To catch up on all the Bachelorette Australia 2019 recaps and gossip, check out Mamamia’s recaps and visit our Bachelorette hub page.

It’s been a long and dramatic season of The Bachelorette, and we will have a winner by the end of Thursday night. No Honey Badger repeats allowed.

Whittling down her options, our 2019 Bachelorette, Angie Kent has picked Carlin Sterritt, Timm Hanly, and Ryan Anderson as her top three, and we can say with relative certainty exactly who will win.

According to our very thorough investigation, we’ve dubbed Carlin as this season’s winner, with Ryan as runner-up, meaning Timm will be eliminated from the competition next Wednesday. And no, despite all our hopes, dreams and prayers, Ciarran will not be making a last-minute return, and we are all very sad about it.

We’re still not over that moment where Angie had to say goodbye to Ciarran, and we might never be. Post continues below.

Behold a comprehensive review of the evidence.

Carlin is most definitely the winner of The Bachelorette

You could argue it was always going to be Carlin. The fitness trainer became the front-runner when Angie picked him for the first solo, 24-hour, date, and their connection has steadily grown stronger since.

Eager Bachelorette fans will have noticed that when Carlin met Angie for the first time, producers overlayed this scene with the ‘winner’s romantic theme music’. Timm was the only other contestant to also receive this musical treatment, and lo’ and behold, the audience favourite is also in the top three, but more on that later.

First dates and emotional manipulation editing aside, Carlin also has the tick of approval from Angie’s best friend and former Gogglebox co-star, Yvie Jones. Angie’s brother even described him as the “settle down wanna have kids type”.

 

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A post shared by C a r l i n ✞ (@carlinsterritt) on Mar 26, 2019 at 9:42pm PDT

Finally, Sportsbet knows. Sportsbet ALWAYS knows. Bar Honey Badger’s (Nick Cummins) season in 2018 – which will forever remain a boil on the Bachelor / Bachelorette franchise – Sportsbet has accurately predicted the winner of every season of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

They currently have Carlin winning at $1.25, with Ryan following at $3.50. Alas, poor Tim is sitting in fourth place at $16, behind the option of ‘no winner’ at $12. And let’s face it, Osher is not letting that happen again.

We also have it on good authority that a former contestant from this season may have drunkenly confirmed our suspicions while out at a Sydney nightclub. But take that with however many salt-rimmed margaritas you think is necessary.

On the other hand, however, Carlin was spotted hanging out by a hotel pool in Fiji earlier this week.

Although some fans have questioned whether Carlin is set to appear on Bachelor in Paradise, which normally films in Fiji around November and December, there's a chance the photos could simply be a decoy.

During Ali Oetjen's season of The Bachelorette last year, both winner Taite Radley and runner-up Todd King were spotted in Fiji before the finale aired, leading fans to question whether Ali was going to pick no one.

At the time, however, a source also told the Daily Mail that the photo was simply a ploy to trick fans of the show.

"Warner Brows flew both finalists to Fiji to make it look like they were both filming Bachelor in Paradise," the source claimed.

"It was an attempt to make everyone think that Ali is still single, but actually she is still with the winner and they are very much in love."

...Interesting.

Ryan will be the runner up of The Bachelorette

For a while it looked like intruder Ryan had this competition in the bag, but his performance of late has left us questioning.

Last Wednesday it was revealed he had previously auditioned for Ali Oetjen's season of The Bachelorette and Angie was understandably mad at his admission. For context, the island caretaker previously stated he only entered the competition because she was the Bachelorette - something that turned out to be a white lie.

Previously, fans thought Ryan would be the winner as the only contestant currently following Angie on Instagram, but there are two very logical reasons which excuse this.

1. That would be too obvious and we must give more credit to the Channel 10 social media team.
2. We know Ryan slid into Angie's DMs prior to going on the competition, so it would make sense he would be following her on Instagram.

A further scan on Ryan's Instagram will also show that unlike the other contestants, he has not been posting the requisite weekly outfit shots, and behind-the-scene photos from the series.

Obviously, this is because he's heartbroken and devastated. Not even a future influencer career of spruiking teeth whitener and organic dog food - he's very passionate about rescue dogs - could cheer him up.

Poor guy.

Timm will be evicted next Wednesday, and Australia's heart will break.

Oh Timm. We loved you for your dreadlocks, guyliner, kind heart and narration skills, but my darling boy, you are going to get your heart broken on Wednesday night.

Remember the 'winner's romantic theme music,' we mentioned earlier on? The producers were clearly setting us up for another Nikki Gogan / Todd King / Elly Miles moment, by getting us emotionally attached to the duck-obsessed man who would most certainly not win, and we fell for it hook, line and sinker.

 

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A post shared by Timm Hanly (@timmhanly) on Jun 5, 2019 at 7:56pm PDT

The disappointment will be inevitable, but in the words of the man himself: "You want to be in love with someone who will become your eyes if you lose your eyes," and Timm... we want that for you.

You deserve the best.

Who do you think will win The Bachelorette next week? Tell us in a comment below.