“A storm is coming, something is brewing,” Jamie ominously says to partner Dave on the eve of the first Married At First Sight Australia commitment ceremony of the season.
She wasn’t wrong. The shock surprises of who stays and who goes included an unexpected reappearance from gaslight and gapgroom Tim, who (good riddance) we really thought we’d seen the last of.
But don’t worry, his jilted bride Katie sure enough had the last laugh, as her shell of a husband faced some hard truths about his behaviour in front of a brutally vocal group.
John Aiken (right), Mel Schilling and Alessandra Rampolla dissected the relationships of the married couples after living together for a week. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
This penultimate episode saw the couples attend an open forum sit-down with experts John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Alessandra Rampolla.
Here, after dissecting their week living together, they make a call as to whether they stay or leave the experiment.
While couples like Carina and Paul, Rhi and Jeff, Billy and Sierah,and Dave and Jamie were always going to stay considering their loved-up demeanour and blossoming romance, other couples' fates in the experiment were a little more uncertain.
Married life so far has been turbulent for Jacqui and Ryan, with their constant picking on each other’s behaviours, a cause for concern among the experts.
“Ryan deserves a grilling today,” Jacqui asserts to the cameras, which I thought was a rather interesting attitude to go in with considering there clearly needed to be some common ground found between them.
Jacqui and Ryan decided to stay. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
Ryan is ready to pounce, telling experts they “pretty much ignored what we said”, in regard to finding a match, and then going on a tangent about Jacqui not wanting to cook.
The audible laughs and looks of horror from the other couples were likely similar to those across NZ and Australian households; this was a painful and ridiculously awkward watch.
John Aiken knew he had to step in, and assertively told the couple he “wasn’t going to have it”, asking them to look past their superficial standards and go deeper after they both decided to stay.
Ash is still reeling from Jake’s shocking comments about the other women on the show during the photo ranking challenge last week, and things come to a head when it’s their turn to talk.
Billy, whose wife Sierah was labelled by Jake as “someone who looked like she could stab you in your sleep”, came out swinging, agitatedly calling Jake out for his behaviour as the schoolteacher struggled to explain himself.
Jake's disgusting comments shocked his partner Ash and likely most of the public watching. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
One by one, the knives came out as other grooms heard about the way Jake talked about their brides, and for a minute it looked like we’d see yet another walkout.
And we nearly did. Jake said he wanted to leave, but Ash wanted to make it work.
This meant the experts encouraged the couple to stay one more week to see if they could sort things out, a hard ask considering Jake had already ruffled a fair few feathers.
The biggest U-turn of the night came when Adrian and Awhina spoke. In what was an unusually poignant moment for the notoriously closed-off groom, Adrian admitted he was willing to continue the experiment with his single mum bride after originally voicing his uncertainty about being a stepdad.
His speech asserted that he saw his bride’s commitment to her son as a feature he heavily admired, and that her loving nature enhanced his feelings towards her.
Like any perfect melodrama, the finale was always going to be big, and people around the globe would’ve cheered when Katie expertly held her runaway groom Tim to account.
Like the Roman senate ready to take down a traitor, all eyes were locked like daggers on to the gaslighting groom when he waltzed into the room late.
It wasn’t even five minutes into Katie explaining her hurt at his callous rejection and the fact he placed the blame of the failed experiment on her when Tim quipped up.
“I’m not done talking,” she snapped back, leading Jamie to let out a visible show of solidarity.
Tim walked out of the first Mafs dinner party after other guests saw through his gaslighting of Katie. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
Accusing Katie of “not being there for him” and “reading emails and taking phone calls” on their disastrous honeymoon, Tim continued to try to save face and push the blame, but everyone saw right through him, including the experts.
It was inevitable both would leave the experiment, but they did so on vastly different terms and with very different public personas in the fallout.
“A lot of people are going to see this,” Dave told Katie, and he’s 100% right.
They’ll see one personality shine through as a strong, empowered woman and another a devastating depiction of a fragile male ego who refuses to accept criticism.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.
