‘The Bachelor’ recap: Clayton discovers one of the women might be playing him

Clayton continued his journey to find love with the 22 remaining women on Monday’s episode of The Bachelor, but one of them has a secret that could force him to do something no other Bachelor has done before.

The season’s first group date featured celebrity guest Hilary Duff, who enlisted 10 of the ladies to throw a dream Beverly Hills birthday party for one lucky young girl and her guests. However, Cassidy was more interested in spending time with Clayton than the kids.

While the bold strategy didn’t sit well with the other women, Clayton was impressed with her tenacity, and rewarded her with the date rose.

Unfortunately, Cassidy’s unrelenting pursuit of Clayton, along with her cockiness, led her to make a potentially fatal mistake when she privately told Sierra that she had a guy back home that she’d been “hooking up with on and off for a while.” In fact, the two had video-chatted just as she was on her way to tape the show and made plans to hook up again after she was done.

Later, at the pre-rose ceremony cocktail party, Sierra used her time alone with Clayton to spill the beans about Cassidy, and warn him that she’s not the person he thought she was.

That led Clayton to ask host Jesse Palmer a question that could change Cassidy’s future and lead to a Bachelor first: “Has anyone has ever taken back a rose before?”

The episode ended with a cliffhanger, as we await Jessie’s response.

Meanwhile, another drama was brewing after Shanae — who earlier, during another group date, tried stealing a page from Cassidy’s playbook, with disastrous results — portrayed Elizabeth to Clayton as being “fake.” That lead to tension between the two ladies, and raised red flags regarding both ladies.

Afterwards, it was Sarah who took home the date rose.

Elsewhere, Susie landed a one-on-one date with Clayton that included a scenic helicopter ride, sipping champagne on a yacht, a surprise musical performance by Canadian country singer Amanda Jordan and a date rose.

The Bachelor returns January 24 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.