LOVE IS BLIND S.7 Eps. 1-9 Recap
my thoughts on the ick, the condom talk and the anti-cancer guide.
On Wednesday morning, I opened my eyes, rolled over in bed, found my laptop where I’d left it on the nightstand, and proceeded to watch all three episodes in the latest Love is Blind Season 7 drop before noon.
If you’re not caught up on the latest season - if, perhaps, you have more responsibilities, will power, or self-respect than I do - I suggest you stop reading now.
(***SPOILERS BELOW***)
Though I’ve never missed an episode, I’ve definitely lost faith in Love is Blind as a “social experiment”. It seems like the show has produced more lawsuits than marriages in the four years since its launch. Which is crazy, because I feel like it’s been on for four decades, and also like it’s not on enough. Netflix dropped a UK version this past summer, and the amount of UK couples that actually made it down the aisle put the recent US seasons to shame, and it’s hard for me to stay interested if I don’t have at least one couple to really root for! Again, I will never miss an episode - by “interested” I mean engaged enough to not be on my phone the entire time.
Thus, the beginning of season 7 excited me! Multiple couples appeared compatible and most of the men appeared mentally well.
Enter Leo.
Leo is an art dealer who tragically lost both of his parents and both of his grandparents to cancer and inherited their lucrative art dealing business. He aims to find a partner in the pods who can understand the art world, and enjoy the finer things in life…he is also the type of guy to wear a USA tank top and “throw up deuces” on a woman while she is just trying to do her job.
In the pods, Leo talks constantly about the complexities of his job as an art dealer. More specifically, he talks about how complex it has been for him to earn insane amounts of money and then have to discern whether his romantic prospects only want him for that insane amount of money. Despite this struggle, Leo finds himself immediately drawn to Brittany and her expertly crafted baby voice, who describes her job as “skincare and beach cleanups” while making blatantly clear that she aspires to marry someone wealthy and become a “trophy wife”.
Leo also develops a connection with Hannah, the youngest woman in the pods at 26. To me, Hannah is like the funniest girl in the popular group in high school (not funny-funny but popular girl funny) who makes often-too-mean roast jokes to avoid being vulnerable about the fact that she is insecure and suffering and is jealous of her friends who have boyfriends. She keeps everything very surface level in an experiment that’s built around getting to know someone as deeply as possible in under ten days. Hannah likes to talk about entrees vs. appetizers and what it would be like to become a vampire and the pod men love it, because men LOVE surface level. THRIVE on surface level. I feel like all of my failed relationships with men would have worked out if I’d been able to stay comfortable on the surface and not ask deeper questions such as “how does that make you feel?”
In an effort to try to choose between her two pod interests, Hannah eventually goes deeper and reveals the disturbing fact that her mother used to call her fat and lock the cabinets to keep her from eating snacks. Unfortunately, Hannah chooses to divulge this trauma to Leo, who proceeds to ask if she works out, and Nick aka Nicky D aka Rico Suave, who has the EQ of a cinder block.
Leo’s transition from total clown to potential threat occurs when Hannah tries to break things off with him and choose Nick. Leo manipulates her out of her decision by telling her she was his number one choice all along. She leaves the pod broken and confused, then goes back the next day and insists on the breakup, which Leo finally accepts by asking Hannah to tell Brittany that it’s actually Brittany who has been his number one choice all along. Brittany witnesses all of this and listens to Hannah’s retelling of the conversations, but accepts his proposal anyway, and thus was born the most awkward reveal moment in Love is Blind history.
It’s obvious that Brittany is categorically the opposite of what Leo says he wants due to her trophy wife aspirations. But even the laziest of “Britttney loveis blind 7” google searches reveals a more glaring reason why Brittany and Leo wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) work. Hint: nearly all of his closest family members died of cancer, and she wrote a harmfully misinformed sham book about treating cancer with gratitude and snacks.
Like most straight men, Leo seems intent on educating women in all the ways he understands them better than they understand themselves. Before ever laying eyes on either of his love interests, he infers that both Hannah and Brittany must struggle with being underestimated due to their obvious good looks. He presents himself as uniquely capable of looking past those good looks and picking up on how intelligent Brittany is through the pod walls. He notes being inspired by Brittany’s accomplishment of writing a book.
