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" While falling short of finding true love with Ashley Hebert on last season of The Bachelorette, Ben Flajnik has taken time to regroup and is now ready to find love again as the new Bachelor.  Tonight, he starts with 25 prospective women in the hope that one of them will turn out to be his true love. The episode opens with a recap of last season as well as catching us up on what Ben&amp;#039;s been up to since then - from the looks of it, a lot of wine drinking, sailing, and wheeling barrels around a warehouse. Fair enough! As he walks through his wine vineyard accompanied by a reflective acoustic guitar track in the background, he again announces that he&amp;#039;s ready to find the right person for him. He also seems to have learned how to play David Gray&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;This Year&amp;#039;s Love&amp;#039; on the piano. How appropriate.  We&amp;#039;re introduced to the women here to meet Ben. There&amp;#039;s 27-year-old Lindzi, a horseback rider who works in sales by day. I&amp;#039;m notoriously terrible at telling people&amp;#039;s ages, but she looks a lot older than 27. Lindzi is &amp;quot;tired of horsing around&amp;quot; with terrible relationships (her last boyfriend dumped her via text) and wants to see if she can fall in love with Ben.   29-year-old Amber from Nebraska has always been a tomboy and loves to go hunting. She wants to get Ben back to Nebraska for some &amp;quot;beef nuts and deer steaks&amp;quot;. Well, okay. Tracy, 24, is from Knoxville and once again, looks way older than her age. She was heartbroken while watching Ben on The Bachelorette last season, but also happy because she wanted to date him. She also waxes nostalgic about her grandparents&amp;#039; love and hopes she can have something similar... on a TV dating competition.  28-year-old Courtney from Santa Monica has been modeling for the past ten years and is slightly over-confident. She&amp;#039;s not worried about the other girls and doesn&amp;#039;t care if any of them are intimidated by her because &amp;quot;they should be&amp;quot;. She also fantasises about seeing a &amp;quot;big rock&amp;quot; on her ring finger, 2 carats because she&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;worth it&amp;quot;.  Jamie is a 25-year-old nurse from New York, who grew up with a single mother with addiction issues. She also raised her younger siblings, a difficult situation which has so far prohibited her from finding love. She wants to have babies and thinks she&amp;#039;d have &amp;quot;cute&amp;quot; ones with Ben. Then there&amp;#039;s 29-year-old Lyndsie J, originally from London and now living in Arizona as an internet entrepreneur. She hopes to find someone to travel the world with.   Hey, look, it&amp;#039;s the real-life Carrie Bradshaw - 27-year-old freelance blogger Jenna wants to know the machinations of love and gets &amp;quot;panicked&amp;quot; by the idea of not finding the right one. She believes her hang ups will ultimately lead her to the right guy who wants to be with her forever. Oh, dear. 28-year-old Shawn works in market finance and loves her career and also her young son. She&amp;#039;d like to find someone to fill the empty space in her family and believes young Gavin should have a male figure to look up to. A bit heteronormative, but fair enough.  26-year-old Texan Nicki is excited to meet Ben as she believes they could teach one another a lot. She recalls falling in love and marrying at the age of 21 - a union which unsurprisingly soured. Having been divorced once, she&amp;#039;s excited about the new chapter in her life and vows that the next time she gets married, it&amp;#039;ll be forever . &amp;amp;gt; The Bachelor&amp;#039;s Ben Flajnik: &amp;#039;I never wanted a celebrity girlfriend&amp;#039;&amp;amp;gt; Read Digital Spy&amp;#039;s full The Bachelor headlines Before we can meet anyone else, Ben prepares to meet the women in person as they begin to arrive at the house. He sits down with host Chris Harrison as they discuss the night ahead. Ben admits that it &amp;quot;hasn&amp;#039;t hit [him]&amp;quot; that he&amp;#039;s back in the competition and doesn&amp;#039;t believe it will until the girls begin to arrive. However, for as nervous as he is, he&amp;#039;s also really excited to see what&amp;#039;s in store.  Ben also admits that it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;difficult&amp;quot; to look back on last season of The Bachelorette as he feels vaguely embarrassed by it. However, he has no regrets as he learned a lot about himself and pushed his own boundaries to change and become a different man - one that&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;completely and utterly available&amp;quot; and anxious to find the woman of his dreams.  