Our Monday nights have been filled again, as “The Bachelor” has returned for its 28th season. This season will follow Joey Graziadei, a 28-year-old professional tennis coach from Philadelphia. Joey is most known to the Bachelor franchise, as the runner up on Charity Lawson’s season of “The Bachelorette.” 

As night one of Joey’s season began, host Jesse Palmer informs him that this season he is making history with the most women they have ever seen on the show. There will be 32 women, ranging from 23 to 31 years old. 

Limo Entrances

As the limos arrived at the Mansion, and the women’s screams of excitement could be heard, Joey began his journey. 

The first woman out of the limo was Lexi, a 30-year-old digital strategist from Atlanta, who is hoping to find the one, but said she is nervous to share with Joey that she may not be able to have children due to a health condition. 

Shortly after Lexi was Daisy, a 25-year-old account executive from Minnesota, who arrived with a Christmas truck from her grandfather’s Christmas tree farm. Daisy shares that she slowly lost her hearing, and just recently got a cochlear implant. She said this will be her first time dating anyone since she has gotten it.

As the women kept arriving, it seemed as though they were all trying to one-up each other with grand entrances. 

Some stand-out moments included: Autumn, 26, who asked Joey what his favorite season is, to which he responded summer or spring, leaving her awkwardly disappointed. Jess, 24, who arrived on a speedboat, Taylor, 23, who gave Joey an extremely large bra because she “supports him” and Zoe, 24, who had a tray of different sized bananas and asked Joey to pick “which he most resonates with.” 

But by far the most shocking limo entrances were Allison, 26, and Lauren, 28, who are sisters. Allison, who is the younger sister, shared that they wanted to keep it a secret from everyone that they are related. Lauren, made it clear that she was the older sister and wanted to beat Allison in kissing Joey first.   

Cocktail Party and Rose Ceremony

The women finally all arrived at the Mansion, but the talk of the evening was Lea. She had the opportunity to meet Joey at “After the Final Rose,” after Charity’s season. Jesse gave her an envelope and told her that she has to wait to open it until she is at the Mansion. 

During the rest of the evening, tension already began. When Jess talked to Joey, she got the first kiss from him, but she made sure to announce it to everyone in the Mansion, which immediately placed a target on her back.

As Joey is talking to Taylor, Jess interrupts their conversation and asks if she can steal Joey, but that she isn’t “trying to be that girl.” Unfortunately it was too late. Taylor told Jess, “Karma is real, I would’ve never done that.” But Jess said if she could do it over, she would’ve done it again.  

During that, Allison and Lauren talk about how they think people are onto them, even though no one has suspected a thing, and decide to share with the women that they are siblings. The women shared how weird they thought it was, and that they would never be able to do that. 

Then after both having one-on-one time with Joey, Allison and Lauren decide it is time to also tell Joey they are sisters. Joey said he, “Thinks it is cool and is excited to get to know them more.”

As the anticipation of what is on Lea’s card continues to grow, she finally decides to open it. The card informs her that she has the power to steal a one-on-one date at any time. This makes Lea emotional, because she doesn’t want to have time with Joey at the expense of another woman. After talking it over with Joey and the women, she decides to throw the card into the fire. Because of this, Joey decides to give Lea the first impression rose — the first rose of the season. 

For one final conversation of the evening, Maria, 29, shared that she didn’t want to kiss Joey because he was kissing too many girls. But after an awkward conversation about scary movies, Maria decides to kiss him because, “I just couldn’t help it.”

As the sun was rising, they finally got to the first rose ceremony. Joey gave out 22 roses to Allison (the younger sister,) Daisy, Kelsey T., Lexi, Jess, Jenn, Autumn, Chrissa, Edwina, Kelsey A., Katelyn, Rachel, Erika, Madina, Sydney, Starr, Marlena, Maria, Taylor, Evalin and Lauren (the older sister.)

Leaving Chandler, Kayla, Kyra, Lanie, Nat, Sam, Talyah, Zoe, Sandra and Samantha to be sent home. 

Stay tuned for next Monday, as the 22 women start going on dates with Joey!

This story was written by Sophie Goldstein. She can be reached at [email protected].