Now that “Bachelor in Paradise” is no longer airing both on Monday and Tuesday nights (next week, “Dancing With the Stars” returns with its cast of who-are-they-again?-”celebrities” to take over the “Bachelor” timeslot on ABC), we now have to wait until Tuesdays to see what ridiculousness happens in the new Season 7 episodes.
That means that on tonight’s Episode 8, we won’t have Chris C. and Alana (who?) to kick around anymore, since that insta-couple were basically booted off the beach in last week’s episode. You might be wondering why we were suddenly supposed to care about Chris C. and Alana (who?), and why pretty much all of last week’s installment dithered and dished about the two.
(How to watch: “Bachelor in Paradise” airs at 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays on ABC. No cable or antenna? Live stream “The Bachelor” on fuboTV (which offers a 7-day free trial)
Well, apparently the rest of the “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” veterans gathered at the resort in Mexico thought Chris C. and Alana (who?) had committed the cardinal sin of Bachelor Nation. Yes, that’s right. Chris C. and Alana (who?) weren’t there, so everybody thought, for the right reasons!
The couple were suspected of having known each other before arriving at the beach, and concocting their supposed sparks-flying encounter on “Bachelor in Paradise” just as a way of getting more attention and airtime.
What made this supposed scandal especially bewildering was the near-absence of camera time last week for Brendan and Pieper (yes, the former Happy Valley, Oregon resident who was on Matt James’ season of “The Bachelor”). You remember, right? Brendan and Pieper had been pilloried online after the Sept. 6 episode, in which the two seemed to confirm rumors that they’d been dating prior to being on “Bachelor in Paradise,” and that their appearance on the show was engineered to get them more social media followers and -- you guessed it -- attention.
When “Bachelor in Paradise” returns for another breathless chapter tonight, will Brendan and Pieper still be treated like crumb-bums? Or will everyone have moved on, and forgotten about their whole not-here-for-the-right-reasons controversy?
Here’s the logline for tonight’s episode: “The beach’s most controversial couple faces a reckoning they can’t come back from; one couple pays a visit to the Boom Boom Room, another endures a birthday breakup of epic proportions, and one unlucky lady gets a second chance at love.”
Could that “controversial couple” be Brendan and Pieper? Sounds like it. But at the rate “Bachelor in Paradise” is adding new singletons every week, who knows?
“Bachelor in Paradise” Episode 8, Season 7 airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14 on ABC.
-- Kristi Turnquist
kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist
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