Love Is Blind hive, the time has finally come again. On Friday, Netflix debuted the Season 2 finale of its most chaotic dating show—and although there were no runaway brides this time, there was still plenty of mess to go around. The season reunion is set for March 4, and given the number of at-the-altar breakups we just witnessed, the conversations seem bound to get spicy.
But without further ado, here’s a breakdown of who said “I do”—and who left the show in tears.
Nick and Danielle
The finale opened on Nick Thompson and Danielle Ruhl’s ceremony. She was nervous and he was sweating (literally), but in the end, the couple said their “I do’s” and decided to leave the show as husband and wife.
“I wasn’t 100 percent sure that she was 100 percent sure,” Nick said during the couple’s post-ceremony interview. “But it all worked out the way that it was supposed to, and that means that I’m a married man and we have a whole life of 50-some-odd years together. I can’t wait.”
Although we observed plenty of arguments between Nick and Danielle, the two have been one of the most consistent couples this season. Let’s be real: we knew it was fate the minute they hung out in Danielle’s Halloween costumes.
“We love each other and we care about each other more than we could ever express to anyone,” Danielle said. “He is my person and he is the person I wanna spend the rest of my life with.”
Now that they’re married, let’s just hope they can finally reach an agreement about where to keep her Rock Band set.
Deeps and Shake
Abhishek “Shake” Chatterjee and Deepti “Deeps” Vempati might have been this season’s most frustrating couple—so it brings me great relief to report that they did not get married. And I’m thrilled to report it’s because Deepti ultimately decided she deserves better.
“I hope you know how much you mean to me and the impact you’ve made on my life,” Deepti told her betrothed at the altar. “But no, I cannot marry you. I deserve somebody who knows for sure. So I’m choosing myself and I’m gonna say no.”
The problem with Deepti and Shake was clear from the very beginning: Not only did Shake openly admit to being shallow while in the pods—something he vowed to work on but never actually did—but he also spent half the season whining that he didn’t feel an “instinctual” physical attraction to his bride-to-be once they left the pods. (Which is insane, honestly, because look at her!)
“He’s not the one for me because if he was, he would make me feel like I was the one, and he never did that,” Deepti told producers after the ceremony.
Shake, who spent the lead-up to his wedding looking like he was preparing for his own funeral, expressed relief at being left at the altar.
“It’s probably for the best, man,” he told friends afterward. “Thank God I didn’t have to say anything. And you know, [it was] very transparent I was the one that was more on the fence.” (Ed note: Clearly, sir, you were not the only one!) He continued: “I was like, ‘Please be the one to reject me! I can handle it! I can take it.’”
After a sweet moment with her mother, who expressed nothing but pride in her daughter’s decision, Deepti spoke her ultimate truth: “I have no fucking regrets.”
Speaking with The Daily Beast (before we’d seen screeners of the finale), Deepti said her experience on the show has “drastically changed” her approach to dating.
While at first she’d put the ball in Shake’s court when it came to deciding the fate of their relationship, Deepti said that ahead of the ceremony, “I took a step back and I was like, ‘Why am I trying to figure out if Shake wants me? Do I even want him?’ And that’s how I’m approaching relationships now.”
“I need to focus on what I want in a person, and not necessarily always try to impress someone else and make sure they want me,” she continued. “That’s old Deepti. We’re gonna move past that.”
Natalie and Shayne
Perhaps the most bewildering couple of the season, Shayne Jansen and Natalie Lee’s was the wedding I was perhaps most curious about going into the finale. The two built an intense bond in the pods, but their communication has always been a mess; he doesn’t like her humor and often gets defensive and even verbally aggressive when prodded the wrong way. And that’s without even mentioning the Shaina of it all.
This week, we learn that Natalie and Shayne had a nasty fight the night before their nuptials, in which she confronted him about drinking too much and he apparently told her that he hated her and thought she was the worst thing that ever happened to him. Not exactly what you want mere hours before your wedding!
Both halves of the couple expressed their doubts going into the ceremony, so it was no surprise when Natalie said she could not have and hold Shayne for as long as they both shall live.
“I’m so glad that we shared this journey together,” she told him. “I think we’ve grown a lot as two people who have fallen in love. I know I’ve grown a lot because of you. But I don’t. I’m so sorry. I’m really sorry, Shayne. I still love you and you’re still my best friend, but like, we have really big issues to sort through.”
