Warning! The following contains spoilers for the 90 Day Fiancé episode “Home Sweet Hoax.” read at your own risk!
Joining the fray of 2022 TV premieres, 90 Day Fiancé Season 9 is now two episodes in, and so far, viewers have a lot to talk about. We already got several WTF moments involving Bilal Hazziez’s weird practical joke on his fiancé Shaeeda Sween. There’s also a healthy amount of behind-the-scenes drama happening with Miona Bell that may be addressed during the season, based on her comments. It certainly hasn’t taken long for new cast members to establish themselves as buzzworthy, but let’s not forget there’s one major returning couple that we haven’t seen at all yet. 90 Day Fiancé Season 9 promised us Ariela Weinberg and Biniyam Shibre, soooo...where are they?
When the premiere didn’t have Ariela and Biniyam in it, I was disappointed but understanding. After all, Bilal’s money-motivated shenanigans warranted the screentime he got, and it’s not at all rare for a headlining couple to be left out of the edit in an episode or two. With that said, I was more genuinely annoyed after reaching the end of Episode 902 and they still weren’t showcased. 90 Day Fiancé's latest installment did drop a tease during its “Next Time” sequence that made it seem as if the couple will appear in the next episode, and that we’ll see Biniyam’s sister Wish throwing red wine in Ari’s face. They better come through on that one.
It is slightly irksome to me that 90 Day Fiancé dangled one of its most popular couples as a carrot ahead of the season's debut, and then haven’t given them one scene in either of its first two episodes. While I’m all for the new couples and learning what they’re about, I’m definitely more invested as a regular viewer in Ariela and Biniyam’s journey to America and all the things that happened along the way in that journey.
Hell, we know Biniyam had an MMA fight, so I can only imagine what other major moments we'll see from the couple in Season 9. It seems like there should be more than enough to fill a season without the producers having to goad viewers with teases.
I will concede that if 90 Day Fiancé started out the gate with fresh and flabbergasting footage from Ariela and Biniyam's lives, I might not have become quite as invested in the new cast members as much as I already have. I think it’s also fair to say this cast has gotten off to a hot start in a way that not even the previous cast of Before The 90 Days Season 5 (who I’d consider the most scandalous franchise cast of all time) did not. Had I known this season would become this interesting so soon, I might have argued we didn’t need any returning cast members. But they're here, so why not utilize them more quickly?
As such, I'm hoping the coming weeks will feature a lot more of 90 Day Fiancé vets Ariela Weinberg and Biniyam Shibre. I’m especially curious if we’re going to see their wedding, and what kind of ceremony they opted to have. Also, will Ariela’s ex-husband be there? What’s he up to now? This is exactly why we need more content of them on the show. I’m jonesing over here.
Fans can catch new episodes of 90 Day Fiancé when it airs on TLC on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET. The wait for Ariela and Biniyam is put on hold another week, but assuming the preview for next week was accurate, we’ll see them soon enough!
