Feminista Is Watching This So You Don't Have To: Love Is Blind Season 7

Photo credit: Netflix

The mess is BACK!!! The seventh season of Love Is Blind is now streaming on Netflix and it’s SPICY!! If you’re unfamiliar with the show’s premise, 15 men, 15 women, and 30 gallons of alcohol agree to participate in an “experiment” where they meet and have blind speed dates to get to know each other without being able to see one another. The idea is for the singles to make romantic connections based on who people are on the inside rather than “superficial” things like body size, race/ethnicity, and facial features. The goal? To find someone they want to marry after talking for about ten days. Only those who agree to marry before seeing each other in person advance to the next level.

The engaged couples then spend a week bonding at a beautiful Mexican resort to decide if they have long-term chemistry. The couples eventually move in together (either his place or hers), meet each other’s friends and family, and get to see, in real-time, how they live their lives. Finally, the couple plans for a wedding: if they both show up, they’re ready to go through with it. But someone might instead decide they don’t want to be married after all, thus embarrassing the person who they once claimed they were so in love with on international television.

Where this all gets tricky: in the beginning, everyone is dating one another simultaneously. They’re taking notes and doing vibe checks with more than a dozen people daily. As things progress, they begin to focus on the singles they’ve connected with the most, and we get to see love blooming between two people who might, incidentally, also have love blooming with someone else. The show assumes monogamy is the goal, so singles are encouraged to connect with different people but eventually—quickly—narrow their choices to the one person they think they want to marry. [As a polyamorous person, I would love to see a version of this where people can opt for more than one person because there have been enough situations on the show where people had loving feelings for more than one person simultaneously, and well... that’s called polyamory, lol.]

They release a few episodes at a time, so with six episodes to cover, let’s dig into this season’s cast and connections so far. [Spoiler alert: Six couples get engaged and head to Mexico to spend some quality time.]

Nick D., 28, has got serious game! He is a smooth talker and the women seem to be eating him up. Early on, he makes immediate connections with several women, including Hannah who, at 26, is the youngest of the women on the show. Hannah is getting a lot of air time, which is a tell that she’s going to be on the show for a while. She talks about having a “few extra pounds” and people being superficial regarding looks and that she is hoping the show helps her find someone who will love her for who she is. Hannah knows that Nick D. is her person! Their getting engaged was a given from day one. However, when they finally meet in person he seems underwhelmed, judging by his body language. Sure, he says, “You’re incredibly beautiful,” but his first reaction is that of someone who isn’t blown away by her looks. He even says, “Way to embarrass me by being taller than me,” which was like skrrrt, ummm what? I don’t know y’all... I don’t see them lasting. And when they get to Mexico, it’s Hannah who starts having difficulty connecting his looks to his voice. Something is off. Imma be honest, I think she’s throwing him into the “friend zone” and doesn’t even realize it.

Leo, 30, claims to be a wealthy art dealer who fears gold diggers. He ends up in a love triangle with Hannah and Brittany, which is so weird because the two women are as different as night and day. Brittany, 32, is a self-proclaimed “trophy wife.” She plays up the airhead schtick and is giving “Pick Me” vibes from the jump. She quickly becomes someone I find incredibly annoying and I lose interest in any scenes she’s in. Brittany is petulant at times and seems to forget that the entire point of the show is for everyone to date multiple people until they find THE one. She doesn’t like competing with women, pouts, and threatens to leave the show. Leo seems to prefer women over which he can have some control; watching him freak out because the women aren’t responding to him the way he expects them to do is mildly entertaining. (He’s also one of the biggest haters in the house and I think he will ultimately be a problem.) In one epic episode, Brittany reads him for filth for having feelings for Hannah, reading out loud a double-sided, single-spaced handwritten letter in pink ink she composed for him. 

Taylor, 29, a policy advocate, and Garrett, 31, a physicist, bond over being science nerds. But then, at a later date, she reveals that she is an “ethnicity” other than white, which sends Garrett spiraling into a nonsensical rant about how he’s now suspicious of who she is because he thinks she’s been hiding her race. This pissed me clear off!! I don’t know why she accepted that. Eventually, he gets over himself, she gives him some grace and they end up falling madly in love. I’m skeptical, and my side-eye is strong, but when they get engaged and meet in person, they seem to totally be into each other. Heading into Mexico, the chemistry and affection are strong. I’m interested, though, in how things will play out when they meet each other’s families and friends.

