Jenn Tran’s Ex Shows Up to Join Her Season

In New Zealand for week 4 of her Bachelorette journey, Jenn Tran felt hopeful.

“This is the first week where I felt really excited about like, an engagement at the end of this,” she told host Jesse Palmer at the beginning of the July 29 episode.

Her first impression rose recipient Sam M. scored the first one-on-one date of the week, which started off at the Auckland Sky Tower.

When Jenn, 26, asked Sam M., 27, what he normally liked to do on a first date, he replied, “I don’t really consider this a first date for us.”

That made Jenn wonder, “When was our first date? The couch?”

The tension between Jenn and Sam. M grew when the contractor decided they’d jump from the building instead of opting for the walk like she preferred.

“This is a two-person decision here,” Jenn said to Sam M. “You think you can just make the decision for me to jump?”

Sam M. thought he could. “In 50 years from now, you’ll be able to look back and you’ll be like, ‘Damn, I’m glad I jumped off that,’” he said to Jenn.

As Jenn geared up and headed outside with Sam M., she still harbored some doubts. “I would rather be anywhere else in the world right now than here,” she said in an on-camera interview.

She didn’t think Sam M. cared about her fears. “I don’t feel like Sam understands exactly how I’m feeling,” Jenn told the cameras. “I just want someone to make me a priority and he’s not. It’s like he’s not wanting to really be there for me. He’s kind of just in this for himself.”

Once Sam M. noticed Jenn’s concerns, he hugged her and told her, “Don’t do it.”

Jenn cried into his chest, but Sam M. didn’t mind. “There’s nothing that you can show me that going to push me away,” he said to the physician assistant student.

Jenn felt comforted by Sam M. and decided in the end to jump off the building.

“Ultimately Sam did show up for me,” she said in an on-camera interview.

During the evening portion of the date, Sam M. talked with Jenn about being previously engaged and learning from his fiancée that “there was another guy.”

“That moment that I started to really feel and really know that I wasn’t being chosen was such a gut punch,” he said.

Jenn respected his vulnerability and ultimately gave him a rose. “I feel like we made a lot of progress tonight and I also appreciate your vulnerability tonight in telling me what you’ve also gone through,” she said to Sam M.

GROUP DATE

Spencer, Marcus, Grant, John M., Austin, Jonathan, Dylan, Thomas, Jeremy and Sam N. went on this week’s group date during which the guys competed in a rugby game. Sam N. acted aggressively during the match, but ultimately won it for his team. Still, some of the guys thought went too hard.

“Dude, you need to check yourself,” Marcus, 31, told Sam N., 25, after the entrepreneur wouldn’t move the trophy off the couch for him to sit.

Sam N. proceeded to be the first man to grab Jenn to talk, and he gave her a jersey that said “Sam’s Wife” on the back.

“This is the cutest thing ever,” Jenn exclaimed.

When Sam N. rejoined the group, Grant, 30, talked to him about “the difference between being confident and to a point arrogant.” “When you win, you handle things with grace,” the day trader said to Sam N.

But Sam N. didn’t want to hear it. “For me, this date, I made it about Jenn,” he said.

Spencer, 30, told Sam N. that he was being “way too much.” “You just don’t carry yourself like a man or an adult, you’re a kid,” the pet portrait entrepreneur continued.

Jonathan, 27, referred to Sam N. as “disrespectful as hell” and Thomas, 31, called him a “clown show” before Sam N. interrupted the retirement adviser’s time with Jenn.  

When Sam N. spoke with Jenn again, he asked her if he could kiss her. After saying how she appreciated his vulnerability, she ultimately told him, “I just don’t know if I can see us getting there and I would never want to lead you on.”

Jenn informed the rest of the group that she dismissed Sam N. and then gave the group date rose to Marcus.

SECOND GROUP DATE

For the second group date of the week, Jenn and Devin partook in Māori traditions on their sacred meeting grounds. Devin, 28, opened up about his mom during the welcome ceremony, which resonated with Jenn.

When a couple of the Māori people asked Jenn and Devin about their own backgrounds, Jenn talked about growing up as the only Vietnamese person in a suburban area.

“Growing up, it was hard for me to kind of integrate both Vietnamese and American culture because I was so afraid of being different,” Jenn said.

Devin spoke about wanting to have a family of his own one day.

“I know that kids are something I’ve only ever wanted, especially growing up without a full family intact,” the freight company owner said.

Later on, Devin reflected to Jenn on growing up with a single mom who dropped out of college to have him after a “casual fling” resulted in a pregnancy.

“I was such a, not a bad child, but I just didn’t understand those things about her when I was young, so I just always idolized my father as like, some guy I wanted to go live with and wanted to be with,” Devin shared. “And I saw how much I hurt my mom because she’s the one who took care of me my entire life.”

Jenn related to that as someone who grew up without her father around for most of her life.

“He just stopped being present,” she recalled. “And then when they finally got divorced, he didn’t want to be a dad to me. He never like, reached out and like, asked me how I was doing.”

However, Jenn realized, “The people who want to care about me are going to stay in my life.”

Devin couldn’t believe how easily he opened up to Jenn. “I’m falling for you and I’m not afraid to say it,” he said to Jenn. “You’re an amazing woman. You’re an amazing woman and I just want to celebrate you every single day for as long as I can.”

Jenn blushed and then gave Devin a rose. “Tonight, I really found out that we connect in a lot more ways than we really thought that we did,” she said to Devin. “And I’m excited to see what’s to come for us.”

AN UNPLANNED VISITOR ARRIVES

Before the cocktail party began, Jesse, 45, broke the fourth wall to inform viewers that a man from Jenn’s past reached out to production about flying to New Zealand on his own dime. Jesse intercepted the man’s arrival at his hotel to “find out what he wants.”

The man, named Matthew, explained to Jesse that he and Jenn dated three years ago for three to four months and recently reconnected.

“When she just got up and left, it just felt like I couldn’t just let her go,” Matthew, 27, explained. “Now, I’m here to tell Jenn that, ‘I still love you and I’m here to show you that.’”

Jesse told Matthew he could approach Jenn while she filmed with her producers on a nearby dock.

“What are you doing here? What is going on?” Jenn asked when she saw Matthew.

Matthew said he skipped out on weddings he planned to attend because it didn’t feel right to go without Jenn.

“I’m not ready to just let you go and get engaged without telling you that I still have really strong feelings for you, more now than ever,” he said. “So I’m just asking that you just give me the chance to show you how much this all means to me.”

When asked by Jenn, Matthew said he felt ready for engagement. But to the cameras, Jenn said, “I’m so confused what his intentions are.”

She explained in an on-camera interview that Matt “is not the toxic ex” she’d spoken about previously, and that when they reconnected a few months ago, she thought it was as friends.

“I know it’s not the first time I said this and I really hope it’s not the last, but I really do love you and I really hope … I do, I do,” Matthew said to Jenn. “My intentions are to be with you and I want to continue this journey together.”

Jenn pointed out that he’d have to join the journey alongside the rest of her remaining suitors. “There are people here that I have really strong feelings for and I am afraid of what it might stir up in some of these guys,” she told the cameras.

She stepped away from Matthew and needed to decide how to move forward. “I don’t know where my heart is pulling me,” Jenn admitted just before the episode wrapped.

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The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.