Married At First Sight (MAFS): whether you know it, love it and can’t get enough of it or have absolutely no clue what it is, it is undoubtedly all anyone in the office is talking about.
For all those too pressed for time to watch (or would rather watch anything else), this is your (somewhat) reliable source of juicy updates to keep up with all the office banter.
For the avid MAFS viewers, if you’re here because you want to know whether or not your MAFS opinions are controversial, I hope you find solace below.
Episode Twenty: The Façade
After the blow-up that was the dinner party, this viewer was excited to see how the experts would call out all those behaving poorly over the last week. The groom, Dan, was at the top of that list.
The first couple in the hot seat were Claire and Jesse, and as fate would have it, or by classic MAFS intervention, the couple were in a starkly different place than they were last week. Both were giggly and flirtatious and spoke highly of each other. The experts asked Jesse if he thought he could forgive Claire.
“Yeah, I can. The way she’s made me feel this week, I feel worthy, ” stated Jesse after umming and ahhing right before a strategic ad break.
Both wrote ‘stay’.
Quickly came time for Dan and Sandy. Finally came the long-awaited poor excuses in Dan’s repertoire of how he felt he and Sandy were not well matched because he loved to be at the beach and swim. Apparently, Sandy’s allergy to the ocean is an unforgivable deal-breaker, despite the fact she had mentioned she would join him at the beach regardless.
Thank goodness John Aiken called Dan out.
“There are much more important things to be shared in a relationship than the beach. Like shared values,” said the expert.
Harrison had much to say, involving himself in dramas he had no part in, whispering to Bronte that he could share values with an 80-year-old, that didn’t mean he wanted to be matched with one. The fact that Harrison was the only one to deliberately not understand the shallowness of Dan’s comments spoke volumes.
Dan’s weaponising of words he has often used against Sandy to twist blame onto her could not trip up the experts. Alessandra began questioning Dan regarding his clear statement about not being sexually attracted to Sandy and then, within the next 24 hours, having sex with her.
The expert asked how in that turnaround time, he developed a sexual attraction to his wife, whom he had on a boy’s night following their intimacy, explicitly stated was not his type and compared to his ‘hotter’ exes.
The groom mumbled something vague about how some relationship roadblocks were addressed (apparently in those 24 hours and came wholly undone afterwards). Alessandra asked why he would have sex with someone he is not sexually attracted to, knowing that sex was very sensitive and an important topic of discussion for Sandy since the beginning of the marriage. The beady-eyed angry stare he gave Alessandra for not allowing him to manoeuvre around questions was an eerie reminder of his behaviour at the dinner party and towards Sandy in private.
This viewer cheered when Sandy decided to leave.
I wish you’d been able to look past the surface-level stuff,
“I wish you’d been able to look past the surface-level stuff,” shared a teary Sandy.
Harrison and Bronte entered the couch with a performance deserving MTV’s worst actor award. The two spouted clichés about how changed they were and how much they liked each other to a room full of faces frowning in disbelief and disappointment. Either Bronte actively decided not to understand or was blinded by ‘Harrison’ goggles, but she stated her sister approved of Harrison following all the drama.
The couple’s acting convinced no one. Perhaps Bronte was at a different family meeting. Harrison, however, had no problem pointing fingers at everyone else, stating that Melinda and Layton were faking it. Classic diversion.
The last big drama of the night came from Hugo and Tayla. Tayla sat shocked that the experts weren’t allowing her to play the ultimate victim after it was revealed that Hugo had vented about her and called her a colourful name.
While the experts said the name-calling was not okay, they did ask Tayla how she was taking responsibility for the problems in their relationship. Given her reaction, this may have been the first time in her life that someone had asked Tayla to show self-awareness or empathy.
Hugo appeared a beaten down man, and Tayla accused him of acting sad. Still, the groom admitted he had no idea how to better their relationship and was afraid of doing something wrong because everything he did was wrong, even kissing her cheek when she accepted cheek kisses from everyone else.
Tayla wrote ‘leave’, and Hugo wrote ‘stay’, angering the bride even more as she was not in control of the situation.
“I don’t know why you wrote stay. I’m going back to Tassie,” said the bride in a huff.
Let’s see how she handles the next week with her husband.
