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Tag: Angela and Brendan M

It’s a bust for all but one couple on Bachelor in Paradise Canada

“Bachelor in Paradise Canada” came to an end Sunday, but it will be back for another season.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos courtesy of Citytv

I guess Brendan Morgan was on to something.

I was skeptical about his contention that going on a date with someone else, i.e. Maria, wouldn’t minimize the relationship he already had, i.e. with Angela.

But when the closed sign went up at Camp Paradise in Sunday’s episode, Brendan M and Angela Amezcua were the only couple left standing.

Kamil Nicalek and Caitlin Clemmens imploded — or maybe that should be imploded even more — after a night in the fantasy suite.

And Brendan Scanzano, the most faithful man in Paradise, who had eyes only for Illeana Pennetto since Day 1, walked away single. He and Illeana didn’t even make it to the fantasy suite. Go figure.

Angela Amezcua and Brendan Morgan puts roses but not a ring on it.

And what about an engagement, the supposed raison d’être of any Paradise season? It was a goose egg on that count. Brendan M and Angela exchanged final roses, but he didn’t put a ring on it, as had been teased.

(Brendan and Angela explain why they didn’t get engaged, among other things, in a story I wrote for the Toronto Star, which you can find here.)

Nonetheless, the couple have moved to Toronto together and had just signed a lease on a place when “After the Final Rose” taped in the fall. So congrats to them and may they follow in the footsteps of Angela’s friend Astrid Loch and her Canadian fiancé and baby daddy Kevin Wendt. And does this mean Toronto is now a “Bachelor” hot spot?

But let’s backtrack to the last day in Paradise.

If I had to pick one couple besides Brendan and Angela to end up in a fantasy suite, it would not have been Kamil and Caitlin.

The finale picked up where we left off last week, with Kamil freaking out because, um, Caitlin was asking him questions?

Yeah, according to Kamil, Caitlin was not asking questions in a “normal” way and was “not the same Caitlin you were three hours ago” — by which I guess he meant one who was seen but not heard.

“Now I feel like  a terrible person for asking all of that,” Caitlin told a producer and ugh. All of that being, you know, annoying details like how she and Kamil would keep in touch when he was back in New York and she was in Toronto.

“I don’t need to reassure you every single day, I don’t need to hold your hand,” Kamil groused.

“I just need a man who can fucking use his brain and answer the questions,” Caitlin replied.

Yes, right answer! Alas, when Kamil suggested they continue the discussion in private, Caitlin went to the fantasy suite with him.

Caitlin Clemmens and Kamil Nicalek say their goodbyes in Paradise.

But after what she described as “an absolute nightmare of an evening,” Caitlin and Kamil approached the final rose palapa where, despite Kamil expressing “strong” feelings for Caitlin and Caitlin saying she’d leave her heart with Kamil, they broke up.

Still, as he left, Kamil said he wanted to get back what he and Caitlin had in Paradise. More later on how that turned out.

And then there were Brendan S and Illeana.

Brendan said he was eager to do “awesome things” with Illeana, but she said she didn’t know enough about him and what he wanted to move forward — yes, despite all those days they spent with only each other on the beach.

“I feel like there’s a lot you don’t tell me,” she said. “You keep it very surface level.”

And also: “I very much did fall in love with you. Maybe I fell in love with you the way a teenager falls in love at a summer camp.” Ouch.

Saying that going to the fantasy suite would only hurt Brendan S more, the “adult” Illeana packed up and left. “I’m just not ready,” she said as she and Brendan exchanged a tearful hug.

Well, that was a downer.

Thank goodness for Brendan M and Angela. They woke up in the fantasy suite smiling. The sun was shining. Their date was “amazing.” He let Angela put moisturizer on his face, even though it burned. If that doesn’t scream “this couple is taking it to the real world,” what does?

Angela Amezcua and Brendan Morgan seal their partnership with a smooch.

Energetic, upbeat music played as we watched Angela and Brendan walk to the final rose palapa. And yes, OK, it wasn’t an engagement, but it was still sweet.

“I feel like I’ve always known you,” Angela told him. “Falling in love with you has just been effortless, so easy.”

Brendan said Angela was beautiful and smart and kind and funny — “sometimes,” which made her laugh.

“Rain or shine, so long as I’m with you I’m in Paradise,” he said.

Awwwwwww.

And with that, Camp Paradise was closed. So how’d everything go out in the real world?

“After the Final Rose” campers with bartender Kevin Wendt and host Jesse Jones.

Sixteen of the 27 cast members showed up to share with host Jesse Jones. And I confess I was charmed by how Jesse had a personal greeting for every single one of them.

So what did we learn?

