TOXICITY

Does ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 3 Have a New Villain?

Bartise (aka “Barfsneeze”) might’ve gotten hell from “Love Is Blind” Reddit last week, but a new batch of episodes makes Zanab’s relationship with Cole look like a nightmare.

This post contains spoilers for episodes 8, 9, and 10 of Love Is Blind Season 3.

Love Is Blind Season 3’s first wedding may have ended in disaster, but somehow the fickle groom is not this season’s worst villain—or even the second worst. Or the third. (He might be the fourth.)

On Wednesday, Netflix released episodes 8 through 10 of its most cringe-inducing season yet (the finale will debut next week). The last installment released this week sees our first couple nervously ambling down the altar: Raven Ross and Sikiru “SK” Alagbada. In a moment that stuns a roomful of wedding guests into silence, the groom proclaims his love to Raven but says he could not marry her—even in spite of his mother sitting in the crowd and mouthing the words “I do” at him.

“We have a very unique and complex set of circumstances,” SK tells his tearful fiancée. “I feel that today is not the best day to do this.”

And yet, as upset as I admittedly felt for my favorite cast member this season—Raven is forever my hero for how she shut down those pathetic advances from Bartise “Barfzneeze” Bowden—SK still somehow comes out of these episodes looking good. In fact, he and Brennon Lemieux might be the only normal dudes to show up this season; the rest appear to be possessed either by vanity, jealousy, or emotional immaturity—or some combination of the three.

Last week, Love Is Blind Reddit united against anti-abortion cad Bartise “Barfsneeze” Bowden, and this week, he doesn’t come out looking much better. As in, he spends his bachelor party laying out his situation and repeating like a broken record, “I think I can live with that.”

And then there’s Matt Bolton, a man who’s been cheated on and seemingly has not yet learned how to trust another woman with his heart. During this week’s batch of episodes, his poor gal Colleen Reed finds herself stuck on a hellish aquarium date where her man won’t stop smirking at her and repeating, “Say it, say it!” (the “it” being that she’s not sure she wants to marry him—which, given that behavior, can you blame him?)

But which of the men will reign supreme as this season’s most toxic villain? That might just be Cole Barnett, whose treatment of his fiancée, Zanab Jaffrey, has been reprehensible. This is basically by his own admission; he literally tells her in episode 8 that he knows he can be “the worst sometimes”—although he might not realize just how correct he is.

Zanab, meanwhile, keeps insisting, “I would love to marry you,” even as that becomes harder and harder to believe.

The chaos between the couple peaks in episode 9 when Zanab arrives home to find Cole preparing dinner for her. The menu? Brussels sprouts (which she does not like), sweet potatoes (which she has to finish preparing), and chicken (unseasoned and raw, until she steps in to finish cooking it).

In a sophomoric twist, Cole inexplicably decides to fire a Nerf-like gun at Zanab as she finishes the cooking for him—and to top it all off, he serves her white wine in a stemless glass.

And then—and then!—this man has the nerve to tell her, “I want you to be less bratty, miss.” Zanab’s response is understandable: “I think you should pick your words very carefully.”

Cole, apparently flabbergasted that his lady love could respond to him with anything but gentle, tittering amusement, tells Zanab later on during an argument, “I would expect my wife to just like me a little bit more, I guess.”

“Just be sweet,” he tells her. “Be unassuming.”

Later on, in his own act of sweet and unassuming communication, Cole asks his bride-to-be, “Are you bipolar?”

Somehow, the two patch things up—although it’s not encouraging that while doing so, Cole literally tells her, “I love you; I just kind of hate you a little bit, too.” Love might be blind, but does it need to sound this hurtful, too?

Laura BradleySenior Entertainment Reporter

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