Mitch Haaseth/ABC
It’s awkward to rank the next Bachelorette as the Bachelor frontrunner, but it’s hard to deny how strong Rachel and Nick’s trip to Dallas was compared to the rest of the hometown dates. The Texan and the Wisconsinite took a big step forward in their relationship, as they openly discussed the challenges of being an interracial couple. “Everyone may make this an issue, but for you it doesn’t matter, and for me it doesn’t matter,” Rachel affirms.
The 31-year-old tested Nick’s comfort level by taking him to church with a predominantly black congregation. The experience left Nick feeling “very” welcomed. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt closer to Rachel than I do in this moment … I would love to have this be a regular thing that we do as a couple,” Nick says on camera, adding that he can be himself around Rachel and talk about anything. Rachel was just as content, “I was proud to have him there.”
The tough conversations continued when Nick met her family, as he acknowledged that he has never seriously dated a black woman and Rachel’s never brought home a white man. The first to put Nick in the hotseat was her older sister, Constance, and her husband, who asked why Rachel is his first black girlfriend. “The fact that she’s black is just like a fact, but what I like about her is just the fact that she’s smart, good looking, challenging, in a great way funny, easy to talk to,” Nick explains. Was Constance convinced? He made a good first impression, she says, but she still has her concerns. “He’s like, ‘I don’t see color. I see Rachel,’ but at the same time with this climate we’re in, I feel like you’ve seen more racism come out and so he does need to be aware it’s not something that you can just hide and ignore,” she says in her private interview.
The ultimate test was getting her mom’s support, and Nick couldn’t have earned a better stamp of approval. Rachel’s mother compared her daughter’s relationship to what she holds with her father. “I like what I see with Nick so far. What attracted me to your dad was that he knew where he was and where he was going. He was very self assured.”
So why do we think this date was so successful? Nick and Rachel did not skirt around the tough talks. They pushed through awkward moments to be real and honest with each other, which seems like the healthiest way to bridge that gap between reality TV and the real world. Plus, Nick couldn’t help but be smitten with the Texan babe. “My chemistry with Rachel is probably my most explosive chemistry I have with any of the women. She has all of the qualities I’m looking for in a wife,” he shares on camera. Now we’ll just have to wait and see what cracks the powerful bond they share, since we know their breakup is around the corner.