Joey Graziadei just might be the nicest Bachelor star in the history of the franchise.
All season long, Bachelor Nation has been falling in love with the 28-year-old tennis coach as he continues to impress with his ability to connect, empathize, and make each woman feel seen and heard when he’s with them.
He’s been criticized for being too nice, though, with Nick Viall claiming that Joey has been “playing it safe” and not sending anyone home outside of a rose ceremony.
Things have been so smooth, except for the Sydney versus Maria drama, and that only one woman has self-eliminated.
But this week, Joey is getting his hands dirty, sending one woman home before he starts handing out roses and another self-eliminating when she realizes that their timetables just don’t match up.
As the number of women left on The Bachelor dwindles, the eliminations will get harder for Joey and harder to watch as he sends home some fan favorites that The Bachelor viewers hoped would get farther.
Joey Graziadei sends Jess Edwards home
The first one out in Montreal was Jess Edwards after the group date. While on the date, Jess complained about having difficulty connecting with Joey because seven other women were competing for his attention.
It turns out that Joey just “couldn’t get there” with her, so when Jess told Joey she was falling for him, he dropped the bad news and walked her out.
On her way home, Jess bawled in the limo and complained that she “didn’t understand,” but the rest of Bachelor Nation certainly did, and took to social media to wish her goodbye.
Lexi Young says goodbye after grilling Joey about his timeline
On the group date, Lexi pulled Joey aside for a chat and finally got some things off her chest. Unfortunately, she didn’t get the answers she needed when Joey told her he wanted to be engaged for two to three years before getting married and then enjoy marriage before having kids.
Because of her endometriosis, Lexi is in a hurry to get married and have kids as quickly as possible because the longer she waits, the harder it will be to make it happen.
Lexi delivered the news to Joey in his hotel room during a tear-filled breakup scene where she told Joey she just couldn’t get on his timeline.
In the confessional, Joey admitted that he thought of her “as his person,” and we have to wonder if things might have ended differently if Lexi hadn’t self-eliminated right before the rose ceremony.
Two more go home at the rose ceremony
Despite Lea Cayanan saying she wasn’t “done exploring this connection,” Joey gave roses to everyone but her and Katelyn DeBacker.
On her way out, Katelyn claimed she wasn’t able to show her whole personality, and she cried while admitting that she “didn’t dig deep and show him that part” of herself.
Lea cried about how it was “unfortunate that she wasn’t given the full opportunity” but then called it “his loss” while wiping away tears. Maybe she should have focused on that when she did have time rather than constantly taking aim at Maria, who it was shocking she didn’t mention, as she cried on her way out, even though a producer asked her if she had any regrets.
The Bachelor airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.