An Injury Upended Joey's Fantasy Suites. Here's A Week 9 Bachelor Recap

As Joey Graziadei’s Bachelor Fantasy Suites began in Tulum, the Season 28 lead was nervous. “I don’t feel right,” he said at the beginning of the March 11 episode. “I know I have the best intentions, I know I’ve been honest through all of this, I know I have a good heart and I have so much to give. I just really want someone to want that from me, and I want it to be reciprocated.”

Joey noted that the pivotal week brought back memories of his overnight date with last season’s Bachelorette, Charity Lawson. “She didn’t choose me, which crushed me.”

Heading into his penultimate round of dates, Joey said he wanted to let go, and by the end of the episode, it seemed he had done just that (but not without complications). Here’s a Bachelor Fantasy Suites recap of Joey’s dates with Rachel Nance, Kelsey Anderson, and Daisy Kent.

A Medical Emergency

After Golden Bachelor alum Susan Noles encouraged Rachel to share the extent of her feelings with Joey, Rachel resolved to do that. “This will be ... possibly my last chance to really just give it my all, and give him my all,” she said in a confessional.

But her daytime date with Joey quickly took an unexpected turn. While jumping into a local swimming hole, Rachel hurt her jaw on impact and was barely able to talk, prompting the couple to visit the emergency room.

Ultimately, an X-ray didn’t reveal any damage, but Rachel was troubled by the way her injury affected the course of the day. Joey tried to reassure her. “It’s still gonna be in the back of my mind,” she told Joey. “Because, I’ve been questioning, like, Am I playing catch-up with time with him?”

But Joey explained that the incident let him see a more vulnerable side of her, and he had “zero doubts” about their connection going into Fantasy Suites. After their overnight date, Joey told the camera Rachel was “so much more honest and open,” adding that a life with her would be “beautiful.”

Ominous Advice From A Golden Ex

Kelsey had a heart-to-heart with Gerry Turner’s Golden Bachelor runner-up, Leslie Fhima. The pair bonded over losing their moms, and Leslie left Kelsey with a word of warning: “Just always have something in the back of your head that... you might not be it.”

Despite the caution, Joey and Kelsey went on to have a great date, enjoying a boat ride where Joey admitted he could see “so much of a future” with her, to the point that he asked if she’d like a house on the water.

Later, during dinner, the pair said they were falling in love with each other for the first time, and making breakfast the next morning looked like something out of a rom-com. “I know it’s going to continue to build, and I’m leaving very confident ... I’ll hold on to what can be there until I say it 100% because that’s what you deserve,” Joey told Kelsey before leaving for the day.

Opening Up

Sandra Mason gave Daisy a Fantasy Suites pep talk about intimacy and opening up, and separately, Joey planned to communicate his own feelings. “The last thing she chose to tell me at Hometowns was that she was falling in love with me,” Joey said in a confessional. “And I pretty much word-vomited back, saying, ‘I feel the same way.’ But I wasn’t able to say the words back.”

After an ATV outing, Joey and Daisy went to dinner. She explained some of her hesitancy in expressing herself, citing a past partner who was not as “emotionally available” as him.

Joey, similarly, opened up about his insecurities — including his fear that he wasn’t a good person after a past relationship, “because [he] didn’t make her feel as special as she wanted to feel.”

He ended the dinner portion of their date by amending his past “word vomit” and telling Daisy, “I am falling in love with you.” The next morning, he told the camera he felt sure that Daisy would say “yes” if he proposed.

A Twist In Tulum

Usually, this would be the point in the episode where Joey deliberates about his final three women. However, his Fantasy Suites ended in a cliffhanger — with Kelsey, who had been dealing with insecurity about Leslie’s warning, leaving a “we need to talk” note on Joey’s door.

Joey cried while looking at the note, telling the camera that the idea of Kelsey leaving was his “worst nightmare coming true.”