Fans of Netflix’s Love Is Blind were left disappointed when they logged on to the streamer Sunday night for the highly anticipated season four live reunion only for a technical snafu to delay the special for a further two hours. Amid the embarrassing tech issues, Netflix promised that the reunion, which was broadcast in front of a live studio audience in Los Angeles, would be worth the wait, and issued an apology on Twitter after subscribers expressed their frustration over the holdup.
“To everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon … we are incredibly sorry that the Love Is Blind Live Reunion did not turn out as we had planned,” read a tweet from Netflix’s official Twitter handle.
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Many more apologies followed from there as Vanessa Lachey, who co-hosts the reality dating show with her husband, Nick, opened the reunion special with words of comfort for the audience viewing from home.
“We’re sorry we’re late. We are no longer live, but we are now finally here,” she said. “All of you at home, you haven’t missed a thing. We’ve been sitting on these couches not talking to each other so we can save all the tea for you.”
The first bit of tea to be spilled concerned Chelsea and Kwame, who confirmed they are still married and that Chelsea has since met Kwame’s mother, who was initially against their union and didn’t attend their wedding in episode 12 of the series. But while the pair shared that their marriage is in a good place, Kwame took a moment to apologize to Chelsea and her family for his behavior when he left the pods, namely inappropriate conversations he had with his first relationship connection, Micah, after becoming engaged to Chelsea, admitting that it was “not the best representation” of him.
Irina was the next Love Is Blind castmember to take accountability during the reunion, uttering her first words through tears over sighs of skepticism from the audience.
“My intention was never to hurt anyone, but my impact did,” said the castmember, whom some consider the “villain” of the season after a video recapped her disingenuous behavior toward her female castmates, to whom she said she’s apologized privately.
As for Zach, who proposed to Irina in the pods, initially choosing her over his other match and current wife, Bliss, before the two decided to call it quits during their honeymoon — Irina admitted to treating him poorly, saying, “No one deserves to be treated like that. I completely belittled you and made you feel so small. I was going through a lot mentally. That does not mean that was an excuse to do that, but looking back, I’m sorry.”
Bliss, in sharing that she and Irina have also made amends, still took a bit of a jab at her former foe as she claimed to have been experiencing a panic attack in a scene where she appeared to be laughing at one of her heartbroken castmates in a prior episode.
“I hope that you can take accountability,” Bliss advised as Irina continued to blame her actions on mental issues. “There’s so much power in taking responsibility when you do something wrong rather than making excuses.”
Those words would later strike a nerve with Paul when he was called to task for leaving Micah behind at the altar, saying in a confessional that, ultimately, he couldn’t see her as a mom.
“I think I phrased that really unfairly toward her,” he stated. “I think the better way to phrase that would be that I can’t see us as parents.”
Micah, still visibly upset and in tears, claimed to be blindsided by that revelation, which caused Paul to backtrack on his words, saying he didn’t create an environment that would allow Micah to show her more nurturing side during their relationship.
“I want to take 100 percent accountability and responsibility for my half of the equation,” he said when pressed by Vanessa on why he didn’t express his needs to Micah before their pending nuptials.
Jackie was the final season four castmember to clear the air and admit wrongdoing during the special, though she did so in a pretaped interview with Vanessa and Josh, with whom she first connected in the pods and has been in a relationship with since filming for the show ended. They now live together.
Clearing her own name, first and foremost, Jackie shared, “I broke up with Marshall before I met Josh at the coffee shop. It looks like I’m a cheater. I am not a cheater.”
As for the demise of her relationship with Marshall, Jackie added, “I take accountability for my words and actions, and I hope that he would do the same. I can take accountability for the fact that I went from zero to 100 really quickly, and I can sit here and say that I should have heard him. I should have let him speak without being on the defense. We just weren’t meant to be.”
Though Marshall hoped for more closure, expressing he was robbed of the opportunity without Jackie being there to discuss their relationship face to face, he said his ultimate desire now is to simply move on.
Tiffany and Brett continued to be the bright spot of season four of Love Is Blind, sharing nothing but sweet recollections of their time getting to know each other during the show and now as a married couple. Yet, with Bliss sharing that Zach and her dad, who once disapproved of her quick run down the aisle, are now “best buds,” Vanessa pegged the pair as the most likely to have the first Love Is Blind baby.
The repeated theme throughout the reunion was that outsiders couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to go through the Love Is Blind dating experience to which the cast subjected themselves. Zach made perhaps the simplest, yet most insightful, observation about unnecessary judgments placed on his fellow castmates by viewers. “It has been punishment enough for the entire world to see them at their worst,” he stated. “We all did something stupid.”
The Love Is Blind reunion was set to be Netflix’s second livestream, after Chris Rock’s comedy special in March. There’s no word yet on what exactly caused the hiccup with Sunday’s airing.
