St. Catharines woman backs away from love triangles on Bachelor in Paradise Canada

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Published June 15, 2023 at 4:24 pm

Lisa Mancini from St. Catharines trying to steer new arrival Josh Govi in the right direction after he landed on the beach. The pair briefly connected last season. (Screenshot: Citytv)

A decision to back away from a love triangle with an already-involved California rock climber left things pretty frosty for a St. Catharines woman on Episode 6 of Bachelor in Paradise Season Two.

Lisa Mancini and the afore-mentioned rock-loving Cole Medders took a huge step backwards (sideways?) when they decided to walk away from their constant sideline canoodling for the sake of the players with whom they already have connections – in her case, Illinois teacher Connor Brennan; in his case, Newfoundland’s Samantha “Sam” Picco.

Now, frankly, from a viewer’s standpoint, that decision hardly seemed final or even serious as their primal attraction fairly jumps off the screen.

In fact, after they made the step-away decision, even Mancini said, “I don’t think that Cole looks at Sam the way he looks at me.”

Indeed, Medders has always seemed more into Mancini than he is with Picco… and vice versa in Mancini’s and Brennan’s case.

Indeed, witness this romantic exchange when Brennan gave Mancini the rose at the ceremony.
Brennan: “Lisa, will you accept this rose?”
Mancini: “I will.”
Brennan: “Sick.”

As red-hot, clothes-tearing, searing passion goes, Harlequin Romance was not taking notes.

However, before the rose ceremony was staged, it seems Medders took himself off the table for good as far as Mancini was concerned by escorting Picco to the ‘Boom Boom Room,” which we can safely assume isn’t filled with musical instruments.

That lead to the ultimate freeze-out during the cocktail party when Mancini and Medders both found themselves at the bar. When Medders tried to talk to Mancini, not only did she not answer, she wouldn’t even look at him.

Think “Elsa” from the Disney classic Frozen… and then drop the temperature another 100 degrees. It was so cold that Medders was basically freezer-burned two questions in. Mess around and find out… or something to that effect.

Now if we recall last season, there’s one rose ceremony left – this time with the women handing them out – before things wind down. Each rose ceremony takes two episodes or one week of actual time. However, think about the reality of reality shows in terms of what you see and what you don’t.

At one hour and 24 minutes per episode and two representing an actual week, that’s two hours and 48 minutes of content in a week that’s actually 168 hours long. Even taking away eight hours a day for sleep, that’s 112 hours of which we see under three hours’ worth.

That means there’s a lot we don’t see so producers just feed us the juiciest bits to lead us in the wrong direction, often with out-of-context teasers.

As well, even though it’s said to be filmed in the summer – granted a northern Ontario summer – people seem wrapped in blankets, wearing heavy sweaters and hoodies far more often than not.

So while it seems very unlikely that Mancini will find her summer romance at this late stage in Round Two, who knows what we see and don’t see?

There’s still four episodes left so it’s perhaps too soon for pronouncements of that nature. However, we’re not sure we see any couples coming out of Season Two. But as they say, expect the unexpected. No, wait, that’s Big Brother. This one is “there’s always a storm brewing in Paradise.”

Bachelor in Paradise Canada is aired every Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Citytv, Citytv+ and Citytv.com, and through the Citytv app.


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