Bachelor Blowup: Drama, 'Bully' Accusations Derail Pool Party -- Plus, Tone-Deaf Talent Show

He also welcomed the ASNK Ladies from The Golden Bachelor, who were just as charming and delightful here as they were there. They got to help judge the Mrs. Right pageant, though it was clear Joey chose his winner all by himself based on what criteria he used!

It's interesting to us that the developing drama between Maria and Sydney is more to do with what Sydney almost overheard Maria saying about Madina. Maria was trying to be overpowering, but Madina and Sydney (by proxy) felt she was instead invalidating Madina's feelings about being the oldest woman there.

Yes, it's about that. Honestly, as this happens every season on every Bachelor Nation show, we find ourselves wondering how much producers are trying to spruce up the drama. Maybe Joey's season was a little boring and they needed to find ... something.

For the most part, this is a delightful group of women. It's clear that both Sydney and Maria are confident in themselves and the rightness of their respective stances. It's also clear which side the producers and editors are on, and not just because of how they're portrayed when dealing with the drama itself.

Joey is a man, after all. The first Group Date of the night was an adorable Mrs. Right pageant that included a Q&A session, a "Lazy Sunday" fashion segment, and a talent show. As it turns out, men do like to keep it simple.

The pageant also featured the return of fan-favorite Golden Bachelor contestants, the ASKN Ladies (aka April, Susan, Kathy & Nancy). The older women were clearly having a lot of fun and showing great personality (when are we getting The Golden Bachelorette, again?).

The younger women also went all in, even though this date included everyone involved with the house's mini-drama. This is where we're talking about clear favorites with the producers and editors. It's also possible that Sydney really did come off that poorly.

The only one among the girls who'd been part of a pageant before, Sydney couldn't have come across more tone-deaf than she did when it came to the talent portion. After picking apart what the other ladies were doing, she went out there at 28 years old and did a high school cheer routine.

It wasn't the kinds of flips and jumps you see in competition, either. It's what you'd see on the sidelines of a football game between the flips and jumps. She just basically clapped and spelled out things, shouting awkwardly to the audience.

Was that really their tepid response? We swear we could hear a cricket that had gotten trapped in the room, too, wondering what the hell it had just watched. Then, when she sat back down next to the girls -- who were admirably trying not to laugh -- she declared they could probably just stop right there.

So if that was really the audience response, is she really that tone-deaf and clueless? Well, as it turns out, she's not great at reading the room. After all, the ladies would love for nothing more than the nada-drama to go away ... but Sydney won't let it!

However, that's for later. Maria's moment to shine came during the evening portion of the mat when she called out Joey for giving the Mrs. Right title to Lexi, whose talent was ... kissing.

That's right, she stepped up and declared that her talent was being the best kisser in the world and she wanted Joey to see if it was true. It was a pretty lame excuse to kiss him, and compared to the other women (even Sydney) putting in real effort to impress, it was pretty lazy.

He insisted it was about more than the talent -- there were two other portions after all -- but it had a lot to do with the kissing. He loved that she went for it, and as we said, guys can be pretty simple creatures. She went for it and he rewarded her.

For further proof that producers may think this season needs the "mean girl" drama at this stage, the other two dates where pretty straightforward. With no one from the feud involved in either, things went off pretty smoothly. They were still cute and fun, but certainly felt lacking in comparison.

Jenn scored this One-on-One and had a blast learning how to surf with Joey. From what we saw, she's-- well, she's pretty terrible, but it's not an easy thing to master on your first time out there. But, she did seem to be a good kisser, per Joey, and we know how far that goes.

She also opened up during the evening portion, sharing how traumatic and dysfunctional her family life was growing up. Things got so bad with her parents that her father lived in the basement for six years, and now she and he have no relationship at all.

All in all, she was very real through all aspects of the night, and opening up about her difficult childhood only furthered her relationship with Joey, as it can add context to his interactions and her responses to things. It's vulnerability and real, which is how you get a rose.

The second group date was just as drama-free, but that was for the best as it was too goofy and fun to be messed up with drama. This one put Joey in his element, and the eight women in ridiculous costumes for a doubles competition on the tennis court.

