick, Katie and Blake had already met and talked in person prior to Blake's grand gesture.
"I don't know the backstory. It sounds like there was some dialogue between Katie and Blake. I don't think it was to the degree that it was with [Kaitlyn Bristowe] and I, [which was] a pretty intense two months of dialogue," Nick said on Us Weekly's "Here for the Right Reasons" podcast, referencing his own late arrival on The Bachelorette's eleventh season.
But Nick did admit Katie had informed him while filming The Bachelorette group date that aired on Monday night's episode that Blake had already arrived at the resort, The Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.
"When I showed up, Blake was on the compound," Nick confirmed.
"I think Katie had met him. I don't know for sure. She had told me about it and it was filmed. They didn't use it, but it was filmed."
Nick explained there are just "so many moving pieces" on The Bachelorette and so it's understandable why viewers weren't afforded the chance to see Katie and Blake's first real interaction.
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"With the stuff that came out on the [group] date with [Thomas Jacobs' intentions] and obviously Katie's [sexual-assault] story, you want to give that its rightful air and oxygen and space for Katie to be heard," Nick said.
"So it doesn't shock me that with all that going on, we'll see Blake in the next episode. When I was on Kaitlyn's season, from the time I first said 'hi' to Kaitlyn to the time the guys met me, it was like two days in real time."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWNick continued, "So [producers] just have to find the right time to introduce Blake to America and to the guys and to have it make sense while also allowing some of these other storylines to play out."
While Blake's late The Bachelorette entrance is sure to stir up some drama, especially since Blake had already competed for Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams on The Bachelorette's sixteenth season last year, Nick believes it was "a great idea."
"The show hasn't necessarily done a great job of rewarding people for coming back on -- not that they should be rewarded -- but usually, it's quite the opposite. They usually penalize people for showing back up," Nick explained.
Season 23 The Bachelor alum Heather Martin showing up late on Matt James' The Bachelor season earlier this year, for example, ended abruptly with Matt sending her home right away as to not upset or disappoint his original bachelorettes.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Nick, on the other hand, had a successful run on Kaitlyn's The Bachelorette season after showing up several weeks into the process. Not only was Nick allowed to stay, but he finished Season 11 as the runner-up behind winner Shawn Booth.
"I think it's great TV. Blake is going to get crap obviously for someone who fell in love with Clare without validation and fell in love with Tayshia without validation. So when he's like, 'I'm in love with Katie,' it's fair to question," Nick explained to Us.
"I don't question that he believes what he says; you just kind of question, like, 'Do you just kind of love hard, bro?'"
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"They focus a decent amount on Blake in the season preview, right? And Blake is -- interesting as he was on [last] season -- he wasn't necessarily a star. He wasn't like this huge character... So that tells me that he's going to be around," Nick shared.
"And yeah, I think it's great. I'm rooting for Blake. I hope and I think he'll do well. I think he'll shake it up. I will be interested to see how the guys respond to him... [Aaron Clancy] is going to, oh my God, [flip out]. That's already pretty predictable."
But Nick wonders if frontrunners and apparent nice guys -- such as Greg Grippo, Mike Planeta and Connor Brennan -- will hate Blake and have a problem with him being on the show.
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"I don't see those guys being like Shawn [on Kaitlyn's season]," Nick noted, referring to how Shawn couldn't stand Nick and fought with him frequently.
Earlier this month, Katie admitted to Us that Blake had messaged her on social media before she left Washington to tape her season of The Bachelorette in New Mexico.
"We had chatted before, but usually what happens is, like, the guys will reach out to the women once they're eliminated [from The Bachelor] and be like, 'Good luck, you did great.' Like very generic, you know?" explained Katie, who competed for Matt's heart on The Bachelor 25.
"And so to see him, I was like, 'Why is he here?' Like, 'What's happening?'"
Katie, however, didn't say anything about meeting and filming a scene with Blake that wouldn't air on The Bachelorette's seventeenth season.
Prior to dating Kaitlyn on The Bachelorette, Nick had also competed for Andi Dorfman's heart on The Bachelorette's tenth season. Nick also finished Andi's season as the runner-up bachelor behind winner Josh Murray.
Nick proposed marriage to Vanessa Grimaldi during the final Rose Ceremony of The Bachelor's 21st season that aired in March 2017, but they split about six months later.
Nick is now dating surgical technician Natalie Joy, and the couple appear to be very happy.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
