Love Is Blind: After the Altar seems to be developing a little problem: Couples keep breaking up before the specials make it to air. Last year, it was Jarette Jones and Iyanna McNeely, and Nick Thompson and Danielle Ruhl. This time around, it’s Sikiru “SK” Alagbada and Raven Ross—a couple whose journey might be the most compelling and, ultimately, upsetting relationship the show has produced so far. Friday’s three-part reunion is, as always, a carnival of emotional carnage.
But who do we think should take home the prize as this season’s Most Outstanding Heel? Bartise Bowden is still breadcrumbing Nancy Rodriguez, and Matt Bolton keeps talking about his passion for deliberately annoying people while Colleen Reed sits next to him looking very uncomfortable. Alexa and Brennon Lemieux still seem to be doing well as a married couple, but Cole Barnett is still acting shocked that Zanab Jaffrey left him while also saying he wants someone who looks “good in a bikini.” Is it just me, or did all of the villains of this season show up ready to be their worst selves?
Here, for your perusal, are some of the most explosive moments from the reunion.
Why, SK, Why?!
Of all the couples we’ve met this season, Raven and SK were the easiest to root for. There was an odd chemistry to their relationship; SK, an MBA student, brought out the sweet, slightly dorky side hiding under Raven’s guarded facade. The two did not get married at the end of Love Is Blind Season 3, but they stayed together to work on their relationship long distance. In After the Altar, these two seemed ready to try things out again. Too bad viewers already knew they’d broken up.
Raven and SK split up last November following cheating rumors that had emerged on TikTok in April. In a joint statement, the couple wrote, “We are saddened to announce that we have decided to go our separate ways. Due to the on-going legal proceedings surrounding these allegations, we can not provide additional details and ask that you please respect our privacy during this hard time.”
It didn’t bode well during the reunion when SK’s friend joked at the ring shop that he should ask about cancellations and returns. When he got down on one knee, she cried. Right after that, on-screen text that confirms, “A few months later the engagement ended.” Cut to self-facing camera footage of Raven crying on her couch and saying, “That really sucks.”
“My world is completely different because SK cheated on me, and our relationship is now over,” Raven says, adding later, “I really was so invested in the person that everyone saw and everyone loved. That’s the person I saw and I loved every day, too. So to see everything that has happened since then is so hard.”
Can Someone Come Get Cole?
Just like during the cast’s first reunion, Cole appears to have become the designated heel of After the Altar—not that he seems to mind too much. “Am I anticipating drama? 100 percent!” he says at one point. “I attract drama. I wake up in the morning and I manifest drama. It just comes to me.”
He’s not wrong; When the group gathers for Alexa’s birthday party, Cole becomes a magnet for drama. He loudly and repeatedly harps on Alexa’s stepmother’s age, for one thing, and his conversation with Zanab doesn’t go much better: He reiterates his confusion over the break-up, and she continues to imply that his confusion is a ruse. “Forget that you didn’t like the way I looked, she says at one point. “You didn’t like the person [I was].”
“I just didn’t want there to be tension,” a clearly resentful Cole says as the conversation winds to an underwhelming close. “Okay,” an emphatically calm Zanab shoots back. “No tension.” (Reader, there was nothing but tension.)
At least viewers can sleep soundly at night knowing in their hearts that Cole is remorseful. “I do want to live with somebody and have kids and be a dad and a husband,” he says. “I’m 27 years old, so I’m to the point where I want to meet someone smart and beautiful and funny—and someone that looks good in a bikini.”
Brennon Still Really Hates Cole, but He and Alexa Are Doing Great!
Alexa and Brennon appear to still live in the throes of marital bliss. Their families eat meals together peacefully, and throughout the special they rave about the benefits of marriage and discuss possibly having a baby together. “Alexa and Brennon are like our trophy couple,” Zanab says. “They are the example that the experiment works.”
Brennon and Cole, on the other hand, are still very much not cool. During Alexa’s birthday party, Bartise grabs Cole just after his rude comments to Alexa’s stepmother, dragging him over to Brennon. Cole opens with—I kid you not—“Happy birthday to your wife.” You’ll be shocked to learn that the conversation does not go well.
Brennon called Cole out during the first reunion for his treatment of Zanab, and he has not changed his stance now that “things weren’t handled appropriately.” Zanab and Alexa—Brennon’s wife—are friends, and Brennon seems to have little patience for Cole as a person.
Cole tries to smooth things over by telling Brennon, “I wake up every day and I am intending to be a better man,” but as Brennon is not having it. “I don’t think anybody fucking wakes up and tries to be a worse person,” he shoots back. “...What the fuck have you done to become a better person?”
Nancy’s Mom Still Thinks Bartise Is “S-H-I-T”
Bartise was perhaps the most reviled villain of Love Is Blind Season 3, and he doesn’t do himself too many favors during the reunion; Nancy makes sure to point out when they first meet that she’s drinking an old fashioned in the middle of the day to “take the edge off.” The two say they’re trying to be friends, but it mostly seems like Nancy wants to get back together and Bartise enjoys the attention.
Fans might recall that Nancy’s mother and brother are not exactly huge fans of Bartise after he rejected her at the altar. They’re not exactly thrilled when she tells them that she and Bartise have been trying to be friends—and that she’ll be seeing him at Alexa’s birthday party. “You’re trying to work on this so-called friendship with him, but at the end of the day, you’re not finding the right one because you’re still holding onto memories,” her mother tells her. And in the meantime, what is this friendship really doing for her?
Nancy’s mother later adds her belief that Bartise is still a piece of “S-H-I-T.”
After speaking with both her family and the other women, Nancy says she feels “empowered to put myself first” and kick Bartise to the curb. Bartise, ever the mature gentleman, takes it about how you’d expect. “It seems like everybody’s getting in her head and she’s using what they’re saying to protect herself because she doesn’t want to look like the dumb ex that keeps running back to me,” Bartise says—demonstrating why the Internet has given him nicknames like “Barfsneeze.” Can’t wait to see this guy on Perfect Match next week…
*Dramatic Thunder Clap*
Of all the couples, Matt and Colleen might be the most confusing of the bunch. To quote Raven, “there’s just weird vibes” around them. The two have continued to live apart since the show ended, in spite of being married.
They plan to move in together soon, but they can’t seem to find a compromise that would suit both of them—about the house or anything else. He wants to live here, and she wants to live there. He wants a new house, and she’d prefer an old one—and he can’t help but treat that preference with condescension. A loud thunder clap crackles in the background as the two bicker about whether or not Matt’s dachshund is getting neutered, accentuating the aforementioned dire vibes.
“Me and Matt are really good right now,” Colleen tells the other women at one point. “We were butting heads a lot the first six months because we're both very stubborn … Now we’re in an extremely obnoxious honeymoon phase.”
As Raven observes, however, the two seem to fight a lot. Matt’s parents seem bewildered by their living situation while they discuss it over lunch—where Colleen and his mother discuss his admitted hobby of deliberately pestering people, including by poking them. (“That’s my love language,” Matt says. “I like to annoy you.” Charming!) And Brennon can’t help but prod Matt about it at the guys’ solo reunion, where he astutely pointed out, “It’s been a year, though.”
Asked what’s next for the Boltons, Colleen avoided getting too specific: “The next thing for the Boltons is to just continue to be on this great path.” Will these two ultimately be able to make it to shared living and homeownership? I can’t even pretend to know, but I’m sure we’ll find out at the next reunion.
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