Bachelor contestant Vakoo’s mysterious disappearance explained

Bach fans had one question last night: “Where’s Vakoo?” There was a good reason for the contestant’s mysterious absence from the show.

Bachelor fans flooded social media during the second episode of the season last night to ask one simple question: Where’s Vakoo?

The stunning 23-year-old NSW model, full name Vakoo Kauapirura, was largely absent from last night’s episode — and was nowhere to be seen during the all-important rose ceremony.

READ ALL THE JAMES WEIR BACH RECAPS HERE

Even more strangely, her absence was not addressed — had she been quietly booted from the show?

The Vakoo truthers were out in force:

the #BachelorAU editors thinking we weren’t going to care about Vakoo being MIA this ep pic.twitter.com/wMrBdMngbu

— nat • stream kim petras clarity (@poppetyzoppety) August 1, 2019

Where is Vakoo?? What have I missed?! #TheBachelorAU

— Tucks (@Tucks023) August 1, 2019

WHERE DID VAKOO GO? #TheBachelorAU pic.twitter.com/zJbzk5l4D5

— jacob streisand-brolin (@jakeeyy__) August 1, 2019

this is the most high-profile disappearance in Australian cultural discourse since Harold Holt “went swimming” #Vakoo #TheBachelorAU

— Bachelor of Hearts Podcast 🌹 (@BOHpod) August 1, 2019

@TheBachelorAU where was Vakoo at tonight’s cocktail party and rose ceremony. See was MIA but back on the next episode??? #bacheloraustralia pic.twitter.com/DGMRTIxI1C

— Steven (@CountOnSteve) August 1, 2019

UM EXCUSE ME??? #TheBachelorAU pic.twitter.com/pkxH1cNa8a

— Tahlia Pritchard (@Tahls) August 1, 2019

Thankfully, Vakoo took to Instagram after the episode to explain her absence — which, it turns out, was due to a decidedly unglamorous bout of conjunctivitis:

Vakoo explains her absence from the episode.

Phew, mystery solved. Or is it?

Now onto the next mystery - who farted on Vakoo's pillow?! Clearly a case of sabotage! #bacheloraustralia #TheBachelor https://t.co/Yh78Dt0jId

— Diana DJ (@DianaDJ7) August 1, 2019

Meanwhile, the man whose affections Vakoo is vying for — this year’s Bachelor Matt Agnew — revealed to news.com.au this week that his romantic status post-filming was “very challenging”

News.com.au asked the astrophysicist how he was managing his secret relationship with The Bachelor winner.

“It’s really hard,” Matt said. “And it’s really hard both from the perspective that it has to be completely top secret but also from the point of view that you’ve just gone through this really intense, amplified situation with a particular dynamic to the relationship, and then at the end you switch to another relationship dynamic which is still not natural.”

And one of Vakoo’s love rivals, 23-year-old Queenslander Abbie, opened up to news.com.au this week about the true toll of providing this series’ first viral moment.

Matt and Abbie’s infamous meeting.

A month ago, Ten released a clip that showed Abbie meeting Matt for the first time.

“What do you do?” she asked him.

“I’m an astrophysicist,” he replied.

“Okayyyy, I’m a Gemini,” she said.

The cringe-worthy moment went viral on social media — and made Abbie the butt of many a joke.

The property analyst told news.com.au she wasn’t laughing, though, when her “joke” went viral, with people assuming she was “dumb”.

“Oh my god, at first I was absolutely mortified, and I was really upset,” she said of the promo.