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This summer’s most uncomfortable social experiment/train wreck, “Bachelor Pad,” mixes contestants from “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” in a fancy house to scheme against — and rub up against — each other, often at the same time.
The de facto prize is $250,000 and possibly a new love connection. But that’s not déjà vu you’re having: some of these relationships are clearly recycled. Here are the most intriguing characters and their prickly connections:
1. Jake Pavelka, the cheesiest Bachelor of all time. His engagement to Vienna fizzled in cataclysmic fashion, and now he has to live in the same house with her.
2. Tawdry, unlikable Vienna Girardi angered a lot of viewers when she captured Jake’s heart on “The Bachelor” and stomped on it in the tabloids shortly after. Vienna has a new haircut and a new man, Kasey.
3. Gia Allemand, hair-tossing champ and master of the sad smile, thinks everyone is out to get her, and with good reason. She hates Vienna because she lost to her while competing for Jake. Oh, and also Vienna slept with her then-boytoy Wes (from “Bachelor Pad” Season 1).
4. Kasey Kahl has a voice that sounds like someone is stepping on his throat. Currently, that special someone is Vienna, but he is clearly under her spell and loves her anyway, admitting that he is “whipped.” Note to ABC: please ensure some sort of Kasey-Jake throwdown.
5. Michael Stagliano is one-half of the other formerly engaged couple on the show. Michael and Holly were scheduled to get hitched until everything went awry (conveniently) just before “The Bachelor Pad” started filming.
6. Holly Durst was immediately drawn to Blake the dentist, pulled in by his use of “big words.” This implies that Holly and Blake will become an item this season.
7 & 8. Recently chucked by “Bachelorette” Ashley, Blake Julian is fancied by Holly but also by the blonde vacancy on the show, Melissa Schreiber. This will not end well.