The Bachelor: Predicting whether Hannah B. will join Peter's cast

The season preview for The Bachelor features the dramatic return of Hannah B.

A new season of The Bachelor starring Peter Weber is set to begin in January, and the newly released “first look” reveals that an old flame could be a surprise addition to Peter’s cast of bachelorettes. In the teaser, Dancing With the Stars champion Hannah Brown has an intimate conversation with Peter on a couch, and Peter appears to invite her onto the show as a contestant.

Will Hannah B. vie for Peter’s heart on The Bachelor, or is this all a cruel tease by the producers? FTW Bachelor experts Nick Schwartz and Steven Ruiz, along with series newbie Chris Korman, break down the footage:

Hannah B. is back, and she’s going to win

A shock Hannah B. return is the glorious twist Peter’s season likely needed, and while it’s entirely possible that the producers are cutting Hannah B.’s lines together to make it seem like she’s more interested than she is, her comeback isn’t all that surprising when you look back at her own disastrous season.

In case you missed the last season of The Bachelorette, Peter advanced to the penultimate week, finishing behind finalists Tyler C. and Jed. Hannah (disappointingly) got engaged to Jed, only to almost immediately find out that he had a serious relationship just before filming began, and that he only went on the show to advance his career as a dog food jingle artist. Hannah’s entire season, though, was overshadowed by the overwhelming destructive force that was Luke P., who radically altered the course of the show and made it nearly impossible for Hannah to have a happy ending. You could make a strong argument that if Luke P. wasn’t on the show, Hannah and Peter could very well be engaged right now. The windmill energy is too strong for this to fail again.

– Nick Schwartz

Peter won’t fall for this

This might be wishful thinking, but I’m going to say Peter does the right thing and denies Hannah B. He has to, right? This is some Luke P. nonsense she’s pulling if we’re being honest. 

It’s actually worse! She DUMPED you, dude. For a guy named Jed, no less! She also picked Tyler over you, and he couldn’t hack it as Wake Forest’s QB. You’re a pilot. You can do so much better, Peter. Not only did she choose Jed, whose claim to fame was a dog food jingle, as her winner, she then agreed to go on a date with Tyler after the finale. Is she just going down the line? If you turn her down, is Luke P. next? 

Peter is a smart dude. He’ll recognize Hannah’s ploy — this would be her fourth consecutive season on an ABC show — and send her packing. 

– Steven Ruiz

Hannah will win, then stun the world

I did, in fact, miss The Bachelorette last season (and almost all the seasons before that), Nick, so thank you for the recap. I tend to take a dim view of these shows in general, which is probably an overly serious viewpoint of something silly, but I have children and attempt as best I can to protect them from all the ills of our world.

That being said, I have high hopes for this Hannah B. There’s just something about her. Something that I gleaned from this very short clip, but after all these years I trust my intuition. And Hannah is special. I feel it. So, yes, she’s going to win it — and easily. The rest of the women will be completely shattered. But then in a surprise twist Hannah will reveal that she’s known all along that real commitment could never come from a process like this one. And also that she’s secretly been watching YouTube videos of how to fly a plane. After which she’ll dash away — perhaps showing off some of her dance steps along the way — to Peter’s crop duster before shouting, “I’m still making decisions for my heart!” and taking off. I’m not supposed to tell you where she goes, but it’s the South of France (did you realize that plane could get so far?), and she’ll steep herself in the works of feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, which will enlighten her to the fact that men have built her up all these years only to keep her down, and she’ll marry a kindly cheesemonger — a fromager — and blissfully spend the rest of her days in their cheese shop, bringing joy to local villagers and the occasional tourist, none of whom will ever realize she was the one who finally escaped.

The next bachelorette will definitely be the one who talks about licking Peter up and down, though. That’s happening.

– Chris Korman