Who Walks Away from Joey and What Happens Next

Bachelor Nation is alive and well and they were all eyes, ears, and tears as Joey’s story came to an end, emceed live by host Jesse Palmer, who was clearly itching to bring out the Bachelor’s final two women, Daisy Kent and Kelsey Anderson, to unpack that wild ending.

But first, we had to get through the ending, which meant a return to Tulum, Mexico to see what happened when the ladies met Joey’s family and then went on their final dates with him before the proposal.

Joey’s biggest fear going into this was that he would reach the end of this journey and someone would not choose him. Well…

We started to feel the tides shifting in the past two weeks, and that only continued this week as Joey introduced Daisy and Kelsey to his family. Even the way he talked about them at the top of the episode felt telling.

“When I’m with Kelsey, I really see what a real love and true happiness can look like.”

“I have zero doubts that a life with Daisy would be special. It would be fun. There would be excitement and surprises every day.”

In one, he speaks about “real love” and “true happiness.” In the other he talks about “fun” and “excitement and surprises.” One’s a girl you date and have a good time with, the other is the one you plan your future with.

This only continued as Daisy came to meet his family. They quickly learned that Daisy was all in, when she told his sisters, “If he were to get down on one knee today I would say yes because I am in love with him and I haven’t told him yet and I do really want that to come from me … If it is me, I will choose him every day.”

Counter that to Kelsey’s response when they asked her if she was ready to be engaged. “I don’t think it’s like a thing that I came into this like, ‘I need to get married,’ you know?” she replied. “I’m not on any timeline, per se. When that is right for me, I guess it’s the person, if that makes sense.”

They then asked if Joey were to propose, would she be ready, to which she replied, “I think so, yeah.”

The family absolutely fell in love with Daisy, with Joey’s sister Ellie calling her “so precious and sweet.” They adored Kelsey, too, definitely taking note of the chemistry and bond she shared with Joey. Were they seeing what we were seeing?

The nail in the coffin for us came right away with Daisy and Joey’s final date. During a spiritual retreat, they were tasked with throwing a rock in the fire and expressing their deepest desire.

“My true desire is to keep learning about you and growing together and seeing where all that can take us,” Daisy told Joey.

His counter was to say, “My desire is for both of us to find true happiness, whether that’s with each other or just in general. I feel so lucky to have gotten to know you and I know that you deserve nothing but the best.”

Yeah, that sounds a lot like a kiss-off to us, and we weren’t the only ones. That night, she admitted she was feeling “it’s not me” during the day, but she still went all in, telling him that she was in love with him. She didn’t get the validation she was looking for.

“It would hurt if it’s not me. But if I’m being 100 percent honest, I don’t think it’s me,” Daisy said in a confessional.

As for Kelsey, Joey’s response to her insecurities about the whole process was entirely different. She shared that his parents told her, “at the end of this it could not be you, and both times I just broke down crying.”

“You don’t want to think about that. And that’s okay,” Joey replied to her renewed tears. “I don’t want you to think about that, either. I don’t. I want you to continue to believe that it can be there.”

Without saying anything definitive, he was giving her that validation she was needing.

As for Daisy, she couldn’t get out of her head what was said at the fire. “He said, ‘I’ve been in this position and I was completely blindsided.’ And so when he said that, I was like, ‘Oh. Not me,'” she realized.

When we saw Daisy knocking on a door, fighting to do what she knew in her heart was right, everyone was expecting one face to emerge from behind it. That face was not Kelsey’s.

Feeling confident in her gut instinct about how the day was going to go, Daisy nevertheless sought clarity from Kelsey by asking her how her week went. When Kelsey told her she got validation from Joey on their date and felt good about it, Daisy knew her gut was right.

In the night’s most shocking moment, the camera showed Kelsey in the car on the way to Joey, standing on that beautiful beach setting we’ve seen all season long. And we saw Daisy in the car on her way to Joey.

Then we saw that they were in the same car, holding hands as the live audience gasped. And so it was that Daisy came to Joey first, leaving Kelsey waiting in the car.

