Warning: This story contains spoilers for the first six episodes of “Love Is Blind” season 9, and is currently streaming on Netflix.
The first batch of season 9 of “Love is Blind” proved to be a very roller coaster. In the six episodes released, the show had six engagements: Ali and Anton, Madison and Joe, Annie and Nick, Megan and Jordan, Curry Bry and Edmond, and Cassie and Patrick. And while past seasons featured engagements that weren’t shown on screen, this season there were only six.
However, only five people reached the postpod holiday. Shortly after the in-person meeting, Casey bowed in one of the strangest farewells ever shown. While telling Patrick she can’t do this, he thought she meant travelling (and she confirmed!), but really, she meant a relationship. She said at the time she feared that the editor would appear to be meltdowning because of his looks. She insisted that she wasn’t, but told the production, “Unfortunately, I don’t think my appeal to him would grow that much.” However, after saying goodbye, she jumped into his arms and hugged him and continued kissing him.
In an interview with Tudum, Kacie said that Patrick felt like a “stranger” after a face-to-face meeting and that if the relationship wanted to do the job, he knew that “we had to do it from camera and wanted to go on a slow date at a pace at home in Denver.” In fact, she told the site that the conversation was not a breakup and that she intended to get to know him more deeply. “I really wanted to talk more with him, chase the dates, get to know each other on a more physical level and see if this was really real.”
She also claimed that she did not leave because of his appearance: “He is a handsome man. It was more strange to see him as a stranger in my arms than what he looked like.”
As always, Variety spoke with creator, kinetic content founder and CEO Chris Cohen about the first six episodes, including its split, multiple contestants in the ghosts, and serious conversations that took place in the pod.
First, I gained engagement in episode 1. For those wondering, you can make sure it’s an edit, right?
Yes, just edit it. That’s exactly how we tell stories. We don’t tell the story linearly in the show. We never have. Obviously people know earlier than they do at other times, but no, that didn’t happen in two days. Lauren and Cameron also engaged in the first episode (season 1).
So this season we left both Anna Euan and Blake Anderson between the pods and dedicated their connections. When someone chooses to leave early, how does that affect the process of creating your TV show?
I think the beauty of participating in this is just us following what happens. If people fall in love, that’s amazing. If people decide that it’s not for them, they want to leave for some reason. Every season, people are very different and very different. The way they act is completely unpredictable. Blake and Anna left at the pod – others remained, but their stories were particularly relevant to some of the other stories we were telling.
It’s not typical for people to be just ghosts. I know it happens in the outside world, but if people want ghosts, that’s their choice.
The destructive breakup of Casey and Patrick is perhaps one of the strangest things they’ve seen on the show, and although she doesn’t seem attracted to him, she refuses to break up with him and jump into her arms. What did you think about what was going on in those scenes?
That’s a real question for her about what she was thinking. People draw their own conclusions about what is happening at those moments. As you saw before on the show, you can display the scene and people can then draw very different conclusions. I have my own opinion on what’s going on, but I think it’s probably quite complicated. I’m sure there are probably a lot of emotions out there, but you said you have problems with charm and you probably want to protect others and their emotions, but at the same time you may not really accept it in the way that is ahead of it.
We’ve seen some intense, serious conversations in the pod over the years. This year we saw Nick and Annie discussing what they would do if they had kids who were members of the LGBTQ+ community. Do today’s climate encourage competitors to talk more about these topics?
That’s whatever they want to talk about. People talk about a lot. They are there for 10 days and have a few hours of conversation. As producers, the fun part of what we do is trying to understand what really represents people’s stories in terms of what they feel is relevant to them on the particular journey they are going on.
This interview was compiled and condensed.
