Which Love Is Blind season 6 couples will actually make it?

Whose pod connections in Love Is Blind will transcend from reality TV to the real world?

Which Love Is Blind season 6 couples will actually make it?
Laura in Love Is Blind season 6 Photo: Netflix

Break out your golden goblets and 98 Degrees CDs, folks, a new season of Love Is Blind has commenced. The pods are officially open, as the sixth edition of the Netflix dating experiment dropped its first six episodes on the streamer on February 14 (duh). As is reality TV tradition, season six follows a fresh set of Charlotte-based singles as they meet cute, make love connections and ultimately get engaged under the guidance of co-hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey—all before they meet in person.

As we’ve come to discover over the years, not all Love Is Blind couples are created equal. For every Lauren and Cameron or Brett and Tiffany, there’s a Diamond and Carlton or a Jackie and Marshall, a duo whose clear doom is apparent well before they take off for that Netflix-funded island “honeymoon.” Season six kicks off with 30 earnest and eager singletons. By the end of the first batch of episodes, we’ve narrowed our screentime down to five couples, all of whom liked it and put a ring on it sight unseen, and have now hightailed it to the Dominican Republic for some in-person connection.

But which Love Is Blind pairings will transcend that island fantasy for a romantic reality, and which spell trouble in paradise? Who will make it to the altar and who is made to fail? Let’s break it down.

5. Jimmy and Chelsea
5. Jimmy and Chelsea
Chelsea and Jimmy in Photo Netflix

Oof, okay. To be fair, we can’t immediately rule out a Love Is Blind couple that’s been involved in a love triangle. Or in Jimmy and Chelsea’s case, a romantic rhombus. (Thank you, Summer Roberts.) Season four famously saw Zack initially propose to Irina, despite having feelings for Bliss. After that short-lived engagement ended, Zack and Bliss reconciled and ended up getting married by season’s end, with the happy couple expecting their first child this spring. (Love is real!)Alas, we don’t see Jimmy and Chelsea having the same end-game success. Before getting engaged in episode five, the 28-year-old software salesman and the 31-year-old flight attendant spend much of their pod time juggling feelings for another pair of contestants: Jessica, an executive assistant with a young daughter, and Trevor, a project manager with a mullet and a heart of gold. Jimmy strung Jessica along despite his clear misgivings about her already having a child, all the while making his intentions obvious to Chelsea. (And in case it wasn’t evident just how much of a fuckboy Jim was being, Jessica’s instantly iconic parting words summed it up: “When you see and realize what you missed out on, you are going to choke. You are going to need your EpiPen to open up your airways.” What says romance more than a marriage proposal that begins with, “Straight out of a breakup, straight in here with you. Love it!”Chelsea was no better. Where Jimmy seemed like he was settling for the easier choice between the two women, Chels opted for the man who was more of a challenge, a decision that confused not only viewers but Trevor: “So you’re choosing someone who was questioning if they wanted another girl, versus someone who was 100 percent sure that they wanted you?” The flight attendant admitted to “struggling with feeling loveable” in her past, so accepting that proposal from Jimmy feels tragically tied to her insecurities.

4. Jeramey and Laura
4. Jeramey and Laura
Jeramey and Laura in Photo Netflix

Let’s start with that Ross Geller-esque Freudian slip, shall we? Early on in his relationship with Laura, Jeramey accidentally called the 34-year-old account director “Sarah Ann,” a.k.a. the other woman he was actively courting in the pods. Now, we’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt—with 30 singletons popping in and out, that’s a lot of people to remember, and it probably doesn’t help that you have no sight cues to aid with names. But that subconscious slip was telling as to who was really on Jeramey’s mind through the whole experiment, and his “You were not my second guess!” proclamations to Laura felt a hell of a lot like saving face.His pod conversations with Laura differed in depth (they bonded over robot vacuums, which she dubbed “so hot!”) from the ones he was having with customer support manager and “huge patriot” Sarah Ann, which delved into everything from political beliefs to housing logistics (they’ll move into his four-bedroom house over her apartment, natch) to plans to visit his dad’s grave together. Plus, there was a latent competitiveness to Laura’s eagerness to match with Jeramey—she knew he was torn between her and Sarah Ann, and her resounding “You were it for me from day one!” proclamations seemed less like manners of the heart and more like manipulation.The engaged couple had a prickly, poking repartee when we caught up with them in the Dominican Republic, but when a “bean dip” joke (which we still don’t entirely understand) went down poorly, Jeramey was quick to announce that he wanted to go home—and not to their luxurious hotel, but back to North Carolina. He stormed off, leaving Laura alone at the beach soiree, and the waters don’t look any smoother for the pair in next week’s preview, which sees the return of both Sarah Ann and Laura’s green-eyed monster.

