Recap | Married at First Sight on Channel 9 – After last night’s chaotic Reunion Dinner Party, Ollie called for “some referees up in this joint”.
Never fear Ollie, the experts are here tonight for the Reunion Commitment Ceremony and they’re ready to blow the whistle on some of the participants’ behaviour.
The experts kick off the evening with a montage of wedding day highlights. There’s plenty of giggles and Melissa’s wedding day butt grab gets a heavy chuckle from the crowd.
There’s also some piercing side eyes – notably from Bronte and Sandy who reminisce on the high hopes they had for their marriages.
And on that note the experts call up the first couple to the couch…
Tahnee and Ollie
The star pupils take the couch to show everyone how it’s done for one final time.
As expert Mel Schilling asks for a relationship update, Tahnee and Ollie deliver an influx of good news.
Since Final Vows, they’ve confessed their love for one another, are planning a holiday to Perth and they are moving in together in Sydney!
It’s full steam ahead for the lovebirds.
Ollie admits the interstate move is “daunting as hell” but says “there’s a part of him there in Sydney and that’s Tahnee”. Cue the awws.
It’s an A+ from the experts and Mel demands they “stay in touch” so she can “hear about all the babies in the future”.
Sandy and Dan
From a fairytale ending to an absolute car crash, Sandy and Dan are up next and the experts are trying to pinpoint where it all unravelled for the two.
While Sandy says Dan “never came here with the right intentions”, it’s hard to go past the butt dial scandal as a serious turning point for the couple.
The fiasco outed Dan – and Hugo for that matter – for talking smack about their wives behind their back. But in case Dan or anyone else has forgotten how it all unfolded, the experts have a nice little montage to play as a reminder.
What no one would’ve remembered is what Hugo had to say when he was preparing to share everything about the Boys’ Night in his camera confessional.
But thankfully cameras captured it and the experts are pressing play right about now…
“You had Dan being like, ‘I can’t stand her but I’ll just say yes to try and make it to the end.’ Saying things like, ‘She is the last person that I’d be attracted to’ and ‘She’s 100 percent not my type,'” Hugo can be heard talking to producers.
And if looks could kill, Hugo would be flatlining because Dan is giving him the biggest dirty ever.
When John asks Dan if he said those things Hugo is suggesting, Dan pulls an age old strategy – the amnesia card.
“I don’t recall saying that,” Dan buckles.
Something else Dan doesn’t recall saying are these shocking comments prior to being intimate with Sandy…
“He was saying things like ‘I don’t understand why you only want to get intimate in the dark. I’m not vibing with this Sandy’ and ‘I date girls who walk around in skimpy clothes,'” Sandy divulges.
Hearing how bad it sounds when you actually say it aloud, Dan decides to jump in.
“No way I did not say those things,” he stands firm.
Sandy still doesn’t understand why Dan continued to stay, she worries if it was just to lead her on. But Dan says “no, no no, no”.
“Dan I’ve sat hear tonight and been counting the amount of time ‘no’ comes out of your mouth and it is a lot,” John Aiken chimes in.
Like John, we’ve also been keeping a tally of the amount of times Dan has said ‘no’ and we’re currently at 13 and that’s not even including all the head shakes, “I categorically disagrees” and “I don’t remembers”.
John tells Dan all the no’s have “got to stop”. “It dismisses her, it invalidates her opinion, her feelings and it makes her feel small and insignificant,” he says.
“This is a pretty hard watch tonight Dan.”
Indeed it is John, indeed it is.
Melinda and Layton
Power couple Melinda and Layton take a seat and the experts want to take a look back at how their relationship went from zero to hero.
Melinda says that when she “didn’t feel that initial spark” with Layton she was “a little bit let down” but Mel Schilling points to the couple as a textbook example of how great a “slow burn” can be.
“Although that initial bam moment might not be there, if you persevere and do the work – and you guys really have done the work – then you can actually get that happy ending,” Mel applauds the pair.
And while Mel is impressed with the couple’s hard work, John is particularly impressed with Layton for pushing himself out of that Mr. CEO mindset.
As for what the future for Melinda and Layton looks like…
“Whatever happens, I just want Layton there. Hopefully children, hopefully marriage – five children – hopefully all of that,” Melinda gushes.
“I just see him always with me, wherever we go.”
Lyndall and Cameron
The experts aren’t mucking around tonight and Mel questions Cameron over last night’s Dinner Party fiasco.
Cameron cuts to the chase: “I got my d–k out in a nightclub.”
“That wasn’t my question, but thanks for sharing,” Mel smirks.
“What I’m actually interested in is the nature of your relationship with Tayla.”
Cam sticks to his guns and says “there’s nothing going on there.
