Where did we leave things off? That’s right, Tayla storming out of the Commitment Ceremony.
And while the bride threatened to go back to Tasmania, it seems she didn’t make it much further than Skye Suites.
Hugo is “still reeling” from last night’s Commitment Ceremony but knocks on Tayla’s front door with a coffee in hand hoping to hash everything out.
But Tayla “doesn’t really want to talk to Hugo” after being left to feel like she’d been thrown under the bus. “I feel pretty betrayed,” Tayla tells cameras.
Despite her feelings, she lets Hugo in and she’s quick on his case about “blatantly lying” to the experts, but Hugo reminds Tayla that him “expressing his feelings isn’t lying.”
After a bit of back and forth Tayla invites Hugo to move back into the apartment, and while that’s music to Hugo’s ears it appears the invitation didn’t come from the most pure place.
“I didn’t want to argue anymore. The truth is I told Hugo what he wanted to hear,” Tayla admits to cameras.
“It definitely makes things easier going into The Retreat.”
Ahh yes, The Retreat. Because everyone is living so harmoniously under separate roofs, things can only get better as all the couples head off to a four-day getaway on the same property.
The thought of living in such close quarters with some of the other brides and grooms has got everyone talking.
Harrison predicts it will be “a blood bath” while Claire is hopeful that there’ll be no drama. Even still she has requested “no glass and paper cups only”, just in case.
The Retreat
Calling dibs on a bed at The Retreat is like an all out Hunger Games war. Melinda and Evelyn come out on top when they nab the retreat’s second guest house.
Tayla also has a win – in her books – when she claims a room with two single beds so that Hugo can’t get anywhere near her. But it’s a request Hugo is happy to respect.
And Claire and Jesse discover a silver lining when The Retreat’s sleeping arrangements means that they’ll share a room and a bed for the first time in a long time.
“Jesse and I are great at the funny, friendly banter but we really lack intimacy so I’m really hoping that this retreat can romanticise us a little bit,” Claire tells cameras.
Welcome Drinks
In the spirit of turning over a new leaf, Hugo says he’s happy to respect Tayla’s “no intimacy rule”.
But as soon as those words leave his mouth he overhears Tayla telling the other brides this: “I’ve got a super high sex drive, like my friends think I’m a freak. My ex and I went to pound town every day like multiple times a day. Four times minimum.
“Weekends were sex marathons. It was like, how many times today can we have sex. And we’d be having sex ten times a day on Saturday.”
At this point Hugo’s ears start bleeding.
“That’s a huge slap in the face,” Hugo tells cameras.
While Tayla is running around telling the girls her X-rated passions, Hugo isn’t even allowed to give her a kiss on the cheek. He says “it’s pretty clear that she just has a problem with him.”
For some unknown reason, Tayla continues talking and even admits that her ex messaged her the other day hinting at phone sex.
“I knew nothing about sexting, and why is sexting an OK thing to do with your ex,” Hugo vents to cameras.
“I don’t even know how to feel.”
Tayla potentially sexting her ex to the side, Harrison thinks there are more pressing issues to address – like his theory that the butt dial never happened. He and Bronte even staged a fake butt dial to prove that it’s not possible.
Harrison goes in guns blazing for Evelyn and Rupert. He says he no longer trusts Rupert – although Rupert is unphased by this – and calls Evelyn “rude” and “arrogant”.
Off the back of this latest tirade, the bride bring up their gripe about Bronte and Harrison always making snide comments at the Dinner Parties and Commitment Ceremonies and Bronte is the one facing the music.
“They murmur things under their breath like two little vicious undesexed chihuahuas and I’m over it,” Evelyn tells cameras.
Bronte plays the dutiful wife and defends Harrison’s behaviour. “I’m never going to be able to control him, I’ll always have his back no matter what,” Bronte tells them.
In that very moment the girls come to the conclusion that Bronte has been brainwashed. “It’s hard to watch,” Melinda tells cameras.
Collectively, the brides try to coax Bronte out of the deep state of hypnosis that Harrison has apparently put her in.
“I just want to make sure that she’s not losing herself and repeating old patterns,” Melinda tells cameras.
Claire says: “I know emotional manipulation when I see it.”
But Bronte isn’t having a bar of it and thinks that the girls are saying these things out of “jealousy”. “They just want what Harrison and I have,” she says.
“I just think that you’re being a little naïve,” Melinda reinforces the message.
But that word is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Bronte “feels attacked” and storms off from the table.
“I’m so happy,” Bronte says, wiping tears from her eyes.
Girls’ and Boys’ Night
After spending the day apart, Duncan gets a frosty reception from Alyssa after she expresses her annoyance that he spent most of his day with the boys.
Alyssa says she had “no idea where Duncan was all day” despite them being at a retreat where no one can step off the property.
Duncan thought she wanted to spend the day with the girls and apologises for reading the situation wrong.
“I don’t understand why Duncan can’t apologise and give me what I need,” Alyssa tells cameras. Umm didn’t he just apologise?
“Give me attention, I need attention because I haven’t had any. I’ve had none,” Alyssa sobs to Duncan.
In an effort to make things right Duncan offers Alyssa the attention she just asked for by offering her a hug, but Alyssa declines.
Still upset from their argument, Alyssa later drops this bombshell at the Girls’ Night: “Duncan is not physically my type at all.”
The brides audibly gasp and Claire spits out her drink, well, because Duncan is everybody’s type.
Duncan and Alyssa separately vent to the brides and grooms about their argument, and let’s just say Alyssa’s version was a dramatic reenactment while Duncan’s was an accurate recount of what happened.
“I don’t want to paint him in a bad light, but he makes me out to be a person that’s very needy and very naggy and I don’t want to be that person,” Alyssa says.
From one drama to the next, Bronte decides to bite the bullet and confront Melinda.
“To be called naïve was offensive,” Bronte tells Melinda.
“I hope it wasn’t a gang up thing because that’s not where we were coming from,” Melinda says.
“We’ve all been in relationships where we didn’t know until the end that they were s–t relationships.”
But Bronte assures everyone that her and Harrison are legitimate and that they’re even talking about her moving from Perth to Sydney to be with him.
Evelyn sums up everyone’s feelings when she says this to cameras: “I feel like Bronte right now needs an exorcism because she has the devil talking in her ear and the devil is Harrison.”
In need of something else to do apart from pointlessly trying save Bronte from Harrison, Melinda and Evelyn decide to eavesdrop on the Boys’ Night.
“Let’s go on an adventure and then we’ll report back to the girls,” Evelyn says.
This can only be… disastrous.
Married At First Sight continues Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 7.00pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
