After meeting all of the women during the first week, Joey’s season is in full swing — literally. He even gave, host, Jesse Palmer tennis lessons. 

For the first date of the season, Rachel, Taylor, Kelsey T., Lexi, Evalin, Erica, Maria, Lauren and Jess are all chosen. The women are instructed to try on their favorite wedding gown at the Mansion, because they will be going to “their own” wedding reception. When the women arrive at the reception, Jesse informs them that whoever impresses Joey the most will be chosen for the “exclusive” first dance. 

With the first activity at the reception being musical chairs, the women are all trying to sit next to Joey at the table. As the music stops playing, Evalin literally threw herself over the table to try and be at the seat next to Joey. Despite the effort, she didn’t get the seat — in fact she ended up at the furthest chair from Joey. 

After the women continued on with various activities, all trying to win over Joey’s first dance, when it came down to it Joey chose Rachel to dance with. 

At the after party of the group date, Maria talks to Joey first. He said he feels like Maria could be his type. It was at that moment that Maria said, “I can’t breathe in this dress, so I am going to change into something more comfortable.” Despite Maria saying she doesn’t want to seduce Joey, he said, “I just couldn’t keep my eyes off of her.” 

Lauren didn’t talk to Joey at all during the group date, because she was having a hard time grieving the loss of her father — especially being in a wedding dress. She opened up to Joey about this and he just wanted her to not feel sorry for not talking to him, and he was excited to get to know her more.

When Jess talks to Joey, she opens up about how there have been infidelities in her past relationships and it has taken a while to get to where she is now. Joey said he wants her to feel safe around him and was thankful that she was so vulnerable. Following this, Joey decided to give Jess the group date rose. 

When everyone heads back to the Mansion, they find out the first one-on-one date is going to Daisy. As Daisy embarks on her date, she meets Joey at a helicopter where they fly over the city and land at a local festival. Joey said he chose Daisy for this date because he remembers how much she loves music, and when he is with her he just feels like he is with his girlfriend. 

As they head to the dinner portion of the date, Daisy opens up to Joey about her past health issues that led her to make a non-profit organization. She explained that she has a cochlear implant because she lost her hearing when she had Lyme disease. She shared that she needed to get medical treatment in Germany, but that she is doing much better now. Joey said he is so impressed with her resilience, and is so proud of how she turned everything she went through into a positive — following that he gave her the one-on-one rose.  

Jumping right into the next group date, Joey and the women are greeted by Bachelor Nation alumni Jubilee Sharpe and Demi Burnett, where they share that the women will be participating in a paint battle. 

As Team Pink — Katelyn, Allison, Marlena, Chrissa and Autumn — went up against Team Blue — Madina, Starr, Edwina, Kelsey A. and Jenn — the women battled it out for a chance to have extra time with Joey. After the blue team was announced the winners, Jubilee and Demi shared that actually only one woman from their team would get time with Joey, and that woman would be Edwina. 

During their time together Edwina talked about her struggles growing up with a lot of pressure, which has made it hard for her to be vulnerable. Joey said he appreciated her opening up, which led him to give her the group date rose. 

At the cocktail party, Madina shares to the group that she feels vulnerable being 31-years-old, and that she, “Doesn’t have a lot of time left.” Maria went to another woman outside and said, “I’m 29-years-old, she should own it.” Sydney, who popped out of nowhere, told Madina that Maria said that and somehow this turned into an argument — but also not an argument at the same time. Thankfully, they all resolved their issues. 

Following that, Lauren wanted to give Joey their “wedding cake” because she didn’t get any time with him on the group date. But as the night goes on, she still had not gotten any time with him and was mad. Joey finds her standing outside, to which Lauren — out of nowhere — said, “I’m going home. I don’t even want to be here, everyone has already talked to you. Maybe I’ll see you at Hometowns.” Then proceeding to throw the cake to the ground because it is not red velvet. 

After a strange cocktail party, the rose ceremony finally begins. Joey hands out 19 roses, leaving Taylor, Marlena and Erika to be sent home. But, stay tuned for next week as some familiar faces return from “The Golden Bachelor” for a group date!

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