‘Married at First Sight’ Season 17 Decision Day Recap
Decision Day is finally here for three of the remaining four Married at First Sight Denver couples. But rather than heading into the day with a sense of anticipation, everyone involved (including the show’s trio of experts) seems to be approaching it with a sense of either apprehension or resignation.
At this point, divorce seems like a foregone conclusion for all three couples: Becca and Austin, Clare and Cameron, and Emily and Brennan. It’s just a question of how ugly or emotional the Decision Day conversations get. So, it’s something of a surprise when one couple decides to continue in their marriage. But it’s not until the day after Decision Day that one of the season’s most shocking revelations happens.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the March 6 episode of Married at First Sight Season 17.]
Becca and Austin
Becca and Austin’s once-promising relationship has withered after eight intense weeks of marriage. The couple had decided to spend time apart heading into their chat with Pastor Cal Roberson, Dr. Pepper Schawarz, and Dr. Pia Holec.
Over time, Becca has become increasingly frustrated with her and Austin’s lack of intimacy, their communication struggles, and what she perceives as Austin’s focus on “the optics” of their marriage. Austin appears burnt out by filming and exhausted by what he sees as his wife’s see-sawing emotions.
Despite all that, Becca and Austin are open to talking through their issues. She’s confused and says she can’t tell whether Austin is being authentic or just performing for the cameras.
He says having production around constantly has created an unhealthy dynamic between them. With encouragement from the experts, they decided to continue to stay married. Becca hopes that without the cameras around, they can rebuild what they once had.
Unfortunately, it takes less than 24 hours for things to go south for Becca and Austin. On the night of Decision Day, he goes out for drinks while Becca stays home. She hears from one of the other cast members that Austin is with Brennan and a Married at First Sight producer.
Becca is done. At a cast meet-up the next day, she lashes out, accusing Austin of being deliberately deceitful and implying there might be something going on between him and the producer. Austin mounts a half-hearted defense of his actions before the focus shifts to an argument between the other couples. But things are obviously not good between him and Becca. In an interview, he says he feels “blindsided” by their latest fight. She seems ready to throw in the towel. In a teaser for the next episode, he tells a friend he tried to reach out to his wife.
“That was a mistake,” he says.
Emily and Brennan
Even a brush with death couldn’t save this marriage. After Emily and Brennan’s blow-out fight over dinner in last week’s episode, both are heading into Decision Day with their hackles up. Even the eternally optimistic experts know there’s no hope for this relationship. The conversation revolves around unpacking what went wrong and everyone attempting (largely unsuccessfully) to get Brennan to take some accountability for his actions.
Throughout, Brennan continues to insist that he never wanted to hurt Emily. He says that if he wasn’t direct about expressing the problems in their marriage, it was only because he didn’t want to hurt her with his “devasting” honesty. At one point, he finally admits that they weren’t a match in terms of physical attraction, seemingly confirming that at some point after the honeymoon, he decided he just wasn’t that into her.
The experts are utterly unimpressed with Brennan. An exasperated Pastor Cal calls his excuses for his behavior during his eight-week marriage “BS.” But at least Emily gets to express to Brennan how she really feels, telling him she deserves respect and shouldn’t have to put up with his mindgames. The experts hope they come out of this experience knowing themselves better, which will hopefully serve them well in future relationships.
Later, at the highly charged cast meet-up, Emily tearfully apologizes to Brennan, admitting that she was not perfect in their marriage. They hug it out. Both look like they’re ready to put their Married at First Sight experience behind them.
Clare and Cameron
Clare and Cameron separated after four weeks of marriage. Since then, they’ve had limited contact with each other due to Cameron needing unexpected surgery for a heart problem. Reunited again with the experts, they try to get to the bottom of what went wrong with their marriage, which turns out mostly a matter of poor communication. Clare and Cameron simply couldn’t get on the same page in their relationship. That, combined with an ill-judged remark from Cameron about preferring “slender” women, set them on a path to divorce.
Both Clare and Cameron are thoughtful and admit they made mistakes during their brief time together. They agree that they have a lot in common and that there’s a world where things worked out between them. For a moment, it seems like they might give their marriage another chance. But Cameron has checked out. He tells Clare he sees her as a friend or a sister, not a potential romantic partner. He asks for a divorce. She agrees that divorce is the best option.
While Clare and Cameron end Decision Day as friends, things take a turn for them at the cast meet-up the next day. A heated conversation about whether the male cast members have been “silencing” the women leads to Cameron abruptly getting up and walking away from the group. He tells a producer that while Clare and the other Married at First Sight women complain about their husbands being overly concerned with how they appeared on TV, she was actually dictating things he could and couldn’t say about their marriage. That includes her telling him that she was not attracted to him.
“Clare has been manipulating me from day one,” he says. “If we were in the public court system, I’d be in jail for stealing a candy bar and she’d be in jail for murder.” Any possibility of a friendship between them is gone. In a teaser for next week’s episode, he says he has no intention of speaking to his ex-wife again.
New episodes of Married at First Sight Season 17 air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
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