Recap I Married at First Sight on Channel 9 – It’s the end of an era folks. The Married At First Sight class of 2023 are graduating from the experiment.
They’re moving out of Skye Suites and stepping back into the real world.
The brides and grooms will go home for a week to do some soul searching and return for Final Vows to decide if they will continue their relationship or end it for good.
Alyssa feels emotional at the thought of not living with Duncan anymore.
“I’m not going to be able to see him or speak to him for a few days and not knowing where his head is at or where his heart is at is terrifying,” she tells cameras.
Before they leave for home, the experts have a parting gift for the couple – a video of their wedding day.
For Duncan, “looking back at the wedding day reminds him of all the good times”
“It makes me weigh up what’s the right thing to do for me, for Alyssa and for the relationship,” he tells cameras.
And with that Alyssa and Duncan share a long embrace as they farewell each other until Final Vows.
It’s a much less heartwarming goodbye for Melinda and Layton who are spending the last night of the experiment in separate apartments after a disastrous Final Dinner Party that saw Melinda confess her love and Layton not return the same sentiment.
“To spend the last night separate and then leaving on these terms, it’s very bad, not good for us,” Melinda struggles to get her words out through the tears.
“I do love Layton” Melinda confesses but she worries that “he’s so analytical” that he will never let his emotions come to the surface.
Just like Alyssa and Duncan, Melinda and Layton receive the same parting gift – their wedding video.
Although you might remember that unlike Alyssa and Duncan’s, their wedding day wasn’t exactly a fairytale. We’re on standby for some frosty reactions.
Thankfully they’ve both come far enough that even Layton can have a laugh at Melinda saying that he’s she’s out of his league and we breathe a sigh of relief.
“Watching that, all the things in the beginning that made me not like him and not be attracted to him are all the things I like now… just how weird he is,” Melinda manages to crack a smile.
And down the hall, Layton is just as teary eyed after reminiscing on the day it all began.
“There’s plenty of good memories but it also does show you how far we came,” he says.
“The Dinner Party, that’s not us and that shouldn’t be the way our story ends. I just don’t know what to do.”
Melinda and Layton
Despite not having an initial connection, Melinda’s attraction to Layton grew over the course of the experiment but Layton’s inability to be vulnerable became a roadblock in their marriage.
It is a constant fight between head and heart for these two but can the tug of war ever be resolved? Melinda and Layton both return home to try and answer that very question.
Big sister Erin steps in to give Layton some advice and she thinks that he needs to “work on himself” to make things work between him and Melinda but she just hopes that it’s “not too far gone”.
Melinda catches up with her mum Lorraine and tells her about the L-word drama that unfolded at the Dinner Party.
Lorraine is quick to point out that the two of them need to settle the incident. “You do need closure, you can’t just walk away,” she says. But like Layton’s sister Erin, she’s “not sure that’s what’s going to happen”.
Ahead of the Final Vows, Melinda decides it’s time to “stand strong and choose herself and not be hurt anymore”.
The pair meet in front of the Harbour Bridge back where it all began for them.
Layton goes first and he holds back tears as he reflects on the moments he failed to support Melinda.
“At times I let my pride, my ego and my own insecurities get the better of me and so I’m sorry for all those times I let you down,” he says.
Despite his fear that they often “bring out the worst in each other”, Layton is ready to take the risk to make it work with Melinda.
“It’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all and I am falling in love with you,” he professes his love for Melinda (a few days late but we’ll take it).
Even though Layton’s just dropped the L-bomb, Melinda is looking awfully sombre as she prepares to deliver her own vows.
She reveals her hurt from the Final Dinner Party: “I confessed how I felt about you and instead of reassuring me, that night you made me feel alone, humiliated and attacked by my own partner at a time when I was my most vulnerable.”
Like Layton, she worries if they “can find a way to bring out the best in each other” but she says those fears aren’t enough to change her feelings.
“I’m not ready to throw in the towel on what could be happily ever after,” she declares.
