'The Bachelor: Women Tell All' recap: lots of drama and even a llama!
Accusations and "accountability" dominated the episode.
LOS ANGELES -- Welcome to "The Bachelor: Women Tell All" where the women are set to spill some tea, right some wrongs and let the drama unfold.
Romance and Drama
Jesse Palmer welcomes the audience, saying this season has brought us romance, drama and one llama. He introduces the ladies on stage: J'nae, Beverly, Allyshia, Vicky, Ella, Chloie, Alli Jo, Rose, Parisa, Bailey, Natalie, Carolina, Alexe, Sarafiena and Dina.
Jesse chats with the ladies. Rose said she was nervous on that first night. Chloie talked about putting on the t-shirt that Zoe and Grant shot over the mansion saying, "When life gives you lemons, you put a t-shirt on!"
Jesse asks Carolina about her wardrobe choice for the night. She's wearing a sky blue jacket with the words "What's your question" on the front and "Crazy and Evil" on the back, and says it's quotes from "The Carolina Show." She says the first night, she thought they'd all end up being good friends but we all know how that turned out. As I've said numerous times this season, Carolina sure knows how to craft a narrative for herself!
Jen: This is off to a contentious start! I think she came to get a lot of attention and that jacket definitely stirred up at least a bit of conversation.
The drama begins
The audience gets a look back at Grant's season so far. Afterward, the ladies talk about their confrontations with Zoe.
Beverly talks about the basketball date when Zoe stole Grant away/that moment seemed short on TV, but in actuality, they were gone for over an hour! Alli Jo added that it affected the kids there too. And she got aggressive on the court because of it. Jesse also mentions Sarafiena's comment about Zoe's dress. She admits it was wrong for her to say and she apologized to Zoe, then comes to her defense, saying Zoe is a misunderstood person.
Jen: I'm glad they made peace over that situation! Seemed like some early, unnecessary drama this season!
All eyes turn to Carolina, who says she didn't realize the moment when she kissed Grant on the group date was making waves. Everyone had been kissing him and she hadn't. Others chime in, noting they too had not kissed him yet. This was also the beginning of the Rose/Carolina drama. For those who don't remember, Carolina was irked that, in an off-camera conversation, Rose revealed that Grant said he was thinking about her while he was on stage with Carolina. Rose said that they were roommates and she thought they were just comparing notes, and when Carolina heard something she didn't like she really took it and ran. At no point in their conversation did Rose think Carolina was upset by what she told, they'd been laughing. Carolina says she doesn't want to have this conversation now, she wants to talk about it when Grant is there because a lot of the responsibility is on him. She also says she doesn't think it's crazy for her to not want to date a guy who's saying to someone else he's thinking about her. Bailey says it was the wrong time for her to address it with Grant (originally). Carolina talks over her, other girls jump in, and it's very loud and no one is getting anywhere. Jesse tosses to break as Carolina looks incensed.
Jen: I'm sorry but Carolina definitely knew what she was doing on that date. Also, just saying she doesn't want to talk and she wants to wait for Grant? Does she make the rules of how the evening goes? It seems like she wants to.
More Carolina drama
Carolina has the floor when we come back. She says she wants Grant to take accountability when he comes out. Others try to interrupt and it gets testy. She continues saying that when she brought up the Rose comments at the cocktail party, that she didn't want to make it a "thing" but whatever he said was misconstrued and to watch his words because he's doing "a lot." She says she also told him not to look into it, but then he told Rose. Dina points out that you're doing to Rose what she says Grant did to her. The girls all talk at once and Carolina says they're all just trying to blame her. Jesse tries to get a handle on the situation, noting that we'll be here for hours at this point. I stand with Jesse here. We're not getting anywhere.
Jen: Anyone else miss "The Golden Bachelor" haha. I do! I get exhausted by the drama sometimes.
Jesse asks Dina what happened - in Madrid she was defending Carolina but in Scotland she led the charge against her. Dina said Grant pulled her aside saying he values her opinion and asked what was really going on with Carolina, since he had been hearing things from the other ladies. At that time, Dina told him that she didn't have the same experience the others were having with her. And then the next week in Scotland, it blew up in her face.
Carolina says they know that she wasn't purposely sitting by herself. Sarafiena jumped in and said her attitude the whole day was negative. Carolina retorts saying that she was being given the cold shoulder and wasn't being talked to, and that it wasn't easy going into a date knowing everyone hates her. Natalie said from her perspective it was a lot of little things that were adding up to this moment.
