Demi's fortunes dramatically fell and then, um, rose during the latest episode of Bachelor in Paradise.
On Monday, Aug. 23, the alum of Colton Underwood's season officially made her grand entrance in Mexico, with date card in tow. Ultimately, she decided to invite Brendan, much to Natasha's chagrin, although Brendan made it clear midway through the date that maybe he shouldn't have accompanied Demi after all.
Following a flirty date of Jet Skis and straddling, the pair enjoyed a kiss, leading Demi to tell the standout from Tayshia Adams' Bachelorette season that she "would love to do that every day with you." Brendan immediately pumped the brakes by replying that he had "obviously talked to other girls and formed certain things with other girls." Ouch.
"I feel like I just got rejected," Demi told the camera. "I'm gonna go out of my way to take you on a fun-ass date and do all this stuff with you, make out with you, have fun with you, and then you're gonna say, 'Oh, I still want to keep my options open'? My ego is very bruised right now."
At the same moment, rumors were spreading back at the beach about Brendan having started a pre-Paradise fling with Matt James' castoff Pieper. When Natasha later confronted him about this, he magically managed to smooth things over, telling Natasha he's had "deeper conversations with you than I've had with Pieper." Hmmm.
For her part, Demi also got wind of the Pieper allegations, leading her to give the quote of the night. "He wants to have his cake and eat it too," she explained. "Everyone's the cake, and the beach is the 'Eat it too.'" Precisely.
Elsewhere, Ivan and Jessenia went on the other date, and it was adorable. Meanwhile, James put some moves on Victoria P., who made it painfully clear that she was just going through the motions to get a rose, especially since she kept forgetting his name and referring to him as Jordan.
Finally, Tammy and Kelsey had seen enough of Victoria P.'s antics and decided to inform James that they believed VP currently had a boyfriend back home in Nashville. VP immediately blamed the two women for telling James directly instead of taking the info to her first, which seemed to be a pretty clear way of admitting guilt.
After oodles of drama, Victoria P. opted to leave the show and admitted she had something better waiting for her at home. That left the state of James' rose as the big rose ceremony mystery. Both Demi and Kelsey made a play for the rose, but Demi prevailed.
Joining Kelsey and guest host David Spade on the flight back home were Serena C. and Victoria L. The latter's "Goddess" rebrand was clearly ill-fated, given the fight she got into with Tahzjuan.
As the episode aired, Demi tweeted plenty of hot takes about the chaos. As for her momentary heartbreak with Brendan, she wrote, "Me crying is the girl who stayed at the bar too long and saw the guy she wanted leave with another girl."
Later, Demi tweeted that she was "truly humbled" by Brendan telling her he hadn't heard of her prior to their date.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.