'Bachelor in Paradise' Season 4 Episode 1B Recap: The Cast Addresses the Corinne-DeMario Controversy

We're headed to Paradise, sans Corinne and DeMario. The narrative has skipped through last week's cliffhanger and the days of the shutdown; we're back in the cabanas with the remaining contestants. But first Chris is conducting a group…chat-sesh? "A serious talk," he says.

Chris says (paraphrased): Warner Brothers hired a firm, they looked at the footage and talked to everyone, and they concluded nothing bad happened between cast members.

The contestants essentially agree. The consensus here is that the controversy was blown out of proportion; the media misunderstood what the producers do; and no one did anything wrong. Derek explains that the producers don't manipulate or "puppet-master" the contestants. Taylor points out that she doesn't drink alcohol and has never been pressured to drink by the production.

Diggy brings up the racial aspect: DeMario is a black man who will now be forever linked to unseemly allegations. Chris asks the cast if they think race "played a part in this" (what is "this"?), and some of them nod and solemnly say "yes." Then we cut to commercial.

Here I'd like to reiterate what I said in my recap of last night's episode: We don't know what happened, and we don't need to know. We are not entitled to more information about what transpired between Corinne and DeMario.

Even if none of the alleged incidents crossed the line in this case, we do know that there are, definitely, many, many women and people of all genders out there who have been hurt by sexual assault. And one effective way to support them is to process our country's massive backlog of untested rape kits. You can learn how to support that effort here.

Aaaaaand we're back. To talk more about race. Raven and Jasmine speak eloquently about how black men are often unfairly punished for interacting with (or even existing near) white women. They also state that they did not slut-shame Corinne, but then they go in on Corinne's statement,, calling it vague and from a lawyer. Danielle even says that she claimed to be "a victim" to "save face." Raven brings up her own sexual assault in an abusive relationship and hopes that "this" doesn't deter "actual victims" from coming forward (hmmm).

Now we're doing Consent 101: Verbal consent is best, nonverbal consent also exists (but please try to get the verbal one), and you need to have consent throughout. An unconscious person cannot give consent; a too-drunk person cannot give consent. All true!

Last week I wanted the show to take a moment to talk about consent. I'm glad they did, though this cursory overview feels inadequate. At the same time, if your consent education is entirely composed of points brought up on Bachelor in Paradise, you need to educate yourself (and also, I'm not surprised, because the American education system does a lousy job of teaching this).

Part 3: Back to Paradise

Well, they didn't fly all the way back to Mexico just to talk about race and then go home again, so the contestants unanimously agree that Paradise is BACK ON. With Lacey!