Jesse brings up some TikTok drama between Dina and Carolina. Dina said she was just trying to promote the episode, but of course Carolina took it another way and threatened to show text messages between them. Carolina said she took Dina's TikToks as a threat so she responded and if she wants to bury the hatchet, then fine. Dina said she bought her another week on the show in Madrid. She was supposed to go home but Dina bought her another week.
As Jesse tosses to break, Carolina gets emotional and walks off stage.
Jen: How was she "supposed" to go home. I don't think anyone can really know what Grant will ultimately decide to do in a rose ceremony other than Grant!
Alexe in the Hot Seat
Jesse addresses that Carolina left set for a moment, then invites Alexe to the hot seat, where he tells her that her entrance with Linda the llama was one of the best ever, and I'd totally agree as they look back at her journey. She tells Jesse the breakup in Scotland was tough on her, but she is not in that place anymore. She said getting that first one-on-one was great and she had an amazing time, but others caught up to their connection so it was tough. We see Carolina come back and get seated. Someone she did have a connection with was Linda the llama, and then they brought her out! I was extremely jealous not to be in the audience! It was seriously the reunion we needed, Bachelor Nation.
Jen: Linda is my favorite. A rare break from the drama. I was surprised at how quickly Alexe's connection with Grant went from hot to not.
Sarafiena in the Hot Seat
It's Sarafiena's turn in the hot seat. They show her journey on the show, including something we didn't originally see, which was her telling Grant she was blindsided by being eliminated. She says she prides herself on being matter-of-fact and she thought she was getting validation from Grant throughout the process. She jumped off a bridge for the man, she doesn't do that for just anyone!
Jesse brings up the moment Sarafiena tells Grant about not kissing because her mom was watching (which we all loved so much!!). Sarafiena tells Jesse that he is her mom's favorite. Jesse says he actually contacted her mom, Velma, and they show a clip of their chat, where Velma says she's proud of the woman Sarafiena has become and that she is always watching, which is adorable. Jesse thinks she should be the next Golden Bachelorette and you know what? That could work!
Jen: I loved this whole segment. Sarafiena had that slow burn with Grant, but they really did seem to make a real connection and I was surprised, just as she was, that she was sent home that week. I'm not sure if I had her in my top 3 or anything, but I thought she'd go a bit farther.
Before they go to break, they show a teaser for "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" and, of course, have a reaction camera for Hakeem, who does not disappoint. He's still shocked by that show!
Dina in the Hot Seat
Dina steps up to the hot seat as they look back at her journey. She notes that when she was sent home, she was not fully processing what was happening and that's why she was so calm as she got into the car.
Dina also talks about her family not being there for hometowns. She says when Grant asked her about them not being there, she dodged the question and then when she was watching the show back, she saw he said it could be a make-or-break thing for him and she was floored. When he was sending her home, he told her it wasn't about not meeting her family and she later thought, "it should have been!" It was ultimately her decision not to have her family be there. Half of them were OK with the show and the other half didn't trust the process of the show. So when she found out they were at odds, she basically pulled the plug on them being part of the show.
Dina told Grant she can be a bit of an ice queen, but upon looking back at it all, she says she doesn't regret anything. She said she's proud of herself and learned how to put her walls down for the right person.
Jen: I loved our ice queen! She is clearly a bright woman and I loved everything she said on the show about being an equal partner. Hopefully she meets Mr. Right-for-her soon!
Carolina in the Hot Seat
Carolina is called up to the hot seat. She's already emotional as they look back to her time with Grant. Jesse says it's already been a rollercoaster of emotions. She said she had an early one-on-one with Grant and they had a great time, she felt a spark with him but also got bestie vibes, which is great because you want that friendship. She choked up as they brought up her sharing her epilepsy story and made mention of the haters. So in the moment she felt fine about sharing her epilepsy story with him and he was so great about it. She knew she was taking a risk by sharing, and it also set her back mentally because he did not open up to her, and did she just open up "for nothing."
Jen: She worries about things being for nothing a lot. This is a person who really needs to look at how to enjoy the journey of life. Not everything works out, but going in with the attitude she had is a guarantee that things won't work out.
On the other ladies having an influence on Grant, she felt bad about the Rose situation. She owned up to her part in making Rose feel bad. She says she never punched down on any of the others, never commented on anyone's dress length (a swipe at Sarafiena) but somehow all the hate is on her and no one else has taken accountability and she'd like to see that.
Dina said she thought we learned the definition of accountability today, but apparently not.