And just in case our emotionally-challenged Layton didn’t get all of that, Melinda wraps up with this final disclaimer: “In case you’re still confused with how I feel about you, let me make it clear, I love you and I want us to be together.”
He receives the message loud and clear and the couple embrace. Layton solidifies their relationship by gifting Melinda a stunning bracelet. And all these months later he still can’t get over the fact that Melinda is “the girl version” of him.
While Melinda is looking forward to a future with “two little boys, an Italian greyhound, a house on the beach and Layton cooking up a storm and telling her how she’s his perfect person.”
“With beautiful eyelashes,” Layton adds.
Alyssa and Duncan
It was a fairytale start for Alyssa and Duncan but despite their strong foundation, Alyssa’s self doubts crept in and all of Duncan’s attempts to reassure her fell on deaf ears.
“I don’t feel like Duncan’s given me the reassurance I need, if anything he’s put my doubts and concerns in my head for a long term relationship,” Alyssa worries ahead of Final Vows.
Alyssa confides in her mum Debbie and despite Debbie admitting that she “like Duncan from the very beginning” when she hears how things have unravelled between the two she’s not sure if “he’s the same Duncan”.
“Our communication is just a combat, I feel like any time I bring up anything or I try to bring up how I feel he takes it as a personal attack,” Alyssa says.
Not that far away in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Duncan is meeting up with his sister Renee and admits he’s “not used to the level of conflict he’s had with Alyssa ”.
Renee says all Duncan needs to do to make his decision is answer one simple question: “Are the highs worth the lows?”
A lush forest sets the scene for what will either be the beginning or end for Alyssa and Duncan.
And when the pair come face to face they can’t help but smile from ear-to-ear.
In her Final Vows, Alyssa says it’s that “big cheesy grin” of Duncan’s that settled her nerves on their wedding day.
“When it’s just the two of us it’s easy and magic, you can make me feel like I’m on top of the world but the last few weeks have been increasingly difficult,” Alyssa reads her vows.
She worries that Duncan’s “logical brain” will continue to clash with her “emotional heart”. But she “can’t imagine her life without Duncan” so she decides to continue to fight for their relationship.
“Duncan, I want to help you to dig deep into that big heart of yours and feel what my soul is feeling for you,” she says.
Duncan thanks Alyssa for her kind words and reaches in for a long hug.
He starts with strong words affirming their connection, but the mood shifts when he mentions the “really low lows” they experienced.
“From the start I was told who I can and can’t talk to in this experiment, I also didn’t feel like I got the benefit of the doubt from you even though I hadn’t broken your trust,” he reflects.
Alyssa furrows her eyebrows and shakes her head as she waits for Duncan to bring his vows back around.
But that never happens…
“I felt emotionally rejected more times than I can remember,” Duncan admits.
“Maybe it’s our personalities, maybe it’s our differing mindsets but either way the gap seems too big to bridge.”
“I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want to continue getting hurt, so I have to say goodbye.”
Alyssa stands in total disbelief: “I was not expecting that.”
A solemn Duncan waits for Alyssa to respond with some kind of a full sentence, but he ends up breaking the heavy silence between the pair as he asks her “Do you want a tissue?”.
It’s a real full circle moment considering that’s the first thing he asked her on the wedding day and we’re sure since then Duncan has accumulated quite the stockpile.
But Alyssa declines his Kleenex offer and without saying anything turns her back on Duncan and walks away “absolutely devastated.
“I feel sick. I feel betrayed,” Alyssa sobs to cameras.
“I don’t know who that person is.”
She crouches down by a nearby tree crying her heart out, “I should’ve known”.
And even though he ended things, Duncan is just as heartbroken.
“To make this decision today was one of the hardest in my life – to hurt someone that I really care about,” he holds back tears.
“It’s not that Alyssa’s not a great person, it’s just that we’re not great together.”
Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7.00pm and Monday at 7.30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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