The Golden Bachelor
October 8, 2025
It’s morning at the McMansion, and the ladies are doing a little exercise and gossiping when the first date card arrives: “Bomb Peg: Let’s get down tonight. Love, Mel.”
Everyone is very excited for Bomb Peg, except for Handsy Nicolle, who, fully leaning into her villain role, sneers in an interview that she’s happy for Bomb Peg, but she doesn’t see any chemistry between her and Mel.
As for the date, Bomb Peg and Mel go to the Orange County Fair, where they play carnival games and ride dangerous carnival rides and get a carnival caricature and eat carnival food. They have a good carnival time.
At one point, they sit down, and Bomb Peg opens up about her past: she joined law enforcement in 1992 and eventually taught with the FBI. (I have no idea what this means.) She divorced her husband, who was also in law enforcement, in 2003. Infidelity was at play. Notably, she does not say infidelity by whom, but I think we are supposed to infer it was not her.
After the divorce, Bomb Peg says she devoted herself to her daughter and career, and she and her daughter recently got matching tattoos. Mel asks her about where her tattoos are, and Bomb Peg promises he can learn more in the Fantasy Suites.
Mel and Bomb Peg then go to a KC and the Sunshine Band concert — hence the date card “let’s get down tonight” clue — and eventually are called onto the stage, where Mel offers Bomb Peg the date rose in front of all of Orange County and KC himself.
Back at the McMansion, Handsy Nicolle has decided that she’s clearly being too subtle about being this season’s villain and, like any good villain, just lays out her diabolical plan. Handsy Nicolle announces that she is not dating Mel, she’s dating “all of America,” and reminds them that they will all receive incredible exposure by being on the show.
She goes on to insist that they will have “Housewife” status after being on this show. As someone who is neck deep in reality TV news, gossip, and whathaveyou, I am here to tell them they most assuredly will not. I don’t remember 99% of Bachelor contestants’ names — sometimes even the leads — but I can name Housewives whose shows I’ve never watched, so.
Handsy Nicolle goes on to basically call the first season contestants ugly before explaining her plan to become an Instagram influencer in the cooking/beauty/health spheres after all this.
Ma’am, you do realize you are being recorded right now, right? That everything you are saying is being recorded and Mel and Kathy and all of America is going to watch it? You know that, yes?
Nicolle wanting to “become more of an influencer” when she presently only has 9k followers is something. #GoldenBachelor pic.twitter.com/4lcJC67OBh
— One Chicklette (@1chicklette) October 2, 2025
Meanwhile, Bomb Peg is like, “I’m just here to meet a nice guy …”
As for the group date, the ladies are brought to Malibu Beach, where they meet People Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Janine Rubenstein. Ms. Rubenstein explains they will be doing a photo shoot for “Sexy at Every Age: The Golden Edition.”
To that end, the women are each given costumes:
Jazzercise Debbie is in a very bridal slip, which she insists on calling a wedding dress.
Jazzercise Debbie is very emotional about wearing her first “wedding dress,” and is thrilled to be the “Beach Bride” in this photoshoot. She and Mel then take some very bridal pictures together while the other women watch on with a mixture of jealousy and happiness for Jazzercise Debbie.
Wine Robin and Texas Roxanne are “pinup girls” — basically, they are in bathing suits.
Nurse Gerri and Dirt Bike Cheryl are “lifeguards” — they are in red bathing suits.
Finally, Cindyrella, Handsy Nicolle, and Dodgers Carol are “bedroom beauties,” which involves Cindyrella and Handsy Nicolle wearing skimpy pajamas, and Dodgers Carol wearing nothing but a towel. Dodgers Carol spends the entire segment whinging about this situation until the camera comes out, at which point, she leans all the way into it.
Once the photoshoot is said and done, the photographer announces that the woman who had the most chemistry with Mel was Cindyrella. As her prize, she and Mel will roll around in the surf and make out in a recreation of From Here to Eternity. As you can imagine, the other women do not take this well, and Jazzercise Debbie, in particular, seethes with jealousy.
They then move to the cocktail party portion of the date. There, Dodgers Carol takes him aside first. She talks about being nervous about the towel, but then claims she wasn’t always this reserved. Back in high school, she lost a dare and had to go skinny dipping in every pool in Century Lake. I have no context for how many swimming pools this amounts to: 3? 10? 350? Unclear. But she did it, so good for her. She then once again overcomes her reservations and goes in for a kiss, which Mel reciprocates.
He also chats with Cindyrella about their “sexy” shoot and how they still have a lot of life ahead of them.
Leaning into Mel’s Detroit origins, Jazzercise Debbie reveals that she was in Berry Gordy’s wedding. I’m going to assume it was the most recent of his three wives, the one he married in the 90s. But again, this is unclear.
Mel also makes out with Nurse Gerri and Dirt Bike Cheryl and Handsy Nicolle, while the other women are forced to watch nearby.
As for Wine Robin, she’s had enough of this nonsense and takes Mel aside to tell him that as an ethical and honest person, she is really struggling because she knows for a fact that one of the women is not being authentic. Mel is taken aback by this, shocked that someone might be there for the “wrong reasons.” But Wine Robin insists there is a woman here who is using this show as an opportunity to promote herself. She fails to name names. ROOKIE MISTAKE, WINE ROBIN.
Despite Robin’s insistence, Mel is like, “NOPE. DON’T BELIEVE IT,” and returns to the women to give Dodgers Carol the date rose.
The next day, the women get together to make Mel some lemon bars for the tailgate party they are going to have in lieu of a cocktail party before the rose ceremony. So of course, Handsy Nicolle declares that the lemon bars were all her idea, she did all of the work, HER HER HER.
The producers suggest otherwise:
So they have a “tailgate party” and grill hamburgers and hot dogs and play cornhole and beer pong with prune juice. (I wish I were kidding. I am not. As mean as I might be about these folks being older, the show is meaner.)
Dirt Bike Cheryl takes Mel aside to tell him her feelings for him are growing and that he makes her feel like a princess, and he’s the prince in her life right now.
Nurse Gerri also tells him that she has feelings for him, and Cindyrella asks him if he likes her as much as she likes him. He assures her that he does.
And Handsy Nicolle, she pulls the obvious villain move: she gives him the lemon bars while claiming she made them all by herself.
As a side note, we also learn that Mel went to culinary school. That’s unexpected.
And then it’s time for the Rose Ceremony. Wheel up to the line, ladies.
Rose #1: Jazzercise Debbie
Rose #2: Cindyrella
Rose #3: Dirt Bike Cheryl
Rose #4: Handsy Nicolle
And so, to keep our villain, Handsy Nicolle, we must send home Texas Roxanne, Wine Robin, and his First Impression Rose, Nurse Gerri. Mel feels pretty bad about Nurse Gerri in particular, and walks her out to the Breakup Driveway to tell her that he’d give her the First Impression Rose all over again if he could. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make her feel better since he’s sending her home right now, but sure. Thanks, Mel. That means absolutely nothing.
Here are the ladies who have been eliminated, along with their very not good nicknames:
Here are the women, along with their dumb nicknames who are still “dating” Mel:
The Golden Bachelor airs Wednesdays on ABC at 7/8 p.m. and streams on Hulu.