We were loving the silliness of their costumes, as well as the impressive competitive drive of Evalin and Kelsey T (as Lobster & Butter). They absolutely dominated the finals, beating Starr and Rachel (Hotdog & Bun) five to zip.

Then, we noticed during the toast portion of the night, Jess was admirable toasting the room without even a glass in her hand. Props for doing it without a prop, girl! As expected, with no drama, the night went well, everyone was adorable and charming, with Katelyn winning the rose after opening up about all the women in her extended family being single (so they're counting on her to break the curse!).

If only things could have ended there, we'd have been golden. Alas, there was still a Cocktail Party and a Rose Ceremony to get to. And Sydney wasn't done dragging Maria through the mud over this age comment.

In one of the more shameless and blatant product placements we've seen in a long time, the women were treated to a pool party instead of a cocktail party, complete with KFC. As in, a beautiful spread filmed lovingly by the camera crew with the women dropping their best commercial praise.

Thankfully, we survived the Colonel's culinary onslaught to get to the real meat of the party. That's right, who needs to have fun and get time with the Bachelor when there's more drama to be stirred up like KFC gravy.

Sydney got things started when she sat down with Joey and did what Madina declined to do during the evening portion of the Group Date. Madina dropped the "bully" word, but declined to say who had her feeling that way. Sydney didn't hesitate.

She quickly threw Maria all the way under the bus and then backed up over her again with a revisionist history of the conversation after that group date. In it, Maria was trying to get some context as to what made her a bully, but Sydney was having none of it.

She did call Sydney "weird" when Sydney got up and dramatically left the room. In her version of events, though, she sat there calmly and took it while Maria slung insults at her. It was interestingly calculated, as she was definitely planning how to convince him to boot Maria.

If you know anything about projection, the edit is certainly making it look like Sydney is doing this at every turn. She calls Maria a manipulator, but she's doing that. She accused Maria of being a "mean girl," when she's the one showing those tendencies.

We even got a scene with Maria and Madina saying they were cool (though we're not sure we're buying this on Madina's end), but Sydney isn't willing to let it go. Maria keeps trying to put the drama in the past, but Sydney has herself so worked up that Maria is this villain Joey simply has to get rid of. It's a little obsessive and -- yes, we can see it, too -- "weird."

Joey tried to get to the bottom of it by pulling Maria aside. As she was bullied growing up, Maria doesn't take well to being called that. Especially in this case as she can't get clarity or context as to why she's being accused of something so serious. It's not a word to be thrown around lightly.

Joey comes out of his chat with Maria with a little more information, and feeling as if he'd failed to ask enough questions of Sydney. His gut also told him that Maria was coming across more sincere in her responses than Sydney.

At the Rose Ceremony, both women skated through, while it was time to say goodbye to Chrissa, Evalin, and Starr.

Once again, as they prepared for next week, Maria said that she was hoping to put the past in the past and move forward, while Sydney said she's putting her energy "into what matters," which is apparently taking Maria down.

Um, what about Joey? Does he matter? The journey to find love? Ring a bell?

We'll get a double-dose of the drama next week, too, as The Bachelor blows up to fill both Monday and Tuesday.

