Matt James answers questions, tries for peace in ‘Bachelor: Women Tell All’ special

We take a break this week from the conventional “Bachelor” episode to enjoy the “Women Tell All” special, a time-honored tradition of calling all (or most) of the season’s rejected women back into the same room for another hour or two of fighting and crying.

This season — Season 25 starring Raleigh native Matt James — seemed especially combative (which is saying a lot), and has had more than its share of off-screen controversy (which we covered in recaps for Week 7 and Week 8).

Chris Harrison hosts Monday’s “Women Tell All” special, because it taped before any of the season’s controversy started. But it was announced this weekend that Emmanuel Acho, a former NFL linebacker and host of the online series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” will host the “After the Final Rose” special, which airs after the “Bachelor” finale in a couple of weeks.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This week it’s all about settling scores and airing grievances.

Women, tell us everything

We start with the women. Matt enters in the second half of the show.

The first woman we hear from is Khaylah Epps, a health care advocate from Durham. Chris Harrison asks her what it was like to meet Matt on the first night and she answers, “exhilarating.” The other women agree, and it’s the only time they all agree about something all night.

We then move right into a montage of Bachelor Fights Greatest Hits: the women — especially Victoria — going after one of Matt’s early favorites, Sarah; the attacks on the five new girls; and the big fight between Jessenia and MJ.

Chris goes through each spat, rehashing this and that, and then the attention focuses on Victoria, who suggests that the women offended by her name-calling and bullying were perhaps just being too “sensitive.” I mean, she was the subject of some rude internet memes and you don’t see her crying, do you? Actually, yes, you do (stay tuned).

Katie says rewatching these clips is difficult, and Victoria sort of apologizes to her, which is progress. Then Katie says that the fact that a lot of the women are getting “backlash” online is karma. Chelsea doesn’t care for the “karma” comment, and several of the women argue that Katie pointing out the toxic behavior in the house is what made the house toxic.

Huh?

That time Anna called Brittany an ‘escort’

Next we dissect The Brittany-Anna Incident.

Brittany, from Chicago, was part of the group of five new women introduced to the house in Episode 4. Anna, also from Chicago, started a crazy rumor that Brittany was “sketchy” and a paid escort.

Several other women (Victoria) were into it, egging Anna on, until Katie let Matt know what was happening and he put an end to it by sending Anna home.

Brittany tells Chris how badly the experience “broke her down” and how it felt “defeating.” When you Google her name now, that’s what comes up, Brittany says. (Assuming all of this is Katie’s fault, since she told Matt about it?)

Anna is actually here (not sure I’d have been able to show my face!) and she calls her own behavior “awful,” and said after seeing the aftermath she’s “100 times more sorry.”

“It just sucks that I did that to someone else,” she said. “Everything I did in that situation sucks. I’m sorry.”

Brittany doubts her sincerity because she hasn’t tried to reach out to her before now. Anna said everything she did on the show was because of insecurities and anger, but she’s working on that. Brittany ultimately accepts her apology and said she doesn’t want people to direct more hate at Anna.

Pancakes, beer and a lost babe in the woods

Next we see some clips from filming that didn’t make it to television.

On one date, girls had to stick their hands into boxes of insects — roaches, worms, crickets — to fish out rings. Then we see a date where the women had to eat a ton of pancakes and then drink a bunch of beer. That didn’t go well.

Then there was a game of hide-and-seek where Kit wandered around in the woods looking for Matt while everyone else had already found him and they were all soaking in a hot tub.

From the boxing episode, we see the women drink (eat?) raw eggs without puking (for the most part).

Katie in the spotlight

Katie is called to the couch to discuss her “Bachelor” journey with Chris. She made a very memorable first impression, bringing a sex toy (which Chris calls her “magic wand”) to the house.

We see a bunch of clips of Matt and Katie kissing, Matt telling Katie how much he likes having her in the house, Matt telling Katie how much he likes her. Then we see their date when Matt tells her he can’t give her a rose, and sends her home.

Katie gets emotional watching the clips, saying she really thought she had a connection with Matt because she wasn’t paying attention to the other relationships in the house. She knows her personality is “a lot” and Matt seemed OK with that. She was hopeful! She was falling in love!

But when she was watching the show later from home, Katie said, “I get it.” She said seeing his dates with a couple of the other women, she saw that she “never had a chance.” She’s 30 years old now and she said she wonders if there’s someone out there for her. But she feels more confident now than she ever has and she’s ready to meet someone. (I’m gonna be honest with y’all because y’all my “Bachelor” peeps: reliable spoilers online indicate Katie had been ABC’s choice for the next “Bachelorette,” but that is not final.)

A few words with Abigail and Pieper

Abigail also gets time on the couch to talk about her time on the show. Abigail is deaf and seemed to have a good connection with Matt from the beginning — she even got the “first impression rose” on the season premiere.

