Seeds of Doubt: Bachelor 28, Episode 9
Anyone else feel personally victimized by "To Be Continued" episodes?
Hello, happy almost spring! It’s fantasy suite week and instead of steamy hookups and trying to guess if any of the final women got physical with Joey, we spent a lot of time on Joey and the women’s insecurities.
We get another cold open, but this time it’s surveillance cam footage of Joey (allegedly) reading a message from one of the women. We later found out that the woman is Kelsey.
After that, we get a tear-filled monologue from Joey about where he’s at in this process. He says he’s falling for each of the women, but he’s scared to give himself fully to the process because of how it ended last time with Charity. I feel like this is the first time we heard why he was afraid of ending up alone at the end of this process. It’s because he’s still hurt from being left alone just a few months ago. That’s understandable. I know we think of this as just a TV show, but I imagine if you give your all to this process and end up at the end, getting dumped is traumatic.
The group is in Tulum for the week. All three women are reflecting on their journey with Joey and it seems like more than ever these women are really aware they aren’t the only ones left in this process. Have we ever seen all the final women reference the other women left in the process this much? It’s almost too realistic.
Golden Wisdom
Throughout the episode, the final three are joined by women from Gerry’s season of Golden Bachelor. I love the way the franchise has brought these women back this season. Not only has it been great to see them, but it’s brought a certain weight to the show. Something about women in their golden years serving as sounding boards for these young ladies feels right. I hope they can continue to weave the Golden contestants throughout the other shows in the franchise.
Rachel is up first. She talks with Susan about her fears of opening up with Joey. She’s scared to be vulnerable and honest with Joey about how she’s feeling because the last time she did that in a relationship, she got burned. She’s also aware that she’s not the only one left in the process, which makes her want to protect her heart even more. Susan encourages her to go all in and be vulnerable.
Rachel heads to meet Joey for their date. They’re spending the day swimming in a cenote. They’re jumping into the water from different levels when Rachel’s face hits the water and she gets hurt. Despite telling Joey she’s feeling ok, he isn’t convinced that she’s being honest. He can tell something is wrong. So they head to the hospital.
They must be in some sort of urgent care because why would a camera crew be allowed to film in this scenario? Besides that, I liked that Joey got to go with her and (I assume) wanted to. In the end, everything is ok and they’re able to make it back to the resort in time to enjoy dinner together.
At dinner, Rachel is incredibly apologetic about derailing their day. She felt awful that they had plans to enjoy one another all day and they weren’t able to fully lean into that because of her unexpected injury. Joey chalks it up to shit happening and this just being a taste of real life together. I agree. Have you really been on a family/couples vacation if someone doesn’t end up a little bruised?
Rachel wonders aloud if she waited too long to open up to Joey. She’s worried she’s playing catch up to get to where he might be with the other women. Joey tries to quell her fear of not opening up fast enough by saying that he understands this is who she is and he’s glad to have gotten to know what he has about her. She then shares where her head is at given her history with infidelity. Joey’s response might be the best I’ve ever seen on this show. The way he validated her feelings, and normalized her tears, especially given the point they’re at in the process was so gentle and empathetic. Not to mention, he lets her cry in his arms. Ultimately, they choose to go to the fantasy suite, where Rachel intends to share she loves him.
The next morning, Rachel seemed more comfortable, while Joey seemed not into it at all, which made me sad for her. She reveals in her interview with producers that she told him she loved him and Joey confirms that Rachel shared so much about herself and he was glad to see a new side of her. He said little to nothing about seeing a future with her.
The Connection We Haven’t Seen
Kelsey’s overnight is up next, but before she meets with Joey she gets to speak with Leslie, who had a less-than-stellar fantasy suite experience with Gerry. During their conversations, they bond over losing their mothers in their twenties and how hard it is to date throughout their early years and beyond without a motherly presence.
Kelsey shares that she’s in love with Joey, but hasn’t shared it with him yet because she’s hoping to hear it back. Then, Leslie starts to sow seeds of doubt (unintentionally—I think) by sharing her experience with Gerry. She says she was so confident it was her and was on such a high during their overnight date, only to end up heartbroken. Leslie uses this as a cautionary tale for Kelsey to not get too wrapped up in the fairytale of it all.
Joey and Kelsey are having a boat day and they cannot keep their hands to themselves. They’re complimenting one another and look like the definition of puppy love, which I mean in the nicest way. Hearing Joey and Kelsey talk about their feelings for one another to producers and the camera, but not to one another is actually insane. How have we seen so little from the two of them? Throughout their day I kept asking myself ‘When did they get this close?’
Going into the evening, Leslie’s words to Kelsey are in the back of her mind. Kelsey shares what she and Leslie talked about earlier in the week Joey responds by being vulnerable. He shares that he’s also scared about not getting chosen at the end. While I didn’t love that he did very little to quell Kelsey’s fears (like he did during his date with Rachel) I appreciated that he was honest about his fears of ending this process alone.
Kelsey shares that she loves him and he reciprocates! Kind of. He says that he’s falling in love with her and he’s been feeling that way and he’s been scared to share how he’s feeling, but after hearing her say it, he wants to be clear and honest with her. So Daisy can pack it up right? Cuz Kelsey must be it, even though we’ve barely seen their love story all season. Seriously y’all, where has it been?!
Kelsey accepts the invite to the fantasy suite and they head to their room for the night.
The next morning, Joey and Kelsey are as happy as ever. They’re cooking breakfast together, joking around with one another and, Joey looks happy and excited to be around Kelsey.
Love or the Idea of It?
In preparation for her overnight with Joey, Daisy meets with Sandra. She advises Daisy to focus on what she and Joey have and to be open. Then Sandra encourages her to give her words with Joey some “sexual oomph” which is…a choice. But whatever she said grounded Daisy, so I guess it worked.
Daisy and Joey are riding an ATV and ripping through the jungles of Tulum. Throughout the date, you can tell she’s being intentional with physical touch and more affectionate than we’ve seen her all season,
I think Daisy loves the idea of Joey and wants to love him and spend a life with someone like him, but she seems too unsure on if he is it for her. Even though she’s one of the last women standing, I think she should honor that.
Going into dinner Daisy says “[Joey] has everything I would want in someone who I’m going to spend forever with, so for me, it’s obvious I’m in love.” Uhhh no. I don’t think that’s a given. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I think a person can have the qualities you want in a long-term partner and still not be right for you.
Interestingly, Joey uses his time with Daisy to share his fears about this process like with Kelsey. He also shares that he’s falling in love with Daisy and apologizes for how his feelings came out at the end of her hometown.
I know this show makes it seem like there is a big difference between being in love and falling in love, but I never like when the guys say they’re in love/falling in love to multiple women at this point in the process. I don’t like when The Bachelorette does it either, but I feel like they do it less often (which is likely just my bias towards women showing lol). At this point, Joey had gone so long without expressing any feelings to these women, why not just keep it to himself one more week? I feel like it gives false hope to the women left.
The next morning Daisy says she’s feeling confident and reassured.
Second Guessing
While Joey is feeling confident that all three women would say yes to him if he proposed—which was such an odd thing of him to say out loud. Kelsey seems to be having second thoughts and wants to have a conversation with him before the rose ceremony.
She says she’d rather leave the process at this stage than have her heart broken. She leaves a note at Joey's door for him and as soon as he reads it, he spirals. He doesn’t want her to leave, he wonders what could have been said to her since their overnight and he questions why people can’t stick it out and fight for him.
Unfortunately, the episode ends on this cliffhanger, so we’re gonna have to wait until next week to see what happens. Hate that for us. 🙄