Finally, the first week of dates has arrived — and don’t worry, it definitely brought the drama. From stealing Grant during a basketball date to awkwardly serenading in an empty mall, this week definitely made up for last week’s “No llama drama.”
So, let’s get right into it.
Group date #1:
This week, host Jesse Palmer let the women know that there will be two group dates and one one-on-one date — going to Alexe since she received the first impression rose last week.
Without wasting any time, Palmer hands out the group date card. Beverly, Sarafiena, Alli Jo, Natalie, Parisa, Vicky, Chloie, Zoe, Juliana and Allyshia are all chosen to go on the first group date of the season — how exciting!
The women all gathered on the basketball court to show Grant their skills — or lack thereof. Kids from the local school come to help these women, and all things seemed to be going well… but not for long.

It was time for the “dunk” contest, and Zoe was up to go. Instead, she decided to “forfeit” her dunk and steal Grant for a conversation — oh, boy. You can only imagine the looks on these women’s faces when she said that.
As time awkwardly passes with these women and the elementary students, finally Grant and Zoe decide to come back from their little “escape.” In “Bachelor” fashion, just as the two arrive back, Palmer lets the women know that it is time for the 5-on-5 game.
The Purple Team ended up dominating the Yellow Team, and things even got “physical.” The women saying it was physical is a stretch, it was actually only just Zoe pushing people down to try and win MVP; but Chloie ended up receiving Grant’s letterman jacket and was crowned MVP for all of her points.

Don’t worry, the date doesn’t end there. The women from both teams went to the evening portion of the date — where the drama with Zoe just carried over. The women decide to confront Zoe about stealing Grant during the date, and Zoe is honestly so unbothered. “When’s the right time? Tomorrow when we’re at home not seeing him,” she said back to the women. Honestly a pretty iconic line.
Trust me, it doesn’t end there! Get ready. Zoe interrupts Juliana’s time with Grant, and at that point Alli Jo is more mad than Juliana. Alli Jo decides to go steal Grant from Zoe, but about three minutes into their conversation Zoe steals Grant back from Alli Jo. Woah. That was too much. I need a map for all of this.
As Zoe returns, Alli Jo made sure to run through her list of complaints. Zoe remains completely silent, and, thankfully, Grant came back just in time to hand out the group date rose. Hallelujah. The end of this group date is in sight.
Grant hands out the group date rose to Natalie for her ability to help one of the girls at the basketball game. Natalie happily accepts, and finally this group date is over.
One-on-one date:
Last week Alexe received the first impression rose. And for the first time in “Bachelor” history, the recipient of the first impression rose received the first one-on-one date.
She and Grant met at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles for a shopping spree followed by a romantic candlelit dinner. They play games in the empty mall, and Grant decides this is the perfect moment to sing an improv song on the mall piano. Unfortunately, this was probably the hardest thing to watch. Ever. I mean: 1, this was a terrible song and 2, having to watch Alexe awkwardly stare into his eyes and smile was unbearable.
Finally they settled down for dinner — where no singing occurred. Thank goodness. Alexe and Grant both open up about their families and some struggles they faced growing up. It’s clear they both hit it off, so it was no surprise when Grant offered the rose and she accepted.

Group date #2:
The second group date of the week included Litia, Rose, Ella, Carolina, Bailey, Dina and Rebekah.
The women meet Grant at the Bellwether Theater where they are greeted by Mario performing “Let Me Love You.” Grant and Mario both let the women know that they will be singing a song to Grant in front of a live audience — something that a few of the women clearly did not want to do.
I don’t know if Grant thought he signed up for “The Voice” instead of “The Bachelor,” but Grant performs yet ANOTHER improv song in front of the women and audience members. Grant, we get it you can sing.

After all of the women perform, Grant declares Carolina the winner. Because of that she gets to have a special moment with Grant on stage as Mario sings. During that time, she got on Grant’s lap and had quite the intimate moment with him — something that made most of the women look away and get upset.
Of course, we can’t have a group date without any drama. When Grant arrives at the evening portion of the date, he said he felt like “the vibes were off.” He decided to pull Rebekah aside and ask her what was up with everyone — something I’m sure she wanted to spend her time talking to him about. Rebekah tells him that, sometimes, it can be awkward when the women put themselves out there only for him to be more impressed by someone else, and he responded that he would be a bit more attentive to that.
Rebekah shares that information with the rest of the women, and Carolina seems to be taken aback and didn’t realize she had upset some of the women. Eventually Carolina addresses it with Grant, but he assures her that neither of them did anything wrong, even if others were upset by it.
Grant had another interesting conversation with Litia. Litia called out Grant for saying, last week, “[Because of your looks] you must never get told no.” This is a huge piece of information, and I honestly don’t know how ABC didn’t put this in last week’s episode.
I felt like Litia did such a great job of addressing that with Grant, and Grant responded back by saying, “With the first night, I have to judge women based on first looks and I just thought you were so beautiful.” Litia let him know that her last relationship actually ended because her boyfriend said no to her when she wanted to start a family.
Grant did end up giving the group date rose to Litia, and told her, “I tend to fall really fast.”
The whole situation really left a bad taste in my mouth about Grant. Honestly those comments combined with him clearly trying to get his music famous left me not sure how to entirely feel about him.
Rose ceremony:
The cocktail party was a total of seven minutes and seemed so pointless.
As Grant and the women headed into the rose ceremony, a total of 11 roses were up for grabs. Grant gave those to: Juliana, Beverly, Sarafiena, Zoe, Carolina, Dina, Rose, Bailey, Parisa, Alli Jo and Chloie.
Leaving Rebekah, Ella, Allyshia and Vicky to be sent home. After last week, I thought Allyshia was going to go far, so her being sent home truly came as a bit of a surprise. Honestly devastated for her.
Front runners:
Based on the past two weeks, I think the final three could potentially include: Alexe, Rose and Litia — with Chloie and Natalie going far in this journey.
Alexe seems to really have a strong connection going with Grant, and it is clear they have a spark.
Rose always seems to have genuine conversations with Grant anytime they talk — and honestly, she reminds me of Daisy from Joey’s “Bachelor” season.
Lastly, I think Litia could be in the final three. Despite that comment Grant made to her, I think she is going to stay a while — especially since Grant said, “I fall fast” to her.
Wow, this week definitely had all the drama we needed from last week. Make sure to decompress from all of it, and stay tuned for next week where Lisa Vanderpump makes an appearance?
This story was written by Sophie Goldstein. She can be reached at [email protected].