Thursday night’s Bachelor in Paradise episode had a strange secret-revealing bonfire hosted by former Bachelorette Hannah Brown, but it won’t be the only twist in the season designed to reveal secrets. Shocking, I know.
The bonfire was an innocent idea (not really) with Hannah Brown asking each person one question. However, those questions mostly forced the love-seeking cast to admit how they really feel about certain people there.
The bring-it bonfire definitely had its share of awkward moments, like people chanting for Peter and Brooklyn to kiss — as if it were high school — and Sean saying he has an eye for Jess, who is pretty much not interested in him because of her connection with Blake. This is further made awkward by Sean saying he felt strong about his connection with Rachel. Of course, Sean must be excused for letting that Prince Charming thing go to his head. He began the season by saying that he is aware he looks like a Ken doll. Don’t you just love the arrogance?
Kat, who has been smitten with long-earring Brayden, was asked who she had been hoping to meet. She answered that she would be interested in meeting two other people who, get this, are not even there. She’s hanging her hopes on the possibility of Tyler or Tanner arriving. Brayden’s earrings nearly popped off. He later understandably expressed some uncertainty in being a Kat person.
Aaron, Brayden’s former rival, pretty much revealed he is only interested in Eliza and not Mercedes, which obviously didn’t make Mercedes feel too good about things with Aaron. Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite Aven fangirl, Kylee, unsurprisingly buried Will in the sand, albeit figuratively, though a literal version might have been more amusing. Either way, Will didn’t deserve to be pushed aside for Kylee’s Aven obsession. It was thus pretty justified to hear Olivia say, when asked, that the person she would eliminate from the beach is Kylee, partly because Kylee has been a bag of bullsh** so far and screwed over her friend Olivia, screwed over Will, and hopefully ends up screwing herself — though her ego makes me think she might prefer just that.
As if the bonfire wasn’t enough, producers seem committed to having more secrets revealed in order to create even more drama. Thus, this season, they will introduce what bartender Wells calls, “the paradise truth box.”
What is this paradise truth box? Well, it’s literally a small red box with a tiny opening on the top that small notes can be dropped through. Those notes — as a promo for the season shows — are written by various members of the cast. One can assume they are writing secrets that they haven’t told anyone, though it’s unclear whether those secrets are about who they really like there — similar to the bonfire — or if it’s surprising facts about themselves, or perhaps both.
Either way, it creates drama. One of the men can be seen in the promo grabbing the box and slamming it onto the beach out of frustration.
A voiceover during the promo, which is likely Olivia, says, “The truth box is definitely going to destroy some couples.”
It’s such a nice addition to the already overly dramatic reality/fantasy beach super-love show. Of course, since so many keep secrets about who they really want to meet there, because they don’t want to hurt someone else, perhaps it’s better to just be honest in the beginning.
Thus, this will certainly hurt those who are dishonest and mostly the ones they are dishonest to. Though it’s not known if they are forced to write down any secrets, many certainly do. It’s also unclear if those contestants writing their secrets down also have to disclose their names. It could end up being that they don’t, leaving them to feel safe and thus encouraged to write something, only for others to figure out who it is.
Perhaps the worst part of the show every year is that many of the participants are just using others for a rose to keep them there until what they consider a better option comes along. In a way, it’s like a small, fast-moving example of the dating world, which operates largely without a rose-giving ceremony, though we might just try giving out roses in the real-world dating world, and read everyone’s secret notes, too.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this all ends with someone throwing the paradise truth box into the bonfire. Even so, as we all know, you could burn secrets all you want, but such secrets are probably going to eventually burn you.
