RECAP: “Love Is Blind” Season 6, Episodes 1-6
Welcome back to "Love Is Blind," one of the most bingeable dating shows in recent memory. The first batch of episodes for Season 6 dropped on Valentine's Day, and I have plenty of thoughts.
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First I'll say that, so far, this season is already a huge improvement over Season 5, which was an absolute disaster. That's not to say that S6 doesn't have its messiness, and won't completely fly off the rails -- the potential is certainly there for it. But overall I enjoyed the personal stories, the interpersonal drama, and the couples (by and large) more than I enjoyed Season 5, which had an intensity and a borderline darkness that just didn't fit this series.
More specifically, I'm going to share my thoughts on the couples -- and other notable characters -- with a very important caveat. Unlike other shows I recap, these are actual people who are looking for love, not engaging in a talent competition or strategizing on how to win a million dollars. They are being put into a social experiment that has to have a profound impact on their mental and emotional states, and we're only seeing a fraction of the thousands of hours of footage shot, condensed to create very specific narratives. As such, take all of the following as solely my impressions based on what the show has presented to us, not as specific criticisms or statements about the people themselves. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to go through this process on its own, and dramatically moreso to be picked apart by millions of viewers watching the tiniest of slivers of your experience at home.
Anyway. On to the couples. This will include spoilers for anything that happened in Episodes 1 through 6 (basically, the pods through the first few nights of the Dominican Republic tropical getaway). I am totally unspoiled for this season, and have specifically avoided any social media T. I'd like to keep it that way. So please keep this a spoiler-free zone for anything that has happened post-Episode 6.
Johnny and Amy: The couple I think is most likely to make it down the aisle, and have a long, happy future together. They're adorable. Very chill. They have an easiness about them that is refreshing on this show. They both seem to just genuinely like the other person, and to be completely, totally infatuated -- Johnny especially in the Dominican Republic scenes. They seem well matched. They may not be the most exciting couple to watch, but a) I'm happy for them both and b) you need at least one functional, happy couple to serve as a baseline while red flags are popping up all over the place for the others. And that's what Johnny and Amy are giving us so far.
Clay and AD: I'm pulling for these two, but I'm worried. AD is by far my favorite person on this season's cast. She seems smart, savvy, fun to be around, and it is worth saying -- albeit against the concept of the show -- absolutely stunning. I am less sold on Clay. Especially at first, there was a lot of projection going on, a lot of playing up an attitude that felt inauthentic. That changed mid-way through the pods when AD called Clay out on his BS, especially needing to be reassured that his potential wife was conventionally "hot." Which, obviously, she very much is, but again: principle of the show. After AD's warning shot, I actually found Clay to be a fascinating character. It was almost like watching a man attempt to mentally reprogram decades of social conditioning on the fly, on national television. I felt for him. Their interactions in DR were so sweet and lovely, and AD seems to have a real gift for disarming people and getting to the heart of an issue. But I am concerned that once they're out of fantasy land, the realities of the wedding in four weeks may cause serious problems for Clay specifically. It IS a lot! But it's also what you signed up for, and based on everything we've seen, AD seems incredible. I hope for their sake that it works out.
Jeramey and Laura: This seemed to be going swimmingly up until DR, and even their early scenes there started to get me worried. I enjoyed Laura right off the bat; she gives almost a comedian vibe, but I totally mean that as a compliment. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt that when she got involved in the Jessica/Chelsea/Jimmy love triangle, she was genuinely trying to be a good friend to someone. Jeramey was charming enough in the pods, if not a little cocky. But once they were together in the wild, that charm quickly turned juvenile. I kept having the recurring thought watching his interactions on the tropical vacation that it was like a middle-schooler in an adult man's body. Certainly you want to be playful, and I agree with his philosophy that life is too short to take it seriously all the time. But there's a different between dull (say, Jimmy) and Beavis and/or Butt-Head. The thing is, Laura also displayed some behaviors that felt junior-varsity to me -- I don't know what was behind that whole "bean dip" fiasco, but I don't think anyone handled it well. Even earlier in DR, when Laura was criticizing his Hawaiian shirts and other things, I felt that there was only so long Jeramey was realistically going to put up with the senseless needling over stupid shit before he checked out. (BTW, there is nothing wrong with Hawaiian shirts, especially when you are in the Dominican Republic. There are some very cute, modern Hawaiian shirt companies out there, thank you.) (Also also, I cannot imagine Laura responding at all positively to Jeramey just wholesale saying to get rid of an entire category of her wardrobe.) I think there is a maturity issue for both members of this couple, and I'm not sure they have the tools at their disposal to ride this out.
Kenneth and Brittany: This one is an enigma to me. There's no doubt that the two of them have quite a bit in common from the pods, not the least being their deep commitment to their shared faith. So that's great. But based on what we've seen so far, this does not appear to be a conventionally romantic relationship. It almost feels like a business agreement between two people with similar goals more than anything else -- an arranged marriage that they mutually decided to arrange. I grant you that doesn't make much sense, but also, I'm not sure they do, either. There seemed to be almost no romantic or physical chemistry between them in the first bunch of episodes. And to their credit, both of them seemed just fine with that. It's clear Kenneth is attentive to Brittany's needs and comfort level, which is great. But is "pleasant" enough to push two people down the aisle in a month? I'm not at all sold on this one.
