We’re back with Michelle Young of ABC’s The Bachelorette! We see her debriefing with Tayshia Adams about how she is enjoying being on the season and the guys that she has remaining. As they chat, Kaitlyn Bristowe delivers the first date card. Brandon, Romeo, Rick, PJ, Will, Olu, Casey, Danny, LT and Peter make their way to Michelle and she lets them know that she has brought along 3 friends that won’t go easy on them. The friends are in a 5th grade classroom and they are her students! Who didn’t think that a date at some point would be in a classroom setting?

Their sessions include math, chemistry, spelling and musical chairs. We also see that Will is not Peter’s biggest fan and that he doesn’t care who knows it. When the men are asked to spell narcissist, he writes Peter’s name down which makes Peter annoyed that he has been called out in front of Michelle and her friends. The guys win participation prized and head to the second half of the date where they can enjoy cocktails with her and see who gets the group rose date. They find themselves sitting with Michelle on a pop up beach. Michelle cracks on Brandon for not being a great speller, but you can see a bit of the chemistry between them. She plays 1-on-1 cornhole with another. Peter asks Will to take some time to chat with him - hopefully to resolve their issue.

The next date card arrives Jamie receives the 1-on-1 date card. The guys don’t like his response as he spent more time talking about his wild life, flying to third world countries etc. The guys felt hat he wasn’t grateful so we see another person in the group that causes a bit of stir amongst the guys.

The guys on the group date ask why he felt that need to address his issue at that moment and take away from the group. Michelle pulls Peter to the side to ask why she did that. Michelle said that his screaming is not appropriate and that she doesn’t want to have him an issue and then come across in a negative way because she feels that he could have a temper. We think it’s safe to say he won’t get the group date rose. Michelle gives it to Brandon.

Jamie and Michelle set off on their 1-on-1 date. In Jaime’s confessional, he shares that this is a key date (which we know), but if it’s not a fit for him then he wouldn’t want to stay either. They head to Joshua Tree to have a picnic. To get to the picnic, they are rock climbing! They coach one another to get to the top and it’s definitely a tough date! The second part of their date involves dinner between the two of them. Jamie talks about his life and how his upbringing was not as idylic as Michelle’s. We learn about his mom’s mental health issue which eventually led to her committing suicide and how he had to learn to care about life. We definitely did not see his story coming but seeing what he has gone through, it’s easier to understand his personality and how he presents himself. Jamie receives the 1-on-1 date rose. THey hed off to a personal performance from Caroline Jones on their own private dance floor.

The second group date is taking place on the basketball court. The remaining man head to the court. We know that Michelle played Division I and it’s her favorite sport and her first love! The date also has 2 WNBA stars who are also on the date. Joe (his basketball coach passed away earlier that day) is on this date and was Mr Basketball Minnesota in 2011, she was also Mrs Basketball in the same year, but was a runner up. In addition Chris S, Spencer, Rodney, Pardeep, Nayte, Mollique, Clayton, Martin, LeRoy and Chris G are on the date. After warming up and playing 1-on-1 with Michelle, the guys are divided into a red and blue team. The winning team will get to spend more time with her and the losing one will go back to where they are staying. Although Joe did well, his team didn’t win. Michelle gave him an MVP so that he could have time with her along with the winning team. The remainder of the losing team was bummed that they would not receive time with him and we’re sure that the winning team would rather that he didn’t get the time either. It will be interesting to see when everyone learns that she knows Joe (although to be fair, they just talked socially and it seems like it was a long time ago).

The after-party begins and Joe takes her to the side. He lets her know about a previous basketball coach that passed away. They connected and played another round of 1-on-1 together. The losing team comes home and the guys at the house are shocked that Joe got to be there. The guys at the after-party are wondering about Joe as well. While the guys wonder about one another, Nayte says that he is not focused on what’s going on outside of his relationship with her. He doesn’t want to get in the middle of all the emotions that are going on so that he can stay focused. The group rose goes to Joe!

The cocktail party is about to start. The house is aware that they come from the same city, were both college basketball players and that they have a vibe. How this will continue to manifest means that the guys need to stay focused on their relationships. So the house is wondering to what level they know one another. Surprisingly, Jamie who has a rose, is throwing all of these suspicions and he feels that the house needs to know. Now he’s beginning to spread “information” that he thinks he knows. Jamie confronts her with what he feels he knows. She lets him know that she appreciates that he talked with her and that she wants to confront this situation directly. She talks with the men as a group and lets them know that she had never met Joe prior to when he arrived and that they had only communicated online years ago and he ghosted her. She also explained that there were rumors that she was a light skinned black man and she let them know that where she grew up, even if she was dating a white man and was seen with a black man - that it would be assumed that she was with him. Michelle gives them the opportunity to say something and the room is silent. She leaves and is annoyed and the guys are aggravated that the issue has made it seem like the house has been talking about this when in fact, most of the people are confused as this wasn’t an issue. The truly annoying part is the fact that Jamie is acting like he has no idea and is just as confused as everyone else. We’re all Peter and Rodney who both question how out of the loop are they that they are not aware of this issue.

Since no one wanted to talk about it, Michelle leaves them and sends the hosts to the men to inform them that the cocktail party has ended and she will see them in the rose ceremony. She tells them that if they accept a rose tonight, that they are accepting her and being in the process as she is with them.

Going into next week, we’ll see: Brandon, Jamie, Joe, Nayte, Rodney, Martin, Rick, LeRoy, Spencer, Casey, Chris G, Mollique, Olu, Chris S, Will, Romeo, LT, Clayton and Peter who all received roses.

She sent home: Alec, Daniel, Pardeep and PJ. Both fire fighters were eliminated tonight! It looks like next week, there will be quite a lot of drama and will the rest of the house figure out what Jamie set in motion?

Each night during this season, we tweet about The Bachelorette and you can chat along with us (@AthleisureMag + with our Co-Founder/Creative + Style Director, Kimmie Smith @ShesKimmie) to see what’s taking place!

Each week we will let you know who our faves were from the last episode and if we’ve changed up since then as it pertains to who we think should go to Hometowns.

We also suggest a podcast that we’ve become obsessed with over the past few seasons, Wondery’s Bachelor Happy Hour to get their feedback!

HOMETOWN NOTES

SEASON 18 | EPISODE 2

Last week, we felt that Martin, Nayte, Olu and Peter would go to hometowns.

This week, we looked through all the drama (we’re looking at you Peter and Jamie) and although we’re staying with Martin, Nayte and Olu for a second week in a row, we’re swapping out Peter for Joe. We can definitely see these 4 making it to that pivotal week.