RECAP: Love Is Blind Season 8 REUNION
I’ve spent all season drubbing Love Is Blind Season 8 for being boring and largely a waste of everyone’s time. I stand by those criticisms. However, last night’s reunion episode for Season 8 was easily the best episode of the season, with some genuinely interesting conversations and some conflict that was handled maturely (for the most part). I left reexamining my takes on several participants, both good and bad.
It also gave us a countdown of the “most memorable” moments from Love Is Blind, as part of its five-year anniversary. I don’t know who voted on those moments, but have you watched the show, Tamar? Because at least two of those clips wouldn’t have even made my Top 10: Garrett’s awful “makeover” at the S7 reunion, which he continues to rock and I hate it; the Jimmy/Chelsea “Megan Fox” moment. The Lauren/Cameron engagement in S1 is important to the show, as it’s the first reveal. But “most memorable” moments? No. Not when you have the Monica/Stephen break-up scene in S7. The Brittany/Leo AwkwardFest 2024 reveal in S7. Zanab dumping Cole at the altar in S3. S2 Danielle completely unraveling in the tropics. Shayne’s post-bachelor-party meltdown in S2. Giannina literally sprinting away from her wedding in S1 is EASILY the clip that made this show watercooler TV. Terrible calls on this list. Awful!
Also awful: that cringe-inducing musical performance, which included the audience and cast awkwardly grooving to a mid song by an uncomfortable-looking singer. Who is producing this show?! How are such bad decisions not only being made, but the footage aired? Y’all need to get it together.
Read on for my takes on the Love is Blind Reunion. SPOILERS AHEAD!
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I’ll go over each Season 8 couple in the order that they were covered. I did find it interesting that we had virtually no alumni updates, aside from that — again — truly weird segment with Season 6’s AD and Ollie from Love is Blind UK Series 1, which was also a promo for the next season of Perfect Match, but in which they also got engaged so that…spoils that whole season? WHO IS MAKING THESE DECISIONS? And then the clunky mobile game tie-in. Like, seriously, who is running this program? DOGE?
Daniel & Taylor
Our sole married couple this season seems to be doing well, living their best Instagram-oriented lives. Daniel looks great with that mustache, but I’m sorry, I find that eye tattoo deeply questionable. Taylor tried to use a joke to defuse the whole post-pod drama as quickly as she could, which: smart, but also, not super satisfying to the viewer. Whatever. The big takeaway is that Daniel’s mom was diagnosed with cancer after they got married, and it has brought their families closer, as Taylor’s family is assisting in her care. That’s a really lovely story, and I hope only the best for these two and their families. From all appearances, they seem like the ideal result for this “experiment.”
Devin & Virginia
This was fascinating to me. First, Virginia looked and sounded like an entirely different person at this reunion, but in a good way. The haircut and the tone of her voice was much more serious and commanding than the energy she presented throughout the season (and she was already great to begin with). Virginia is clearly done with Devin, and called him out for several many things, including implying he is a homophobe (we been knew) and anti-woman (his stance on abortion), and continuing to question if he is financially shady and possibly just shady shady. In Devin’s defense, he was very respectful of Virginia’s character and didn’t say anything negative about her; he continued to take the tactic that couples don’t need to be aligned on everything. You don’t need to like the same toppings on a pizza. You do need to be in agreement about core ethics and people’s rights, my dude. Both parties blamed the other for why their relationship didn’t continue after the scuttled wedding. I’ll say what I’ve said all season: she deserves way better.
Ben & Sara
Coming off the wedding episode, I was questioning Sara’s motives. Her behavior at the altar and immediately afterward felt bizarre to me, especially compared to her effusive praising of Ben leading up to that moment. I do think part of that was highly selective editing, but she was still saying how much she loved Ben and how perfect he was, so it all felt very odd. The questions about Ben’s politics/ethics/religious beliefs were all out there, and then there was the timebomb of a TikTok about Ben’s alleged terrible treatment of women. So there was reasonable doubt on Sara’s part.
At the reunion, my doubts about Sara were largely erased. I do think she was genuinely conflicted about the wedding, she just maybe wasn’t comfortable expressing that on camera in the moment. The most interesting and arguably bizarre part of their post-show story is that she was under the impression that Ben was going to go with her to Nashville for weeks so they could live together while Sara completed a travel nurse gig…and instead Ben just ghosted her. Ben denies this, and says that his approach to a breakup is to just wipe a person from his life and move on. Except Sara did not think they were broken up. I genuinely do not know how one member of an actual couple — not a fake couple, like Captain Fuckboi and Lauren — would think they were broken up and the other thought they were still together. Straight people are WILD.
There was quite a bit of back and forth about this, but based on the additional information shared — including the fact that Ben was coached on how to come off well on TV by, of all people, Season 5’s Jimmy the Thumb — I think it’s pretty clear that Ben is a deeply insincere person, and he was probably playing Sara for the show. Just like the TikToks suggested. I think that backfired spectacularly for him, especially this episode. Ben did not come off at all well here — I don’t even think he looked good — and I don’t think he’s going to get a ton of great attention out of all of this. Of all the men this season he comes off the smarmiest and most aggressively objectionable.
