‘Love Is Blind’ Finale Recap: Guys, Stop Faking Out Your Fiancées!

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Love Is Blind Season 6, Episode 12.)

At this point, we all probably knew that Jimmy and Chelsea were bound for disaster on Love Is Blind. In fact, one could argue that it’s been clear ever since their first meeting, when he looked into the camera from over her shoulder with a look of utter misery on his face. She’s been insecure throughout their relationship for reasons both questionable and understandable, and he’s been brushing her off with ridiculous excuses like, “I bit my lip.”

All of that said, however, the way this couple’s break-up went down during Love Is Blind’s Season 6 finale on Wednesday was a specific kind of infuriating. It also reflects a broader trend in a season full of men who seem incapable of expressing their true feelings.

After a seemingly lovely night at the carnival, Jimmy sat down to pose the tough question at the core of this experience: “Are we gonna get married?” he asked Chelsea. “Because I haven’t even got a grasp on where you’re at. Where are you at with being able to give an answer?”

Chelsea’s long and careful answer essentially boiled down to, “This hasn’t been easy, and I still have some questions, but yes.” Then, Jimmy hit her with an all-time classic maneuver: “Every day, you’ve done exactly what I would want in a wife. I love you to death, and I want a relationship with you, and I want us to work so bad, but I don’t wanna go to the altar. I can’t.”

Um... Excuse me?

It’s not that the sentiment behind Jimmy’s words was unreasonable. By all accounts, these two people have absolutely no business getting married. They couldn’t make it one episode without fighting, and the nature of their arguments—particularly from Chelsea’s side—speaks to deeper issues they should absolutely work out before they say “I do.” The problem is that Jimmy clearly knew that already, even before he asked Chelsea how she was feeling. The way he worded his initial question made it seem as though he was ready to commit if she was, but after she went out on a limb, he snapped it behind her and let it fall to the ground. As I watched it all play out, I couldn’t help but feel like he’d been hoping she’d say “no” first to save him from having to do so himself.

Jimmy’s detached attitude toward Chelsea this season has not been as bad as, say, his castmate Kenneth choosing to glue himself to his phone and ignore his fiancée, Brittany, after they moved in together. (That break-up was even more frustratingly indirect: When Brittany asked where the passion had gone in their relationship, he turned it around by saying she hadn’t wanted to be intimate with him after he came home late and woke her up. After they ended things, he seemingly left her crying alone to go hang out with a friend.) Still, Jimmy’s lack of emotional availability has been a frustrating constant, even with his pod ex, Jess—who called him out for saying his feelings should “go without saying.”

Chelsea clearly did not see Jimmy’s wedding answer coming, either. “We were just picking our songs for walking into the fucking reception,” she said, flabbergasted. “Are you kidding me?” Cue another horrible argument about the friend he once slept with, the ex with whom she maintains contact, and a bunch of other ancillary issues that have nothing to do with the core problems of this relationship. We’ll have to check in at the reunion, but from the looks of things, these two are definitely done, and that’s probably for the best.

With Jimmy and Chelsea off the board, only two couples made it to the altar in the end—Clay and Amber “AD” Desiree, and Johnny and Amy. I’ll give you one guess as to which of these couples actually wound up saying “I do,” and which one crashed and burned.

Things started out promising as the couples made their way to their shared bachelor/ette parties. Clay and Johnny enthusiastically toasted to groomdom with their bros and talked about how this experiment changed them, while Amy and AD gabbed about how mad they’d be if either of their dudes backed out at the last minute. A tipsy AD also lightheartedly joked around with producers about Amy and Johnny’s supposed abstinence as they figure out their birth-control situation. “Good for her,” AD said with a grin, “but she’s fucking that man!”

(Side note: Throughout this season, AD’s commentary has been top-notch. As an on-screen figure, she’s the perfect mix of playful and sincere: She took the scourge-of-a-bachelor Matthew to task for giving her and a fellow contestant the same romantic speeches, asked Kenneth how he was thinking about how his interracial relationship could affect his future children, and even called out Sarah Ann out last week for texting her pod ex Jeramey when he was still engaged to Laura. Can we get her on as a host or consultant of some kind for future seasons? Because our current hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey barely show up anyway, and AD deserves something nice after the mess that came next during this finale!)

AD and Clay hit the altar first, and for a while, everything seemed perfect. The necklace he’d given her matched her dress perfectly, and her mother seemed thrilled after meeting AD’s future mother-in-law. Clay’s father, whose infidelity toward Clay’s mother scarred his son as a child, showed up and seemed supportive of the match. AD and Clay were relaxed and adorable at the altar, joking around and beaming at one another like two people prepared to say “yes.” Clay gave a beautiful speech about what a “fantastic team” they are.

But then, when asked if they would take one another as spouses, AD said “I do,” while Clay hit her with this mess: “AD, I love you. I don’t think it’s responsible for me to say ‘I do.’ But I want you to know that I’m rocking with you. ...I’m gonna put in the work for you, and we’ll go through this together.” AD responded how pretty much anyone would—with a “What the fuck?”

Again, I say: There’s nothing illogical about Clay’s answer. He has clearly been struggling with the idea of this commitment all season, and, as AD’s mother observed, he’s still carrying the burden of his parents’ marital problems on his own back. Still, could he really not have figured this out before his self-described “game-time decision” at the altar?

After helplessly asking his parents, “Should I go talk to her?”, Clay then explained to his fiancée that he couldn’t make a lifelong decision based on just a couple amazing weeks. He asked her for a hug and plastered her with kisses that she really did not seem to want, seemingly forgetting that she’d already said she did not want to date after the show if he could not commit to its timeline. It’s unclear whether or not she’ll stick to that assertion, but if she does, his promise to go to therapy is going to be just one small step on a long road ahead.

In a first for Love Is Blind, Clay and AD’s disastrous experience at the altar prompted producers to follow up with Clay’s parents. Clay has spent the season describing how his father’s cheating affected him as a child; he even recalled going on “infidelity trips” with his dad growing up. After Clay said “no” at the altar, his mother challenged his father to own up to what he’d done, apologize, and help Clay break the traumatic cycle. “He struggles with a marriage,” she said. “Is it sacred? Do you honor? ... All of those twisted feelings and emotions, he took that to the altar.”

Will Clay’s father be at the reunion on March 13, too? If so, let’s hope that our co-host Vanessa Lachey goes easy on him, because she tends to go all-in on the drama during those episodes.

And finally, what is there to say about Amy and Johnny? Of course they got married. They’ve been rock-solid all season, even if their birth control situation remains dicey as hell. In the end, they insist that their union is proof that love truly is blind. If you ignore the show’s statistics, their sweet, pure-hearted union could almost convince you that’s the case.

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