How the Cuties Story Revealed 'Love Is Blind''s Blind Spot (2023)

Spoiler alert: This article covers the main plot points of thelove is blindSeason 3 reunion

Reality-TVIt exists to influence. Sometimes his surprises are wonderful - an underdog wins a jackpot or a bully gets a drink in his face - but most of the time they're terrible. like the moment whenlove is blind Season 3 couple Zanab Jaffrey and Cole Barnett imploded at the aisle. They've always been one of the most volatile couples on the show. I didn't expect them to live happily ever after. He was also unprepared for the speech Zanab made before he said, "I don't want to."

"The last two months haven't been perfect," he said to Cole, so far so obvious. But then he dropped a bombshell: "You disrespected me. You have insulted me. you criticized me and for what it's worth, you just destroyed my confidence. And I hate that you had that kind of effect on me. As Zanab walked away and Cole remained frozen, it became clear that we hadn't heard the full story about this couple. It wasn't until the reunion episode, which brought them together for the first time since their broken marriage, that an incident involving a pair of tiny oranges revealed how two people could read the same interactions so differently. The footage, which the producers dug up ostensibly to confirm the ex-boyfriends' conflicting reports, inadvertently gave us the show's most candid moment in three seasons.

Cole Barnett einslove is blind

Netflix

That they will get married based on the grossly incomplete account of their courtshiplove is blindin more detail it would have been hard to argue that Zanab and Cole were made for each other. He came to the groups as a 26-year-old divorced man because he was upset about how much more difficult it was to meet "girls" as an adult than it was when he was in school. As a pup he was fun and playful but seemed totally unaware of his effect on other people. Which explains how he managed to mindlessly commit twice right after the suggestions. Not only was Cole flirting with Colleen, who was already attached to the slightly annoyed Matt; He also told poor Zanab that he preferred Colleen's looks to hers. For her part, Zanab seemed overly critical, criticizing everything from her future husband's kitchen to his habit of leaving dirty laundry on the floor. Although she was only five years his senior, the age gap between Cole's carefree indifference and Zanab's know-it-all attitude often seemed insurmountable. They bonded over their strong religious beliefs, but apparently not much more.

That's where mini tangerines come in - Brand: Cuties. At the reunion, Cole receives more criticism than anyone for, as castmate Brennon put it, "continuously disrespecting his fiancée." Brennon's new wife Alexa calls Cole "sneaky". According to Nancy, a performer whose similar failed engagement to a younger, less mature, more shallow man, Bartise, in many ways mirrored Zanab and Cole's storyline, "Cole never accepted the awareness that what he was doing was wrong was committed person. With someone else.”

Alexa then complains that the show never blamed him for specific incidents that happened off-camera. Another co-star, Raven, elaborates, "I'll just put it this way: it was the tangerine thing." (He also alludes to Zanab's insistence that Cole told him he got a female act at the men's bachelorette party He accuses Zanab of fabricating the anecdote and the matter remains unresolved.) History": "It was 2 pm. we were still filming, i haven't had a chance to eat yet, so i grabbed two cuties, little oranges that fit in the palm of your hand. He looked at me and said, 'Do you want to eat both?' And I said, 'Well, yeah. That's one serving. ' And he said, 'Well, let's go eat later. Maybe you should save your appetite.'" Cole, who has repeatedly denied wanting to control what Zanab ate or was negative about her looks, turns to the camera and asks the producers, "If you've got him, please air EITHER. "

the cast oflove is blindsession 3

Sara Mally – Netflix

And they do. After the meeting closes but before the credits roll, we have three minutes of lightly edited footage that reads "Zanab & Cole: 'Cute Story'". First they joke in the kitchen about visiting Zanab's family abroad. He takes a bowl from the fridge and the two start eating the contents. They tease each other that she never listens and he "talks a lot about Cole" i.e. fools around. "Want to eat two of these?" he asks watching her peel a cutie. "Perhaps," replies Zanab. "That's a portion. do you agree Then Cole says, "Better hire yoursAppetit' for the 'big dinner tonight'. She tells him that she only ate a "banana and a spoonful of peanut butter" today. You want to know why; She doesn't want to say "Oh, do you dress like a bride?" play.

It's the kind of interaction you rarely seeReality-Show, precisely because it is so ambiguous. When reality TV isn't wholestagingÖBeißringConversations between the actors reduce the exchanges to small scenes with clear conclusions. Focusing makes it easier to differentiate between heroes and villains and more convenient to manipulate plots. But whether the end product is a brilliant docu-soap, a grueling competition series, or a dating showlove is blind, also does the complexity of the relationships presented no favors.

There are so many ways to read Cutie's story. Is it possible that Cole interpreted (and continues to interpret) a moment without nothing? Absolutely. He maintains his playful tone in the images, even as the camera catches him flinching at Zanab's "talking too much about Cole" comment. But that scowl opens up the possibility that what she said really upset him and he, consciously or unconsciously, responded with a question he knew would trigger her insecurities. There is also the story that Zanab brings to the stage. A pretty little woman by any reasonable definition of those words, you heard Cole say tactlessly that he rates Colleen a 9 out of 10. Add that to three decades of lived experience as a woman of color in a society that tells women they have to be beautiful to deserve love, then sets impossible standards for beauty and white supremacists, and begins to understand why the conversation could have hurt. Zanab so deep.

From left: SK Alagbada, Cole Barnett and Bartise Bowden come inlove is blind

Netflix

Neither ex is fully corroborated by the footage, although the fact that Zanab's summary of what was said turns out to be more accurate casts some doubt on Cole's claim that he lied about his flirtation at the bachelorette party. More revealing than what the clip says about this special relationship is what it says about a show that missed the chance to embody such a sensitive, honest, and tense subject.realmoment in the couple's history before casting made it a topic of controversy at the reunion. For a self-proclaimed "social experiment," that seems pretty uninteresting.

A genre created to pit the good guys against the bad guys never does romance justice, and it's sad to seelove is blindWreak havoc in the lives of well-intentioned people by pretending to. Couples get hurt all the time, not because they're mean, but because they can't get on the same page. Part of the challenge of spending your life with someone is recognizing where that person comes from, who often have a very different perspective determined by gender or a variety of other factors. Sometimes love can be blind: just ask the two couples who got engaged unseen and stayed married throughout their reunion (not to mention the one who made it up at the altar after separating). But it's always, always more complicated than it appears on TV.

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