Love Is Blind has brought more than its fair share of chaotic couples to Netflix, but perhaps none have been quite as baffling as Kwame Appiah and Chelsea Griffin.
It’s not that these two are particularly volatile; in fact, they’ve practically disappeared during the early episodes of Love Is Blind Season 4. Louder drama from couples like Irina Solomonova and Zack Goytowski (who split up mid-season) or Jackelina “Jackie” Bonds and Marshall Glaze, the latter of whom began dating one of her exes from the pods on screen, have dominated the proceedings so far, allowing Chelsea and Kwame’s utter bizarreness to fly under the radar. The chaos all came out, however, as the couple approached the altar at the end of this week’s episodes, released Friday ahead of the season finale next week.
As always, Love Is Blind’s penultimate episode left us on a cliffhanger, as Chelsea and Kwame stood at the altar and said their vows. She’s said yes, but we’ll have to wait until next week to see what he says. Regardless of whether Kwame does plan to say yes, we should all be asking another, more important question: Should these two be saying “yes,” given that they don’t seem to see eye to eye on basically anything?
It’s a mystery that should haunt all Love Is Blind fans for many seasons to come: How has the commitment between Chelsea and Kwame remained so reliable, even as Kwame seems to seize every opportunity to complain about all the sacrifices and concessions and compromises he’s making?
The bumps in Kwame and Chelsea’s road ahead have been obvious from the beginning, when Kwame said “yes” to Chelsea days after Micah Lussier turned down his early proposal. Once the two cleared that hurdle, it was time to go on a quick three-hour trip from Seattle, where most of this season’s singles live, to Kwame’s apartment in Portland, Oregon. Kwame clearly entered the show hoping that whoever he chose would move to Portland for him, but Chelsea—whose family lives in Seattle, and whose job, unlike Kwame’s, is not remote—did not hesitate to shoot that idea down. At that point, those close-ups of the dead plants in Kwame’s apartment started to feel like a conspicuous metaphor.
Kwame seems to have warmed to the idea of moving to Seattle in this week’s episodes—mere days before he and Chelsea head to the altar. Then again, a little rant after his bachelor party seems to indicate otherwise. “I know Seattle’s gonna hate me for this,” Kwame tells producers, “but Seattle, you’re overpriced! You are Lamar Odom with Michael Jordan prices.”
Kwame has not exactly been popular among Love Is Blind fans on social media, some of whom think he’s covered in red flags. (Separately, he’s also faced racist harassment from some fans, prompting both him and Micah to speak out.) Beyond Kwame’s choice to enter a Seattle-based dating show as a Portland native, there’s also the recent revelation that he seems to have previously auditioned for Married at First Sight. Earlier this week, Love Is Blind fans on TikTok spotted Kwame in the Season 10 premiere of Married at First Sight (which aired in 2020) and observed that the two shows share a producer, Kinetic Content. To some, this was further evidence that Kwame might be on Love Is Blind “for the wrong reasons.”
@piebus Watching Married at First Sight Season 10- DC that was filmed in 2019 and I swear it looks Kwame. Do you see it? #loveisblindnetflix #marriedatfirstsight #marriedatfirstsightdc #kwameandchelsea ♬ original sound - Kelly
This week’s episodes found the couple as seemingly unhappy (and yet, steadfastly committed) as ever. We first find Kwame and Chelsea out shopping—she’s trying things on, and he’s making sure everyone knows how bored he is. He also makes sure to complain to producers about how she responded to him asking her if she was OK earlier that morning. (“Do I sound OK?” she allegedly asked—a question that apparently rubbed Kwame the wrong way.) Moments later, when Chelsea dares to tell Kwame that she’s having fun with him, he responds with an icy chuckle. “Are you?” he asks. “Good.”
“We’re getting into the last stretch, and I’m going through a lot,” Kwame tells producers. “I’m trying to find moments when I could be by myself, but wherever I am, I’m in her space. At certain points, it can feel suffocating.”
Chelsea, meanwhile, seems determined to ignore Kwame’s conspicuous misery, much like she dismissed his (honestly valid) concern last week that having kids would make things like traveling and taking vacations more complicated. At the boutique this week, Chelsea forces chocolate covered strawberries on a visibly grumpy Kwame and gets annoyed at his compliment that an outfit she’s trying on is a “tough look.” (She apparently would have preferred a simple, “You’re beautiful.”)
“I’m sorry,” Kwame says, clearly not sorry. “I’m just complimenting you the only way I know how.” He tries to start a serious conversation about their rough morning but cuts it short because Chelsea is smiling at him. In the end, however, he confirms that he can still see himself walking down the aisle and saying “I do.”
An episode later, it’s time for Chelsea to live out a life-long dream while wearing the one thing she and her fiancé seem to agree on: Calvin Klein underwear. They participate in a couples’ boudoir photo shoot, in matching CK sets. Kwame seems hesitant at first, but by the end, he’s into it. The experience seems to solidify a truth for him about their relationship. As he puts it, “There are moments that are tough… but the good has outweighed the bad substantially.”
At the same time, we see that Kwame’s mother—whose displeasure with the engagement came out earlier this season during a clearly re-enacted phone call—is still apparently not thrilled with this arrangement. Chelsea was understandably not pleased this week to find out that Kwame doesn’t want her to take his name until they receive the seal of approval from Mommy Dearest. Before the wedding, he talks to both his siblings, who encourage him to say “yes,” but heading into the ceremony, he still seems very unsure. Wedding bells, or wedding hell? We’ll find out next week!
Obviously, as a reality dating show that keeps its wine glasses opaque to mask its editing, Love Is Blind does not show us every moment in a couple’s relationship. It always feels a little unfair to speculate about these relationships, given how limited our window into them can be. (Consider, for instance, how different Jackie’s on-screen story becomes once you learn that behind the scenes, she was dealing with her father’s terminal illness throughout the season—a detail viewers never learn on screen.) That said, unless they edited all the happy moments out of this one, this writer would pack up the pink shoes and pink nail polish to search for some greener pastures.
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