The Aaron-Ivan fight continues. So does the macho slang: Bro, dawg, dude, etc. Add grammatical missteps like “him and I” and sentences populated with “like,” and you have me needing a stiff drink.
Somehow Chelsea missed the brouhaha despite being the subject of it. Everyone rallies around Ivan, who’s a big fat liar. Chelsea speaks her truth. Luckily Ivan gets his comeuppance when Wells calls him out at the start of the Rose Ceremony. The group watches their conversation from a distance with much conjecture, which I can’t imagine Abigail being able to follow.
Turns out Ivan spent time with Alexa — who was probably going to come down to the beach in the next day or two — at the hotel, which is against the rules. They gloss over the fact that it’s likely a set up, as Ivan says he found out her number from a producer’s phone left in his room, with the number being the first thing on the screen. He comes clean to the group, says he doesn’t have the mental space to be on BIP, and leaves.
Abigail tells the camera she thinks she and Noah would work out in the real world because they want similar things out of life. She sees a future together and thinks they’re on the right track to leaving together.
The guys going home: Demar, Dr. Joe, and Blake. Buh-bye, we hardly knew ya!
Noah offers a cheers for everyone: “Cheers to pursuing what we all deserve. Cheers to honesty and for finishing what we started.”
Another Abigail-Noah-pool-kiss-shot.
As everyone heads down to the beach, Noah makes Abigail laugh as she takes his arm. The new host is — surprise, surprise! — Wells. But don’t worry, he’ll still be bartending.
Mari tells Serena and Abigail that she’s worried about Kenny, who’s acting weird. The quicker they have the conversation, the quicker they’ll be able to work through it, Abigail advises her. Too bad she doesn’t take her own advice. She admits that initiating the conversation is the hardest part.
Another strong-couple-mention-Abigail-Noah-pool-kiss-shot.
Anna from Matt’s season arrives. Wells tells her she smells amazing. She says it’s pheromones, and actually has a pheromone-perfume-like stick. Okaaaay. Her first two date choices are taken, so she asks James, who hasn’t been on a date yet. Their date involves becoming human churros and yellow snakes (named Brendan and Pieper on Twitter) on their backs for a “massage.”
Abigail tells Wells she’s just trying to spend time with Noah this afternoon, trying to spend time while they still have it, and have fun. Wells tells her they’ve been one of the strongest couples, which has to feel kind of nice. He’s really only here for her at this point. Abigail says the whole experience with Noah is very different for her, because everyone sees them as a very secure relationship, but she doesn’t think they’re as locked in as people think they are.
Wells reassures her that Noah likes her a lot. “I do think it would go a long way for him to hear from you, like truly how you feel about him,” Wells says. Abigail asks if he thinks she’s the one preventing the conversation from happening. Wells admits he thinks she’s holding back a little bit.
“Couples are saying they’re falling in love with each other,” Abigail tells the camera. “We haven’t talked about that yet. It’s the elephant in the room for us.” She knows they have to talk about it, but it’s a little scary.
Wells is afraid they’ll neglect true happiness because they’re both scared of doing the thing they’re not good at, which is being serious or vulnerable, or telling people how they really feel. Abigail squishes her nose in response. She’s holding back on telling Noah she’s falling in love with him, but he’s not telling her how he’s feeling, which makes it scary.
Sigh.
Mykenna from Peter’s season shows up; she was at the VIP party. The poor girl has been stuck at the hotel this whole time and then shows up so late everyone’s pretty much coupled up. She asks Aaron on the date, but he turns it down saying he wouldn’t be in the right space emotionally. The group sees that Mykenna is upset, but no one does anything about it until Ed checks on her and invites himself on a date. He has to try hard to convince her to go out and have fun, but ultimately succeeds. Their date is rollerblading, which actually looks fun – a rare normal date.
A priestess shows up to help Kenny and Mari with their rough patch. They do some spiritual stuff that seems to help. You do you.
Meanwhile, Noah tells Joe and Serena that he and Abi definitely like each other a lot, but this week is about being vulnerable – for better or for worse – and seeing if it will work out after the show. He tells the camera they’re one of the strongest couples on the beach right now, very close to something great and deeper. He wants to use the week for serious conversations. Serena approves of the relationship. Noah says he hasn’t told Abigail yet he’s falling in love with her, but he’s ready to do so and hopes she’s feeling the same way.
On the daybed, Noah talks to Abigail while they’re side by side. She doesn’t look at his lips at all. Maybe it’s quiet enough and he’s close enough that she’s able to follow. He tells her he wants to be completely transparent and put it all out there. He more than likes her, he’s falling in love with her, and can see it working in the real world. I swear I see her wink at him; I forgot to rewind to confirm. Regardless, she doesn’t say anything back. Noah thinks she just froze. He felt she had a guard up but was hoping she’d push past it. It’s hard for him to continue if he doesn’t get much of a response (does this sound familiar?) and isn’t sure what to do.
The next day, Noah tells Becca he didn’t sleep well the night before. Becca asks about the relationship. Noah says he’s trying to figure it out, that he told her how he felt, and she just froze. He’ll still try to make it work but has a gut feeling. To the camera, he says it’s a red flag. To Becca, he says his mind isn’t made up, but he has to make a decision and stick with it because things will get more complicated real fast.