3. Clay and AD
3. Clay and AD
Clay and AD in Photo Netflix

We’ll admit, we were initially rooting for Clark Kent-looking country boy Matthew to win the heart of Ms. Amber Desiree, a.k.a. “AD.” “What I’m saying to you, I’m not saying to anybody else,” the 37-year-old financial advisor assured her—except he was spewing the same “Let’s escape these pods and run off together!” bullshit to the show’s other Amber. AD rightfully called Matt out on his cruel crosstalk, leading him to leave the pods early, but the clearing out of one man’s red flags just left her dealing with another’s.Though the real estate agent and former Patriots cheerleader correctly dubbed Clay “a lady’s man” when they first connected in the premiere, AD had a curiosity about the 31-year-old entrepreneur. Clay admitted to having a huge ego, but he displayed a good deal of self-awareness about how he’s previously used his suave and smooth-talking nature as a security blanket. “I’m such a fix-a-hoe,” AD confessed in the women’s quarters. Her attraction to Clay seemed to problematically be playing right into those tendencies, with her navigating his insecurities and tantrums before the couple even set eyes on each other.Speaking of which, there was also Clay’s insistence on wanting specific details about AD’s looks. Seems like love wasn’t so blind in their pod, after all. After divulging that “lips, butt, and all that stuff” would be as important to him as an emotional connection, AD seemed turned off by his dwelling on her physique, especially in a game meant to de-emphasize the external. And his harping on her appearance didn’t end after popping the question (which included the phrase “rock out with your boy!”—Lord) and heading off to DR for their romantic getaway. “AD in a bathing suit. Wowzers! Boom!…But I’m not trying to lead with the ass!” Clay proclaimed. However, when he later horrifyingly told his bride-to-be that he would expect her to “get in that motherfucking gym” if she started getting out of shape, even if she was postpartum, it certainly sounds like he’s “leading with the ass.”

2. Brittney and Kenneth
2. Brittney and Kenneth
Kenneth and Britney in Photo Netflix

On paper, 25-year-old senior client partner Brittney and 26-year-old middle school principal Kenneth seem like a perfect match. Though among the youngest of this season’s singletons, both daters experienced traumatic losses at a young age—his mother to cancer, her father to alcoholism—an accelerated maturity that “quickly sets you apart from people,” Brittney said. They bonded further over their deep religious belief (they both wished to wait until marriage to physically consummate the relationship), their professional backgrounds in education, and how many children they wanted. (A pair of twins, as both of their mothers have a twin.)Things were largely drama-free between the twosome throughout the pod match-ups and Kenneth’s subsequent proposal in episode three. (“God is good!” Kenneth declared upon meeting his bride-to-be.) The only rub is race. Brittney was the first white woman that Kenneth, a Black man, had ever dated. It was a topic that the couple had briefly broached but didn’t seem phased by. Before their face-to-face meeting in episode four, Brittney proudly proclaimed: “Ken and I have talked about race, and he identifies as a Black male. But I see Ken first for who he is on the inside and how much his soul is worth. The color of my skin does not matter. The color of my partner’s skin does not matter.”A sweet sentiment, sure, but just because “love is blind” doesn’t mean that the world is. It’s all well and good to bask in the luxury of morning massages and tropical breezes as loved-up fiancés vacationing in the DR, but Brittney will soon have to remove those colorblind glasses and acknowledge that her future spouse will be Black, that those dream twins will be Black. The reality of their racial differences will no doubt become more evident once they move in together and meet each other’s families in the episodes to come. As AD, one of the show’s other Black contestants, concernedly reminded Kenneth: “Life is gonna life. Are you okay with that?” For this couple’s sake, we hope so.

 
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