Recap | Married at First Sight Season 12 Episode 16 – the latest episode recap on TV Central from Channel 9. Watch the show on 9Now.
It’s the biggest day of the week – Dinner Party Wednesday!
And while you, I, and about 75 per cent of the cast are excited to see whatever chaos appears at the table tonight, Awhina is worried about there being an empty seat.
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Adrian has still not returned after leaving over, um… being left out of a 30-second promo shoot.
They’ve been texting after he left her high and dry yesterday, and it’s safe to say things haven’t gotten any better.
In fact, he’s dropped the bombshell that he went to dinner last night with Tony… and Sierah was also there. 
Not only is she fuming over his outrageous reason for leaving, but now this – and the fact that she’d spent the entire day with Sierah who didn’t mention the dinner at all.
While some relationships are falling apart, Morena and Tony‘s is… in bloom, and tonight they’re going full #Fashion to make sure everyone knows it.
But they are far from the most surprising 180 this week.
Jacqui and Ryan reconnected over dinner and are now wanting to move past everything that has happened. Maybe even the Photo Ranking? Dare I even suggest it?
Whatever happens next with them, the experiment’s newest matches will have a front row seat as they attend their first Dinner Party.
Well besides Lauren, who will be at her second. Her first with a husband, though!
While she shares her excitement to never speak about Eliot again, unbeknownst to her he’s actually getting ready as well.
First, however, he tries to convince Veronica (and himself) that running away from Lauren on their honeymoon was a noble thing to do.
….And just when I thought we’d be getting into it, things get even more complicated:
Adrian’s back (but still not in the promo).
Awhina’s far from impressed and it unravels into an argument immediately. So, it’ll be separate cars to the shindig then, yeah?!
Cocktail Hour
Morena and Tony get an early entrance to hang with Rhi and Jeff and Jamie and Dave this week – a sure sign that things are back on track!
There is as much gushing over how they’ve turned things around as there is for Tony’s suit.
Jacqui and Ryan arrive arm-in-arm and Jacqui immediately clocks that Rhi is still upset with her for texting Jeff.
She hopes she’ll “get over it”, but with the world’s most dramatic dinner setting approaching… we very much doubt it.
Awhina arrives solo and explains Adrian leaving over a promo.
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And that he demanded an apology from her today.
Yeah, it’s baaaaaad for Adrian.
Billy also arrives solo, but Sierah isn’t far behind him.
Sierah quickly goes to Awhina to apologise for not telling her about the dinner, while Billy watches on angry that she didn’t come to him first.
Things get even more frosty as Adrian arrives, blissfully unaware that he’s not exactly in everyone’s good graces.
He digs his hole even deeper as he tells Awhina to smile and plonks himself right next to Sierah.
Just when you thought we couldn’t possibly fit more chaos into this cocktail hour, Lauren and Clint make their grand entrance.
The group are ecstatic to see her again – and with a husband this time!
But of course, they’re not the only surprise arrival tonight.
In walks Veronica and Eliot, and… eek.
”I turned around and I saw him swishing his hair around and I just found it to be really repulsive,” Lauren reacts. Tell us how you really feel, gal!
She greets him with a very funny “you smell better than before”, but before he can even react – ding, ding! It’s Dinner time!
Dinner Party
Only half of the group have even got bums on seats before Jeff clinks his glass for a very sarcastic toast to Eliot:
”Cheers to Eliot, mate you’ve lasted two more days than your last marriage and also I’ve got a question… why are you here right now?”
Jeff has really stepped up to the gossip plate this week, and I like it a lot.
Eliot says he told them he would leave if he didn’t click with his bride, and he’s a man of his word.
“I’ve done [Lauren] a favour,” he reckons.
Clint asks if he’s okay with how he treated Lauren, and he says “yeah” with a scoff, like that is a very silly question.
Lauren has been listening intently – and she really does not agree with his version of events.
As she recounts her point-of-view, Eliot cracks up laughing.
She also claims Eliot told her what she could and could not talk about, told her he wanted a 25-year-old wife and did not like that Lauren had a nice handbag. I remember that one!