Well, let’s skip the small talk with Chris Kotelmach and David Pinard and Lisa Mancini, as much as I love Lisa, and get to the juicy bit: Joey Kirchner and Vay Paquette.

You’ll recall we last saw Joey and Vay leaving Paradise together apparently on their way to a happily ever after as well as to Joey’s friend’s wedding in Alberta. Well, Vay never made it to either of those.

Vay Paquette and Joey Kirchner vying for unhappiest couple out of Paradise.

It was all very he said, she said. Vay didn’t go to the wedding because she got in her head and things were moving too fast, she said. But Joey moved to Toronto, apparently as Vay’s boyfriend, and said he caught her in a bar sitting on a guy’s lap with said guy’s hand on her ass. Vay insisted the dude was just a friend. He called bullshit.

Joey also said Vay told him she was breaking up with him because he couldn’t afford to provide her with the type of lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.

Oh, and she and her friends supposedly talked shit about him in the lobby of the hotel where he works, overhead by a friend of his who was serving them, Joey said. She was allegedly planning to cover her ass by saying either that Joey had a girlfriend during filming, that he was an actor or that he was gay.

Joey pulled papers out of his jacket that he said were screenshots of text messages she sent him with that last accusation, although he didn’t read them aloud.

At that point, Vay stormed off the stage.

The very uncomfortable exchange ended, at Jesse’s urging, with them hugging and kind of making up.

“You just deserve better,” Vay whispered to him.

“I wish it could have been me for you,” he whispered back.

It’s not for me to say who’s telling the truth, although if Joey was lying they were really detailed lies. But I can’t help but marvel at him getting blown off by the woman who put him through hell just because he talked to and about a friend of his who happened to be female. Pretty sure I never saw Maria on his lap with Joey’s hand on her ass.

Next in the unhappy couple parade were Kamil and Caitlin.

I don’t want to belabour this because I don’t think Kamil is worth the typing. But Caitlin said she went to New York to try to make things work and Kamil broke up with her by text message, which Caitlin called “really cowardly.”

So it wasn’t exactly breaking up with someone on TV a la Annaliese, but it was close enough.

Note to whoever is casting “Bachelor in Paradise” Season 2: Please don’t invite Kamil back.

Illeana Pennetto and Brendan Scanzano still had smiles for each other.

Things were a little more optimistic for Brendan S and Illeana. No, they aren’t together, but they said they still have love for each other. “It just wasn’t our time, but hey, it could be in the future,” she said.

Angela and Brendan M also got to sit in the hot seat, where the big reveal was the fact they had just signed a lease, although Brendan joked that Angela was pregnant, which was the source of all those shocked faces you saw in the promo, but no, no, she’s not.

Angela and Brendan M are making it work in the real world, complete with pregnancy jokes.

I am putting great faith in the fact that Brendan wore a flower on his lapel that matched the colour of Angela’s dress.

Finally, it was time for perhaps the biggest reveal of the whole evening. You know how I said that Canadian Paradise didn’t have a boom boom room? Well, it turns out they had a boom boom sauna. Josh described the sauna as “an erotic dungeon.” What did couples get up to in there? Use your imagination, I guess.

But now all the new cast members have some useful information for Season 2. Bartender Kevin Wendt announced that casting is now open at citytv.com and yes, there will be fan contestants again and yes, Kevin will be mixing the drinks.

Before I stop writing, I wanted to give my thoughts on what I thought worked and didn’t work in this inaugural “Bachelor in Paradise Canada” season.

The Cast: It might have seemed like Canada was at a disadvantage not having lots of “Bachelor” alumni to choose from but, in fact, my favourite campers were either people we didn’t get to know well on Canadian “Bachelor” shows (hello, Lisa and Stacy) or people we’d never seen on our TVs before, like Joey, Josh and Jeremy. Which is not to say some of the American cast members weren’t enjoyable, including Alex and Angela.

Editing: Speaking of Alex Bordyukov, how come we saw next to nothing of his relationship with Kit Blaiklock? I would have happily traded some footage of Kamil and Caitlin, say, for glimpses of Alex and Kit. And why bring on a high profile cast member like “Bachelor Canada” winner Bianka Kamber and do nothing with her? I get that she didn’t hook up with anybody, but we could have at least seen her go on a date.

Hosting: Let me just say that Jesse seems like a nice guy, but if he’s coming back for Season 2, I hope he loosens up, let’s his personality shine through and delivers his speeches less like he’s reading off cue cards and more like he’s actually talking to people.

Setting: I think Ontario has advantages over Mexico with its heat and crabs, and the setting was certainly picturesque, especially at night, but there was nothing fantastical about the fantasy suite cabins and some of the dates were really uneventful. Next time, skip the archery and the slip and slide. Maybe just stick to the water sports. Or set up a table and twinkle lights in the theatre and let the campers pretend to eat dinner like on the American show.

