SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Thursday’s episode of ABC‘s Bachelor in Paradise.
It’s another week in Paradise, and trouble is brewing on the horizon as the women prepare to hand out the roses.
The morning after the first rose ceremony begins on a peaceful note, since everyone left on the beach is coupled up. Brayden is bragging about how he smells good (which the producers refute) and some of the other men start to wonder what’s in store as the women hold the power this week. But overall, everyone is feeling content.
All good things must come to an end, though, and it’s time to shake things up on the beach. Tanner Courtad from Charity Lawson’s Season 20 of The Bachelorette is hitting the sand! If you’ll remember, he was at the top of quite a few ladies’ lists in terms of who they’d like to meet in Paradise.
Kat and Jess set their sights on him almost immediately, and he reciprocates the interest. After conversations with both women, he asks Kat on a date — much to Brayden’s dismay.
In an interesting departure from Charity’s season, pretty much everyone else on the beach is standing by Brayden throughout this fiasco, even the other men from Season 20 who were not his biggest fan. When Kat accepts Tanner’s invitation without hesitation and without a courtesy conversation with Brayden, she quickly becomes Enemy No. 1.
She’s fairly unbothered for the time being though, as she’s whisked away on horseback to a private picnic on the beach with Tanner. They seem to click right away, and it doesn’t take long for her to admit to Tanner that she already thinks her connection with him is stronger than her connection with Brayden. It feels like sort of a strange thing to divulge, but to each their own.
While the pair make out in the ocean, Brayden is really going through it back at the shore. Everyone is trying to talk him off the ledge to little avail. For a moment, it seems like this might be the biggest drama of the episode, since all the other couples remain fairly at ease.
That is, until Tyler Norris makes his grand entrance. Tyler made his Bachelor in Paradise debut last season, when he left the show with Brittany Galvin. Obviously, things didn’t work out, but Tyler is back in Mexico with high hopes that he’ll find love again. He first pulls his ex-girlfriend Rachel aside for a chat, before also talking with Jess and Mercedes. Sean and Blake are definitely on edge, but it’s Will who is really thrown for a loop. If Mercedes goes on a date with Tyler, it’ll be the second time he’s left in the dust for another man this season. Tough news for Will, because Mercedes does, in fact, accept that date.
While nearly everyone is focused on their romantic connections, Sam is facing a pretty crappy situation herself. Literally.
She reveals that she hasn’t gone No. 2 in nearly 10 days. After consulting with the on-set physician, she’s informed she’ll likely need to take more “drastic actions” if she doesn’t successfully poo in the next 11 hours or so. The clock is ticking, and Sam is panicked. She doesn’t want to leave Paradise and risk losing her connection with Aaron S., but she’s sort of at a loss as to what she can do to get things moving. She lets Olivia in on her dilemma, and Olivia is truly flabbergasted at the revelation that Sam is carrying a poop baby.
While Sam spends the day brainstorming ways to go No. 2, Brayden spends the day spiraling about Kat and Tanner. Things continue to go south when they return from their date and Kat informs Brayden that she was having reservations even before her date with Tanner, and now she’s pretty certain she’s over Brayden. In fact, she tells him she didn’t think of him one time while she was with Tanner. Ouch. Brayden isn’t willing to beg for her to give him another chance, so their conversation ends there. At least for now. Kat goes to freshen up, and Brayden begins recounting their conversation to the group. He feels very blindsided, and he thinks Kat’s delivery was pretty cold.
Everyone else is in alignment that Kat could have probably handled that interaction a little better. Many of the men also start to question her intentions with accepting Brayden’s rose the night before…as if that has ever gotten anyone anywhere on this show. Was she just using Brayden to stick around another week? Who knows.
When Kat returns to the beach, Kylee and Jess hint that she should probably tone down her excitement about her date with Tanner out of respect for Brayden’s feelings. Well, Kat does not like this. In fact, she thinks Brayden is being manipulative by continuing to be openly bummed about their failed romance. She pulls Brayden aside to try to explain her side of the story again, but Brayden insists that, no matter how many times Kat explains herself, it isn’t going to make him get over it any faster. She’s pissed. He’s pissed. It’s really a no win situation at this point. And it seems like this might be ongoing, since the two walk away from that conversation more frustrated than ever.
Tyler and Mercedes get to know each other over a candlelit dinner, and Will paces the beach wondering whether he’s lost yet another potential connection to another man. Pretty quickly, Mercedes and Tyler lean into their feelings for one another to the point that they’re taking pretty odd occurrences as signs from the universe that they’re meant to be together. First, they see a shooting star. Cute! But then, a raccoon interrupts their dinner. Somehow, they believe this is also a sign. When they return from dinner, it’s pretty clear they’ve hit it off.
Mercedes isn’t quite ready to call it quits with Will, though. She tells him that she wants to take some time to think about both connections and will circle back with a decision in the morning. Considering she walked back onto the beach holding hands with Tyler, Will is not very convinced this is going to come out in his favor.
It seems all the drama is going unresolved this episode. After a few more hours of trying to solve her digestive issues on her own, Sam clues Aaron S. in on what’s been happening. As it turns out, Aaron S. is a paramedic — and he’s ready to be a father to this poo baby. He very sweetly takes up the task of helping Sam figure this out so that she can stick around Paradise. He brings her a “poo poo platter” filled with things like coffee and refried beans, which he hopes will get things moving.
Only time will tell how all of this is going to play out, since the episode ends on that cliffhanger.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT after The Golden Bachelor.
