What's Going On with Dean and Kristina Now That Bachelor in Paradise Is Over?

Dean Unglert is the Icarus of Bachelor in Paradise. He came in off The Bachelorette with wax wings of audience love, perhaps thinking that his ever-present dreamy smile would allow him to do anything. But he flew too close to the sun when he started a relationship with Danielle "D-Lo" Lombard while he was still in a relationship with Kristina Schulman, and he lost the love. A month ago people wanted him to be the next Bachelor. Now even Mike Fleiss, the creator of the show is piling on. He tweeted "Dean will not be #TheBachelor this year, at least..." the night of Dean's worst episode to date.

That episode found Dean still trying to keep Kristina, who adored him, in a holding pattern while he explored a relationship with D-Lo. After he finally told her he wanted to purse a relationship with D-Lo, not her, she made a speech at the rose ceremony where she said "in my next relationship I want to be valued, I want to be respected ... and put first." Throughout the whole ordeal, Dean was saying that he hated himself for what he was doing to Kristina, but he couldn't control himself. The situation wasn't fair to Kristina, it wasn't fair to D-Lo, and it made him look really bad and he knew it.

So after the episode aired Monday night he tried to do some damage control with an Instagram post of a photo of him and Kristina in happier times with the caption: "You were out of my league." Dean's brand is self-flagellation.

The photo is location tagged "Lexington, Kentucky," Kristina's hometown, where they visited during Bachelor in Paradise's production shutdown. Presumably this photo was taken then, since it seems unlikely that Kristina would let Dean kiss her now.

By saying "you were out of my league," Dean is acknowledging that he messed up with Kristina, which is good. There's hope for Dean. He's a smart, self-aware dude (in some ways), and he knows that his behavior was bad. He might be smart enough to be able to learn from being publicly raked across the coals for a situation of his own creation. He may not be a dog forever. He's just got some growing up to do. We'll see how he does.

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Kristina hasn't been quite so transparent in her social media posts since the episode. She retweeted Raven Gates' explanation of their fight in the episode (Raven told Kristina that Dean was bad news, and Kristina didn't want to hear it). "The reason I was so frustrated at @kristinaschulma is because I've BEEN Kristina. Confused and hurt. I was mad at my old self. Not kristina," Raven wrote, which Kristina co-signed, adding "Safe to say, every girl can relate."

In the season finale reunion show, it came out that Dean broke up with D-Lo on the show, saying he was in love with Kristina, only to hook back up with D-Lo later that day. After Paradise, D-Lo and Dean tried to date for a little while, but Dean was still talking to Kristina. He continued to play them both even after the show was over. Unreal. What a guy.

But after all that, Kristina may be willing to give him another shot someday. On an appearance on Ellen that was taped after the Bachelor in Paradise finale, Kristina said she'd consider getting back together with him after he worked on himself.

What a mess.