Abigail and Serena see a sign for Paradise Prom, totally 80s, and jump up and down in excitement. She asks the group who’s never been asked to prom and raises her hand. She tells the camera she’s never been asked, so she’s never gone with a date. The only prom she went to, she got stuck in the elevator for almost the entire time and was only at the prom for 20 minutes.
Some of the guys do promposals. In case you were wondering how BIP would actually pull of an 80s theme, they get clothes and accessories to choose from. Abigail wears a pouffy, ruffly purple dress with a scrunchy or ribbon in her hair.
Joe knows about The Conversation, and that they’re struggling. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen but acknowledges they’re in trouble.
Noah tells Abigail as he puts a corsage on her wrist, “You’ve never been to prom. That’s a shame. You should have been to many proms. You deserve all the proms.”
To the camera, Abigail reveals, “I’m super excited. I feel like I’m definitely falling in love. [Don’t tell us, tell him!!] I’m not in love yet because I know him and I have a lot of things I want to talk to him about.” She’s just looking forward to establishing how they feel about each other and having a good time.
Wells spikes the punch and tells everyone they’ll be voting on superlatives and Prom King and Queen later. He holds the microphone right up to his lips – a pet peeve when I’m trying to lipread. Tia is lonely because everyone else is paired up. But Aaron grabs her, gives her a corsage, and they end up full on making out. Where did that come from‽
Riley says if he doesn’t get Prom King, it should be Noah and Abigail, as they look good together.
Superlative time! Abigail and Noah are voted most likely to live happily ever after (which of course means they won’t). Abigail is excited, as this is the validation she’s been looking for. “Apparently [Noah] said he was falling in love with me last night and I didn’t register it until later,” Abigail says. “He said it so fast that I thought he accidentally said it, so I think I want to tell him tonight when we’re slow dancing or something.”
OK, I love Abigail, but dafuq? Once it registered, why didn’t she say something to Noah? Why didn’t he realize if he’s going to tell her something monumental that maybe, just maybe, he ought to make sure she hears/sees?
Joe and Serena are crowned Prom King and Queen. Everyone watches them slow dance, which is awkward.
Watching them, Abigail feels she’s definitely falling in love with Noah and plans to tell him tonight. But they slow dance, and she doesn’t follow through. ABIGAIL!
Noah is conflicted on what he should do. He asks Abigail if she wants to chat. She doesn’t catch it, so he says it again. THIS IS A CLUE, NOAH! Get with the program!
Right now there’s two sides of Noah, he says, both convinced each is right. One is based on emotion and starting to fall in love, and another’s based on a deeper feeling and intuition that’s kind of hard to ignore.
He tells Abigail — this time looking right at her (good job, bro!) — that he has strong feelings for her and feels like he’s falling in love with her and deciding what to do with that. He tells the camera that Abigail’s who he wanted to meet on BIP, but just before they’re about to get more serious, he feels he should listen to his gut which says she’s not the right choice. It might have worked out had they talked about it last night, he tells the camera, but now he knows what he has to do and has to try not to hurt Abigail.
They move to a quieter area, where he essentially breaks up with her. He does a good job of it, telling her how much fun they’ve had and how surprised he was at his feelings. However, he feels he’s been trying to force something when deep down he isn’t sure if she’s his person. She hinted at the situation the other day when she asked if they were just prolonging the inevitable. The feeling he’s had since early on, he hasn’t been able to ignore, and he doesn’t think he’ll be able to get to where he wants to be.
Throughout all this, Abigail is listening intently, yet she never makes eye contact with him. She doesn’t show any emotion, yet he has tears coursing down his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this blindsided before,” she says. “How do you go from telling someone you’re falling in love with them the night before to this conversation? And you were the one who constantly said I’m not going to say anything I don’t mean and I don’t want to make false promises, but then you ultimately ended up doing that.”
Noah asserts that what he said last night is still true. She rips her corsage off and tells him he’s a little too late in being honest. Abigail doesn’t know what he wants her to say. She’s confused and annoyed, because he’s been pushing her to try to get to his level, yet he’s obviously had this gut feeling for more than 24 hours and still chose to tell her he was falling in love. This has nothing to do with her, Noah replies.
“I know it has nothing to do with me,” Abigail says. “I don’t have anything to be blamed for this.”
After Noah says he doesn’t know if she’s his person, she gets snippy and says she doesn’t want to hear it again because he’s said it enough times. It’s just going to hurt more every time he says it. She walks away as he puts his head in his hands.
“My entire Paradise is Noah,” Abigail laments. “I don’t know why Noah picked tonight to have this conversation. Maybe he got hit with the gravity of what he said the night before. Maybe he just went into panic mode. None of it makes sense to me.”
Noah follows her up the steps. Does she hear him coming? He tries to talk to her, but she ignores him. She feels he’s running away from something and isn’t telling her what it is. She goes into the bathroom and sobs.
I think they’re both at fault here, and Abigail’s not as blameless as she thinks. Why did she never tell him how she felt? She had several opportunities to do so. From what I’ve seen on social media, Abigail isn’t garnering much sympathy. She’s even called a robot. Hopefully she learns and grows from this. We’ll find out after the three hour finale next week!
