Michelle Young took her men to Minnesota on The Bachelorette this week.
And she had high hopes for this visit to her native state.
“There is no better way to get to know who I am, what I stand for, what my life has looked like,” the 28-yearold said in an on-camera interview during Tuesday’s installment of the reality series.
“This is the perfect place for me to be able to show them.”
First up, Michelle took Joe to her high school and played him in a game of one-on-one basketball.
Later, over drinks, the aspiring husband explained that he broke his leg in seventh grade and had surgery and neither his game nor his life was ever the same after that.
“It was beyond difficult. It was anxiety, depression, there was times where I was thinking I didn’t even want to still be there,” he told The Bachelorette.
“And that was truly tough for me. Ball was life and that life was gone.”
Young said she appreciated Joe confiding in her about this challenging patch in his life.
“I’m very grateful that Joe trusts me enough to open up to me about all that he experienced,” she told the cameras. “And so I feel like after today, my feelings for Joe have grown tremendously.”
She then gave him a rose — and got quite profound.
“I feel like you have two souls that have kind of been living side by side without even knowing it, and I feel like today we got brought together,” Michelle said on air.
“And I am very excited to see what the future has in store for me and Minnesota Joe.”
Cut to the group date and Michelle taking her contestants to U.S. Bank Stadium, which is where the Minnesota Vikings play football.
The suitors were tasked with competing to be an actual viking… asked to try out some war cries, followed by eating authentic viking food such as fermented herring and viking head hash (cow brains, tongue and cheek).
Future Bachelor Clayton Echard won the subsequent physical challenge and the ultimate honor in the end.
Michelle also gave the date rose to Clayton, who she said she “really connected with today and has continued to show the effort.”
From there, Michelle took Nayte out on a boat on Lake Minnetonka, hoping to move on from the drama stirred up by Chris last week.
“Nayte and I have so much chemistry as that person that had the first kiss and the first impression rose, but a lot of our time has been not all flowers and roses,” Michelle explained.
“Nayte was a name who came out of Chris’ mouth in that conversation at that last rose ceremony, and I want to put that behind us.”
At the end of their time on the water, after two of her friends gave Nayte their blessing, Michelle told the rumored season winner about the Minnesota tradition of getting purified in Lake Minnetonka … so they both leaped in.
After Michelle and Nayte bonded over past relationships and heartache, CHRIS CRASHED THE DATE.
Once he and Michelle stepped away from Natye, Chris said he “felt really played by the whole situation.”
“Before the rose ceremony I said what I said, came from a place of honesty, and I don’t know what happened after that,” Chris told her.
“You came down, you sat next to Nayte, two days later you proceeded to give him [a] one-on-one.
“I felt like what I said had fallen on deaf ears. And I came to say, I warned you and I don’t want you to make the wrong decision.”
Young handled the crashing as well as possible, taking issue with how Chris was trying to speak for her. And then sending him away.
“Ultimately I do feel like we’re not necessarily on the same page,” Michelle said to Chris. “I just don’t see this relationship progressing and so I do need to walk you out.”
She then went back and made out with Nayte.
“I’m very crazy about Nayte,” Michelle admitted.
“I do start to get this feeling like, this is my person. That’s really exciting but it’s also very terrifying. But I’m following my intuition, I’m following my heart. And I do feel that I’m starting to fall for Nayte.”
To close out the episode, Young gave a rose to Martin, Rick, Olu, Brandon and Rodney, which meant that Casey and Leroy had to pack their bags and head home.
At this point, though?
Based on The Bachelorette spoilers and also on what we witnessed this week?
The competition is Nayte’s to lose.