Marissa, 31, is adorably quirky and giving major fire sign energy (I looked it up, she is an Aries) and she hits it off with Ramses, 34, another quirky, quieter type. He knows almost immediately that Marissa is the one for him but she takes a while to come around. Once she does, though, she’s all in. I love that Ramses presents as someone who defines masculinity for himself and Marissa likes that he is fluid in his self-expression. I worry about their personalities clashing in person, as an Aries who refuses to date Cancers (Ramses is one). I am hoping for the best, because they’re cute together, buuuuuut...

Alex and Tim, both 32, hit it off immediately! Alex is a beautiful plus-size (“I’m not a size 2”) African American marketing exec and Tim, a web content strategist, seems excited to talk to her from the jump. As a larger woman myself, it’s affirming to see someone get all lovey-dovey for a bigger woman. Their conversations get deep early on and it’s obvious their connection is strong. They soon become one of my favorite couples to watch, and when Tim writes a letter of promise to Alex’s parents before he proposes to her, I have to grab a tissue. They seem set up to last, given their chemistry and alignment. But when they get to Mexico, Tim shows signs of being a bit of a jerk. He takes jokes too far, disregards her opinion, and just seems like an all-around clown. I think Alex is beginning to disconnect from him, and I understand it.

At 36 , Monica is one of the oldest people in the cast. She’s an intelligent, successful, and ambitious African American, and ready to marry. She connects with Stephen, 33, a white man who not only once voted for Donald Trump but who also recently learned he is part-African and, uhhhh, had a change of heart..? Yeah, yup, mmmhmmm, MESS. If Monica likes it, I love it, I suppose. They’re kinda boring shrug. Anyway, they’re engaged and making it to the next stage.

Tyler, 33, is my favorite of all the guys. He’s a freckled biracial Serbian and African American man who loves to cook and denounces gender roles, adamantly stating, “This is not 1948,” when it comes to how couples should split domestic responsibilities. His mom raised him and his siblings without help, which clearly shaped how he thinks about women and relationships. There is a precious moment when he gets tearful as he tells Ashley A., 31, about the losses he has experienced. They share a strong Christian faith and both are happy to find a partner who accepts their beliefs and wants to pray with them. From the beginning, he knew he wanted her, and I am rooting hard for them!

In season seven, the show’s casting agents and producers have gotten better at finding more mature people (most are in their 30s) who are actually ready for marriage. In previous seasons, they focused on people in their 20s, playing into the rampant ageism prevalent on most reality television competition shows. Instead of upholding the lie that women over 30 are worthless, Love Is Blind understands that most people these days are not emotionally, financially, or mentally prepared for marriage until at least age 30. And since it is set in Washington, D.C., there are plenty of people in the cast who are, for the most part, highly educated and incredibly successful individuals.

There’s also more diversity within the cast this season, which means the producers are finally addressing one of the major complaints viewers have had about the show. In the past, they’d select people who are “conventionally attractive” and would have no problem meeting people in the real world. The women were mostly slim and modelesque, which subverts the idea that the show’s type of dating is less superficial. This season, however, there are more people of mixed-race identity, plus-size women, older people, and people who could be described as average-looking. Honestly, I love it. It better represents today’s dating scene.

Seven of the 12 engaged people are African American, which is a sharp turn for the show. There have been many complaints that Love Is Blind doesn’t promote “Black Love” (i.e. two Black people pairing) and that the Black characters are sidelined and don’t get enough airtime. One of the most successful, long-standing couples is an African American pair, Tiffany and Brett, from Season Four. Fans have been wanting to see more couples like them and season seven seems to answer those demands. In fact, the couples that seem the most incompatible or headed for disaster are the white ones (*hides face*). Hey, I’m just calling it how I see it. I’m not making it a racial thing but it’s hard not to when these shows have a long history of disregarding Black cast members or tokenizing them.

We get a lot of engagements in Season 7, which is good because it’s sooooo boring when only three couples get engaged. Are you watching this season? Maybe even wondering, like me, how people are having sex with near-complete strangers without any STI testing? Sound off in the comments! Let’s catch up and dish before the remaining episodes are released!