He denies it all and says they had a whole conversation about how they weren’t right for each other.
“You had about five margaritas so you won’t remember,” he says, to groans from around the table.
What. the. hell.
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Eliot claims he was consistent the entire time, to which Clint jumps in to say “consistently s–t”.
Eliot questions Clint’s maturity, before responding like all grown ups would… by mocking him.
Veronica has been watching on and she is not impressed by his complete lack of accountability. She calls Eliot shaming Lauren’s drinking “disgusting” and will not let him weasel out of it.
Meanwhile, Lauren is really impressed by Clint’s defense of her.
Thankfully, Dave soon breaks a chair and it’s the out we all need.
After everyone gushes over Beth and Teejay and Morena and Tony, Jacqui wants to show that she and Ryan are also part of the strong-relationship club.
She asks him to say 10 things he likes about her, right now, in front of everyone.
“I like that she’s fit and healthy, she eats very well,” he suggests.
Jeff and Dave grill Ryan for saying he was “done” with Jacqui are the wedding, yet sitting here tonight talking about their future together (and how much he likes that she eats fruit and veg).
Ryan sees it as people trying to tear them apart, but to be fair, they’ve been doing an OK job of that themselves so far.
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Jacqui apologises to Rhi for contacting Jeff behind her back and while Rhi accepts it, she’s keen to keep her at arms-length from now on.
Suddenly, Billy clinks his glass.
They’ve addressed everyone else’s mess, and now it’s time to talk about his.
He gives Awhina the floor and she lays everything out from her perspective, before Adrian tells the group he left because he was the only one not in the promo.
“I was not there!” Jacqui yells out.
”I wasn’t there!” Morena agrees.
The more he explains it, the less anyone understands.
“This man ain’t here for the right reasons,” Jamie tells the camera.
Jeff – gossip king! – questions why Adrian hasn’t apologised to Awhina for leaving, but Adrian dodges it.
Then he tries to say Awhina is gaslighting him.
As she protests, he starts: “This is the problem, females…”
FEMALES?
”Tell us about the females please Adrian,” Alessandra reacts from the expert’s table, while John simply scoffs at the sheer audacity.
Then, Awhina bursts: “Why were you at dinner with Sierah on Saturday night?” 
Adrian says that Sierah clearly needed a friend, but Awhina explains that she was also upset but he left her to cry at home alone.
Sierah assures her that all they did at dinner was share “a plate of meat” and that Tony was also there.
She apologises for not being forthcoming with Awhina, prompting Billy to react “what about me?”
Tony, who may or may not have joined in on the sharing of meat, explains that it was just a casual dinner, but given that Awhina and Billy already felt confused by Adrian and Sierah’s friendship, Billy isn’t having it.
As he has a go at Adrian, Adrian laughs.
Turns out, he’s had a bombshell up his sleeve this whole time.
“What about when you called me and said you wanted to do a wife swap?” Adrian says.
The table erupts. You cannot say that!
“That is just horrendous behaviour,” John reacts, as the experts groan.
“I’ll openly admit I said that. I was fuming with what I’d heard,” Billy responds.
Sierah, Adrian and Tony leave the table to debrief privately, sans meat plate this time, and Jeff – JEFF, AGAIN – draws the group’s attention to it.
Billy knows he shouldn’t have mentioned a wife swap, but says he stands by it because he doesn’t trust Sierah.
In the corner, Adrian jokes that maybe they should just do it.
”We should just do that wife swap… we should f–king do it, f–k them both,” he laughs.
WOW, THAT WAS A LOT.
We need a Commitment Ceremony to unpack this all, pronto.
Sunday cannot come soon enough!
Married At First Sight airs Sunday at 7pm and Monday to Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
Stream every episode of Married At First Sight for free on 9Now
CREDIT: By Chelsea McLaughlin at Nine Entertainment
Please note: This recap first appeared on 9Now located HERE
Please note: This recap was written by Chelsea McLaughlin and made available on TV Central with permission by Nine
TV Central Nine content HERE
Recap | Married at First Sight Season 12 Episode 16