I’ll be back to recap “The Bachelorette” Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv. If you want to talk Bachelor with me you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Fantasy (suites) & reality collide on Bachelor in Paradise Canada

The cast of “Bachelor in Paradise Canada” ahead of the final rose ceremony.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos courtesy of Citytv

You know that melancholy feeling you get at the end of a summer vacation? You had a blast, but you’re about to head back to reality?

That was Sunday’s penultimate episode of “Bachelor in Paradise Canada.”

With the season about to end, couples were folding like cheap tents and Camp Paradise was emptying out.

And what reward would we get for our nine weeks and counting of watching these Canadian and American singles mingle? Engagements perhaps?

One maybe; two if we’re really lucky, but the way the episode ended even fantasy suites were feeling like a stretch.

(And just a note, given the lack of “fantasy” accoutrements we glimpsed when Brendan M and Angela opened the door to theirs, perhaps the Canadian show needs to come up with a different name. Intimacy suites, maybe? Cut-rate fantasy suites?)

There was to be no happy ending for Stacy Johnson and Mike Ogilvie.

The wheels on the true love narrative started coming off even before the final rose ceremony when Mike told Stacy he wouldn’t feel right accepting a rose from her.

Of course, Mike had been accepting Stacy’s roses and vice versa since he first arrived in Week 3. He told Stacy she was “a gorgeous girl who’s an amazing personality” whom he liked a lot, but they agreed they weren’t where they needed to be emotionally with potential engagements just around the corner — although the subtext from Stacy’s perspective was that had more to do with Mike than with her.

She was in tears when she told the other campers she was leaving. “I deserve love. I deserve someone that knows what they want and knows what they have when they have it,” she said.

Amen to that. Sorry to see you go Stacy, you’re one of the good ones. Mike, hmmm.

No one else chose to forgo a rose and Angela’s, Kit’s, Lisa’s, Caitlin’s and Illeana’s were handed out in short order. Maria’s was the only question mark, although it wasn’t really.

Maria Garcia-Sanchez had both Josh Guvi and Karn Kalra vying for her rose.

Karn, who showed up just last week with a cocky confidence befitting his job as an actor, tried his best to wrest it from Josh, but Maria warned him, “It’s really hard to have a connection with someone you just met.”

She kind of just met Josh too, but she just met him sooner than Karn, plus Josh finally kissed Maria — though I’m not sure the reaction you want after you’ve laid a smooch on someone is for them to laugh loudly. (For the record, Maria tweeted Sunday she laughs when she feels nervous.)

Maria explained that she wasn’t as “open physically and romantically” as other people, plus the fact she got her rose from production rather than a man made her feel like “second choice” — that would actually be fourth choice if we’re counting the other women Josh had already kissed.

Nonetheless, Maria gave her rose to Josh, saying “the more I get to know Josh the more I like.” It was a good pick. Never mind Karn ungenerously saying, “Maria, you fucked up” as he departed.

The next day, with roses in hand and no new arrivals to disrupt the couples, it seemed like everyone could get on with exploring their connections, as they say, and then host Jesse Jones arrived and used the f-word. No, not that one: fantasy suites.

“Take this as the last opportunity to figure out if you’re both really looking to take things to the next level because, if not, you and your partner will be heading home from Camp Paradise today,” he said. Dunh dunh dunh dunh.

Is anyone surprised that Josh and Maria said no to a fantasy suite? Why would she want to spend the night with him when she didn’t even really want to kiss him? They went their separate ways, albeit expressing gratitude for having met each other.

Is there mutual squirrel appreciation in Connor Rogers’ and Lisa Mancini’s future? Guess we’ll see.

Likewise, Connor and Lisa felt a fantasy suite was too much pressure for their fledgling relationship and said they’d continue to figure it out away from camp. “See you soon,” Connor said after they hugged and kissed.

I wasn’t sure which way Alex and Kit were going to go considering how little we’ve seen of them together since their first date in Week 3. And that’s a shame because I think we missed out on a warm, respectful relationship. I love that Alex put glitter on his cheek to match the sparkle under Kit’s eyes and on her dress at the rose ceremony, for instance.

Too bad we didn’t see more of Kit Blaiklock and Alex Bordyukov during the season.

But when push came to shove, Kit told Alex she needed “to love myself more and be stronger on my own” to be the partner he deserved, so they’d be skipping the fantasy suite and parting ways.

Alex was disappointed, but he said Kit made Paradise “one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever been through . . . I’m happy I got to know such an incredible woman.”

Awwwwwwww.

With three couples down, it seemed like the remaining three were shoo-ins for fantasy suites.

