This week's episodes of ABC's "Bachelor in Paradise" were filled with drama, breakups and an alleged texting scandal revealed Joe Bailey and Samantha Steffen's secret plot to create a "happy love story."
Week four, night one saw JJ Lane's departure from paradise after he saved Ashley S. during the rose ceremony. Lane announced that he was leaving Mexico to pursue a girl back home. His replacement came in the form of newcomer, Justin Reich from Kaitlyn Bristowe's season of "The Bachelorette."
When Reich arrived, he made a beeline for Steffen. Steffen first had to break ties with Bailey and did so during his romantic birthday dinner for two.
"I've never had too many emotions in my entire life in like a few days," Steffen told Bailey. "It all happened really, really quick. I just think 'you're such a nice guy' and then I just all of a sudden felt kind of like, 'well why is there so much drama happening, you know?'"
She cited the drama surrounding Bailey as the main reason for the split.
"I just have to be honest with what I'm feeling and I just feel like scared and not right and I don't want to start off a relationship that way," Steffen said.
With the birthday break up out of the way, Steffen was cleared to pursue a date with Reich on night two. But Bailey was still reeling from the split and threatened to expose the text messages that allegedly prove she was in on a secret plot.
"She has two options," Bailey said. "Either we can go on with it and she can be lovey-dovey on me and we can get engaged and make a nice happy love story, or she can crash and burn."
He confronted Steffen about what the contestants call "textgate," a series of messages implying that the two had a plan to lie to and deceive their fellow contestants in order to receive a rose.
"The text message 'do whatever it takes to get a rose,' that's not going to look good when people see that," Bailey threatened Steffen, who couldn't hide the look of sheer terror on her face. "I don't want that to happen cause it's gonna look bad, it's gonna look really really bad."
After Steffen sat down with the cameras for an interview where producers grilled her on whether she had contact with Bailey prior to arriving in Mexico.
"So the extent of me and Joe's relationship before we got here was purely social media and a couple text messages and that is it," Steffen told camera. "There was no plotting with Joe at all, zero plotting, I would do that. Just me as a human being, I would never plot something before it happens, especially on a TV show."
Viewers will have to watch along to find out if there's any truth to the "textgate" scandal.
Watch a clip from this week's episodes below.
