Remember those love triangles, and how contestants wanted the phone calls to make their fledgling connections clearer? After Day 4’s Kiss, Marry, Kill minigame and Day 5’s calls, it’s looking more like a very long love… line? Frybread picked checkmate, who picked Ailurus with Katara. Ailurus picked Hibiscus, who picked Nutter Butter, who picked Turtle #1, who picked Garam Masala. That’s half of our contestants. 

Thankfully, we do have a couple mutual matches: secretly grandma and Boiled Soda, and Kit Kat and theThotThatCounts. In ep. 4’s Kiss, Marry, Kill, Snickerdoodle and secretly grandma married each other, but #SecretlySnickerdoodle may not be endgame romantically after all — Boiled Soda’s persistence paid off. 

Checkmate is showing that it’s never too late to connect! Boiled Soda pulled off a bold move and asked Checkmate to pick him as a top three for phone calls even though they haven’t talked much — some call it desperation, we call it courage. In the meantime, Katara discovered that she lives just two miles (!) away from Ailurus in Chula Vista, San Diego. Gives us a flashback to the first season, where hotpot and TSMA found out they were just across the street from each other (and we all know what that near-miss turned into!).

Contestants spent their phone calls discussing why they chose each other for the call. Kit Kat had phone calls with both theThotThatCounts and Kale Chips, who also had calls with theThotThatCounts and Lemon Tree! Kale Chips also sounds way more natural and confident on the phone than we can ever hope to be.  

Garam Masala talked to Turtle #1, and made a guess at secretly grandma’s identity — they know each other in real life! 

Ailurus had phone calls with theThotThatCounts, Hibiscus and checkmate, all of whom commented on her ability to have reflective and engaging conversations. Checkmate also had conversations with Boiled Soda and Snickerdoodle. Frybread didn’t get to have phone calls this time around, but we’re still rooting for her. 

Hibiscus connected with Boiled Soda over performance and life values and gained a deeper connection with Ailurus over wholesome conversations and vulnerability. 

Days four and five helped resolve some emotions, but introduced another tangle of unexpected conflicts. Then again, isn’t that what “Love is Blind” is all about?

Favorite “couples”

Michaela: Ailurus and Hibiscus, platonically! 

Nicole: Ailurus and Checkmate. We can’t help it, Ailurus’ energy is astronomical.

Favorite quotes

Michaela: “It was more of a Romeo-Juliet killing.” -theThotThatCounts

Nicole: “I’m literally such a simp for this girl and I don’t even know what she looks like.” -Snickerdoodle

Contact Michaela Guo at mcguo ‘at’ stanford.edu and Nicole Tong at nwtong ‘at’ stanford.edu.