By Caroline Dehn
Summer may be coming to a close, but Bachelor in Paradise continues to bring the heat each week. Though there’s still more to come, I can say this may actually be the most dramatic season of the show yet. As the time spent in paradise progresses, the drama has taken off.
The original cast of the show included fan favorites from past Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons, like Abigail from Matt’s season and Brendan from Tayshia’s. The group of twenty singles arrived on the beach in Mexico to hopefully find summer love. Each week, a rose ceremony sends a handful of contestants home if they cannot find a match among the group.
This year, there has been much speculation about who is on the beach for the “right” reasons. Though we have only seen seven episodes so far, multiple conflicts have arisen, creating high tension at the resort. Here is what you need to know to be caught up.
The Kenny Love Triangle
One of the hottest commodities at the resort has been Kenny, a forty-year-old boy band manager from Chicago. Since day one, Kenny hit it off with Mari, a twenty-five-year-old marketing director from Maryland. The pair were comfortable and flirty with each other from the start, forming a strong connection before most others on the beach. A few days later, resident Bachelor Nation celebrity Demi arrived, looking to go for what she wants, no matter the consequences. She set her eyes on Kenny, and wasn’t afraid of the possible connections he may have already made on the beach. This caused serious tension between the two women, resulting in Mari throwing Kenny’s birthday cake into a fire pit. For the upcoming days after Kenny seemed to put his energy into Demi, but in the end, Kenny decided that his loyalties lied with Mari, his original connection.
Rekindling old Flames?
Known as Grocery Store Joe, Joe Amible came to the beach reluctant and with walls up. His last serious relationship with ex-girlfriend, Kendall Long, started on the very sand he walked just a few years prior. The first few days, Joe struggled with his decision to stay until realizing his new connection with Serena Pitt was too strong to leave. Soon, Kendall is brought to the beach looking to rekindle their relationship that ended due to distance. Joe made the decision to stay on the beach and continue his growing connection with Serena P.
Trouble in Paradise
This year, two men were accused of using the show as a means to grow followers on Instagram and widen their career opportunities rather than to actually find love. The first? Brendan Morais: a fan-favorite from Tayshia’s season of the Bachelorette. Fans before the show started spotting Brendan hanging out with Pieper, a frontrunner from Matt’s season, on multiple occasions. When Pieper later shows up on the beach, it is confirmed that they were in fact in a relationship before the show, leaving his current resort connection, Natasha, heartbroken. Since the episode aired, Brendan has lost over one hundred thousand Instagram followers. On Tuesday, Pieper admitted that she was “excited for the future possibility to make more money” from coming on the show and rekindling her relationship with Brendan. Grocery Store Joe and his posse struck again, deciding that it was time for the pre-paradise couple to go. The cast reassured Brendan and Pieper that no one wanted them on the show. Similarly, Chris, a later addition to the show, made an early connection with Jessenia. A few days later when a new group of hopefuls arrive, Chris immediately is drawn to Alana, and begins pursuing her right in front of Jessenia. The rest of the group jumps to Jessenia’s defense and demands that Chris leave the island with his new girlfriend. Though Alana played a role in this relationship, she resented Chris for pursuing her so aggressively, cutting her time on the show short.
The season isn’t over yet and there is more drama to come. Tune in to Bachelor in Paradise, Tuesdays on ABC at 8pm EST.