Brittany’s book is called “KEEPING WELL: AN ANTI-CANCER GUIDE TO REMAIN IN REMISSION”. What qualifies Brittany to guide cancer survivors on how to remain in remission, you may ask?
Well, according to her book’s “About the Author” section, Brittany has not survived cancer herself nor has she received any board certified medical degrees, but she “has been in the natural health and wellness field for a decade as a licensed esthetician at a wellness spa… and has certifications in herbalism, reiki, and quantum healing hypnosis.”
Having skimmed the e-book, I can’t say that Brittany’s “Anti-Cancer Guide” is full of legitimate medical advice or scientific facts about the disease that killed her (eventual but extremely short term) fiancé Leo’s parents and grandparents, but the “Anti-cancer Guide” does contain interesting musings like “weight of the world affects the shoulders”.
Brittany also manages to use seven different quotes by “unknown” in the 59 page, book which I am certain must be a record for books in the Oncology genre.
I personally find it tough to imagine telling a cancer patient to visualize her most beautiful and healthy self and just start showing up as that…. or encouraging someone with a fatal disease to just change the things they don’t like about their lives.
Leo and Brittany were doomed enough to get dropped from the remainder of the season, either due to budget constraints or to Netflix’s fear of another “dangerous man should not have been allowed on this show” lawsuit.
Hannah and Nick are still together at the end of the latest drop, but not without their challenges (she thinks he’s “delulu” and he thinks it’s funny to ride on a plastic duck). Nick has the desparate energy of a guy who starts laughing way harder at his own joke only after other people laugh at it. Hannah broke up with him once in the pods becuase of a “gut feeling” that he can’t be trusted but then almost immediately asked him to go on another date.
Nick presents as slightly more capable of being vulnerable than she is but I ALWAYS trust a woman’s gut feeling, and he was also weird about telling the cameras they had sex. Side note - I was SHOCKED that every single couple besides Ashley and Tyler had sex right away on the honeymoon.
Here are my thoughts on some of the other couples this season:
I am rooting for Garrett and Taylor. It’s been difficult for me to build trust in him, but the way he supported Taylor through her close friend Monica’s emotional breakdown really moved me. I think they both went on the show for decent, understandable reasons and could build a beautiful life together and I am also TERRIFIED that he will let us down.
Garrett has undergone a total makeover since the show wrapped, which some internet speculators believe to be proof he’s still with Taylor because they think she gave him a glow-up? But it’s just as likely that he got a makeover to get back at her like when I spent half my savings on spraytans, highlights and eyelash extensions to conduct a thirst trap campaign after getting dumped by a near-middle-aged open mic comedian.
He looks hurt now!!!!! I can see it in his eyes! Either his heart or his ego is hurting. Did mild internet fame break him? Or did Taylor? Or did he self-destruct DMing girls? I will hold onto my hope until I find out the truth.
Tyler and Ashley - I don’t believe sperm donors are parents or have a responsibility to the children they help conceive but I have seen some weird stuff online about Tyler maybe lying about the sperm donor part. He also made a point on the honeymoon to warn Ashley that negative information could come out about him and to ask her to stick by him through that….. And they’ve only been together like two weeks at that point. Like, imagine on date three or four being like “hey I really like you but if we were to stay together would you be able to stick up for me even if people came forward online saying I did some shady shit that I’m not really willing to explain right now?” No. Also he’s SO ready from the START to get married and talk about marriage and for straight men that is, in fact, a red flag.
Tim and Alex - I am confused. Why is she SO immediately annoyed by him from the start? I felt like the footage we saw of her in the pods she was so sweet and endearing and then immediately outside, her preferred form of communication is to neg Tim. It seems exhausting, but what also seems exhausting is him constantly talking about the incredible grief he has been through to the point that she can’t get a word in without him making it about what he’s been through and I wonder if he still has some healing to do. That’s the thing with dating reality shows - often the people who make it through have hugely dramatic life tales to tell and it feels vulnerable and compelling to hear that someone has been through something awful and is willing to share about it but it’s also like… okay, they have been through something traumatic and what are they doing to process that? Seeking blind love in a plastic container with the guidance of Nick Lachey? Interesting.