Angela and Brendan M were the first to take Jesse up on the offer.

Turns out Angela Amezcua and Brendan Morgan are the strongest couple in Paradise, who knew?

They did a “memory lane” tour that included the two docks where they snuggled and watched sunsets and stars, the amphitheatre where they shared their first kiss and the bar stools where they first met.

They left out the cabin stairs where Brendan blew Angela off before he went on a date with Maria. Although, to be honest, the more I think about it the more that whole thing seems like a plot device cooked up by production.

Angela wrote Brendan M a letter in which she said that despite the “speed bumps along the way” — which, just to refresh your memory, included his flirtation with Stacy and her going on a date with Josh — “we always somehow make our way back to each other.”

“I genuinely feel as though I’m falling in love with you,” Brendan told Angela, as orchestral music swelled in the background.

“Really? I’m falling in love with you too, for real,” Angela replied.

Brendan also said he could see himself giving Angela a ring.

And then it was off to the, er, fantasy cabin where, instead of the high thread count linens, candles, rose petals and jacuzzis we usually associate with fantasy suites, we glimpsed what looked like plywood walls with a framed poster that said “Life is better by the lake.” Now, that’s what I call an aphrodisiac!

And what of the other Brendan, Scanzano, and his Day 1 sweetie, Illeana?

Illeana Pennetto was portrayed as having doubts about getting engaged to Brendan Scanzano.

I suspect they’ll end up in the fantasy suite, but production was doing its best to make it seem like a question mark.

They’d already said they loved each other but now, Illeana said, “logic needs to come into play.”

She’s not wrong. Cross-border “Bachelor” relationships don’t have a good track record (although it seems like Chicagoan Joe Amabile and Torontonian Serena Pitt are still together).

And while Brendan kept saying he wanted to do what made Illeana happy, she kept expressing doubts that they were on the same page as far as making things work outside Paradise. Whether those are doubt doubts or “production wants to make it look like we won’t end up together” doubts remains to be seen.

Still, Brendan S and Illeana seemed rock solid compared to Kamil and Caitlin.

Kamil Nicalek and Caitlin Clemmens seemed unlikely to get to a fantasy suite after Sunday’s episode.

Those two have been Paradise exclusive since Episode 2, after they got their respective flirtations with Vay and Chris out of the way. But the episode ended with Kamil walking away from Caitlin in the midst of what seemed like a mini-meltdown.

As with any of the disagreements we’ve seen between Kamil and Caitlin, it can be hard to disentangle exactly what’s going on.

It started with Kamil saying he wanted to leave with Caitlin before the rose ceremony, let alone the fantasy suites — perhaps to avoid the awkward experience of not proposing to Caitlin in the finale the same way he didn’t propose to Annaliese on U.S. “Paradise”? I don’t know, just my speculation. But Caitlin wanted to spend more time with Kamil in Paradise, so he agreed to go to the fantasy suite after all, saying he didn’t want to dwell in the past.

So what went wrong? They started talking about the distance between New York and Toronto, and whether Kamil was good at texting and calling (he said he likes to keep his phone on silent), and things started going south after Kamil said he planned to FaceTime Brendan S every day, which seemed to make Caitlin a little jealous.

Kamil said it wasn’t a big deal: he just wanted to leave Paradise with Caitlin, but Caitlin wanted to have a post-Paradise plan in place.

Kamil said he felt like Caitlin was putting him in the “hot seat” and wasn’t behaving like the “sweet” and “gentle” person he knew. Um, gender stereotyping much?

“Right now it feels to me like you don’t even want to take this outside of here,” Kamil told her

“Quite frankly, I don’t know if I want to leave and work on anything if we can’t resolve it here,” Caitlin answered.

Saying that Caitlin seemed like “a totally different person” and that their conversation seemed like a “fucking prank or something,” Kamil walked away from a distressed Caitlin.

“I’m having flashbacks to my bad time in Paradise when I was sitting in the hot seat and the whole world hated me,” Kamil said. “It was like a nightmare that was unfolding in front of me and I can’t believe it’s happening for a second time.”

Well, boo hoo hoo to that.

On next week’s finale, besides more Kamil and Caitlin drama and Illeana continuing to express doubts about Brendan S, Brendan M and Angela look proposal-ready and there’s a spicy “After the Final Rose” on tap. The highlight of that — or the lowlight, if you will — is Joey saying that he found Vay “in the arms of another guy” at the wedding he took her to, and that she and her friends talked shit about him. Not cool, Vay, not cool.

You can watch it unfold Sunday at 8 p.m. on Citytv. And don’t forget the final “Bachelor After Show: After Paradise” at 9:30 p.m. If you want to talk Paradise with me you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

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