Recap | Married at First Sight on Channel 9 – The class of Married At First Sight Season 10 has graduated and they are back for their six-week Reunion.
It may not seem like a long time but in MAFS years it’s at least a decade.
With exes trying to save face, old feuds to be rehashed and new scandals set to surface it’s going to be an eventful night.
As Evelyn puts it, it will be “like putting a bunch of dogs on heat in the same kennel”.
And on that note – release the hounds!
Before the Dinner Party
Melinda and Layton are still going strong. Layton “falls more in love with Melinda every day… that they’re not arguing.”
Tahnee and Ollie are still happy as Larry and since the experiment ended they’ve been facing new relationship hurdles like long distance and Tahnee’s “weak texting game”.
Thankfully they won’t have to suffer through that for much longer with Ollie revealing he is making the big move to Sydney!
Jesse is back and in much better spirits than he left the experiment in. The metal rocker is excited that “the band is getting back together”.
He reveals that he and Claire have been talking everyday and there are even hopes that “something is still there”.
While time has healed the wounds between Claire and Jesse, the same cannot be said for Alyssa who “was absolutely blindsided” when Duncan dumped her.
She has a very clear agenda for the night – to get an explanation about Duncan’s “disgusting behaviour”.
“I absolutely feel like Duncan was dishonest, I felt like Duncan was stringing me along. It makes me feel sick, it makes me feel manipulated,” she says.
While Alyssa has nothing but scathing words for her ex, Duncan “won’t say a bad word about Alyssa” and admits he has a soft spot for her.
And even though Alyssa and Duncan’s pending reunion is looking pretty dire, we think Lyndall and Cameron’s might just take the cake with Lyndall revealing whispers of a scandal.
“I have heard – from at least two people – that Cam and one of the girls in the experiment have been sexting and exchanging nude photos,” Lyndall tells cameras.
‘So many things are starting to make sense.”
She pinpoints the downturn of her and Cameron’s relationship as the same time Tayla entered the experiment. Coincidence? Lyndall thinks not.
Cocktail Hour
Jesse, Sandy and Lyndall are the first trio to catch up during Cocktail Hour and Lyndall dishes the dirt on Tayla and Cameron’s sexting rendezvous.
“I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me why it all started to fade, and now I know the whole time that he was probably in contact with her and more interested in her,” Lyndall vents.
The revelation is a serious buzzkill for Jesse who was hoping the night would be filled with “extravagant happy times”.
Prepare for more disappointment Jesse, because a single Alyssa has arrived and she has a sob story to share. “I got dumped, it was a surprise to me,” she debriefs.
“I’ve been hearing he [Duncan] has been living his best single life sashaying around the bars, hitting on girls…”
The bar hopper in question arrives and everyone braces themselves as Alyssa and Duncan come face to face for the first time since their split. Duncan reaches in for a hug which Alyssa reciprocates before rolling her eyes and making a puke face behind his back.
“Really? That’s very high school,” expert Mel Schilling passes judgement from the observation room.
“Duncan gives me the ick. Just the way he greeted me and was like ‘Are you ok?’ No bro you know I’m not OK,” Alyssa tells cameras.
“At the Dinner Party if I’m sitting next to Duncan I’ll probably vomit.” And on that note the waiters scurry out to the table to switch some place cards and avoid a future clean up.
Alyssa and Duncan’s tense reunion was just a warmup, here comes the big one…
Cameron arrives and Lyndall waits awkwardly in the queue to receive her mandatory greeting. But just as it’s Lyndall’s turn Cameron turns his back on her and walks away.
“He didn’t even look at her,” Alessandra Rampolla shrieks as she watches on.
As Cameron makes a bee line for the bar, Ollie presses him about the whispers of him and Tayla sexting.
In the words of Ned Flanders, Cameron says there’s “diddly squat” going on and even if there was, after the Final Vows it’s no one’s business but his.
One at a time, some of the most tumultuous couples reunite including Caitlin and Shannon and Melissa and Josh. But they manage to keep it together.
“It really highlights the people in the group who are more mature than others,” Alessandra notes.
Someone who is a little too mature is Dan – for his suit jacket anyway, which is about eight sizes too small for him.
But let’s go back to the whole Tayla and Cameron sexting fiasco. Hugo has no idea about any of it and upon learning the news he admits “it’s really hurtful”.
“I just don’t know what was the point? Why did I try? I feel pretty useless, that’s for sure.”
Tayla arrives and “everyone is watching” as she greets Cameron. And FBI agent Melinda is watching very closely.