Abigail was a little blindsided by Matt sending her home, and she talks a lot about how many positive messages she has gotten from people in the deaf community about how much her appearance on the show meant to them.

Next Chris pulls Pieper out of the crowd and shows highlights of her romance with Matt. She’s the one who went on the “State Fair” date with Matt, and Matt really seemed to like her. She went home right before “hometowns.” We see her sobbing in the SUV after Matt sent her home.

On Monday’s show, Pieper said she still feels shock because she didn’t see it coming. She had told Matt she was falling in love with him, had talked to him about her family, and really thought he’d be meeting them.

Did Serena break Matt’s heart? Just a little?

In last week’s show, we saw Serena P. surprise Matt after her hometown date by telling him that she wasn’t feeling as strongly about him as she should be at that point, and she chose to leave the show.

Matt was visibly shocked and even shed some tears.

In Monday’s show, Chris tells Serena that even he thought Matt and Serena would end up together. Serena P. is emotional watching the clips of her breakup with Matt. Chris points out that everything changed once she talked to her family, and she admits that she needed confirmation from them that she was on the right track, and she didn’t get that. She doesn’t blame them, she says they gave her clarity.

But does she now think she made the wrong decision, Chris asks? “I care about him still, so much, and the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt him,” she said. But ultimately, she wasn’t 100% sure about him and it wasn’t fair to stay and mess up his chance at love with one of the other women, she said.

Still to come .... Matt and bloopers!

We welcome Matt and his beard

Matt finally comes out and he has a super bushy beard. It’s startling, but most of the women say they like it.

Chris asks Matt if he was surprised about the amount of drama going on once he got to watch the show from home. Matt said he was surprised, but tries not to judge the women by any of that.

Serena C. tells Matt that she hopes, after seeing some of them (ahem) at their worst, that he doesn’t hold it against them. He said he doesn’t. He even tells Anna that he felt bad for her watching her apology.

Victoria tells Matt that she’s grateful for him and for the experience. Watching later she knows she looked bad on the show, but it hurt her feelings when Matt said she needed to “self-reflect.” Crying, she says she acted out of a fear of rejection. Matt tells her that when people ask him about her, he has nothing but good things to say.

Katie and Matt say a few nice words to each other, nothing earth-shattering.

Then we get a clip that honestly I could have lived without: turns out Matt kisses with his eyes open. I had not noticed that, but once you see it, it’s creepy. Matt admits that it looks creepy and he’s going to start kissing with his eyes closed.

At least some good will come out of all of this.

Matt tells us that he has learned a lot about himself and he hopes the women have learned a lot and will take it forward.

Pieper, who left the show without speaking to Matt, asks Matt why he cut her loose. He says his relationships with the other women had progressed more than with her, and that was the only reason.

To Serena P., Matt says her rejection was “hard,” but he’s glad she has clarity about what she wants.

Then we lighten things up with the blooper reel, always the best part of the “Women Tell All” episode. We have women being attacked by bugs, people falling out of chairs and ... we won’t talk about the whole Matt getting out of the hot tub thing.

Next week we get both of Matt’s parents and it’s the first time we’ve met his dad (Matt has said several times on the show that he was raised by “a single mom,” and we’ve already met his mom on the show). The clips with his parents look ... dramatic.

More about ‘Bachelor’ Matt James

James, who made news this past summer when he was named ABC’s first Black “Bachelor,” is 28 years old and works with a real estate investment firm in New York City. He is also involved in a program in New York that helps children affected by homelessness.

He is a graduate of Sanderson High School in Raleigh and played football at Wake Forest University.

We will recap the show each week.

Catch up on our previous Matt James coverage:

▪ Raleigh’s Matt James named ABC’s first Black “Bachelor”

▪ Durham woman is a contestant on “The Bachelor”

▪ See Matt James in middle school yearbook photos

▪ Episode 1 recap: Meet, pray, love with Matt James

▪ Episode 2 recap: Matt James is a prince, but there’s an evil queen, too

▪ Episode 3 recap: The Sarah Show finale

▪ Episode 4 recap: A (literal) battle for Matt James

▪ Episode 5 recap: Matt James ousts bullies Victoria and Anna

▪ Episode 6 recap: Matt James loves the State Fair

▪ Episode 7: Matt James picks the four women whose families he’ll meet

▪ ‘Bachelor’ Matt James and his ‘dates’ attend Wake Forest basketball game. Sort of.

▪ Episode 8: Matt meets the families, Serena breaks his heart

How to watch ‘The Bachelor’

New episodes of “The Bachelor” air at 8 p.m. Mondays on ABC.

You can also stream “The Bachelor” the next day at abc.com/shows/the-bachelor or on Hulu.

This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 9:04 PM.

Brooke Cain

The News & Observer

Brooke Cain is a North Carolina native who has worked at The News & Observer and McClatchy for more than 30 years as a researcher, reporter and media writer. She is the National Service Journalism Editor for McClatchy.