When you have two bad options in front of you, it’s hard to know which one to choose. Bad or also bad? Crappy or also crappy? That’s the case when it comes to this season of Bachelor In Paradise and villains Joe Bailey and Samantha Steffen. You see, Joe picked fellow Bachelor In Paradise contestant Juelia for a date basically to keep himself in a holding pattern until Sam came around. Then, it was revealed that Sam and Joe seemed to have set this whole thing up to keep themselves together during the filming of the show. After Tanner called Joe out on it all (Tanner was privy to Joe’s texts and emails with Sam), Joe confessed that the two had spoken quite a bit before Paradise. Sam? Well, Sam doubled down, saying that she was innocent in all of this. So, who is the worse villain here — Sam or Joe?
Don’t worry, it gets worse. After Joe threw himself on the sword to defend Sam, his proclaimed “dream girl," Sam pulled back — hard. Seeing that Joe was under pretty much constant scrutiny from the rest of the group, Sam continued to downplay their relationship and lie about how close they were. I guess she figured that if she distanced herself from Joe, people would like her more? Joe, sensing her pulling away, made a last-ditch effort to have a birthday party for himself so Sam wouldn’t dump him on his birthday. Well, that didn’t work, and Sam dumped Joe.
That’s the end of the road, right? Wrong. Now, Joe has said that he has proof of “700 text messages a month” that he and Sam shared, and he’s going to let it all out and really “make her squirm." Basically, everyone is the worst here.
Sam is the worst for continuing to lie about her whole relationship with Joe, and also for telling other guys (like Nick Peterson) to come on the show and "wait for her." Like, just own up to all of this and call it a day. A lie like this is too complicated to keep going. Also, she was kind of rude to Juelia, her supposed friend, and that was lame. Joe, on the other hand, is the worst for being like Jekyll and Hyde. We saw this from him on Kaitlyn’s season — he was fine up until Kaitlyn rejected him, and then he got cold and mean, fast. Here, Joe is all into Sam until he gets dumped, and then he vows to destroy her. What is up with these people? If you ask me, they're both in the wrong.
I’m all for a good villain on a reality show, but this is getting to be a bit much, even for me. Can’t we get back to the fun, lighthearted Bachelor In Paradise of days past?
Images: ABC/Rick Rowell