After he said his spiel about how their journey had been, Daisy took over. “You showed me how important it is to know my worth,” she told him. “Falling in love with you has been so fun and I do love you. But the thing is, you’re not going to choose me.”

As his eyes began to tear up, she continued. “The last couple of days, I’ve realized that you’re not my person and I know that you know I’m not yours. And as much as that hurts, I know you said you want the best for me so I’m going to do what’s best for me and I’m going to go.”

When he offered to walk her out, confirming that she’d been right in her instinct that it wasn’t her, she declined. “You know, I think it’s something I should do on my own,” she said, carrying herself with grace and dignity.

Rather than let him break her heart when she knew it was coming, Daisy took agency of her moment and her story to end it on  her terms, all the way to her embrace of Kelsey by the car and telling her how proud her late mother would be of her.

“If I can love the wrong person that much, imagine how much I can love the right person,” she said in the car. It was a line that echoed back to her as Jesse brought her out for the big reveal of the next Bachelorette.

When Jesse asked Daisy if she felt ready to open her heart up again for love, she gave him an answer as honest and candid as she gave Joey on the beach that final day.

Talking about how hard the experience was, Daisy also conceded that she was both “healthy and happy” now, a combination she’d not enjoyed for some time.

“And so right now, I know it’s a time for me to focus on the things I love and the people I love,” she said. “And so right now, no, I’m not ready. And that’s okay. And I’m really proud of myself for realizing that.”

In other words, that was a no on being ready to open her heart to love again right now, which meant it was a no to any possibility of being the Bachelorette. So was it fan-favorite Melissa Georga then? Nope, it was’t her, either.

Instead, it was Jenn Tran, who becomes the first Asian-American to carry the title of Bachelorette. You can read all about her big moment below.

Look, nothing official happened, but there was something that happened across Bachelor Nation when Joey first went home to meet Kelsey’s family. Namely, they met Kelsey’s father, Mark. Now, everyone already knew that he’d lost his wife, Kelsey’s mother, two years prior.

What they didn’t know was how handsome, charming and eloquent he is. And now, with the Golden franchise a part of the Bachelor family, there was a new candidate worth considering.

Jesse certainly stoked those flames after he talked briefly with Mark during the After the Final Rose portion of the finale. “And Mark, maybe we’ll be seeing you, too, down the road, that’s all I’m saying,” Jesse said cryptically.

Could Mark be the next Golden Bachelor? The show is currently casting for the first season of The Golden Bachelorette, so Mark will definitely get some stiff competition in the form of this group of eligible seniors that will surely make Bachelor Nation fall in love with them, too.

It’s a familiar problem, though, for the franchise. Even as Jenn prepares to start her journey to find love, fans are still invested in both Daisy and Maria — and that’s just people from this season. There’s a reason Bachelor in Paradise exists.

But what about Joey’s journey? Not to worry, after Daisy left him shell-shocked and we finally got those scenes of him shocked and stunned on the beach we’ve been seeing all season … and after Daisy embraced Kelsey and gave her her love, Kelsey made her way to Joey.

She’d already put his fears to rest after his sisters shared that she’d expressed some hesitation about being ready to get engaged, when she told him, “It’s not a box I’m trying to check, it’s because it’s you that I’m ready for an engagement, really. It’s because I can see myself with you.”

The bottom line is that Joey was going to dump Daisy on that beach. All she did was beat him to the punch, which some could argue was a blessing for him. It was still emotionally draining, though, which is why he needed a moment.

He was back to joyful, though, by the time Kelsey made his way to him and they both said all the things and expressed all the love — with him saying “I love you” for the first time to her — and when Joey got down on one knee, Kelsey did not say no.

The couple teased on the couch afterward that things are going well with them, they’re learning about one another’s different communication styles and preparing for the future. In other words, they appear to be putting in the work to make this, well, work.

They also shared that Joey would be coming to New Orleans to stay with Kelsey for awhile before they’d move together, as a couple, to New York. Will this be a Bachelor Nation couple that lasts? Time will tell, but we at least have to give respect to Joey, Kelsey, and Daisy for how well they navigated a nigh impossible situation.

Let’s see how Jenn does when The Bachelorette kicks off later this year.