Ramses and Marissa - I. DO. NOT. TRUST. HIM.
At first, they seemed perfectly aligned both in values and in level of attractiveness. Marissa made it clear in the pods she wanted to be with someone progressive politically. She chose Ramses in part due to his commentary on toxic masculinity. But it has been my experience that straight men who talk a lot about toxic masculinity are often the most toxic! Especially when they seem to see everything as black and white, lacking nuance. It’s like these guys are afraid to look at themselves and how they might actually perform or inhabit the nuances of toxic masculinity, so it’s easier for them to decide it’s ALL BAD and they stand ENTIRELY AGAINST IT.
Marissa grew up in poverty and entered the military because of family pressure and because it was virtually one of her only options to get access to a college education. She and Ramses discuss the military and agree that the history of the U.S. Military is sordid and full of colonizing and bullying and violent greed. However, Marissa expresses still having gratitude for the resources the military made accessible to her and how it changed her life. Ramses seems unable to accept her answer because he wants her to say it is ALL BAD and there was no good.
The conversation develops into Ramses explaining TO Marissa what the military is, when he’s never been in it and she was literally on a naval vessel on the frontlines. She doesn’t need the military explained to her by a man. Shortly after their disagreement over her military background, Marissa and Ramses also disagree over their timeline for having kids (he wants to wait, she doesn’t) and Marissa tells Ramses she does not want to go back on birth control, so he will have to wear condoms when they have sex. The man REFUSES, saying “the sex has to feel good”. THIS IS THE THING! Like, maybe look at why you have a total blindspot about your fiancés experience of sex and reproductive healthcare before making blanket statements about what is morally good and right.
Finally, we have Monica and Stephen.
Monica presents herself as someone who has struggled with only pursuing romantic interests based on looks. She wants to transcend her superficial taste by dating blindly. Stephen presents himself as a white man who found out he’s 5% black on 23 & Me and loves to talk about it.
Something was off from the start here. Monica talks to Stephen exclusively in whispered tones, and seems overly into the idea that she’s hotter than him, constantly bringing it up without ever saying she finds him unnattractive. She mentions how Stephen can’t stop “getting boners” for her out of the blue, and asks him if he likes her six pack. She also keeps nit-picking him for not getting her flowers becuase he mentioned her would get her flowers in the pods, which seems like an easy thing to blame her disappointment on without having to say that she just doesn’t think he’s hot enough for her.
What’s weirder is that when Monica brings the flowers up a third time, Stephen jumps RIGHT to divorce. Without having mentioned any discontent or concerns he brings up not being ready to marry her at the altar. They both seem to be reading from completely different, but equally unnatural scripts, weirdly threatening that they might not be into each other but seconds later brushing it off with “you’re amazing I’m obsessed with you I love you”.
Early on in their honeymoon, Monica brings up “the ick” which is a fragment of Gen Z culture that has deeply permeated reality dating shows in the past few years. I’ve heard people use this term to describe getting turned off on a first date when a guy accurately pronounced Ibiza or something, but again the way Monica uses it is like an ominous threat. Like, she’s of course attracted to Stepehen right now, but the ick could happen at ANY MOMENT!
This is all to say that when it came to light that Monica read Stephen’s messages and discovered he’d been sending “kinky sexts” to a girl on a night he told Monica he would be at a “sleep test”, I felt like they were both relieved. He offered little to no explanation, did not beg, basically said he doesn’t deserve her and was good to go, and she let him leave… after she watched him venmo her for everything she’s paid for during their few-weeks-long relationship (iconic). I think they were both planting seeds of wanting out, she just did it a lot more artfully that he was capable of, and she is probably glad she never had to decide which of his behaviors she could blame for getting the ick without coming across as superficial.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my scattered thoughts on the latest drop and I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL WEDNESDAY!