Jimmy and Chelsea: Our resident trainwreck couple. There's a lot to unpack here, because -- almost unbelievably, based on what we saw from both of them in the DR -- Jimmy and Chelsea were the focal point of two different love triangles in the pods. Based on the edit, Jimmy was the No. 1 draft pick for the girls this season, which is ABSOLUTELY WILD. Possibly the most remarkably unremarkable man on the cast this season, holding that much power...straight women, please love yourself more. I say that with all sincerity. Meanwhile, Chelsea seemed relatively solid in the pods, if not a little emotional. But she completely, totally unraveled in the DR, verging on Danielle from Season 2, which is absolutely not a compliment. These two were exhausting to watch. I don't think either is a bad person per se -- although I genuinely do not get the allure of Jimmy, and Chelsea clearly needs to do more self work -- but their scenes together were just grueling to watch. Chelsea seems deeply insecure, allegedly constantly needing validation from Jimmy even as she ignores anything he says when he tries to address that need. Jimmy does suck at reading the room, and while I don't think he was being intentionally dismissive at the couple-introduction party, his aloofness toward his new partner really is a bad look. I also think it's pretty clear -- or at least, the edit is making us THINK it's clear -- that Jimmy was much more interested in Jessica until she dropped her bombshell, and that he is not, in fact, as attracted to Chelsea as she clearly needs him to be. I do think she is picking up on vibes from him, and that was before she saw footage of the man saying on national television, "She lied to me about how she looks," and then Freudian slipped the name of his real No. 1 when discussing his fiancee. If they are still together, that must have been a real uncomfortable watch. But I would be shocked if they made it, honestly.
Jessica: One of the more dynamic characters from the pods, Jessica was the first -- I believe -- single parent to be shown in the experiment. I thought her arc was fascinating to watch. She clearly did want to walk out of there with a partner, but she seemed to set her sights on Jimmy very quickly and it sounded -- based on the edit -- like nobody else was even on her radar.
I felt for her, as she struggled with how and when to tell her potential mate about her daughter. And I felt for her even more when she shared her background, which is honestly major trauma after major trauma, and would have left most people absolutely wrecked multiple times over. So I was rooting for Jessica, I really was. I think she's smart, I appreciated her directness, she is absolutely gorgeous (the rant about how Jimmy would choke when he saw her was cringe, but also: where was the lie?) -- but it was her decisiveness that I think did her in here. Obviously we did not see everything that happened, but it sure seemed like Jimmy's interest in her plummeted as soon as he found out about her kid. After that, the show sure made it seem like he was searching for an off ramp. She seemed to think it was her forward nature that drove him away. And sure, the last few dates verged on antagonistic. But that's only because she believed -- correctly -- that she was about to get monster screwed by this guy. And I'm just going to say this again, because it bears repeating: It is WILD that the women were fighting over this guy. Literally me the whole time they were in the pods:
Trevor: This broke my heart. I am fairly certain Trevor got an absolutely glowing edit that ignored some poorer qualities, because otherwise, this show gave us an absolutely beautiful wall of man meat with a giant heart and the world's sexiest mullet...and let him go home empty handed. Trevor was the other point in the love rhombus between Jessica, Jimmy, and Chelsea, as he seemed totally smitten with the latter. I really thought for a minute that they would end up together. Their dates were adorable. He seemed to be doing/saying everything right. But ultimately, Jimmy proposed to Chelsea first, and she said yes. (It was very interesting when Trevor asked Chelsea what she would have said had he proposed first, and she seemingly could not answer the question.) I am confident that Trevor will have absolutely no problem getting dates after this experience, and is probably having the time of his life right now. Good for him. I am just furious that we were robbed of seeing that man in a bathing suit. Or less.
Matthew: An utterly fascinating character, and I *really* question how much of this was what actually happened and how much was the edit. Matthew started out rough, seemingly -- seemingly! -- walking out on at least two dates because the women were in some way not abiding by his expectations. It was intense. He seemed to calm down after AD, who again, is basically a goddess, and was able to put him at ease and crack through to the gooey center inside. For a hot minute the two of them really seemed to have an intense connection...until AD was informed that some of the very specific, very personal things Matthew was saying to her, he was also apparently saying to another woman in the pods. (I genuinely cannot remember her name.) I say apparently, because we saw absolutely none of that footage, which is REALLY WEIRD. Presumably these pod dates in which he was apparently replicating these very personal lines would have been recorded. The viewers would have been able to draw their own conclusions. Yet we saw none of it -- I'm not sure we saw ANY of that woman outside of the women's dorm scenes. She ended up walking out on the experiment over this, and after AD confronted Matthew about this behavior, Matthew walked out too, allegedly intending to track the other girl down. I wonder if their abrupt exits meant that they revoked the rights to use their footage? I think she show would have you believe -- at least I believed -- that Matthew was never actually interested in the experiment, and was here for camera time. We've seen it before; I think it was Season 3 with the guy whose life was basically destroyed when he used fake tears so that he could cry on camera.
One of the first things Matthew said was, "I'm not here to be a C-List celebrity." And yet, in that ultimate confrontation with AD, he repeatedly -- like three, four times -- mentioned being on TV, in front of America, on cameras. It was pretty damning footage. Maybe this read is totally off. Maybe he was just a very shy person who got in over his head with an emotionally fraught situation. I certainly thought he was attractive and was rooting for him once he calmed down. But it was, undeniably, one of the more memorable arcs of the first six episodes.
So those are my thoughts on Episodes 1-6! What do you think of the season? Who will actually make it to their weddings? Will the returns of Jessica, Trevor, and Sarah blow up the couples? Drop a comment below!
