Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Like many, I was waiting for the latest drop of episodes for season seven of “Love Is Blind.” I wanted to see what happened with Ashley and Tyler, specifically. Of the remaining couples — Taylor and Garrett, Hannah and Nick, Marissa and Ramses, Alex and Tim, and Ashley and Tyler — Ashley and Tyler are the only ones I’m truly curious about because I was pretty solidly sure that we were going to see the end of the line for Hannah and Nick (whew chile) and Alex and Tim. I couldn’t quite call it for Ashley and Tyler, but I figured his sperm-donor admission wouldn’t quite tank them. We’ll get back to them, though.
Let’s get the locks out of the way: Taylor and Garrett seem built to go the distance, random text messages from the ex be darned. Garrett isn’t stupid; he’s going to get himself together. Ramses kinda sorta needs to work through some of the weird issues he has; I don’t know if he’s never been around women (or humans who have emotions that vacillate for legitimate reasons, really), but while I think they’re going to make it, it seems like he has these random staunch stances on things that make little sense.
Perhaps Ramses needs to think through his thoughts before he dumps them on Marissa. I get the impression that he loves her, so hopefully, he’ll figure things out, but Bro needs to work on his willingness to listen, be reasonable and calm down. I like that Marissa isn’t just willing to let Ramses say what he wants and is willing to push back. Honestly, I don’t know if I love them as a couple, but I’d like for their love to win, if that makes sense.
I’m not one of those people who says things like, “I told you so” — well, at least I don’t do it often. But in this case, I’m going to go ahead and toot my own horn: I called that Tim and Alex weren’t going to make it AND that it might look like one small, unserious infraction tanked the whole thing when it’s really death by a thousand cuts. So yeah, nailed it. Look, I don’t have anything negative to say about Alex as a person, but seeing how she lives would have taken me out of the running for marriage immediately. Her apartment has given me nightmares and I’m only half-joking.
What I will say is that we are clearly missing stuff that happens off-camera because there is NO way that Tim would break the whole thing off just because she went to take a nap after meeting his parents. Now, it’s possible that he took the parent meeting SO seriously (they had to come into town) that he viewed her seeming lack of interest once the cameras stopped rolling (maaaaaaybe?) as an affront to their whole relationship, especially because of how seriously he takes family. But it was giving “what’s happening?” and while I do think he’s a bit rigid, he also just seems like he doesn’t suffer fools and knows what he doesn’t want to deal with. I can’t knock that. I do think stuff was happening offscreen that we’re not privy to, though. There just has to be.
To her credit, Alex seemed blindsided by it all, and in that convo, Tim did seem unreasonable — bro was stewing over more than just what we saw. But nothing that aired should lead to Tim deciding he never needs to speak to her ever again. In life. That’s wild. Tim read a whole letter to her dad and everything. Nothing switches off that quickly. Nothing. With that said, the reunion is going to be lit.
I cannot stand Hannah. Nothing I’ve seen from Nick makes me think he deserves even one bit of the disrespect Hannah lobs at him at every possible opportunity. She’s called this man immature, financially illiterate, basically everything but a child of God. Why is he still there? Who would want to see a marriage through with a person who has taken every chance to point out that the man she is looking to marry is beneath her?
Is Nick perfect? Clearly not; nor is Hannah. Her behavior is cringe-worthy, and it seems like it took seeing herself onscreen to realize it. Which is terrible. She looks bad. She also has bad friends. She’s also out here putting his business in the streets — except, she thinks she’s doing so in service of explaining how she is going to teach him to be a better person. I DO NOT LIKE HER. Listen, Hannah is terrible and how she and Nick have lasted this long is beyond me. It’s like Hannah turned Nick into a child who couldn’t take a stand. I’m so excited they broke up and I will be sorely disappointed if they say that they’re trying to rekindle things during the reunion.
Aight, let’s talk Ashley and Tyler. We all know by now that Tyler has some kids. He didn’t disclose this to Ashley in the pods despite the many times they spoke about kids. I think that Ashley probably wanted to be more upset about it than she was and is surprised that she isn’t that mad. I’m sure she’s wondering why he didn’t tell her, but it’s probably been eye-opening to her to find out that the “omission of certain facts, aka lying” isn’t the dealbreaker most of us like to claim it is.
I’m sure Tyler is also excited to know that his woman is riding with him despite his bombshell of an admission; however, they seem like they have a good thing so I’m not totally surprised. One thing that marriage has taught me is that we often think we have hard-line stances on things but being put in situations often demonstrates whether that’s true or not. Shouts out to Ashley and Tyler for weathering what I hope is their only storm before the wedding.
That’s all I have for now. My prediction for the final episode (before the reunion): Taylor and Garrett both say yes, Ashley and Tyler both say yes, and last but not least, Marissa and Ramses both say yes.
Love is blind, y’all.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).
