Friends, it’s a big, emotional week over in the U.K. First, there was that tantalizing, borderline unbelievable promise of an Oasis reunion, and now we’ve got a dramatic reunion of another kind on Love Is Blind: UK. This inaugural season has been one for the books, and fittingly, its send-off was a wine-soaked celebration of romance, couples’ montages, and thick interpersonal tension that could make even the Gallagher brothers uncomfortable. (Okay, maybe not the Gallagher brothers, but definitely me!)
As someone accustomed to the loud, punchy energy of Love Is Blind: U.S. reunions, I wondered at first if Love Is Blind: UK could bring the heat, but hosts Matt and Emma Willis were clearly up to the challenge. For one hour, they poked and prodded our couples to unpack every awkward moment, volleying the drama back and forth and into the “Pod Squad” audience off stage with charismatic ease. We laughed, we cried … and, perhaps most shockingly, we found out that Ollie is definitely, maybe dating a cast member who is not his pod fiancée, Demi. What in the name of metal wineglasses is going on?!
Demi might’ve left Ollie at the altar with an “I do not for now,” but apparently that became an “I do not, period.” Nevertheless, the vibes between these two are still good, and it was great to see Ollie push back against the narrative that Demi is somehow not hot enough for him. As he put it, “Anyone that knows me, anyone that knows my dating history, knows that I always dated women that look like Demi and, respectfully, that don’t look like Cat.” You tell ’em, Ollie! I should probably discuss this with my therapist and not the open internet, but the more these two amicably talked about why they couldn’t make it work, the more I wanted them to figure it out and get back together. That is, until Matt and Emma dropped one of the biggest bombs in LIB history and asked Ollie and Sharlotte if they’re an item.
Some of us might recall that Ollie was really into Sharlotte at the reunion cocktail mixer, and apparently, they’ve kept the party going since then. While Ollie clarified that he didn’t jump straight into dating Sharlotte after the show, Sharlotte offered one of the weirdest explanations of all time to both her hosts and a very curious but supportive Demi: “I don’t think I could have got through the last few weeks, having to watch what I’ve watched, without him as the perfect support,” she said. “… It remains complicated, but yeah, we’re in a good spot.” Huh?
What has Sharlotte watched these past few weeks that was so upsetting? Is she referring to Ollie and Demi’s connection? Her own lack of screen time? The horror that is “Sam from London”? As if that nonanswer weren’t awkward enough, Ollie followed it up with a “Watch this space.” I hate to tell you this, bruv, but if Demi’s not in it, I’m not watching.
Now that I’ve mentioned “Sam from London,” let’s skip ahead to that mess. I’ll confess, I was surprised that Nicole and Benaiah are still together, but after watching that heart-melting footage of their first-date reactions, I see why their fellow castmates shipped it all along. Still, while onstage, Ben couldn’t help but prod at the memory of Nicole choosing Sam over him. Before our hosts inevitably brought Sam onstage, Ben made sure to say that Nicole looked beautiful, “especially her eyes” — a callback to Sam’s “joke” during his face-to-face reveal with Nicole that her eyes are “boring brown.” Benaiah clearly blames himself for Nicole initially choosing Sam over him in the pods, and I just hope that they never talk about him again after this reunion.
Matt and Emma offered Sam every opportunity to redeem himself, and he botched each one. When asked about his worry that he couldn’t pick Nicole up, Sam said he didn’t mean “harm” by the comment but failed to address its underlying fatphobic message. On the subject of telling Nicole “I think I love you” moments after he proposed marriage, he said he actually meant to tell her that he thought he was falling in love with her, as if that’s somehow any better. “For me,” he said with an air of an honorable knight, “love is a big thing” — to which I say, okay, then why propose to someone you might not even love? Thank God Demi yelled out what we were all thinking: “Sam, say ‘I’m sorry’ to Nicole, please!” Every great reality show needs a Greek chorus. Sam’s massive ego might be bruised from this season, but if it’s any consolation, he’ll definitely go down as one of the best villains in LIB history.
As satisfying as Demi’s takedown of Sam might’ve been, this episode leveled me when I found out that my OTP, Sabrina and Steven, are no longer together. Cue the GIF of Jennifer Lawrence tearing up and asking, “What do you mean?”