We take another break and come back with Dina schooling everyone on accountability. It's not saying "I'm sorry Rose was upset." It's saying you're sorry for betraying trust and went to Grant with information that you didn't clear with you first, also noting that even today she won't acknowledge her part in all of this drama. Carolina said she's apologized to Rose several times about her actions, which affected Rose's relationship with Grant. Rose says the only reason she wanted to do that after Litia called her out. Carolina says it's comical that she and Rose had conversations in their room where Rose wasn't mad at Carolina but instead at Grant. Dina said they all tried to come at Carolina from a place of understanding. Carolina accuses Dina of chasing her around the castle in Scotland to berate her. Dina denies it, saying " I know you love the idea of people chasing you, but people are not that obsessed with you as you think they are." Carolina tells Dina that's "so clever" and fake applauds. She's had quite enough apparently. She tells Jesse that if Grant was going to be impacted by other people's opinions, that wasn't the guy for her anyway. She hopes Grant will take some accountability when he comes to the hot seat.
Jen: Again, I completely have to agree with Dina on all of this.
Grant in the hot seat
Grant joins Jesse and I am not sure he is ready for the drama that continues to unfold. Or maybe he is. We'll see.
Jen: I felt instantly bad upon seeing him! This poor guy!
Several ladies address him and thank him for the experience, including Alexe, Natalie, and Bailey.
Dina got emotional when they talked about her departure. She said seeing Grant show concern in his interview during their hometowns and she felt bad that he couldn't say that to her during the date. He assures her that it wasn't the family not being there and he was more concerned about how she was feeling about it.
Jesse tells Grant that Carolina has been a big topic of conversation so far, so if you thought we were done with that drama, think again. Grant says things stopped was where other ladies were progressing and if he made her feel a certain way, he'll take that and apologized. Carolina says no hard feelings but goes back to something he said in a clip to Dina about "clocking" his relationship with Carolina. He brings up the group dates and the vibes and that's what he noticed about her. She asks if the "negativity" he saw was her sitting by herself? She said she went into the Scotland group date thinking everyone hated her. The others chime in and say no one hated her and you can hear Alli Jo say from day 1, Carolina was hiding in her room. Sarafiena notes that tonight, Carolina came in on "high defense," making a dig at her during the hot seat and when she tried to talk to her, Carolina told Sarafiena not to. They all talk over each other and Jesse interrupts to put a button on this drama He asks Grant if he thought he could have done things differently and he said yes. He said throughout the journey he tried to take accountability and maybe he could have watched his words more, he tried to leave with love and compassion.
Jen: Wow, they say the word accountability a lot in this episode.
More with Grant
Jesse talks about Grant's family and notes that his sister Taylor is in the audience, who says she's impressed by how he handled himself and proud of her little brother..
Jesse also jokes with Grant about his "chubby bunny" contest with Parisa and challenges him to a contest, which is both funny and a little gross.
Jen: I love my girl Parisa! She is authentically herself and I love that.
Grant thanks the audience and the ladies for tonight. Jesse notes that they've brought in the magic mirror from "Snow White," in theaters March 21! They take turns asking questions of the mirror. We find out that Sarafiena was the sleepiest, Parisa was the messiest and Dina was the cleanest. Also, Grant loved the mirror most of all.
The magic mirror also gives insight to the Grant/Rose/Carolina drama and shows the clip where you can really see how Rose could have construed that Grant was thinking about her during that group date. Grant took accountability and says it was bad communication on his part and Rose says it was miscommunication on her part. Carolina said after she talked to Grant, she figured it was a misunderstanding. And THAT is the end of that drama. At least we hope.
Oh look, there's bloopers! Alexe can't get the date card open, they all have issues pronouncing words and make up new ones, Parisa uses olive oil to sunbathe, Carolina smells Grant's armpits, there are the usual bugs and the unusual amount of times they said "literally." Bloopers, we love 'em!
Coming up
We're back and Jesse brings up "Bachelor in Paradise," saying it's going to be bigger and better than ever. There's an announcement coming during Grant's finale. More Paradise guests? We'll see. Jonathon, Jeremy and Hakeem are applauding and possibly wondering what they're in for! Will Linda the llama be there? That would certainly be a big shakeup.
Jen: I am SO excited for this season of "Bachelor in Paradise" and can't wait to see what the producers have up their sleeves.
Grant and Jesse tease upcoming episodes, including overnights in the Dominican Republic. Litia says she loves Grant, she's also worried about him being intimate with the others. Zoe admits she doesn't know enough about Grant. Juliana admits she's broken but working on herself. Grant has all sort of doubts. His family is there and at one point his mom says "I'm asking you to walk away from that." Wait, what!? We still have lots of drama ahead, friends.
Jen: Gina, I am dying to know what his mother meant!
We'll all find out very soon. In the meantime, follow us now and never miss an episode!
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