Love Is Blind creator Chris Coelen and his go-to hosts, Vanessa and (obviously) Nick Lachey, have struck viral gold again. The latest Netflix foray into reality dating, The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On was designed for wide-eyed, slack-jawed marathon viewing. The formula: six couples date one another to find out whether to walk down the aisle or meander away from their current partners.
The cast reunion was dramatic, raw, and at times genuinely uncomfortable—in other words, the exact cocktail we fans of shameless reality TV crave.
The Ultimatum feels tailor-made for Netflix—like a bizarre franken-show that cobbles together the messiness of shows like Are You the One?, the unpredictability of a good Real Housewives season, and the guilty-pleasure voyeurism of shows like Blind Date and Cheaters. One takeaway from the reunion? Both couples who decided to launch themselves out of this “experience” early seem very content with their choices.
That said, at least some of the contestants who stuck around insist that everything they went through in Nick and Vanessa’s House of Relationship Horrors was worth it in the end. Shanique Imari and Randall Griffin, who ended the season engaged, reveal they actually took a six-month break before coming back together better than ever. (They even coordinated outfits!) April Marie and Jake Cunningham might clearly hate one another’s guts, but the former at least is positive they needed this journey to get where they needed to go. The latter, whose insistence he’d been “dragged onto” the show earned its own highlight reel, spent most of the reunion glaring into space.
But the tension between Rae Williams and Isaiah “Zay” Wilson dominated the reunion. The friction began when Rae revealed that she and Jake never went on that trip he invited her on because they felt more healing needed to happen first, and it peaked when they revisited Zay’s hookup with Shanique.
When asked if Zay had told her about the interaction, as Shanique had Randall, Rae said he never did. Instead, she said, he incessantly accused her of doing the same with Jake and became hostile whenever she tried to spend time with Shanique. “You wanna know why there’s not a video of me and Jake in bed like that?” Rae said. “Because that didn’t fucking happen.”
The couple’s relationship appeared tumultuous throughout the season; the two broke up after Zay disappeared after an argument on their last night together. Their official break-up the following morning was uncomfortable to watch, as was their reunion fight.
“Don’t raise your voice at me,” Rae shouted at one point, her voice speeding up. “You’re not gonna make me back down this time. You always yell over me and you want to threaten me? ... What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
At that point, the Lacheys regained control of the room and directed attention to Shanique and Randall’s story of getting back together.
Although they seemed to spark during the show, it doesn’t seem like Jake and Rae ever returned to dating since the show ended. Rae revealed that since the show she’s only been with one person.
“She’s amazing,” Rae said, “and I had a really good connection with her, but you know, we kind of kept it casual and I’m kind of figuring out myself and my sexuality.”
“I was very uncomfortable with being bi for a very long time,” Rae continued as her fellow cast members smiled encouragingly. “Since Zay and I have been done I’ve just been with one girl, and that’s kind of been great, honestly.”
Eager to end on some good news, the Lacheys make sure to follow up with Colby Kissinger and Madlyn Ballatori before the show wraps. They arrived with major news: they’re expecting a girl, whose first present in this world is now a silver sippy cup from the Lacheys.
Alexis Maloney, who might not be Colby’s biggest fan after he snubbed her on the show, made her thoughts clear. As Madlyn and Colby explained how they resolved things after Colby told women in a bar he was in an open relationship, Alexis told her fiancé Hunter Parr, “If you hooked up with somebody off the show, I would be done.”
Speaking with The Daily Beast ahead of the reunion, Madlyn said she and Colby were able to talk things out off-camera before their engagement. “I can handle the confusions, the misunderstandings,” she said. “What I need is someone who can sit there and talk things out with me on my level and Colby was able to do that for me.”
In the end, as with the entire season, it’s tough to know what we’re supposed to feel as the reunion wraps and the Lacheys lead all the contestants in one last awkward questions game. Glee? Confusion? Self-aware shame? Perhaps a mixture of all the above? The Ultimatum Season 2 is already on its way with an entirely queer cast, so regardless, I will definitely be watching.
