Bachelor in Paradise Season 9 Starts Off with a Love Triangle and a Lot of Early Makeouts

Bachelor in Paradise season 9 decided to honor the late Irene Cara by opening with a montage of millennials preparing for Mexico.

Former Bachelorette Rachel Recchia arrived first, telling host Jesse Palmer “maybe third time’s the charm” when it comes to finding love on TV.

“I’m definitely excited for a fresh start,” Rachel, 27, said in an on-camera interview.

Aaron Bryant from Charity Lawson’s Bachelorette season showed up next, followed by Brooklyn Willie and Catherine “Cat” Wong from Zach Shallcross’s season of The Bachelor, Sean McLaughlin, also from Charity’s season, and Will Urena from Michelle Young ‘s season.

Then Kylee Russell from Zach’s season entered and told Jesse, 44, she hoped to meet Aven Jones, 29, from Rachel and Gabby Windey ‘s season because of some interactions they had on social media, such as him commenting a fire emoji on one of her selfies.

“If it was him down on one knee, I’d be ready to say ‘yes,’” said Kylee, 25.

Jesse thought Kylee might be getting ahead of herself. “Social media’s the only interaction you’ve had with this man?” he asked. Kylie confirmed that yes, they’d only interacted online.

To Aaron, 30, and Sean’s disappointment, Charity’s first impression rose recipient Brayden Bowers rolled in next.

“Vibes just depleted,” Sean, 26, said to Aaron when Brayden, 25, arrived.

The singles kept coming, with Eliza Isichei and Samantha “Sam” Jeffries from Clayton Echard ‘s season, Olivia Lewis from Zach’s season and Aaron Schwartzman and Peter Cappio from Charity’s season making their ways to the beach.

Sean told Aaron B. he wanted Jessica “Jess” Girod from Zach’s season to join Paradise because “I want to get covered in body glitter.” The Paradise gods came through and Jess, 24, showed up, as did Greer Blitzer and Mercedes Northup from Zach’s season, plus Blake Moynes.

“Third time around, I should be used to this by now,” Blake, 32, said of having appeared on Clare Crawley, Tayshia Adams and Katie Thurston’s seasons of The Bachelorette.

Blake impressed the ladies of Paradise immediately. “Blake Moynes is a fine ass man,” declared Mercedes, 25.

PARADISE BEGINS

Once everyone arrived, Jesse informed the group that the men had the roses during the first week and four women would be going home. Then, the men and women split off to discuss among themselves who they wanted to get to know, and Olivia, 24, revealed she already kissed Will, 30, earlier when they were discussing sucking toes.

So Olivia felt annoyed when Kylee, in Aven’s absence, decided to ask Will on a date — and he accepted.

“Don’t mack on me and then go say yes to a date,” Olivia complained in an interview.

The date didn’t get off to a great start — Will slipped and fell into the pool on which he and Kylee were going to be dining.

Back on the beach, Brayden connected with Kat, 27. He got to know her by asking her about her favorite color. “Don’t judge me, but it’s beige,” Kat told Brayden, explaining that “it’s just, like, so calming.”

Sean and Rachel kissed after chatting on a daybed, as did Jess and Blake. And Kylee quickly started falling for Will.

“He’s everything and more that I would ask for in a guy,” Kylee said in an interview.

Will felt similarly, telling her, “I haven’t felt like this in a whole, and it feels good.”

To the cameras, he added, “I am definitely falling for Kylee a little faster than I expected.”

Will and Kylee kissed and ended their date by watching fire dancers.

Still grumpy about Will going on a date, Olivia told bartender Wells Adams, “At the end of the day, she got to taste me I don’t got to taste her.”

The next morning, Will decided to talk to Olivia about where he stood.

“I feel like there is no respect right now,” she said to Will. “I feel like this is you cleaning up the disrespect that you kind of laid out. I think there was a lot of disrespect because there was no consideration had.”

Will apologized, but thought he really didn’t need to this early in the process.

“It’s day one and you’re here to explore your options,” Will said. “I’m here to explore my options. And I also don’t think just because I give you a kiss, I owe you an explanation on day one. If it was a little bit further, deeper in the process, and we had a stronger connection, I could see why I owe you an explanation.”

Will wrapped up by saying that he wanted to pursue his connection with Kylee.

“A lot of my conversation with Kylee was about real life matters, and for that, I feel like my heart is leaning a little bit more towards Kylee,” he said to Olivia.

“Then don’t grab my face and kiss me, Will!” Olivia reacted.

To complicate matters more, Kylee’s original №1 Aven showed up with a date card, but Bachelor Nation have to wait until next week to see what chaos that caused.

Bachelor in Paradise airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.