"The sun had almost set. Summer was almost ruined," a voiceover announces in the season four Trailer for Bachelor in Paradise. "Paradise was almost lost . . . until it wasn't." What follows are cutesy shots of a sunset, a crab crawling around in a margarita glass, and an excited contestant yelling "Paradise is back!" at the screen. In other words, it seems ABC is more than content to sweep the high-profile controversy that nearly derailed the reality show in June under the rug.
As Bachelor Nation is well aware, Bachelor in Paradise's fourth season was temporarily suspended following an incident involving contestants Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson. Although the specifics of what happened were never officially corroborated (save for DeMario's revealing interview about his side of things), it was widely reported that a drunken sexual encounter between DeMario and Corinne got out of hand, which had everyone from host Chris Harrison to former Bachelor contestants speaking out. Warner Bros. later conducted an investigation into what happened and cleared all parties of wrongdoing, citing video footage that "does not support any charge of misconduct by a cast member."
Despite the investigation's findings, it's still odd that the show decided to go with a trailer that focuses on tweets from viewers who were left "DEVASTATED" and "SOBBING" by the potential cancellation of the show, given the fact Corinne ended up "seeking therapy to begin dealing with the physical and emotional trauma stemming from that evening" and DeMario was fired from his job following the "false claims and malicious allegations." In fact, cast members now have a two-drink-per-hour maximum because of what happened and will also not be allowed to have sex without the express permission of a producer.
If what happened between DeMario and Corinne was serious enough to warrant strict rules like those, the trailer they decided to go with seems like much more of a tone-deaf and confusing way of acknowledging the incident and its real-life effects (even by Bachelor in Paradise standards). The vibe of the trailer is best summed up as wacky, to be honest, which doesn't exactly jive with the gravity of the controversy. Even stranger is that both DeMario and Corinne have agreed to return for season four's reunion episode, which makes me wonder what Bachelor in Paradise has in store for audiences down the line.