Joey & Monica
One of the biggest surprises for me at the reunion was the total reframing of the Joey/Monica relationship. The two of them seemed giggly and chill the whole season, with the cracks only appearing leading up to the wedding. Apparently that was also not an accurate picture of what was going on, because Monica sure seemed to be deeply miserable throughout their courtship, and unsure of Joey’s intentions for considerably longer than the show indicated.
And it looks like she had a reason. Apparently Joey slid into Madison’s DMs after the tubing party. While the content of the messages was fairly benign, the implication wasn’t good, especially given that Joey was doing very little to assure Monica that he was physically and sexually attracted to her during this period. My feeling is that Monica is, honesty, insecure, and probably has some significant work to do in that area. But Joey is also clueless and terrible at communication. He acknowledges that, but there was a shadow of insincerity about everything he said at this reunion. (For instance, this is a tiny detail, but: he said on the show he was growing his hair out to donate it for wigs for sick kids; that’s admirable. His hair at the reunion was roughly the same length as we saw it a year before. It didn’t appear that he was growing it out fully, and that he was deliberately maintaining this look. He also entered the stage skateboarding again. It’s all starting to feel very much like an act, and Monica basically said as much.)
Joey’s sisters in the audience were clearly deeply displeased at their brother getting savaged. My feeling is that Joey is not a bad guy — Monica even said exactly that — but that doesn’t mean he was taking this whole thing seriously, or that he wasn’t on this show with ulterior motives. For his part, Joey said that he started checking out of the relationship because Monica’s sister would not let him in. That feels awfully convenient. And again I say to the people of Minneapolis: What is going on with your sisters? How did this many couples this season get scuttled because of sisters with an attitude? Absolutely bonkers to me.
David & Lauren (& Molly)
Speaking of, let’s dive into the mess that is David. David showed up to the reunion looking like he was entering a torture chamber. I personally thought he got let off the hook pretty easy. I stand by my statement that Ben is the douchiest man this season, but David is without question the most pathetic, and a poor excuse for a supposedly adult man.
The big “revelation” here was that David “recently” learned that the dude Lauren was hooking up with prior to filming the show was, in fact, full of shit and his entire version of their relationship was fabricated so he could get on TV. YOU DON’T SAY. This is the least surprising bit of information in the history of Love Is Blind, and the fact that David blew up their entire relationship over one shady guy’s account, which could easily be proven/disproven via text communications or — god forbid — an actual conversation between Lauren, this dude, and David, is just so fucking stupid. David did some handwringing about how he hopes future participants of the show are aware of how these bad actors outside the show can blow up their relationships. Don’t blame that dude. You had every opportunity to defuse that situation and you didn’t, because you are an unserious person. This was a very solvable problem, and you chose not to solve it.
I was glad that one of the Lacheys explicitly asked David if the allegations and his family/friend rejection around Lauren was the actual reason David pulled back, or if he just wanted out. I absolutely think it was the latter, but David claimed it really was the situation that curdled the relationship. I call bullshit, and to an extent, so did Lauren. If he really wanted the relationship to work, he could have done any number of things, including the most obvious — allow Lauren to share her side of the story with his friends and family. He wouldn’t even do that. He is a coward, and I found his defenses laughable.
At one point when he talked about Lauren being the one who got away, and how he wishes things were different, Lauren basically said she did not believe a word of it. He did nothing to reach out to her for the past year. He never really wanted this. I don’t even think he wanted to be famous, like Ben and possibly Joey. I continue to suspect he knows he needs to grow up and find a partner, but does not actually want to do so, because he is a child. That dude needs a lot of help. Lauren dodged a bullet.
Mason & Meg & Alex & Madison
First, Meg looked stunning at the reunion, probably the best look of the night. Madison’s look was…a lot. Alex desperately needed to comb his hair. Second, this whole segment was weird and messy. Again, I’m confident the producers and editors wept bitterly when this quadrangle ended up producing 0 couples post-pods. These were the Messicas of Season 8.
Mason and Meg tried dating and ended up as just friends, and they spoke highly of each other. That’s great. But boy, none of them were speaking highly of Madison. During the pod episodes, I was fairly confident that Madison was a drama engine, exhibiting some serious antisocial behaviors and toxic character traits. After the reunion, I don’t know where I stand on her. I think it’s interesting that she was dragged into so much drama, including the Joey/Monica situation, and I believe she got pulled into the Ben drama as well. But in several of those situations, she was roped in through no actions of her own. I also thought Madison did a good job defending herself this reunion, especially the moment when she caught Alex dead in a trap reading his text messages to the group, implicating him in talking shit about his supposed friends.
I genuinely do not know where to land on this group. I think the Mason/Meg/Alex couch was playing up the drama for the cameras, and I thought Madison’s frustration at the way she’s held accountable for everyone else’s actions and feelings resonated with me. But I do think she exhibits behaviors that are in herently manipulative, and avoids taking responsibility when she does fuck up. She’s clearly an intelligent person and there are times I am fully on Team Madison — I find her fascinating. It’s rare that I can’t get a good grasp on a reality-TV character, but I leave this season finding Madison more an enigma than ever. That’s pretty fucking cool.
What did you think of Love Is Blind Season 8? Who do you think will make it to the altar? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
