This 'Bachelorette' Contestant Already Knows Becca & It's Gonna Cause Drama

Usually The Bachelor and The Bachelorette assemble a group of strangers together to compete for the heart of the chosen one of each season. But it would appear that this year, one contestant isn't exactly a stranger. So how does Jake from The Bachelorette know Becca?

According to E! News, Chris Harrison's announcement of the full cast let on Jake has "a past" with Becca, but didn't get any more specific than that. WHAT DOES IT MEAN, HARRISON? What the host did reveal, though, was an even juicier detail. He said that Becca and Jake have "different versions of that past." Oh boy. We can assume more will be revealed as the season continues on, but whatever this past entails certainly could influence the entire relationship as it unfolds over the course of the show. One huge hint from where the two know each other, though, is the fact that Jake is also from Minneapolis, where Becca originally hails from. So, theoretically they could have gone to high school together, or just been in the same circles of friends around their hometown.

It'd be pretty weird for the show to cast an ex-boyfriend of Becca's, but really, I wouldn't put it past them. After Ross, Becca's ex-boyfriend whom she obviously wanted no contact with, showed up during Ari'e's season, the producers could pretty much orchestrate anything.

Being a past love of Becca's could either bode well for Jake, or it could work to his disadvantage, and it would all pretty much hinge on how well the relationship went. Obviously, she was single when she appeared on Arie's season of The Bachelor, and prior to that, she and Ross had a longterm relationship, so it doesn't really appear as though he was much of a blip on her radar, at least as far as she's revealed publicly.

Perhaps they went on a few dates and any possible romance just fizzled out, as so many potential relationships do. Maybe it'll mean something good for Jake that he might already know some of Becca's friends, and they already have common ground with the shared hometown. Or perhaps whatever went down between them ended badly, and the producers decided it'd be interesting to pull some strings behind the scenes to get him there. That looks a little more likely, especially given Harrison's comment about how the two have differing opinions of their past relationship. I'd really love it, though, if the show wasn't yet again putting Becca through a reunion with an ex that she didn't explicitly ask for or at least approve. That wasn't so cool the first time around. But now that she's the Bachelorette, you'd think she'd have some authority over her suitors.

Maybe she and Jake were just friends, and no funny business went down, and Harrison is just trying to drum up nonexistent drama for the sake of viewership. It could be anything. If the show's goal was to have people intrigued, then congrats, they are.

Realistically, this is how it'll probably play out. The show will reveal at some point — likely as the men first meet Becca on camera — that maybe she and Jake went out for coffee a few times, or for a date here and there, years ago, long before The Bachelor was even on Becca's radar. Then, the "different versions of the past" will be that Becca claims Jake never called her back, and Jake will claim the same of Becca. They'll have a big old laugh, and then the mysterious past will be forgotten. Or, maybe I'm wrong, and the shared past will be a huge talking point all season. Until we watch the events unfold for ourselves, speculation is all we have.