We’re three weeks into Joey Graziadei’s televised search for love, and in the words of The Bachelor Season 28’s Maria Georgas, “the dumbest fight in Bachelor history” rages on.
Despite the fair share of romance, excitement, heartfelt conversation, and hope for the future in Graziadei’s first three episodes, two of the three weeks also featured a running feud between contestants Georgas, Sydney Gordon, and (tangentially) Madina Alam. The fight is not only ridiculous, immature, and secondhand embarrassing, but it has a clear winner! So why is it still getting so much screen time? (Good TV, I know! Ugh!)
Ahead of what’s sure to be an ugly two-on-one date between Georgas and Gordon in Episode 4, Decider is sharing our stance on The Bachelor Season 28’s Agegate. Before we take sides, however, let’s take it back to the beginning and try to remember how the heck this feud even started.
Picture it: It’s Week 2 at the Bachelor mansion and the women are bonding over their feelings for Graziadei when Alam shares she feels “a lot of pressure” because she’s 31, aka the oldest contestant in the house. Since Graziadei is 28, Alam is “emotional” thinking about their age gap and where she’s at in life. After telling cameras she has the highest stakes as the oldest one in the house, she tells the women, “For me to come here as a 31-year-old, I feel like my time is very limited. I really don’t have the time to waste.” After sharing her feelings, Alam whispers, “I wish I did not say that out loud now,” and the night carries on. Most people quickly forget the comments, but they resonate with Georgas, 29, who’s also older than Grazidei.
“A lot of us are older than Joey, so it’s not something to be insecure about. Should I feel bad that I’m older than some of the girls here? Older than Joey? I don’t feel weird about that,” Georgas tells cameras. Later in the night, she recaps Alam’s concern for a friend and adds, “Madina, you are 31. Own it. Joey probably loves it!” To me, it sounded like Georgas was trying to relate to and lift up Alam. But Gordon overhears her conversation, feels Georgas is “talking shit,” then decides to stir the pot by telling Alam. “Madina is my girl,” Gordon tells cameras. “I’m not gonna tolerate that, and I’m gonna say something.”
After Gordon tells Alam, she continues to gossip about Georgas, calling her “condescending” and threatening to tell Graziadei about her behavior. When a confused Georgas learns Alam felt she downplayed her feelings, she confronts her in an effort to squash the beef then asks the women who started the drama. Gordon accuses Georgas of belittling Alam’s feelings, and Georgas attempts to defend her intentions.
As a single 30-year-old watching this feud unfold, I must stress that aging out of your 20s in NO WAY means you’re too old to find love! Did The Golden Bachelor teach us nothing?! Anyway, that’s what Georgas tries to communicate to the room. She asks Gordon to come to her next time before starting drama, the two click glasses, and it seems the beef is squashed. Week 3 opens with Georgas visibly relieved to be starting with a clean slate. But once she and Gordon are invited on the same group date, Gordon tells cameras it “sucks” to be on a date with her, and the grudge continues.
If I really wanted to drag Gordon, I’d go into detail about her laughable “I was in Miss Mass Teen USA” confidence during the group date pageant. But let’s keep things related to The Feud. During the cocktail hour portion of the group date, Graziadei questions Alam about drama in the house. Though she doesn’t name names, she does say she felt like she was “being bullied,” which leads Graziadei to confront the group.
Once he leaves, Georgas asks, “what the fuck was that about?” Alam tells the women about her conversation with Graziadei, and Gordon quickly interrupts to add, “I also felt bullied as well!” Girl, please! Georgas attempts to clear her name and put “Sydney Missy Troublemaker” in her place. Finally, Gordon says she’s done “feeling attacked” and says she’s going to head out if anyone wants to join. (From our view, none follows, which should speak volumes.)
Fellow contestants say “the whole thing is blown out of proportion” and “Maria’s not a bully.” The next morning Georgas even makes amends with Alam, but Gordon stays mad, vowing she’s not about to “let the mean girl win.”
During her one-on-one time with Graziadei, Gordon says Georgas “attacked” and “verbally assaulted” her and Alam. Horrified by the account, Graziadei immediately pulls Georgas to get her side of the story. She calmly explains the feud “stemmed from nothing” and came as a total surprise to her. “I have been bullied and this is just not it,” she said. “From that experience, I never want to treat anybody as bad as I’ve been treated in the past.” Georgas closed her argument by telling Graziadei if he likes Sydney, there’s no way he can also like her because they’re two completely different people. After leaving the conversation, Graziadei admitted, “How Maria was talking to me felt more real than how Sydney was talking to me.” Though he gave both ladies a rose in the end, he called Maria’s name first, which feels like a small sign he, too, is Team Maria — as he should be!
While Maria was minding her own business, repeatedly attempting to make amends with both women, Sydney was calling her “a mean girl,” accusing her of “scrounging to find something” to make her look bad, and saying she “attacked” and “manipulated” her without anything to back up the wildly serious claims. When Sydney stared straight into the camera and earnestly asked, “Does she want me to give her my limb? To cut off a limb? Would that make her happy?” I actually cackled.
The feud is taking away from precious time between Joey and the other women, who are fed up with the entire situation. As Sydney stoops lower and lower each week, Maria stands strong and stays classy. There’s no telling what next week’s dramatic two-on-one date holds, but here’s hoping “the dumbest fight in Bachelor history” will finally come to an end — until “Women Tell All” week, that is…
New episodes of The Bachelor air Mondays from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ET on ABC with next-day streaming on Hulu. And be sure to read our interview with Joey Graziadei for more exciting Bachelor insights.