Love Is Blind season 6 hit Netflix on Valentine’s Day, introducing us to another group of pod-people eager to overcome their dating hang-ups and make a real connection—or as real as any connection can be in front of a camera crew.
At the end of the first six episodes, the engaged couples—Jimmy and Chelsea, Brittany and Kenneth, Jeramey and Laura, Clay and AD, and Johnny and Amy—are in the Dominican Republic, celebrating their new relationships and getting to know each other better. There’s some light drama afoot: Laura repeated a joke AD told her in confidence to fiancé Jeramey, who, unaware of the joke’s meaning, mentioned it to AD. See? Light drama.
The next batch of Love Is Blind season 6 episodes hits Netflix on February 21, and there’s only one piece of drama I’m interested in seeing (besides what comes of that contestant lawsuit): the return of the unchosen singles. Specifically, I need to see what happens when we throw Matthew back in the mix. Matthew is the most fascinating villain we’ve seen on Love Is Blind in a while. (Probably since season 5. My capacity for remembering reality TV is that of a goldfish.)
To recap, Matthew is a very tall, broad-shouldered man who works in finance and has very, very little experience with dating. During a series of painfully awkward first dates, Matthew has a list of 15 questions and asks each woman to pick a number at random. He’s thrown when one woman wants him to answer his own question because the list of questions are only meant for him to ask, not answer. When another date picks a number that’s been chosen several times already, he dispassionately tells her to “be original” and choose another. But then Matthew meets AD, literally the only person in season 6 who goes to therapy, and somehow she gets him to open up.
Suddenly, Matthew is actually kind of sweet? He’s still a bit reluctant to open up (especially when he’s hanging with the other guys), but he’s aware of this limitation because he, too, sees a therapist. In fact, his therapist was shocked that Matthew, a man fond of one-word responses, was going on a reality show to find love.
To demonstrate just how much can happen in one hour of Love Is Blind, the end of the first episode brings another twist: After telling AD that she’s the only one for him and that he’s ready to leave the pods with her RIGHT NOW if he can’t get her dad’s permission to propose, AD discovers that Matthew has said almost the exact same things to another woman, Amber. When confronted about this in episode 2, Matthew nails the sociopathic heel turn by denying that he did such a thing, of course, but his main concern isn’t with how AD feels, it’s that Amber left before he could maybe break up with her, and that he broke her heart on “national television.”
Matthew didn’t just do a 180. He did a full-on villain triple axel. One of the best episodes in every season of Love Is Blind is when the couples reunite with the singles who didn’t get chosen, and I cannot wait to see what happens when Matthew comes face to face with Amber and AD. Drag him to hell, ladies.
Episodes 7-9 hit Netflix on February 21, followed by episodes 10 and 11 on February 28.
(featured image: Netflix)
