One Woman Tries to Un-Quit Show

This tells us just how quickly he was starting to see long-term potential with some of these women — and we’ve had frontrunners from the start — so it could be just as telling which of the six get their second One-on-One dates.

Could it be so telling as to reveal his Final Two? Time will tell. But there are really only two reasons to have a One-on-One and those are to solidify something strong or find out if there’s something there, if you’re not sure.

We would hope he assuaged fears of the second reason the first time around, so more likely than not, this is Joey furthering connections with the women he feels strongest about.

Hey, it sounds like a good theory to us!

But while things were going great for the two women who got to enjoy One-on-Ones this week, emotions were much more fraught for the remaining four women who got to “enjoy” a tense Group Date — and try not to look desperate in the process.

Coming off of last week’s One-on-One, Maria Georgas certainly wasn’t expecting to get one this week. And she didn’t. Apparently, though, the validation of getting three roses in as many weeks wasn’t quite enough to assuage her insecurities.

She wasn’t the only one denied a One-on-One either, which speaks to our theory above. Maria was joined on a lumberjill adventure by Jenn Tran, Kelsey Toussant, and Rachel Nance. That means it was much better news for Daisy Kent, and Kelsey Anderson.

Despite three weeks of validation, all it took was Maria seeing Joey’s connection with the other three women for her to start spiraling. We get that she’s had a tough journey to this point, but she’s always accepted this process and understood it (as weird as it is).

Nevertheless, she laid it all out for him in a blunt conversation that was so strong, producers edited it down (it’s frightening how seamlessly they can alter conversations) to kick off the show.

“At first, I was like, I want him to experience every girl in here, so when he ends up with me, it means more,” she told Joey during the evening portion of that Group Date. “But, the reality of it is you have connections with other women.”

“I have connections with you, too,” he countered. “You always discredit what we have, and what we could have.”

“But, bringing you to meet my family knowing that you are that way with these other women, it just doesn’t sit right with me,” she continued. “It’s gotten the best of me and I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”

After stewing in her feelings for a few moments, she added, “I can’t hear or know that you feel as good or better with other women. I just can’t do it anymore.”

“Okay. It’s not my job to pull that out of you or to force it, because I want someone to choose me,” Joey told her. “Logically, my brain can understand, but if I’m being honest, my heart kind of like doesn’t get it, because I thought we were going somewhere. So is this it? Is it something that, truthfully, like your mind’s made up, because it feels like it might be.”

“I think it is,” Maria said, walking away … but not all the way away. “I feel bad,” she told a producer. “I don’t want him to think it’s him, because it’s not. Like trust me, it’s f–king not.”

The reality is that many contestants have been in Maria’s shoes in that moment, but the lead’s hands always seem to be somewhat tied. Obviously, even if it was Maria he was set to choose at the end, he couldn’t say that right now, on camera.

He didn’t even chase her down, though, which had us wondering if he’s not allowed to do that, either. We’ve seen chasing down before and other crazy things, so it feels like if he was compelled to do that, he would. Instead, he sat and waited for her to come back.

In truth, we suspect her doubts were enough to give him doubts and trigger his fear of being rejected at the end of this journey — though the reason for her fears and doubts were entirely different from that.

Ultimately, Maria came back and explained that she thinks things through out loud and didn’t really want to leave. He must have caught her mid-process, so back-against-the-wall at that moment she was ready to go. She just wasn’t finished talking herself down from the ledge.

She then slipped back into her teasing, flirtatious self, telling him she wasn’t going to kiss him because she’d had to see him kiss Jenn earlier  — “because you need to learn your lesson” — before going in for one anyway.

Her insecurities carried her all the way to the Rose Ceremony, where another odd thing happened. We’re with Rachel, who muttered, “I thought we didn’t have time to talk to him tonight. What the f–k?”

This was after he pulled Maria aside for a conversation after he’d canceled the Cocktail Party. If there was unfinished business — and there clearly was — why not finish it there and not here?

To the other women, it just looked as if Maria had more time as she didn’t fully disclose how close she’d come to walking away, rocking his confidence.

Before we get to the results of that chat, let’s talk about the Final Four. The roses this week were all about Hometowns, and which families Joey was going to meet. That’s why we suspected that his One-on-One choices were indicative of how strong those connections were.

Daisy has been one of our favorites to win this season for a while now, because she’s been getting a pretty strong edit from producers. Their One-on-One was a Bachelor Nation classic, with the couple sitting awkwardly in a wooden-barrel hot tub in front of a beautiful scene.

Before that, they got to go horseback riding, and the evening ended with Daisy triggering those anxieties by telling him she’s not all the way there yet with her feelings. Now, he hasn’t expressed his feelings, either — we get the complexities of that — but it seemed a bit much he was expecting more from her than he was willing to give.

To Daisy’s credit, she put it out there. “If I’m being, like, 100 percent honest and transparent, which I want to be, I really, really like you,” she told him at dinner. “But, like, am I there yet? No.”

“I can see myself falling in love with you, if I’m being honest,” she added. “And so, if for any reason that ever becomes a worry in my mind or anything, like, I will let you know, and I’ll be super honest about it.”

Her honesty and vulnerability was enough for her to score the night’s first rose and a guaranteed Hometown Visit.

He then took Kelsey A around Jasper, Alberta, Canada and ultimately into a very cold Polar Plunge experience that she absolutely loved (and him, not so much).

That night, she opened up about how her dad really stepped up when her mom got sick with cancer, which only made Joey want to meet him more. So Kelsey A got the second rose of the night.

That left four women and two roses, with Maria really worried that she’d blown it by nearly walking about. He gave the first of the two to Rachel, because you gotta build that tension … and then Maria snagged the second, after all.

It was the end of the road for both Jenn and Kelsey T. Both were sweet in their way, but we’re not sure either gave enough to the cameras to be Bachelorette material. We shall have to see. Our money is still on Maria or Daisy as the most likely candidates (unless the full story of Maria nixes her as a possible candidate).

The Bachelor continues Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.