SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Monday’s episode of Season 27 of ABC’s The Bachelor
It’s week two of Zach Shallcross’ journey to find love on ABC‘s The Bachelor. After his first cocktail party and rose ceremony, Zach was ready to begin exploring his relationships with the 20 women left in the competition. In the opening moments of Monday night’s episode, Zach said he was feeling hopeful and had already made some strong connections, which he wasn’t expecting.
Because he didn’t get to talk with everyone at the cocktail party, Zach decided to have two group dates and a one-on-one the first week to make sure that he had time with all the women. It’s fairly typical for some of the women to be left out of dates during the first few weeks, when the group is so big, but host Jesse Palmer says Zach wants to do things “a little bit differently.”
Up first: Brianna, Brooklyn, Katherine, Mercedes, Bailey, Davia, Cat, Genevie, and Kylee.
“I’m looking for big, big love,” the date card read, teasing what was to come. The women take a party bus to a warehouse in Los Angeles and were surprised to find rapper Latto strutting down a runway toward them. She told the women that they would spend the day trying to prove to Zach that they have “bad bitch energy,” starting with a bit of a dance off.
And who better to help the new contestants embrace their BBE besides a few of Bachelor Nation’s most notorious women? Victoria Fuller, Tahzjuan Hawkins, and Courtney Robertson make their way down the stage and announce they’ll be helping judge the women during the group date.
Each of the women took turns strutting down the runway to Zach to show off their own BBE, and then they each had to explain to him a time when they were “a real bad bitch,” as Latto put it. They told stories that ranged from defying beauty standards to TKTKTK. And just like that, it was time for the cocktail party.
But, wait. Is that some drama brewing? Before the commercial break, Tahzjuan tells the camera during a confessional that she’s pretty smitten with Zach, admitting that if he invited her to join his season, she would do so without hesitation.
During the cocktail party, the women anxiously waited to see who would receive the group date rose. Most of the conversations went as they usually do, discussing the day and potentially getting a little deeper. Brianna pulled Zach aside to express that she didn’t feel as comfortable still being there, since she’d received a rose from viewers at The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose and not from Zach himself, but he quickly reassured her that she was there for a reason and even sealed the deal with a kiss.
While the group date was happening, it was time for the other women to find out who would be getting the first one-on-one. The honor went to Christina, who said she’s been eager to talk to Zach about being a mom to her 5-year-old daughter.
Back to the first group date…guess who’s back? Yep, Tahzjuan crashed the party to “see if there’s anything there” with Zach. He agreed to think about allowing her to stick around and vye for his heart, but when the women on the group date confront Tahzjuan, things det a little dicey. She tells them that many of them missed the opportunity to really connect with Zach, and she wasn’t impressed with their attempts at displaying BBE. Ultimately, despite her best efforts, Zach wasn’t game to let her stay.
Katherine received the first group date rose.
Then, it was time for Christina’s one-on-one. For their date, the pair took a helicopter to his childhood home to meet his mom, dad, and about 20 of their close friends and family to celebrate his mom’s birthday…no pressure. Christina handled the affair quite well, blending right in among the festivities. When Zach’s mom brought out his baby album, it brought her back to reality as she realized the conversation she’d been meaning to have with Zach about her own daughter.
She worked up the courage to talk to him at dinner, and while he had some mixed emotions (naturally) about the news, he gave Christina a rose to show her that he wanted to keep getting to know her and figure out whether becoming a dad is in his near future.
Finally, it was time for the second group date, which included Greer, Charity, Jessica, Aly, Kaity, Anastasia, Gabi, Ariel, Victoria J., and Kimberly.
Zach decided to keep it simple for this date, opting for just a cocktail party instead of something extravagant. It marked the first time he’d be having a real conversation with some of the women in the group, including Ariel, who suggested they both write down their biggest fears about putting their hearts out there on The Bachelor. Zach opened up to Jessica about being diagnosed with Pyloric stenosis, which is an uncommon condition in infants that blocks food from entering the small intestine, as a child. He explained that is the reason he’s so close with his mother, who fought for his diagnosis and treatment.
As more of the women began to talk with each other about their conversations with Zach, Gabi expressed that she was feeling self conscious about the fact that she hadn’t had a solid conversation with him yet. Luckily, she did get to chat with him before the end of the group date. While it appeared their conversation went well enough, he ultimately gave Jessica the group date rose.
Before handing out the rose, Zach mentioned a few of the other women he’d enjoyed talking to, and he didn’t bring up Gabi, which made her pretty emotional. She walked away from the date in tears, saying that she felt “worthless.” But during the pre-rose ceremony cocktail party, Gabi got a second chance at a conversation with Zach, and she left feeling very reassured.
Cue the second rose ceremony. But first, one final cocktail party for the women to convince Zach to keep them around. Remember: Christina, Jessica and Katherine already have roses. During his toast, Zach dropped a bombshell on the group when he told Christina he’d enjoyed seeing her meet his family…which she hadn’t told any of the other women about.
Naturally, it stirred up some trouble as the other women questioned their relationships with Zach upon hearing he and Christina had already made such progress. Specifically, Brianna pulled Christina aside to talk about how she was still bothered that Christina had jokingly told her “I hate you” for receiving America’s First Impression rose on night one. Christina apologized and said that she’d never meant to hurt her. That didn’t stop Brianna from also bringing up the night one conversation with Zach, though she didn’t tell Zach who made the comment. Zach told her that he felt she had too many walls up in their conversations, and he blamed that for their lack of connection thus far.
Here are the results from the rose ceremony. The women sent home were: Victoria J., Kimberly, and Cat.
The women who will be back next week are: Brooklyn, Genevie, Greer, Aly, Charity, Kaity, Gabi, Ariel, Anastasia, Kylee, Davia, Mercedes, Bailey, Brianna, Jessica, Christina, and Katherine.
The Bachelor airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and is available next day on Hulu.
