Entertainment

It's Official: Colton Is Heading To 'Paradise,' & Just Guess Who He Ends Up Dating

Craig Sjodin/ABC

With only four contestants left during hometown dates, Becca found herself with a very difficult decision to make in regards to who should stay and who should be sent packing. In the end, she decided that person should be Colton. But while his time on The Bachelorette may be over, Colton is heading to Bachelor in a Paradise Season 5. The franchise confirmed Colton's Bachelor Nation journey was not over via The Bachelorette's official Twitter account shortly after his elimination. And in a twist that should surprise absolutely no one, he already has a potential love interest lined up on the series, though he might not know it yet.

Prior to Becca making her decision about who to eliminate that week, Tia made another brief appearance on the show, alongside some of Becca's other friends, in order to tell the Bachelorette that she still has feelings for Colton and it's crushing her heart into tiny little pieces to hear about Becca's dates with him. Tia admitted that she felt bad for feeling the way that she does, but she wanted to make Becca aware of it before things go any further so that she has all the information out there on the table. Becca later said that Tia's revelation had nothing to do with her decision to send Colton packing. And it's possible that the football player, who was already so confident in his staying power that he discussed the intricacies of the fantasy suite dates with Chris Harrison, will end up grateful for his on-screen heartbreak once he gets to Paradise.

Considering Becca already had a difficult time overcoming the fact that one of her contestants had a previous relationship with one of her friends, this was obviously not great news for her to hear. Why didn't Tia say anything before, like when she came to the group spa date a few weeks back? Perhaps she didn't really think Colton would get as far as he did during Becca's season. Or maybe the producers knew this would be the perfect setup for his Paradise debut and wanted to wait right before his departure from The Bachelorette to see it come to fruition.

Either way, Colton and Tia will definitely reunite in Mexico, though, if you keep up with Bachelor spoiler expert Reality Steve, you know already knew this was coming long ago. The blogger tweeted out photos of Tia and Colton out on a date in Mexico with Raven Gates and Adam Gottschalk; however, it has yet to be determined whether their relationship evolves further from there.

In the promo for Colton's BiP debut, Tia appears nervous and unsure if Colton will be interested in pursuing things with her post-Becca. That's because when Becca opted not to give Colton a rose, she explained her reasoning as being because of what his dad said to her during their hometown date. He didn't want Becca to keep Colton around anymore in order to save him further heartache down the road if she knew he wasn't ultimately going to be "the one."

But while that exchange definitely happened and may have certainly factored into her decision-making process, Becca didn't mention Tia's confession about her ongoing feelings for him. And, you know, what? Good for her. It's not her job to play matchmaker for these two. Poor Becca has already gone through enough, she doesn't need to help make other people find their happily ever after. You do you, girl!

So, while Tia may have big plans for Colton's time in Paradise, he seems to have no clue about any of it. Fans will just have to wait until the show's August premiere to see how this on-and-off love story will play out on-screen. Maybe it'll turn into love, or maybe the two of them will realize they had it right the first time and simply weren't meant to be.