The arrival of the contestants  Well, its time for the ladies&amp;#039; arrival, and here they come! 27-year-old fashion rep Rachel is the first out of the limo and gives Ben a big hug, saying that she can&amp;#039;t wait to get to know him as he seems like a &amp;quot;sincere&amp;quot; guy. She also mentions that her middle name is Rose. 23-year-old Erica is a law student from Chicago is next. And guess what? The verdict is in - Ben&amp;#039;s sexy! (That&amp;#039;s her corny joke, not mine.) 23-year-old labour &amp;amp;amp; delivery nurse Amber - nicknamed &amp;#039;The Baconator&amp;#039; because of her surname - is from Canada and quite awkward, but whatever. Elyse, 24, is out next - she&amp;#039;s so happy it&amp;#039;s him and tells him to find her later so she can &amp;quot;make him sweat&amp;quot;. Sounds promising. Jenna - our Carrie Bradshaw - is out next. She admits to being nervous but doesn&amp;#039;t say much else for a while. Their whole interaction is... not great. &amp;quot;I screwed it up!&amp;quot; she says as she goes into the house.  It&amp;#039;s our &amp;quot;intimidating&amp;quot; model Courtney who arrives next, addressing Ben as &amp;quot;cutie pie&amp;quot; and saying that she has a big crush on him and loves his hair. She&amp;#039;s going to be insufferable - that much is clear. More down to earth, 27-year-old PhD student Emily makes him use hand sanitizer and breath spray before giving him the first kiss of the night. I guess that was cute.   26-year-old Samantha, a pageant winner, says that she&amp;#039;s more than a pageant girl and gives him a quick hug before heading inside. She&amp;#039;s followed by Casey, 26, who says absolutely nothing about herself before heading in. 29-year-old Amber (yes, another Amber) follows. Oh wait - she circles back around to say that in case he doesn&amp;#039;t believe in love at first sight, that was his second chance.  24-year-old Kentucky native Holly arrives in a big hat and can&amp;#039;t even hug Ben because of it. 25-year-old Jamie is a bit nervous now that she sees him but admits that she hasn&amp;#039;t prepared anything cute to say. I like her! Shera - ageless, apparently - says that she knows everything about wine before admitting that she doesn&amp;#039;t, in fact, but likes to drink it. Smooth.  &amp;amp;gt; Chris Harrison: &amp;#039;Everyone can relate to The Bachelor&amp;#039;&amp;amp;gt; Ben Flajnik: &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m ready to find love again&amp;#039; Blakeley arrives next from Charlotte, North Carolina and yet again, has zero to say about herself. And then comes the crown jewel - 72-year-old Sheryl, who arrives on crutches. She watched Ben all last season and fell madly in love with him. Oh, what a let down - she&amp;#039;s there with her granddaughter Brittany since they know how important family is to Ben. Slick, sure, but I was really rooting for Sheryl.  In the next limo, 26-year-old Nicki arrives and calls Ben &amp;quot;precious&amp;quot;. That&amp;#039;s... precious. She&amp;#039;s followed by 30-year-old Diana, a non-profit specialist who has completely forgotten what she meant to say upon her arrival. Jennifer, who is a 28-year-old accountant from Oklahoma City, gives him &amp;quot;some numbers&amp;quot; - the number of miles she traveled, how many times she&amp;#039;s been arrested, the number of dresses she tried on before coming, and how many times she&amp;#039;s been in love (one, but hopefully with him she can make it two).   Eccentric Londoner Lyndsie reads a crazy poem and seems like she&amp;#039;s had an IV of pure caffeine before arriving. 25-year-old Anna is much more sombre and walks right past Ben without saying more than &amp;quot;hi&amp;quot; before heading in the house. 33-year-old Monica confesses that she misses her dog more than anything. Wow, way to get deep, lady. 27-year-old Jaclyn compliments him on looking &amp;quot;dapper&amp;quot; and heads in after a hug. Shawn, 28, also gets a hug and wants to &amp;quot;grab a couple minutes&amp;quot; inside, giving Ben a slug on the arm as he heads in. 24-year-old Kacie promises not to sugar coat anything if he follows suit and Ben agrees. The final arrival comes on horseback - it&amp;#039;s Lyndzi - yes, the same one who&amp;#039;s tired of &amp;quot;horsing around&amp;quot; in her romantic life. He helps her down and they hug. Ben seems impressed, remarking that they &amp;quot;saved the best for last&amp;quot; before she heads in.  Inside, the girls begin sizing one another up, stating who they like and don&amp;#039;t like already. Everyone is upset with Lyndzi for outdoing them all by riding in on a horse. They also discuss how Ben is the perfect Bachelor and fully expect one another to &amp;quot;pounce all over&amp;quot; him. When he enters, Ben makes a speech about how he knows exactly what it&amp;#039;s like to be in their position and says that he is looking forward to getting to know all of them.  The Party 27-year-old Rachel shares a private moment with Ben outside, where they discuss why neither has found love yet and what they&amp;#039;re looking for. Next, he speaks with Nicki, who wants to just have fun and insists that everything happens for a reason - even her past divorce, apparently, which she conveniently omits. She also insists that they&amp;#039;ll get along well as they have a lot in common.  