The Bachelor: Matt James gives group date rose to Rachael Kirkconnell setting up hometown visit

Matt James narrowed his list of potential brides down to four on Monday’s episode of The Bachelor.

With hometown visits looming, the 29-year-old real estate broker decided to stick with Rachael Kirkconnell, 24, Michelle Young, 27, Serena Pitt, 23, and Bri Springs, 25.

Rachael has been the frontrunner for weeks and recently apologized outside of the show after she was accused of liking racist social media posts and attending an Antebellum South plantation themed fraternity formal in 2018.

Show host Chris Harrison, 49, recently defended Rachael, received harsh criticism and apologized before announcing Saturday that he was temporarily stepping aside from the franchise.  

Matt, who is the first Black male lead in show’s 18-year history, bid goodbye to several women, some of whom decided they wanted to leave.

Among the surprises was Kit Keenan, 21, the New York City fashion entrepreneur and daughter of designer Cynthia Rowley, 62, who adored Matt, but withdrew for lack of ‘clarity.’

Abigail Heringer, 25, the Beaverton, Oregon financial manager who earned Matt’s first-impression rose this season, also left once she realized he wasn’t into her.

Feeling more ‘blindsided’ were Pieper James, 23, a graduate student from Happy Valley, Oregon, and Jessenia Cruz, 27, a social-media marketer from San Antonio, Texas.

Jessenia failed to receive a rose after a solo date with Matt, who claimed they weren’t compatible despite her clear love for him.

Pieper, who’d been completely devoted to Matt, climbed into a limo and left without saying a word after being let go at a rose ceremony.

The moment her vehicle pulled away, Pieper began to sob.

‘I put my weakness and my happiness on the table, and for literally nothing,’ she cried. ‘For a big waste of time.’

They weren’t the only women Matt had to let down easy this week.

Heather Martin, 25, a former contestant on season 23 of The Bachelor, was also rejected by him.

The gorgeous blonde had gambled that Matt might be her match, so she just showed up uninvited at the Nemacolin Resort in Farmington, Pennsylvania, where he was filming.

Heather showed up unannounced and went into quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic after producers cleared her to meet Matt. 

The Bachelor cast was six weeks into shooting when Heather strode into a cocktail party and interrupted Matt’s conversation with Pieper.

Heather told Matt that their mutual friend Hannah Brown, 26, the season 15 star of The Bachelorette, felt they’d be good together.

‘Hannah is someone I love and trust and who speaks very highly of you, but it’s not a lot of time to make a very important decision,’ Matt said slowly.

He asked Heather to give him time to consider her arrival, so she went out to defend her presence there to the remaining women.

Each of them wanted Heather to leave, and they weren’t shy about it.

‘You’re just Bachelor-hopping,’ sniped Pieper, who wanted the interloper to apologize for interrupting her time with Matt.

‘Like, b****, what are you doing?’ asked Kit, as another woman snarled at her to go.

Heather started to cry, saying, ‘I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.’

‘Talk about it in an interview, because I don’t want to hear your tears right now,’ said Serena Chew, 24, a flight attendant from San Francisco.

Things got worse for Heather, as Matt was forced to tell her she’d arrived too late.

‘With where we’re at, being this deep in the process, I don’t know how it could work,’ he offered. ‘I’m falling in love with women who are here, and I just gotta follow my heart.’

Heather was crushed, saying, ‘Obviously I don’t want to hear that and I’m really bummed that I couldn’t have been here earlier.’

‘Time just isn’t on our side right now, and my heart’s pulling me into that room,’ Matt replied, referring to the area where the women waited.

They all rejoiced as Matt walked Heather out, with one woman crowing, ‘Taking her a** home.’

When he returned,  Matt apologized for Heather’s sudden arrival, and promised, ‘There isn’t anyone joining this journey that’s not on that couch.’

Everyone then headed to a rose ceremony, where Matt bid goodbye to Serena C and model Chelsea Vaughn, 29, from Brooklyn.

The next day, Matt had a one-on-one date with Serena P, a publicist from Toronto.

Matt felt like Serena had ‘friend-zoned’ him, so they practiced tantric yoga and pretzeled themselves into sexual positions.

Serena was deeply uncomfortable with doing this on camera, which Matt said he understood.

Over dinner he gave her a rose to secure a hometown visit, and they went ice skating.

Next up was the week’s group date, during which Matt spoke with eight women about their romantic hopes and fears ahead of ‘hometowns.’

Bri, a communications manager from San Francisco, told Matt she was so serious about him she’d resigned from her company to remain on the show.

‘My work wasn’t just a job to me; it felt like a dream,’ she said. ‘But being here with you makes it feel extremely worth it.’

Matt kissed Bri and said privately that she’d solidified things, as he knew she was there for him.

He then connected with Pieper; Michelle, a teacher from Edina, Minnesota; and Rachael, a graphic designer from Cumming, Georgia—all of whom he kissed.

‘When I’m not around you, I’m thinking about you,’ Matt told Rachael. ‘You just make me smile.’

But when Abigail asked Matt if he’d lost interest in her, he intimated that he had and walked her out.

Kit then laid her cards on the table with Matt, telling him she wanted to wait a few years to have children, but asking him to think of her as ‘a long-term investment.’

Matt said he did think about a future with her, and she was sure she’d get the date rose.

Instead Matt bypassed her to give it to Rachael, who secured her own hometown visit.

He and Rachael were serenaded by Aloe Blacc, 42, and danced to his hit I Do.

‘I am head-over-heels in love,’ Rachael said privately. ‘Get on one knee right now.’

After the date, Kit went to tell Matt she didn’t have the ‘clarity’ she needed.

‘Hometowns isn’t a ”figure-it-out” sort of situation, it’s a ”rest-of-your-life” sort of situation,’ Kit considered. ‘You deserve someone who is 100 percent sure of you getting down on one knee tomorrow, and that’s not me.’

‘I like you a lot and I want you here,’ Matt protested, but Kit was determined to leave.

In the limo she revealed that she feared she might have made the wrong decision.

Matt’s last one-on-one date was with Jessenia, who was a ‘thrill-seeker’ like him.

The pair zoomed around in a racecar and practiced ‘drifting,’ an over-steering technique that causes a car to lose traction and sail sideways.

Over dinner, Jessenia told Matt she’d been ‘falling in love’ with him, and was ‘blindsided’ when he said he didn’t think them compatible, sending her home.

More surprises were ahead: At the episode’s second rose ceremony, Matt selected Michelle and Serena for hometown visits, and rejected Pieper.

‘This is not me; I am not someone who just blindly follows feelings and emotions,’ Pieper said, weeping in her departing limo. ‘I really should have stuck to that, because it’s better than feeling like your entire soul was stomped on.’

The Bachelor will return next week on ABC with Matt making hometown visits.