The heart is a lonely hunter — but at times, it’s also confused and scared and freaking out. It turns out that marrying a stranger is one of those times. On Married at First Sight‘s January 19 episode, as the three newlywed couples approached the midway point of this experiment, the stressors of their daily routines began to take their toll. While some couples were handling the increased pressure relatively well, others were imploding. In other words, these were starting to look like real marriages, indeed.
Tres Forces Vanessa to Talk About Her Dad
For the most part, Tres Russell and Vanessa Nelson seemed to be remarkably comfortable in their new roles as husband and wife, except for one small thing: Vanessa wasn’t a fan of sharing her feelings when she was upset. That made it pretty hard for Tres to know what was wrong or how to help.
Fortunately, psychologist Joseph Cilona dropped by for a state-of-the-union on their relationship. Asked what she was afraid of, Vanessa admitted, “My biggest fear is that I’m going to be fully invested, and the other person isn’t, or that I’m going to put in a lot of effort, and it’s going to lead to nothing.” Cilona pointed out that perhaps her fears were the result of her father abandoning her family when she was a teenager, which, she agreed, was probably right.
Tres and Vanessa then visited her mother, whom Tres hoped would shed some light on strategies for getting his new bride to open up. Though she didn’t offer any clear tactics, Vanessa’s mom did reassure Tres that Vanessa was this way with everyone. “It’s not just with you,” she explained. “It’s with all relationships. She’s going to have to trust and open up, but those scars are there.”
Bolstered by his chat with Mom, Tres later asked Vanessa to tell him how she felt when her dad left — and, to his delight, she actually did.
Sam Gets Neil to Move Into her Townhouse … Then Kicks Him Out
After realizing they hated the house they’d moved into together, Sam Role lobbied to relocate to her townhouse (with her roommate), and Neil Bowlus agreed. Neil thought this was a temporary situation while they looked for another place to live, but once they got back to Sam’s place, it became clear that she had zero interest in moving elsewhere. Worse, Sam only offered Neil “a few drawers” for his clothes and told him he would have to coordinate coming home from work with either her or her roommate … because she didn’t intend to give him a key.
Trying to redirect their plans, Neil sat down with Sam and told her that he wanted them to look for a new place. “There’s not a lot of space to put my stuff,” he explained. “I do feel bad about encroaching on Sammy [the roommate] and then for us having our own place, I think it’s beneficial that we do that.” Sam immediately took Neil to task for being OK with it the day before and then changing his mind.
“We need to give [marriage] our best effort,” Neil reiterated. He tried to assuage Sam’s hesitation by offering to handle the house hunt on his on his own, but when she didn’t warm up to the idea, Neil quipped, “I’ll look for houses 24 hours a day for all I care.”
Sam didn’t like that comment and called it “fake.” Neil snapped back, “I learned from the best!” Sam then kicked him out of the house.
Sam Has a Change of Heart
Though, Sam first insisted Neil “deserved” to be booted from the home that he was barely allowed to set foot in in the first place, she soon had a change of heart. “I reacted poorly,” she admitted. “I suck at reacting at times, and I can own up to it.” She then allowed Neil back inside and assured him they would find “an awesome place.” This seemed like progress, except for the fact that they decided to live in their respective homes (separately) until they found their new residence.
Just in time, Cilona stopped by to debrief the couple on their recent spat. He advised Sam to put the brakes on any conversation that she felt was going in a bad direction so as to prevent the train wreck before it happened. Sam agreed, and later Neil earned lots of brownie points by throwing Sam the murder mystery dinner theater birthday party she had always wanted.
Sam praised Neil for “doing a good job at figuring” her out and said the party was “amazing.” If Neil keeps it up, they might be living together again — in a place where he gets his own key — in no time.
The Thought of Kissing David Makes Ashley Cry
Okay, not exactly, but it’s not that far from the truth. Though David Norton and Ashley Doherty seemed to be cohabitating a bit better as friends, they were making zero progress when it came to intimacy, and their stagnation had both of them completely stressed out.
Making matters worse, David also discovered a new nemesis working against his efforts for physical contact with his wife: her dog, Bella. “Bella is killing me!” David declared to the camera before calling the pooch “the biggest c–kblock of all time.” (Bella didn’t seem remotely concerned by David’s accusations.)
As luck would have it, Cilona was on-hand to run intervention on the increasingly tense situation. Ashley told him she was “having a really hard time” moving beyond friendship with David. When asked how long it usually takes her to be more intimate, however, she estimated “a couple months.” Cilona quickly put this relationship in context, reminding her it had only been a few weeks. Still, Ashley was unconvinced.
“I thought it would grow over time, but it hasn’t been there,” she said through tears. Cilona urged her to open up to her husband even though it was an uncomfortable topic. “Three weeks in, I feel like I should be comfortable with some physical things, and I’m really not,” she told her husband. For his part, David heard exactly what she had expected he would hear — that she doesn’t think he’s attractive.
“I’m not physically the type of person that Ashley dates. It still hurts,” he shrugged to the camera. Cilona asked the couple if they would agree to put all pressure about physical contact or intimacy on the backburner. David agreed, but Ashley was skeptical. “Really?” she asked as she raised a brow. He reiterated he was on board, but the last feeling Ashley shared was “a sense of panic.” That can’t be good.
Tell Us: Do you think David and Ashley can make this work?
Married at First Sight airs on FYI on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST.
