‘The Bachelor’ recap: Annual Bachelor Bowl sparks excitement and sends Zach home early

Eater alert! This post contains details from season 27, episode 3 of ABC Single.

The stakes are getting higher in just three weeks unmarried As Zach Shallcross continues to try to deepen his connection with the remaining 17 women. And, in a fairly surprising turn of events, he even sent home one of his firsts after getting into some drama with his competition.

The episode opens with Jack seeking more advice from former Bachelor Shawn Lowe. She tells Shawn that she thinks everything is going well, but she’s still nervous about how it’s going to end. Lowe’s sage advice is for Zach to focus on finding his best friend, which he seems to want to hear.

Back at the mansion, host Jesse Palmer checks in on the ladies after the second rose ceremony. This week, there are two one-on-one dates and one group date. Jesse leaves a date card with the first one-on-one information, which goes to Kitie.

Zach meets Kitty at the mansion and steals her to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, where they own the entire place.

While Kite is away on her date, the ladies back at the mansion receive another date card. This is the group date card, which includes everyone except Allie. “I’ve got a lot of emotions going on right now,” she says of knowing she’ll be able to spend some uninterrupted time with Jack this week.

In Zach and Kaity’s one-on-one, the pair sit down to a romantic dinner in the middle of an empty museum, and Kaity opens up about how special she feels for being chosen for this date. Zach tells her he’s looking for his best friend and asks her what she’s looking for. He says that after being vulnerable in his last relationship, he put up some walls. To take them down, she needs someone who makes her feel safe and is willing to fight for a relationship with her. She gets quite emotional when she tells Zach that she wants someone to treat her right. Zach wins some brownie points when he tells her she deserves everything she’s been asking for and more. After sharing a kiss, Zach gives Kaity a rose. And since he doesn’t want the date to end, Zach asks Katie to spend the night inside the museum with him. He takes her to a romantic candlelit tent where (two separate) beds have been set up for an elegant slumber party for the couple. The beds don’t stay apart for long, as Kite suggests they close the gap between them.

The next morning, the other women are a bit confused when they realize that Katie is still not home. When she returns, she tells the rest of the group that they spent the night together, much to everyone else’s dismay. But it won’t take long for them to get mad, because it’s time for the 5th Annual Bachelor Bowl.

Zach meets the women at a football field and prepares them for a football game with the help of NFL legends Antonio Gates and Shawn Merriman. The winning team gets to go to the afterparty with Zach.

Right off the kickoff, Anastasia hits a pretty bad one. After a few tense moments, he gets up and tells everyone he’s fine — but still heads to the sidelines to spend some quality time with Jack while the game continues. The women entered halftime at 7-7. But in the end, the blue team (Christina, Ariel, Bailey, Brooklyn, Charity, Katherine, and Kylie) won. After cleaning themselves up, the ladies headed to Clifton in downtown Los Angeles for the rest of their date.

While the other women sit in the mansion wondering how the cocktail party is going, Ally finally gets her date card. Along with the date card, Zach sends her a white dress (which looks suspiciously like a wedding gown) for her to wear.

Meanwhile, the women of Clifton are waiting for Zak to give Rose a group date. Bailey approaches Jack and tells him that she’s feeling a little insecure about their relationship, especially since she hasn’t had much time to talk to him. In the middle of their conversation, Ariel interrupts and asks for some time with Jack, which unsurprisingly causes some tension. Finally, Bailey steals him back to end the conversation. Zach tells her that he’s not confident they have a future together, which leaves Bailey feeling pretty devastated. He leaves before giving the group date a rose.

The tension is heightened when Christina says that Bailey leaving was “inevitable.” Before anyone else can answer, Jack arrives to deliver a rose, first telling the ladies that Bailey went home because he couldn’t give her the validation she needed. He gave the rose to charity.

The sweet moment quickly turns sour when Cristina tells the other women she’s confused as to why she didn’t get the rose. Brooklyn and Katherine tell her to stop hijacking Charity’s moment, but Christina insists she’s just trying to be honest. Charity leaves the room in tears, and the other women make it clear that they are not on Christina’s side.

That’s enough for now, as it’s time for Zach to take on Ally one-on-one. He meets her at the altar – literally. She is wearing a suit and is in her chosen gown when the limo drops her off in front of the wooden altar. But they are not tying the knot. Instead, they’re jumping out of a plane together. Ally is surprised like a champ and the pair dive headfirst into a new phase of their relationship. Back on the ground, they spend the next part of their date sipping champagne in a hot tub. From there, they had a romantic dinner together inside the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles. Ally tells Zach that she is very Type A and likes to be in control, which is evident from her past relationships. In this new relationship with Jack, she’s looking for a safe place to land where she can go a bit. Zach validates her feelings and tells her he wants to see more of who she really is, he doesn’t want to see her. It wasn’t much longer before he got the palm rose.

Lucky for the ladies, they all get one more chance to spend some time with Jack before the next rose ceremony Instead of a cocktail party, they will have a pool party at the palace.

It’s all fun and games for a while, but Briana reveals to Brooklyn that she still doesn’t feel confident about her relationship with Zach. He approaches her to have a conversation about it and she reiterates that their connection doesn’t feel natural. He tells her that he is planning to leave, as he is having a hard time with her and some of the women in the house. As she’s on her way out anyway, she tells Zach that Christina made Briana and Charity cry and scared a lot of other women.

And with that bombshell, Briana is gone. Zach is shocked that Briana is leaving – and that Christina isn’t getting along with the others. Zach addresses the women after Briana leaves and he tells them he’s not happy knowing that some women can make others feel uncomfortable.

He pulls Christina aside for a conversation and things go south very quickly. Christina begins to cry as she tells Zach that it would be a mistake to believe others about her. He tells her that he’s worried about keeping her around if this is the drama he has to deal with, and that he needs to think about what to do next. He sends Cristina in and tells Brooklyn to have the next conversation. Brooklyn tells her more about what happened at the cocktail party and why she confronted Christina about making Charity cry. Later, Charity narrates the story to Jack from her perspective.

Finally, Zach ends the pool party and the ladies are told to prepare themselves for the rose ceremony. Understandably, many women are confused about where they stand.

Because the two women went home before the rose ceremony, Christina was the one sent home at the end of the episode.

The ladies returning next week are: Charity, Ally, Kaity, Jess, Gabi, Ariel, Genevieve, Greer, Katherine, Kylie, Davia, Anastasia, Brooklyn and Mercedes.

unmarried Airs Monday nights at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC and is available the following day on Hulu.