Christina Mandrell started to rub some women the wrong way on this week’s The Bachelor. Christina was on a football group date with 14 other women, but she still couldn’t stop talking about the one-on-one date she had a week prior. At the group date after party, Zach Shallcross assured Christina that she should “trust in what [they] have” whenever she started worrying about where she stood. Things continued to be going well for them, but Christina’s behavior with the other women eventually took a toll.
While the women were chatting at the after party, some of them got annoyed that Christina kept bringing up the fact that she got the first one-on-one date of the season. “Christina really likes to talk about her one-on-one date with Zach,” Katherine Izzo said in a confessional. “It could be either she wants to rub it in our face or she’s just unaware, but it does make me feel uncomfortable. When she brought it up again later on, Brooklyn Willie called her out.
“Respectfully, like you said, you had a one-on-one,” Brooklyn told Christina. “If I hear one-on-one…I might lose my mind. Not that I don’t care or I’m not happy for you, but we know. We heard about your one-on-one. I feel like it’s almost malicious.” Christina’s bragging really got to Bailey Brown, who wasn’t feeling as validated about her feelings for Zach. She wound up asking him whether or not he thought he’d be able to get there with her, and he admitted that he wasn’t confident there’d be a future between them. Bailey was eliminated on the group date.
While most of the other women were super upset to see Bailey go, Christina couldn’t care less. “Although it’s sad and she was our roommate, that’s inevitable,” Christina said. The other ladies on the date were appalled by how Christina reacted. Then, Zach gave the group date rose to Charity Lawson, and Christina didn’t hide her frustration that she didn’t get the rose herself.
“I’m just confused,” Christina admitted in front of everyone. “Maybe I missed something. Honestly, I’m mad that it wasn’t me. Duh.” This pissed Brooklyn off even further. “I’m going to shoot you straight,” she told Christina. “I feel like in a lot of settings so far you make a lot of things about you.” Katherine also called her out for upsetting Charity, who had started to cry. In a confessional, Brooklyn added, “Christina definitely hijacked that moment from Charity. Like she’s trying to intimidate, manipulate and be calculated. I’m sick of her BS.”
Meanwhile, this behavior followed previous tension between Christina and another woman, Brianna Thorbourne. Brianna wasn’t happy with how Christina jokingly said she “hated” her for getting America’s first impression rose on night one. Brianna approached Zach with her concerns about one of the women in the house, but did not name who was making her feel uncomfortable. However, after hearing what went down with Charity, Brianna couldn’t take it anymore.
Zach hosted a pool party for the girls, which is when Brianna made her decision to leave the show. “I’m feeling raw and numb at the same time,” Brianna said in a confessional. “It’s confusing to me when I see that connections are being formed and some of these women are saying they have such deep feelings when I’ve been feeling like there might not be anything here with me and Zach romantically. So I’m disheartened, a little heartbroken and I kind of feel like I’m on my way out.”
Brianna approached Zach to let him know her decision, and since she was leaving anyway, she named Christina as the woman who was making her feel this way. “I feel like our connection didn’t get off the ground because of hard things I’ve been going through in the house,” Brianna explained. “A lot of the girls, I think, are struggling to be authentic because they’ve had intimidation and really hard times with this person. She made Charity cry after you gave her the rose, she made me cry several times. We should be able to be in a safe environment where there’s no intimidation. For more people than just me, Christina does that. I just wanted you to know how I feel, but I do have to leave for my own peace of mind.”
Zach respected Brianna’s decision, but was “shocked” to hear this about Christina. “I absolutely want this to be a safe space for the women, and if they’re not feeling safe with me, then something’s wrong,” he said. Zach pulled Christina aside and confronted her with Brianna’s accusations. “I have been confronted by some of the girls that I’m rubbing people the wrong way,” Christina shared. “I’m able to just be happy and outgoing and loud and a lot of people are taking that as me wanting to be the center of attention or that I feel like I’m privileged. There were two girls to confront me and I was able to offer clarification and I thought it was settled.”
Zach reiterated to Christina that he didn’t have time to deal with any drama. “Do you know where it’s hard for me?” he asked. “It’s that I’m here to ind my best friend and I have to deal with stuff like this. I’m worried. One hundred percent.” Christina was in tears as she told Zach that this made “no sense” to her. She also insisted that it would “be a mistake” to believe this information about her. He ended the conversation by letting her know he needed time to think. He also spoke with some of the other women, including Charity, who backed up Brianna’s story.
“I don’t want anyone to be hurting because of something I did,” Christina said in a tearful confessional. “That was never the intention. I thought we had settled it. I went through so much to be here. I’ve got my little girl at home and I understand being misunderstood, but for that to be put against me is just silly. I’m a lot, but I didn’t hurt anyone intentionally. It just doesn’t look good for me and it really hurts.”
In the end, Zach decided not to give Christina a rose at the rose ceremony, sending her home. She was devastated, but told Zach she understood and wished him the best. He apologized for having to eliminate her, but knew it was the best decision for him moving forward. “Right now, it just kind of hurts,” Christina said. “Zach blew me away. I expected to like him, but not as much as I did so fast. I hope he finds his person. Sadly, it’s not me.”