We're officially in Week 2 of Love is Blind Season 6, meaning the newfound couples have moved on from the pods, laid eyes on each other during their luxurious island honeymoon, and now have to contend with folding their fiancés into their everyday lives back home. Alas, as fans saw, many of the dating duos failed to follow in the successful, still-married footsteps of Season 1's Lauren and Cameron and ended up throwing in the towel before they could make it to the altar. (It didn't help that one Season 6 cast member wasn't even sure which Netflix dating show he was on.)
But one viewer wasn't surprised by the shift seen among the contestants in the latest batch of episodes, which hit the streamer on February 21: former Love is Blind-er Marshall Glaze, who fans might remember from the show's fourth season, specifically his rocky relationship and subsequent breakup from Jackelina Bonds. (Remember when she wasn't even allowed to come to the reunion? Drama!)
Given that Marshall and Jackelina's own onscreen romance crumbled once the pair reentered their real lives on the show, the reality star has firsthand insight into exactly why it seems like all of the Season 6 relationships detonated this week. Marshall took to TikTok to explain why he wasn't surprised by "the energy shift":
I would be lying if I said I was surprised by this week's dropped but I'm not surprised and I'm not surprised that you guys are confused by it. A lot of people are lost as to why the energy shifted so dramatically with this cast in the newest drop of episodes. To me, it makes complete sense: coming back to reality is extremely tough.
He went on to detail how there are different "phases" of the Love is Blind dating experiment:
You gotta realize that they're in the first phase of this experiment. First, obviously, is the pods. Can you build an emotional and mental connection with someone without ever seeing them? Step two is, can you expound on that foundation that you built in the pods and explore the physical? Step three is you move in together. You go back to your cities and go back home. You get your phone back, you can talk to your family again, you go back to regular life, and this part is arguably the hardest part of the process.
He also noted how, while filming is full time while the daters are in the pods and in the honeymoon phase, once the engaged couples are back home, filming has shifted to part-time, as each cast member has to "make time for your new fiancé on top of assimilating back into your regular life."
@marshallglaze ♬ original sound - Marshall
Being outside of the "fairytale-like environment" that the series creates makes each dater realize hard truths about their newfound significant others, Glaze revealed:
You start to get the opinions of other people, you friends, your family...if that foundation isn't strong from jump and the physical connection doesn't match the emotional and mental connections, you ain't making it, as you see.
It also doesn't help things that, along with finally being able to lock eyes IRL with your pod partner, cast members also get to see all of the other people that they were talking to and dating on the show:
You're able to see what the other looks like as well, you can interact with them, you can send them DMs, you can comment, you can follow them. You second guess your choice if you're attracted to someone else...it's a really tough situation to be in.
There are still three more episodes to come in Love is Blind season 6, including two more editions on Wednesday, February 28 and the grand finale on March 6. (You can catch up with the romantic reality show with a Netflix subscription.)
It will be interesting to see which pairs are able to weather all of the change that Marshall Glaze mentioned in his TikTok breakdown, or which ones will falter post-fairytale like him and Jackie. We'll all just have to stay tuned!
