Every time The Bachelorette puts Dotun Olubeko on screen, something strange happens. My eyelids—usually slightly drooped thanks to both sleepiness and the tedium of listening to a bunch of grown men struggling to articulate basic feelings—shoot wide open. Just like that, the Charlie Brown-like mwop-mwop-mwopp-ing on screen starts hitting my ears crystal clear; I’m hanging on every word. And without fail, regardless of who else is watching with me, someone in the room will ask, “Who is that guy?”
Dotun is the kind of man who is usually missing from The Bachelorette: He’s confident but never cocky; he’s sweet, but in a way that feels genuine. He’s the kind of guy who can somehow go on a bungee jumping date and a 10K “fun run” date back to back, without even a hint of complaint—all because he’s just so happy to be there, fighting for his lady love. (Swoon, say the show’s producers—who will probably have this poor guy scaling the Burj Khalifa with Tom Cruise by the finale.)
And also, while this is certainly not his most important or impressive quality, it’s impossible not to mention that on top of his sparkling personality, this 30-year-old integrative medicine consultant from Brooklyn also happens to be really, really tall.
Dotun’s dreaminess has been on fans’ radar since Day One, and throughout the season, his powers have grown and grown—particularly as we’ve all noticed how our Bachelorette, 27-year-old child and family therapist Charity Lawson, tears up whenever she and Dotun talk about their feelings for one another.
After this week’s hometown dates, if this man does not win, it’s safe to say that a good portion of Bachelor Nation will take to the streets—and rightfully so. After a series of pleasant but ho-hum hometowns, filled with knitting and dinners on football fields, Dotun showed Charity what romance can really look like.
You know the love is real when a man’s parents fly in from Nigeria to meet you—and even better, Dotun’s family sure did seem to love Charity. His mother said she would “embrace” our Bachelorette, should she choose to marry her son, and meanwhile, Dotun’s father emphasized what a “really sweet boy” he is—further solidifying America’s crush on one of the hottest Bachelorette contestants to ever Bachelorette.
Somehow, none of this was even the peak of the date. That came later, when Dotun drove Charity to a drive-in date. Not only did this man figure out a way to stage Charity’s parents’ favorite date night—he also provided a full slideshow of himself and Charity growing up, which culminated of photos of their journey together.
Dotun’s eligibility did not start on Monday night, either. It’s hard to think of anything more rom-com worthy than Dotun’s proclamation a couple weeks ago, when he told Charity, “You give me something that I don’t think I’ve ever had in my previous relationships... I always felt like I was the one being learned from, but I want to learn from other people. You’re someone I can learn from.”
And if that wasn’t call-your-mom adorable enough, there was also last week—when Doton scored his second one-on-one date. After a long day running the Crescent City Classic in New Orleans, Dotun opened up to Charity about how the feelings he’s developed had begun to scare him. While his mind kept telling him that he can’t have a fairytale, Dotun said, “I’m really working on just listening to my heart more and letting it open up—really putting my ear to my heart and listening. And my heart is pretty much screaming that I’m definitely falling in love with you at this point.”
This is the hero that Bachelor Nation deserves.
As perfect as Dotun and Charity seem, there’s still (unfortunately) no guarantee that they’re endgame. He’s a shoo-in for the final three, but let us never forget that it was 28-year-old Joey Graziadei who won that record-breaking kiss with our Bachelorette a few weeks ago. He, too, has formed a strong enough emotional connection with Charity to make this season’s final outcome feel murky—even if his uncle’s comment this week that he might be people-pleasing seemed to rattle Charity. Xavier Bonner lives to fight another week as well, but let’s face it: It’s really down to Dotun and Joey at this point.
If Charity does send Brooklyn’s finest back to New York, he’ll surely have a long list of potential girlfriends to choose from once he gets home. (For the record, however, it is a good sign that she chose him first on Monday night.) That said, if ABC and Warner Bros. have even half a clue what they’re doing, they’d make him our next Bachelor first. Something tells me, however, that Charity won’t let anyone else get that chance. With any luck, this could be rose lovers’ most satisfying season in years.