“I got naked in a nightclub whilst my phone was on FaceTime to Tayla and one of the boys was holding it.”
But Mel is no fool and puts the nudity to one side and gets to the crux of the problem – why was Cameron on FaceTime with Tayla in the first place?
“Because I’m mates with Tayla,” Cam snaps back. He says the experts can dig as much as they like, they won’t find anything.
So Mel changes her tactic and turns to the weak link – Tayla.
“I really like Cam as a friend, we get along really, really well. There’s not much to it, he’s up in Darwin I’m down in Tassie,” Tayla says.
“It hasn’t been explored…yet.”
YET!? The one word has the entire group reeling.
“Not that it is going to be explored,” Tayla tries to catch herself.
“Oh no I didn’t mean to say that.”
“I said that if Cam was in Tassie, then perhaps, but he’s not. He’s on the other side of Australia which makes it really hard.”
And just like that, Tayla’s foot-in-mouth disease confirms that she and Cam are definitely more than “just mates”.
“I think that’s where it ends there. Nail in the coffin,” Cameron wraps up the disaster.
With her suspicions confirmed, Lyndall says that Tayla and Cameron’s relationship was “the missing piece” that “made everything makes sense”.
She leaves Cameron with these strong parting words: “I’m telling you to do better. And you should’ve done that the whole experiment. Be better.”
Alyssa and Duncan
“You were very angry last night and had a lot of hurtful things to say about Duncan,” Alessandra Rampolla addresses Alyssa’s Dinner Party outburst.
“I feel like Duncan led me through this experiment saying ‘I want to work through this together with you’ and then for him at the end to say ‘No it’s not for me’ I just didn’t expect it. So yeah I just feel like I didn’t know who he was,” Alyssa explains herself.
But Duncan thinks “that is just not fair”.
“My heart was in it, I wanted it to work. I didn’t come here to go to the end and then not be in love and it sucks,” Duncan says.
They take a trip down memory lane and look back at the relationship – the good, the bad and the ugly.
“It’s not everyday you can watch a relationship crumble in front of your face,” Alyssa reflects.
And having watched their relationship from start to finish, she finally comes to her senses.
“Watching it back, I should’ve absolutely seen it coming,” she says.
“There were a lot of times where I probably shouldn’t have just walked away and I shouldn’t have been emotionally charged and been able to sit in a conversation and really hash things out with Duncan and give him what he needed.”
At that moment, Duncan’s heart sinks as Alyssa’s realisation comes too late.
“I do regret a lot of things through this experiment and I never wanted to hurt Duncan and so I really am sorry. I’m sorry,” the bride apologises.
And with the exes finally patching things up, Duncan leaves Alyssa with these parting words: “We’re broken up but I still want to say that you’re an amazing woman and I think that you should hold yourself with the confidence that you should have about yourself.”
Claire and Jesse
For a couple that endured a cheating scandal and ended up going their separate ways, Alessandra says it’s “very refreshing” to see exes on such good terms.
And yes, we’re peeping Claire and Jesse resting their hands on one another. Eeppp!
Like all the couples gone before they take a trip down memory lane although with all the ups and downs theirs is notably harder to watch.
After watching Claire and Jesse’s relationship montage, just about everyone needs a tissue or an escape route – yes, we’re looking at you Adam.
Claire agrees it was “really hard to watch”. “I’m disgusted in myself and embarrassed by my behaviour, my lying by gaslighting Jesse and telling him he has nothing to worry about when I knew that he did, yeah it’s pretty s–t,” she admits.
And just when Adam thought that keeping his head down and staying quiet was a fail-proof strategy, John calls on him to comment on the cheating scandal.
But let’s give Adam a bit more credit, with weeks gone by he’s had some time to reflect.
“I’m sorry about the whole thing, I’ve had time to think about it all and the fact of the matter is I did you wrong and I did you dirty and same with Janelle,” he apologises.
Jesse is finally ready to accept the apology: “We might not be full buds going forward but I wish you the best.”
The charismatic groom jokes the experiment has taught him to “trust his intuition” and thankfully it’s not too soon for the cheeky swipe at Claire and Adam.
“I’ve also learned that I can be better, to know that there is more of myself to realise and grow into. Cause I thought coming into this that I was a good guy, but I feel like now I’m an even better guy,” he adds.
Claire chimes in saying that “the end of the experiment was the beginning of a new leaf”.
“I want to be able to continue that,” she says.
“I have a lot of kind, happy, great feelings about Jesse,” Claire raves.
And while Claire has lovely parting words for Jesse, he has none for Claire… because Claire is going to Perth with Jesse!!!
“My parting words now are ‘See you in Perth,'” he grins.
“Watch this space,” expert Mel says.
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