If you’ve been watching Bachelor in Paradise, you’re well aware that one of the couples on the beach since day one, Michael Allio and Sierra Jackson, split up because Michael felt there was “something missing” in their relationship.
Apparently it was a very convenient development for BIP, as production had RN Danielle Maltby waiting in the wings to mend Michael‘s broken heart.
Michael had been prepared to leave Paradise, since he wasn’t interested in any of the other remaining women and didn’t expect to receive a rose at the Rose Ceremony.
Until Danielle walked down the stairs, and Michael‘s face lit up like a Christmas tree. Though they’d communicated some online, they’d never met face-to-face, so Michael was very excited to finally get to meet the former NICU nurse.
“I felt defeated, and now it feels like there’s a little bit of hope here,” the single dad told the ABC cameras.
While the episode was airing, bartender Wells Adams revealed that he played a role in setting up Danielle and Michael, reports US Magazine.
“They cut it, but I told [Michael] I had someone for him and then walked up the steps of Paradise, welcomed [Danielle] and told her to go find Michael,” Wells tweeted, before agreeing with another fan who wrote she was “pissed” that they cut that scene. “Honestly same,” he responded.
Danielle conveniently arrived on the beach with a date card, and immediately asked Michael, who very enthusiastically agreed to accompany her on a date.
During their one-on-one date, Michael and Danielle bonded over the respective loss in their lives. (While The Bachelorette season 17 contestant’s wife Laura died in 2019 after a battle with breast cancer, Danielle had lost her fiancé to an overdose in 2011.)
“There’s a lot of guilt that I really didn’t see what he [was] doing, but then there’s also guilt around how happy I am, and like, this person that I’ve grown into. Like, that wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for this tragic event,” Danielle told Michael.
Michael shared that he believes that it’s “way harder to choose happiness and work toward it.”
“Sometimes when it starts feeling real, the guards go up and you start to look for, like, not reasons for it to fail, but not approaching it with the same open way that you would do it before tragedy kind of hit our lives,” he said.
Following the couple’s first kiss, Michael told the cameras in a confessional that he may have just gone on the “last first date of my life.”
Watching the episode at home, Sierra tweeted, “I feel highly disrespected. I’m gonna go meditate. #bachelorinparadise,” referring to Danielle’s arrival as “#convenient.”
Production had it planned all along, sweetheart. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that someone had put a bug in Michael‘s ear that maybe Sierra wasn’t “really” the one for him, and he could do better.
Sierra went on to call out Michael, revealing that he and Danielle had spoken before, tweeting, “He said ‘a little bit of history’ [smirky emoji face with a monocle inserted here].”
Move on, Sierra. That’s the way this show works. You left Paradise so you wouldn’t have to watch Michael date other women. So why are you watching it on TV?
I’m actually hoping this couple hits it off. They’re both mature (Sierra was just too young for Michael) and have similar tragic life stories. I’m looking forward to seeing their relationship blossom on the beach.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK MICHAEL AND DANIELLE MAKE A GOOD MATCH? DO YOU THINK SIERRA SHOULD JUST TURN OFF HER TV?
[Photo Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin]