[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Bachelor Season 28 Episode 1.]
Lea Cayanan was given a powerful plot twist when meeting Joey Graziadei in the After the Final Rose special in 2023. She was told she couldn’t open the card and reveal its game-changing power until after she got into the mansion in The Bachelor Season 28 premiere. The premiere has come and gone, and we now know the card’s secrets. Joey’s reaction in the episode was kind and sweet for Lea’s sake, but the leading man himself tells TV Insider how he really felt about the plot twist.
Lea is a 23-year-old account manager from Waipahu, Hawaii (Joey, 28, is from Pennsylvania but has lived in Kauai, Hawaii since 2017). Teasers from the January 22 premiere showed her stressed over the card’s contents, and with good reason. In a series first, Lea was given the power to steal a one-on-one date from any woman at any point in the season, as long as it was before the hometown dates. She cried from fear and stress at the thought of this putting a target on her back, but also because it took an element of choice away from Joey.
Lea revealed the plot twist to Joey first in a one-on-one moment during the premiere cocktail party. She was brought to tears by it, saying she felt guilty over the idea of getting that precious time with him later in the season at another woman’s expense. She returned to the room where the women were anxiously awaiting her updates. Through more tears, Lea revealed the card’s details, shocking everyone in the room. Lea made a quick decision to reject this advantage entirely. She burned the card in the mansion’s fireplace in front of every other woman in the cast. They respected her for the move.
Disney/John Fleenor
In the moment prior, Joey was kind and supportive to Lea, prioritizing how she felt about the reveal over sharing his own feelings. The display of character she showed when sharing the information and burning the card led to Joey giving her the First Impression Rose. Joey tells TV Insider that while he was sweet in the moment with Lea, he wasn’t happy about the plot twist, the details of which were also kept from him.
“When I found out what was inside that card, I was a little bit bummed,” Joey admits. “I think my biggest fear from it was that I didn’t want it to be something that had a lot of control over the show.” That’s exactly what it had, although it didn’t give her the power to send someone home like some of the women feared. Joey continues to express his concern about Lea in that moment.
“I think the biggest part was just trying to make her feel better at that time, because I could tell that she was very distraught from when she was opening it,” he says. “So my focus really wasn’t on me. But after I kind of knew that she was doing OK and it was in her hands, I was able to sit back and be like, man, I wish that wasn’t something that could possibly affect the experience.”
It won’t affect the show after all thanks to Lea’s fiery move. Other women made an impression in the episode for equally fiery statements — they just weren’t the same brand of bold of Lea’s.
Jess Edwards got the first kiss of the night and returned to the party to brag. The women thought it was distasteful to advertise it right away, and then she offended again when she stole Joey away from Taylor Wiens during their first one-on-one moment.
Sisters Allison and Lauren also revealed their connection fairly early on into the party, unable to pretend they didn’t already know each other. Joey figured out their connection pretty quickly as well because of their similar origin stories. Allison and Joey kissed in the premiere, however, and Lauren and Joey didn’t. This made the elder sister fear elimination, and that only got worse when her little sister got the first rose in the rose ceremony. The pressure built until Joey offered Lauren the final rose of the night.
Other episode standouts are Daisy Kent, who got a favorable video intro about the events that led to her getting a cochlear implant, and Kelsey Anderson (aka Kelsey A.), who also got a kiss in the first episode and made Joey swoon in a confessional. Evalin Clark feared being sent home after getting no alone time with Joey during the party, and Maria Georgas feared rejection as well after many names were called before hers in the rose ceremony. Both of the women were offered flowers, however, so we’ll see more of them next week.
The Bachelor, Mondays, 8/7c, ABC