“I saw her [Tayla], I watched, she hugged Cam and then as she hugged someone else and went to walk back she looked back at Cam she caressed Cam and kept walking.
“I didn’t get a double caressing, no one else got a double look. Mmm Tayla what’ve you been up to?”
Dinner Party
Off the back of her most recent observation, Melinda makes a toast and “would like to address the elephant in the room”. Which elephant exactly? The rumour about Tayla and Cameron sexting, of course!
And while Tayla looks like a stunned mullet, Cameron volunteers to put the rumours to rest.
“After the Final Vows I went back home obviously and was having a bit of friendly banter with Tayla. It was just a back and forth text. It was nothing serious. It was just a friendly chat because I’m a friendly person,” he clears things up.
But Lyndall isn’t buying it and says she wouldn’t have thought something more sinister was going on if Cameron hadn’t made inappropriate jokes about him, Lyndall and Tayla having a threesome – a claim which Ollie verifies.
In the name of getting a balanced report, the group asks Tayla for her input…
“It really kind of goes as far as we’re friends…I saw his c–k”. And she’s not talking about his pet rooster.
The group collectively gasp while Cam shakes his head realising that Tayla has blown their cover. “That’s disgusting,” Claire blurts out.
“Yes I saw his willy. Who cares?” Tayla grins at cameras.
“We FaceTime every day and one time he did get his d–k out. He showed me multiple times.”
Cameron clarifies the nature of the FaceTime call: “I’ve ended up on a night out in a nightclub where we FaceTimed and I’ve got all my clothes off in a nightclub.” Talk about a relaxed dress code!
Everyone is baffled by Cameron’s excuse and so the question begs, what the hell is Cameron doing naked in a nightclub?
Cameron “doesn’t see what the issue is” and doesn’t really care how Lyndall feels about it either. “No matter what you say, quite frankly I don’t give a f–k anyway,” he snaps at her.
But Lyndall says she knew Cameron “didn’t have any respect for her anyway”.
With the smell of drama in the air, Harrison is keen to jump on the bandwagon and reveals he has concerns “bigger than anyone else’s drama”.
What is this HUGE concern you may ask? It’s the fact that post-experiment Bronte messaged the 20-something girl Harrison that helped him pack the day before their wedding.
“It’s a clear violation of my privacy and I’m going to call her out on it,” Harrison puts his foot down.
To make his case, Harrison has even brought his very own ‘props’ and produced a print out of the conversation screenshots.
And as Harrison acts like he’s served up some seriously damning evidence, the group consensus is “they’re not even that bad”.
“I actually read the texts, they weren’t even that juicy, they weren’t even that good,” Duncan laughs.
Harrison tries to drive his (invalid) point across and like a teacher trying to regain control of their classroom Harrison wants all eyes on him.
“Guys, I’m trying to speak…everyone please. I’m trying to speak and everyone is just taking the piss,” Harrison tries to get everyone to behave.
But the class is in chaos, with class clown Cameron throwing paper planes folded out of the evidence, Jesse wearing a napkin as a head dressing and musical prodigy Ollie ready to make a rap out of the text messages.
The giggles soon come to a halt as Alyssa decides it’s time to “call Duncan out”.
The pair haven’t been in touch since Final Vows, except for a message that Duncan sent. Although there’s a difference in opinion on the sentiment of the message.
“He Googled a response on what to say when you break up with a girlfriend,” Alyssa snaps.
Duncan reads the aforementioned text: “I’m sorry and if you would like to talk I will obviously make myself available if you want to talk, if you don’t want to I understand that and respect that.”
“You didn’t reply so I thought that meant you didn’t want to have communication,” he adds.
Alyssa is “hurt and lashing out” and tries to pinpoint exactly where the relationship fell apart.
“Duncan, not once did you make me think that you were sitting on the fence about our relationship,” Alyssa sobs.
And as Duncan tries to say his piece, he struggles to get a word in edgewise. “Every time I talk all you do is talk over the top of me,” he manages to say.
But Alyssa doesn’t necessarily think Duncan deserves a say.
“You dumped me bro, you dumped me Duncan, you broke my heart,” Alyssa cries across the table.
“You made me believe that there was a future for us.”
Trying to smooth things over, Duncan says he “wishes there was a future for them”.
“No you don’t,” Alyssa snaps.
With his fuel tank running empty Duncan claps back: “No, I don’t now.”
It’s enough to send Alyssa storming out of the room. And despite being so upset Alyssa is adamant she “dodged a bullet” with “fake” Duncan.
If you say so Alyssa, if you say so.
Married At First Sight continues on Monday at 7.30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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