Next, Lindzi wants to know what he thought about her horseback arrival. She shares her experience as a rider and then asks him about the wine business, admitting that her attempt at making some at home with store-bought red grapes was pretty unsuccessful. Brittany and her grandma head out to talk to Ben after, with the other girls complaining that it was a dodgy move for her to bring her grandmother along. Ben walks Sheryl to her car after, saying that Brittney is something special.   Shawn takes Ben outside to kick around a soccer ball, while Blakeley shares the stories behind her tattoos. Each of the girls make small talk, obviously vying to be given the First Impression rose. Kaycie eventually organises a line dancing party, after which Dianna blindfolds Ben so that she can feed him candy and he can guess what it is. It all gets pretty dire, with each of the girls very obviously desperate for his affections. I suppose that&amp;#039;s the point of the whole competition, but I don&amp;#039;t know, it&amp;#039;s a bit much.  Inside, things heat up when Jenna starts freaking out because some of the other girls &amp;quot;aren&amp;#039;t there for the right reasons&amp;quot;. Jenna thinks that it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;insulting&amp;quot; for Monica to be in the house if she doesn&amp;#039;t have feelings for Ben. Jenna marches away in anger, while Monica and Blakeley head outside to chat. Obviously drunk, Monica is hanging all over Blakeley, telling her how &amp;quot;beautiful and amazing&amp;quot; she is and going on about &amp;quot;experience&amp;quot; and how she has to get Blakeley&amp;#039;s number when they leave. Hilarious!  Jenna is in full-on meltdown mode inside, though the drama between the girls is making everyone else uncomfortable. Jenna thinks that Monica is there to &amp;quot;stir up s**t and cause drama&amp;quot;, saying that she is &amp;quot;brilliant&amp;quot; at putting people down, which means that she has a problem. Rachel is not entirely sure what&amp;#039;s happening but says that she&amp;#039;ll go and talk to Monica. She then calls the girls together, hoping to mediate whatever&amp;#039;s going on. Jenna says that Monica acts as though she doesn&amp;#039;t like her but Monica doesn&amp;#039;t &amp;quot;get it&amp;quot; as she doesn&amp;#039;t know Jenna. The interaction just gets increasingly awkward and eventually ends.  Outside, Rachel tells Jenna not to let Monica get to her and Jenna starts crying. Meanwhile, Monica is revving herself up by talking to the other girls, saying she&amp;#039;ll &amp;quot;cut [Jenna&amp;#039;s] f**king face off&amp;quot; if she comes near her. Frankly, Jenna seems absolutely psychotic. Maybe being a freelance writer has meant a little too much time in the house for our little Carrie Bradshaw. Ben comes over to find out what&amp;#039;s going on, but Jenna plays it all off and changes the subject.   Jenna then starts freaking out again, admitting that she feels like she&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;blacking out&amp;quot; with nervousness and not making very much sense. She also rolls her eyes when Ben says that he knows how she feels. He seems understanding though, saying that he hopes she can find the strength to get herself together. She feels weird about the whole thing and then locks herself in a bathroom, sobbing and ranting. Oh, dear. Someone call the on-set psychiatrist.  Ben then takes Lindzi outside to give her the First Impression rose, saying that he loved their conversations and that she seems real and down to earth, and that he likes funny girls. She accepts the rose and plants a kiss on his lips, later admitting that she&amp;#039;s happy that he wants to keep her around and get to know her.  Chris then calls all the girls together and calls Ben up for the first Rose Ceremony.  The Rose Ceremony Jenna enters the ceremony last after finally coming out of the bathroom, hoping that she will get another chance to impress Ben. Chris announces that 17 roses will be given out and 7 will be going home tonight, a reality which weighs heavy on the women, who are all clearly nervous.  The first rose goes to Jamie, while Rachel, Blakeley and Emily also accept theirs. Next to be offered another chance is Kaycie B, followed by Kasie S, Brittany, Erica, Shawn and Nicki.  Finally, Ben offers a rose to Jennifer, Elyse, Samantha, Courtney, Jaclyn and Monica. The last rose goes to Jenna - shockingly. The rest of the girls head home.  After, Ben tells the remaining women that he is glad they are still in the competition and can&amp;#039;t wait to get to know them even better.  The Bachelor airs Mondays on ABC "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-bachelor/news/a358030/the-bachelor-season-premiere-recap-ben-flajnik-meets-bachelorettes/>