In June, Bachelor in Paradise abruptly halted production amid allegations of misconduct relating to a pool encounter between cast members and fellow franchise “villains” Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson. On Tuesday night, after heavily and tastelessly teasing some kind of dramatic on-camera reckoning, the show dealt with this controversy in the best way it knows how—as a plot point to be explored and then briskly abandoned.
It’s a confusing situation, one the first two episodes of this season didn’t make much less confusing, so let’s briefly recap what we know. Shortly after production was stopped in June, it was reported that two producers had filed a third party complaint against the show questioning whether Corinne was able to give consent to the alleged sexual encounter she had with DeMario. In a statement, Corinne said that while she had “little memory of that night, something bad obviously took place” and referred to herself as a “victim,” while DeMario insisted in an in-depth E! interview that he’d done nothing wrong, providing an explicit play-by-play of the night’s events.
In the same interview, DeMario said that prior to the hookup, he and Corinne had teamed up strategically to make a big splash on the show. “Our conversation leading up to that point was talking about dominating Paradise,” he told E!. “For her it was like, ‘follow my lead’ type of thing, she was very confident.” Unlike older iterations of Bachelor spinoff competitions, Bachelor in Paradise doesn’t really even need to hand out prizes—the end goal is explicitly to achieve a lasting romantic partnership (and increasingly, engagement, quite a feat after two boozy weeks of filming), but it’s also obvious that the longer they last on the show and the bigger impression they make, the more social media influence (i.e. moneymaking opportunities) a cast member might achieve.
DeMario also told E! that “two cameras, an audio guy and a producer” had followed them to the pool, and that “we were both super coherent, we were both speaking,” although afterwards, according to DeMario, extremely heavy “shot-for-shot” drinking was taking place (“At one point Chris is like, ‘DeMario, get your s—t together, pick your head up, open your eyes,’” he said. “‘Corinne, get up.’…Corinne’s drunk, everybody is drunk. But it’s not bad—we’re just in Paradise. Chris is, like, poking fun at us.”)
DeMario said he’d made sure the cameras followed him “because when you’re a man, mostly African-American men, no matter where you are, you look for things that will help you out.” He said that later, as news of the shutdown emerged, the public formed opinions based on racist and misogynist stereotypes before the facts were clear; cast members would later echo this in Tuesday night’s episode.
The minute you release this black man’s face and this white girl’s face, before either of us commented on it, I was already like a rapist and I was like, excuse my French, a n—-er, a monkey, and she’s a whore and a slut. They were slut-shaming her because of what she did last season with Nick.
On June 20, Warner Bros. announced that an independent investigation had concluded that no misconduct had taken place, and the full cast returned to paradise. Producers will now reportedly have to explicitly approve sex between cast members before it happens, and will reportedly enforce a two drink per hour maximum. Olympios’ lawyers recently wrapped up their own investigation into the incident, which was followed by another statement:
In light of the overwhelming amount of misinformation that has been spread in the media, I want to clarify a few things. My intent over the past few weeks has been to learn and understand what happened on June 4. While I never filed complaints or accusations against anyone associated with Bachelor in Paradise, my team and I felt it was very important to be thorough in getting to the bottom of what had occurred. I felt victimized by the fact that others were judging me through conflicting and unsubstantiated reports, while I myself had no recollection of the events that transpired. My team’s investigation into this matter has now been completed to my satisfaction. I am also happy about the changes that have been made to the production of Bachelor in Paradise. While I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have been a participant on The Bachelor, and while I was invited to return to Bachelor in Paradise when production resumed, I respectfully made the decision not to return.
I understand the media’s interest in this story, and I greatly appreciate my fans’ concerns for my well-being, but I think it is best if I keep any further thoughts private for now.
So—as anticipated, though it did address the situation head-on with an extended sit-down talk between the cast and host Chris Harrison, following Monday night’s premiere, Tuesday night’s episode did not quite match its subject in complexity, nor did it clarify exactly why those complaints were filed.
We began with an hour-long look at a handful of Bachelor weddings, a pointed parade of the positive “results” the franchise has achieved over the years. While production for Bachelor in Paradise was shut down, former cast members Carly and Evan went ahead and walked down the aisle anyway, with bridesmaids in gigantic flower crowns gushing over the couple and members of the Bachelor family (minus the current cast) looking happily on.
The scene we were waiting for opened with characteristic drama as media chatter about the Paradise shutdown played over windswept shots of the empty beach. Cast members appeared on the horizon, marching back towards their non-air conditioned cabana. “I hope this is a fresh reset on love, and that we can just take a deep breath and start over again,” Raven told the camera.