The Bachelorette spoilers: Rachel Lindsay’s concerns with Dean Unglert

Monday night’s The Bachelorette is the most pivotal of the season, given that this is the one that is actually going to cement which families Rachel Lindsay meets, and which ones she never gets around to seeing.

In the sneak peek below via ABC, what you can see is further evidence that Rachel and Dean Unglert are going to be spending some more time together. We definitely know that there are some serious feelings between the two of them, but having feelings for each other doesn’t necessarily equate to being in the same place romantically. Rachel wants something serious, and she knows that she is in a place right now where she knows that she needs to have deeper conversations. Dean, alas, has up a wall. He delicately dances around some of her questions, and responds in moments where he should be serious with laughter. He’s not at a place just yet where he feels comfortable, and there couple a few different reasons for that.

1. There are still five other men – It’s hard to be vulnerable when you don’t know whether or not the Bachelorette is treating you as a serious contender. Dean’s kind of the goofy one of the group — he brings a lot to the table and can show sensitivity, but he’s not going to out-muscle the likes of Peter or Bryan.

2. This is a defense mechanism – He has some fears about Rachel meeting his family, so it’s understandable in this situation that he would put up some sort of wall and not be altogether keen to show off more of who he is. It’s going to be hard to get past that.

3. Time together – When you actually think about it for a moment, Dean and Rachel have probably only spent a handful of hours together, and very little of that is off-camera. We can imagine that it’s so hard to fathom having much of a future with someone when you don’t know who they are in a relaxed, casual environment. This would understandably be the sort of situation that would cause anyone to freak out.

Will Rachel pick him to advance?

Probably, but it’s hard to say whether or not this should be considered much in the way of a ringing endorsement all things considered. Remember for a moment that Rachel also has two guys in her top six in Matt and Adam who she’s spent almost zero time with, and they’ve made it this far mostly on the strength of not causing problems and being fairly easy to be around.

We do wonder if things would be any different this season had Kenny been able to have more of a normal journey rather than be targeted by Lee so early on and constantly feel those sort of pressures weighing down on him. It feels very clear at this point that what happened with that relationship had a very specific role in what eventually happened to him.

What do you think about this new preview for The Bachelorette — if you were Rachel, would you send home Dean or go and meet his family? Share below! (Photo: ABC.)