“I know,” Shayne replied. “Oh, boy.”
The two tried to talk things out after the ceremony, but soon enough, they picked up their fight from the night before. When Shayne said he meant everything he’d said, Natalie asked if that included telling her he hated her and thought she was the worst thing for him. Given where they left things, it seems likely their reunion next week will be tumultuous at best.
“I’m fucking hurt,” Shayne told producers after he and Natalie parted ways. “I’m hurt, OK? I’m very hurt, I’m very sad. What else do you want to know about it, man? ... I still love her, still think she’s a good person, but do you think I’m actually gonna fucking come back to you after all that kind of stuff again?”
While Natalie still loves Shayne, she said, “I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and it just affirms that I’ve made the right decision for myself.” Looking at Shayne at the ceremony, she said she felt “on edge and scared.”
“Love can only go so far.”
Sal and Mal
Their connection was electric in the pods, but from the moment Mallory Zapata and Salvador Perez stepped into the real world, their relationship seemed to slowly fizzle out. Mallory couldn’t figure out why her attraction to Sal wasn’t there in person, but after some time, the two seemed to get back on their cute, serenade-filled wavelength. (May we all one day meet an opera enthusiast who plays the ukulele!)
Unfortunately, as much love as these two might have for one another, it was not enough. They shared heartfelt declarations of love at the altar, but when asked if he wanted to marry Mallory, Sal tearfully admitted he couldn’t.
“I feel like I need more time,” he said. And when she told him, “It’s OK,” you could tell she meant it.
Sal apologized to Mal’s family—good move!—and eventually the two sat down to talk things out. It’s unclear what their future might be, but it seems they haven’t ruled out getting to know one another the old-fashioned way.
When asked if he wanted to continue dating, Sal replied, “I just need to take a few days, yeah? Let’s take some time away from all this and let’s talk... I think what we should do next is go on a date.”
Although Mal said she would “love that,” she was also, naturally, a little hurt. “I’ve given 100 percent of myself,” she told producers, “and just... I don’t know. I was terrified of putting myself out there and getting hurt. I don’t let a lot of people in.”
When asked what, if anything, he would have done differently this season, Sal told The Daily Beast, “I would’ve not held back as much when it comes to arguments on camera and whatnot, you know? Because I feel like that’s part of the experience too, and that’s part of relationships. And I think it’s key to the story as well. You know, I would’ve leaned more into that—more into just hashing things out with Mallory.”
Iyanna and Jarrette
There has been no cuter couple this season than Jarrette Jones and Iyanna McNeely—so it came as no surprise that in the end, they became the success story to wrap this finale up.
Sure, Jarrette had that connection with Mal in the beginning—and yeah, he’s going to have to prove to Iyanna that he’s capable of chilling out from all that partying as a married man. But have you seen these two? They were always going to walk down the aisle, and I have never loved a predictable ending more.
Iyanna told The Daily Beast during a recent interview that although navigating the Jarrette-Mallory of it all “was definitely an uncomfortable thing to go through,” the hurdle “ultimately made our foundation a bit stronger.”
“I think the fact that I trusted him and I put my faith in him, and he proved to me that I’ll be a priority, that meant a lot to me,” she said.
Although producers tried to hint at the possibility that Jarrette and Iyanna might not get married, their fate seemed sealed before the episode even began. And if anyone had doubts going in, I must imagine those dissolved the moment Jarrette told producers, through what can only be described as a euphoric smile, “I love Iyanna to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond.” At the altar, things only got more delightfully earnest as the two self-proclaimed “thugs” tried not to cry.
“I feel so understood with you,” Iyanna told her fiancé. “I feel so loved by you. And that has never happened. I just feel like I’m supposed to be with you. You were made for me, and I was made for you.”
Jarrette, meanwhile, said Iyanna “showed me that I’m able to be loved the way that I wanted to be loved.”
“No other woman has accepted me for who I am, flaws and all,” he said. “You took me and you cared for me, you nurtured me, and this all happened through walls. And I knew that this was something that was real, something that was strong, and something that could withstand the test of time. And I know that it’s only gonna get better. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
The words that clinched it? Iyanna’s “Ditto, dude.”
Now we know why when asked by The Daily Beast if she would change anything about her journey this season, Iyanna responded with a light-hearted giggle and said, “I don’t think I would change anything.”