Okay, yes, we knew this might be coming. It seemed odd that last week, while Sabrina was praising Steven’s openness to the idea of living in Belfast, Steven was telling producers that they’d probably live in London for the first few years. Still, it’s striking how strongly these two disagree about almost every aspect of their breakup. She’s kept an itemized list of all the unreciprocated gestures and concessions she made for him, down to a £70 grocery-shopping trip, and although he insists she’s lying, he refuses to dole out specifics. It seems pretty damning that she visited him seven times and he only came to her twice, but even worse, he apparently canceled a Christmas visit to Belfast just two days in advance. He tried to explain (vaguely) why this happened, but even as someone who once adored him, I had trouble giving a damn about the reasons because come on, it’s Christmas. I will say this, though — it’s a testament to British civility that Matt and Emma cut things off before these two could get into an actual shouting match. That couldn’t be us over in the U.S.
All of that said, Steven leveled me when he admitted that he’s watched the first four episodes of this season three times and cried every time. The love these two shared was clearly real, even if it didn’t last.
Steven and Sabrina might’ve delivered the shocker of the season, but I’m guessing no one’s surprised that Freddie and Cat are kaput. Ladies, it’s time to crawl in a casket and shoot your shot with the hot funeral director! Jokes aside, it’s nice to see that these two have found peace with each other as friends. Cat apparently returned the earrings Freddie gave her as a pre-wedding (and breakup) gift, and while I agree it was the right thing to do, I’m also not sure I would have been as big a woman about it. Maybe it’s payback for all the times she snapped at him during their time as a couple? Although these two didn’t last, they do seem to have learned from each other, and that’s not nothing. Also, it was hilarious to watch Cat cry over a montage of herself crying. Perhaps some Kleenex spon-con could be on the way?
In a similarly expected turn of events, Maria and Tom’s differing values have, indeed, broken them up for good. It turns out endless chemistry and adorable lipstick stains do not a marriage make. To his credit, though, Tom regrets the “ugly” way he voiced his concerns about Maria, especially his remark that he wanted to raise independent daughters who can “contribute” to a marriage — which implied that Maria and the more traditional women in her Muslim family somehow don’t. Maria was understandably furious when she saw those comments and said onstage that it felt like Tom was “indirectly insulting my family.” Truthfully, I think the insult was pretty direct! Maria also emphasized that she did not expect a man to pay her bills and never implied as much, which made me wonder if the show perhaps did her a little dirty with its edit. I’d say “Justice for Maria,” but frankly, I think she won that for herself onstage.
And finally, at the risk of giving Jasmine and Bobby short shrift again, what is there to say? They were perfect, they are perfect, and they will remain perfect. He says that their marriage has been the best year of his life, and I believe him — especially because his bachelor pad looked like a very loud cry for help, from the Murphy bed to the pool table that doubled as a dining table. I love that she gave him a T-shirt with her face all over it for Christmas, and I’m glad that her mom now gives him her “110 percent” approval. They’re trying for kids, and when they succeed, those children will have an exceptional example of true TV love. Future Love Is Blind: UK seasons can only hope they spawn a couple this hot, this compelling, and this well matched.
All in all, Love Is Blind: UK feels like the best this franchise has to offer. With very few exceptions, its cast was the perfect blend of mature and sincere, which made their messy breakups and tense reunions all the more meaningful. Like all LIB hosts, Emma and Matt got to skate through most of the season, but this reunion proved their value as nimble, efficient pot stirrers. Unlike Love Is Blind: Mexico, which sent our couples to the middle of the stage to wait for a colored light to reveal their relationship status, this episode was gimmick-free — perhaps because producers could tell by looking at their couples that they already had the goods. Most international Love Is Blinds only end up airing one season — Love Is Blind: Brazil being the one exception so far — but with any luck, this one’s just getting started.
Pod Goss
• Is there anything sweeter than Demi keeping her parents’ picture in her pod notebook? Reader, I fully wept on the inside.
• We’ll never know what really happened between Steven and Sabrina, but Sabrina was spitting gold when she told Steven, “You’re a man of many words, but not a man of your word.” That’s a line fit for an Etsy cross-stitch.
• Netflix gods, if you’re reading this, PLEASE put Freddie on Perfect Match! (And while we’re at it, add Maria, too — she’s way too funny for us to never see her again, and something tells me she could really shake things up in the villa.)
