It’s Episode 2 of “The Bachelor” season 29, meaning the romance and drama can officially start after all of the introductions from Episode 1 are out of the way!

Bachelor Basketball 

The first official group date of the season was the iconic “sports date.” Most of the time, the sports group date usually consists of playing Bachelor Bowl (which is basically football). But, since basketball is such a big part of Grant’s life, switching up the sport made sense, and instead, they played basketball. 

Before the real competition started, Grant wanted to see how the women interacted with kids, because family life is very important to him. Viewers got to see the women play around and shoot with a group of kids. Then, it was the slam dunk contest. Instead of playing by the rules, Zoe forfeited her shot to steal Grant for a couple of minutes. However, Zoe took more than a couple of minutes. She led Grant out of the gym, to the lobby, up the stairs, and all the way to the roof. With all of that walking time, you would think Zoe would come up with some kind of plan about what to do with Grant or what to talk to him about, but it was clear that she did not. They instead just had a very forgettable and awkward conversation which frankly wasn’t interesting enough to bring him all the way to the roof. Zoe really shouldn’t have stolen Grant during the group date, considering after every group date there’s always an afterparty, which would’ve been a more appropriate time to talk to him. 

Then it was time for the main event, the Bachelor Basketball Showdown. The Purple Team (Grant Prize) absolutely destroyed the yellow team (The Grant Slam) 16-2 in the basketball game. Because of her amazing shooting skills, Chloe earned the MVP award and a little extra time with Grant. 

Afterparty 

At the afterparty, most of the women were annoyed with Zoe for stealing Grant in the middle of the group date for a long period of time, specifically Alli Jo. Zoe was unbothered by all of the women’s complaints and brushed them off. She said, “We have one shot at all of this, we had one shot in basketball, we had one shot on our group date today, and we have one shot at this whole experience.” Essentially, her comments gave off the message that she doesn’t care about what the other girls think because she only has one shot at making an impression. Zoe continued her thoughts in her confessional and said, “I expected the girls would probably be a little upset, but more so [because] they didn’t think of it first and [should] take notes for next time.” Then, when Juliana pulled Grant aside at the afterparty, Zoe pulled him aside again. Alli Jo was very mad, and decided to try and steal Grant from Zoe’s conversation because she hadn’t had any one-on-one time yet. Grant and Alli Jo started to talk, but, instead of leaving the two alone, Zoe lurked in the background listening to their entire conversation. Then, Zoe tried to steal him again and Grant went with her. At this point, I was so confused about how so much drama already started even though we were barely into episode 2, and why Grant was enabling it. 

While all of this drama was happening from Alli Jo and Zoe bickering, Natalie and Grant talked about their future kids and how tall and athletic they would be. Grant also took notice of Natalie helping a little kid calm down during the Bachelor Basketball Showdown, which earned her the group date rose for the night. 

One-On-One 

Alexe’s one-on-one was probably the worst one-on-one date I’ve ever seen. Alexe and Grant went to a mall at night, and everything was closed. After watching this, I was very confused about where the budget for the show went, and if a producer just hates Alexe; I’ve never seen a date so poorly thought out. This type of date didn’t even seem fun in theory. Grant and Alexe walked around the dark and empty mall, and shared about their family life. At the end, Alexe was given a rose. Although Alexe received a rose, because of how lackluster this date was, I don’t see her going very far in the competition despite her being the first one-on-one of the season. 

Songwriting Date

The second one-on-one date was another iconic activity: the songwriting and performing date. On this date, each of the women had to write a few lines of a song and sing them to Grant while dancing. The viewers also got to see Grant’s rap, which was a hard watch. By his rapping skills, I couldn’t tell that he was a musician (he actually released a song called “Party Girl” before the premier of the first episode — listen here if you’re interested). One standout performance was Carolina’s, who instead of just singing and dancing on stage, immediately pivoted to sitting on Grant’s lap and serenading him in Spanish. Carolina ended up winning the competition and got to dance with Grant. She then kissed him in front of all of the other girls, which made everyone mad.

Afterparty

During the evening portion of the date, no one wanted to directly confront Carolina in the same way Zoe was directly confronted during the first group date. But, when Grant walked into the room, he could immediately tell that the vibes were off. I’ve never seen any Bachelor realize there’s tension between the women that quickly, which impressed me. Dina tried to explain to Carolina that she made everyone feel bad; it seems like a common theme of the season will be jealousy among the women, as a lot of them don’t appear to realize they actually have to fight for Grant’s attention and take advantage of every moment they have with him. I feel that Carolina actually took advantage of her moment with Grant, while Zoe was just being disrespectful since she actually pulled Grant out of the room for a prolonged period of time, which is way more disrespectful than what Carolina did during her performance.

Elimination

Fourteen women were left after the Rose Ceremony, where four women were sent home: Allyshia, Ella, Rebekah, and Vicky. As the season continues, I’m excited to see how the women’s jealousy over Grant will play out. 

“The Bachelor” airs on Monday nights at 8:00 pm EST on ABC.