WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Season 28, Episode 1 of “The Bachelor.”
Meet Joey, our newest bachelor. Joey Graziadei is a twenty-eight year old from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Joey was a shoo-in for the latest season of “The Bachelor” after leaving season 20 of “The Bachelorette” heartbroken, his proposal rejected. Throughout that season, the audience learned that Joey wanted a love just like his grandparents and that his biggest fear was a love that went unreturned. Audiences are excited that there’s a Bachelor who is genuine and is excited to find love.
The first episode of the twenty-eighth season of “The Bachelor” starts with a shot of bachelor Joey crying at the supposed final rose ceremony with “When the Party’s Over” by Billie Eilish playing softly, setting the tone for the rest of the season. Joey walks away as a record is scratched and the show rewinds to two months earlier, right before Joey meets the women that he may marry.
Joey was the perfect bachelor for this season. In the past few years, “The Bachelor” series has been very dramatic, overshadowing the supposed love that is supposed to center the show. Only two bachelors in the last five years is still with the person to whom he proposed. Joey, to me, sounds very committed to getting down on one knee by the end of this process and just by the trailers, this season looks like it’s going to be more about genuine love than pointless drama.
Limo Exits
Every first episode of the season starts with the iconic limo exits of each contestant. Each contestant gets thirty seconds to one minute to make their first impression on Joey before heading into the mansion. This season was historic because there were 32 women walking into the first episode — the most women in “The Bachelor” history. With these 32 women came 32 entrances, making the first 45 minutes of the episode just entrances. Most of the limo exits were relatively uninteresting, but a few standouts included Talyah, Jess, and Jenn.
Talyah, an esthetician from California, walked in and immediately gave Joey a save the date invitation for their future wedding. This entrance was equally gimmicky as it was serious, but I thought it worked; she avoided what some contestants do — taking the entrances too far. One example of this is Jess Edwards, who rolled in on top of a boat. Just by her entrance alone, I could tell she was going to be a problem, and I was right. And Joey did not appear that enthused with this entrance either. The last standout entrance was Jenn, who flew in on a go-kart and raced around him. I thought it was cute, a bit cringey, and gimmicky, but far better than Jess’s boat entrance.
Standout Women
It was nearly overwhelming to meet all of these women in a two hour episode. A good chunk of the women got little to no screen time, and there were only a few women that stood out. Jess and Daisy emerged quickly as women to watch.
In this first episode, Jess is set up to be the notorious villain in season 28. First she came in on that boat, kissed Joey, then entered the mansion and proceeded to tell all of the women about her entrance. And if you’ve watched before, you know that’s the one thing you’re not supposed to do: tell the rest of the mansion your business. Lastly, Jess developed a habit of interrupting the other women when they tried to speak with Joey — another red flag for night one.
The star of this episode was Daisy. Daisy is from Minnesota, grew up on a Christmas tree farm, and started losing hearing in one ear when she was 17. The producers emphasized these details, to make the audiences love her, and now, she is ready to find love. Every time Daisy spoke, she said something positive or talked about her humble upbringing. I can tell just by the way the producers edited Daisy in this episode that she is going to win this season, and if she doesn’t, she will be our next bachelorette.
Eliminations
A whopping 10 women got sent home at the end of only the first episode: Chandler, Kayla, Kyra, Lanie, Nat, Sam, Samantha, Sandra, Talyah, and Zoe. With 22 women left in the season, it’s clear that the rest of the season will be packed with drama and broken hearts. See you next week.
“The Bachelor” airs on Monday nights at 8:00pm EST on ABC .
