First Villain Emerges, Stealing Time, Smug Smirking as Tears, Emotions Fly

Grant also found himself having to backtrack from an insensitive comment he’d made last week that raised our eyebrows, and clearly didn’t sit well with the target of his words, either.

Every season, a villain emerges among the men or women vying for attention with the lead, and this season’s quickly clawed her way to the top with a smug smirk on her face that definitely does not reach her eyes. There’s a genuine smile and then there’s a patronizing smirk. You know ’em when you see ’em.

What was remarkable this week was that there were two different Group Dates, but jealousy over time became an issue immediately in both of them. But the women at the center — the one who got that time — responded in completely different ways to the emotional backlash.

Of course, the circumstances of said time were also vastly different, with one coming by it honestly by “winning” that Group Date, and the other just taking it for herself.

Alexe got to avoid all of that by scoring last week’s First Impression Rose, which also landed her the first One-on-One date of the season. It was a very cute, very Big mall date where they tapped into their inner children in the closed shopping center and just had fun with it.

This was the moment we saw Grant serenade a girl on the piano with a song he said he was making up on the fly, which touched her heart. It was all very sweet and earnest, scoring Alexe her second rose in as many weeks.

But one good date was about all Grant was going to get this week.

The first Group Date tapped into Grant’s loves for basketball and children. The ladies were first tasked with training under some pint-sized coaches to see how they’d fare on the court. Everything was going great, the ladies were bonding with Grant and the kids, and then the Slam Dunk Competition kicked off.

And then the Slam Dunk Competition immediately ended when Zoe declared, “Actually, I think I’m gonna forfeit my shot for a few minutes.”

A few minutes turned into a lot of minutes as she took the Bachelor to the roof and talked with him, leaving the kids and other ladies standing in the gym feeling all kinds of awkward.

“I just feel like it was the wrong time, wrong place,” declared Sarafiena, while Juliana quipped, “I’m definitely jealous that she’s spending more time with my husband, for sure.”

But the light-hearted tone of the comments would not hold as more time passed. Zoe continued her competitive push into the 5-on-5 basketball game between the women, where she put her wrestling background to work, checking the other women and manhandling the game.

Unfortunately for Zoe, despite her slick confidence, it was Chloie’s earnest sincerity, and hitting a key shot, that earned her MVP status for the game. But the matchup wasn’t quite over yet, as the ladies were just starting to get fired up as the evening portion started.

We referred to a “smug smirk” earlier, and it appears to be an armor that Zoe puts on her face when attacked … and she was attacked! Whenever it happened, her lips would purse and curl up at the sides, but the smile never, ever reached her eyes, which were cold as ice.

When challenged, Zoe asked, “Who here wouldn’t take time?” Alas, most of the women thought they’d be a bit more respective of the other ladies in the competition, which Zoe did not appear to get at all.

“Okay, first of all, we have one shot at all of this,” she argued. “We had one shot at basketball, we had one shot on our group date today, we have one shot at this whole experience and I know, personally, I gave it my all today and I’m very happy I got time with him. I mean, that’s what you gotta do.”

She also insisted, “If one of you guys steals him, I’m not gonna be like, ‘Oh my god, woe is me.’ You gotta do what you gotta do.”

When Sarafiena echoed her “wrong place, wrong time” sentiment, Zoe shot back, “When’s the right time? Tomorrow when we’re at home without him?”

Ultimately, despite pushback and strong energy from the ladies, Zoe was unapologetic about her choice to steal Grant earlier in the night. And she wasn’t done, either.

As Juliana was talking to the Bachelor, Zoe showed up to steal him away from her. Fed up with the nonsense, Alli Jo showed up to steal him back, and Zoe not only pushed back against the idea, she turned around and stole him back from Alli Joe after a few moments to “finish” their conversation with a kiss.

Once they were back with the other ladies, Allie Jo unloaded, asking, “What is your problem? I’ve done nothing to you. I understand you want your time, but guess what, baby girl, so do I. And you’ve had it so many times.”

“You stepped on our toes on the date earlier. You had talked to him before me, then you took him back while I was talking to him,” she continued. “Like, you’ve talked to him multiple times so what is your problem with me that you need to interrupt me? Tell me. Or are you that — You need that much attention, you’re that insecure?”

Zoe did not answer this, and actually seemed a little teary-eyed over the onslaught attack, though she stood firm in that there are no rules in this competition. The date card said “Shoot Your Shot” and so she did… and then kept shooting.

The week’s second group date reconnected Grant with his love of music by asking the women to write, sing, and dance as part of a group performance choreographed by Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin. R&B superstar Mario was also on hand to show everyone up!

As expected, the ladies were in vastly different places when it came to the confidence to pull this off, but no one was more confident than Rebekah, who was moving and grooving to her own beat. Savvy Bachelor Nation fans know that kind of confidence almost never works out.

The performances themselves were … there was some … everybody tried really hard, but we don’t really see any futures in music here, and that includes Ms. Rebekah, who dropped the refrain, “Let’s get engaged and make a baby,” before showing “Mrs. Ellis” on her back.

Unfortunately for Rebekah, it was Carolina’s funny verse where she said, “Living with these girls is no summer camp,” that picked up the MVP, allowing her to dance and vibe with grant while Mario laid down the real smooth rhythms.

Those rhythms were definitely getting into Carolina’s soul, too, as she pretty much mounted and straddled Grant right there on the stage for some heavy making out … which sat about as well with the other ladies as you might think.

Now, there is a difference in that this extra time she got with Grant was earned by “winning” the Group Date, but the makeout session might be another case of “wrong place, wrong time.”

It certainly impacted the vibe of the afterparty, which Grant immediately felt was off. As he pulled Rebekah away to talk about it, the other ladies also talked about it.

But here’s the difference. Rather than purse her lips into a painful smirk, Carolina actually acknowledged the other girls’ discomfort and started to feel bad herself. She also talked about that duality of being able to feel good for herself while understanding that it wasn’t so great for them.

Meanwhile, out with Grant, Rebekah told him of that one-on-one time, “Yeah, some of it, it doesn’t feel good, but I’m still very supportive in whatever you need to do to get the outcome that you’re here for.”

This became the running thread through most of the conversations, with even Carolina feeling she needed to address it in her chat with the Bachelor, telling him, “It sucks to see people unhappy at you being happy.”

When he told her she did nothing wrong, she countered, “Do you feel like you did something wrong, though?” Grant assured her he was good with everything that went down, while also acknowledging the difficulty and awkwardness of the situation.

But he later did have to apologize to another woman for a Week 1 comment he made. When he first sat down with Litia, he told her that she probably never gets told no, and then after an awkward pause added “because you’re so beautiful.”

We noted his fixation on starting his descriptors with these women as beautiful as potentially problematic, and him reducing Litia to her appearance and implying it allowed her to always get her way did not sit well. And so she pointedly addressed it with him the first chance she got.

Telling him that his comments were a trigger for her, she also argued, “I get told no all the time.” In fact, it was a “no” that ended her last relationship and put her on the path to The Bachelor.

Grant, to his credit, completely owned up to stereotyping her based on first impressions and apologized for being thoughtless. It was the kind of self-ownership that is a hallmark of good communication, and by the end of their conversation, she was feeling great about where they were. And then she got the Group Date rose, validating everything.

In the end, it was time for Grant to say farewell to four of the women, which included Rebekah’s awkward on-stage confidence, Ella’s vulnerable letter and vibing, Allyshia and her magic lamp, and Vicky, who connected with the cameras even less than she did with Grant.

14 women remain and things get even more dramatic as Grant Ellis continues his quest for love on The Bachelor, Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.