• "I'm happy to start today and not make anything a problem." --Maria (after feud with Sydney about Madina)
• "It sucks to be on a date with Maria … but I'm going to make the best of it." --Sydney (clearly not over it)
• "That Maria? She has some energy. She's great." --ASKN Ladies (during pageant)
• "When you have a conversation with Joey, he remembers the little things." --Lexi (during pageant)
• "I've never sang before anybody before. I'm not a singer. Joey, I wrote this song for you." --Edwina (during pageant)
• "This is my chance to show him who I truly am. I think he's going to like this side of me." --Sydney (during pageant)
• "Set! Ready! L-O-V-E, Joey is the one for me." --Sydney (doing cheer routine during pageant that was very poorly received)
• "That was hilarious. Sydney was, like, just going to blow our minds away. And that's exactly what she did." --Edwina
• "I think we just end the talent show there." --Sydney (after her performance during pageant)
• "I've learned over the last 30 years of my life that I am the world's best kisser. So I thought I could get some feedback if you think I am." --Lexi (going for it during pageant)
• "I know Joey's gonna be kissing other women, but I don't wanna see it." --Lea (during pageant)
• "I gave Mrs. Right to Lexi because she surprised me." --Joey (during pageant)
• "Kissing is not a talent." --Edwina
• "I have a bone to pick with you … If it was a kissing contest, I would have loved that better 'cause that's what you validated today." --Maria (to Joey)
• "I wasn't basing this off of talent." --Joey
• "I'm an introvert. That might be surprising to a lot of people." --Maria
• "It's my age. From what I heard, some girls were saying, 'She's not even that old,' which felt very invalidating." --Madina (to Joey)
• "If I had to describe it, I felt like I was being bullied. 'Tell me who it is, tell me who it is.'" --Madina (about Maria trying to find out who said she dismissed Madina's age concerns)
• "What the f--k was that about?" --Maria (after Joey expresses concerns about a "bully")
• "It was probably about my conversation with him. I told him how I felt about the other night when I was waiting for him. I didn't refer to you as a bully, I said I felt bullied, which I think I'm valid to feel." --Madina
• "You referred to me as a bully?" --Maria
• "I didn't call you a bully. I felt bullied." --Madina
• "By me?" --Maria
• "I also felt bullied, as well." --Sydney
• "You I don't want to hear from you because you started this." --Maria (to Sydney)
• "I'm done being attacked tonight. I'm gonna head out, if anyone wants to join me. I'm done being in this environment." --Sydney
• "You have this calming energy and, like, I weirdly trust you and I'm comfortable with you even though we're still getting to know each other." --Jenn (on one-on-one)
• "Cheers. You gotta look in my eyes. Seven years of bad sex if you don't." --Jenn (to Joey)
• "I could say more words but talking about kissing Jenn, I wanna go kiss her again." --Joey
• "What's it gonna say? 'Will you…'" --Joey (during drone show at one-on-one)
• "Marry me? It's a bit early, don't you think?" --Jenn
• "It's intimidating to have balls flying at my face that quick." --Katelyn (during tennis group date)
• "All the women in my family are single. And they're relying on me to break this curse." --Katelyn (to Joey)
• "That's some pressure." --Joey
• "I'm not the tattletale." --Sydney
• "I'm not gonna let the mean girl win. She is clearly the problem and this is just something that should be addressed with Joey." --Sydney
• "She didn't say names, but Maria instantly started attacking her." --Sydney (to Joey)
• "I just said, cool, calm and collected, 'Maria I think she just thinks you're insensitive to her feelings.' And then I became Maria's target. She verbally attacked me and I just sat there and held my composure. She called me embarrassing, weird, and dumb. I ended up walking away. I just couldn't be in that hostile environment." --Sydney (revisionist history to Joey)
• "What a good pool party. No one's in the pool and no one's having the best time ever, I would say." --Rachel
• "She's a mean girl. She's scrounging to find something to make me look bad. I just hope that Joey really, like, realizes she deserves to go home." --Sydney (about Maria)
• "How Maria was talking to me felt more real than how Sydney was talking to me." --Joey (after talking with both)
• "It would suck to be sent home tonight just because of Sydney." --Maria
• "I don't know what she wants from me. Does she want me to cut off my limb?" --Sydney
• "If I did not get a rose tonight, it would definitely be because Maria's manipulation worked." --Sydney
• "Getting the rose tonight just meant the world to me. I know where he stands. With me. And I'm just ready to move forward and leave the drama behind." --Maria
• "Coming into next week, I'm gonna put my energy into what matters. I'm not gonna let the mean girl win. It has to be done. And I'm the only one who isn't afraid of her." --Sydney
• "THere's one rose left on the table. Everybody knows that. Why do I have to go in and tell everybody. It's a waste of time." --Jesse (we're all thinking it)

The Bachelor expands to Monday and Tuesday next week at 8pm ET on ABC.