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‘Married at First Sight’ Recap: One Wife Still Won’t Kiss Her Husband After Three Weeks

Marriage is hard work, but as they approached the three-week mark, the three couples on Married at First Sight were working overtime. The January 12 episode focused on the forward momentum, or lack thereof, of the newlyweds. As usual, some were chugging along at a more comfortable pace than others. And one couple was basically stuck in the mud.

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Tres Struggles to Balance Work and Home Life

Though Tres Russell and Vanessa Nelson initially clicked, they have since hit some bumps in the road. Most notably, Vanessa was frustrated by their inability to coordinate their schedules to make time for each other and Tres’ apparent marriage to his phone. During a Saturday lunch (Tres was working that day), Tres took a work call — which turned out to be a big no-no in Vanessa’s book.

“I know she’s not happy, but she’s not communicating,” Tres shrugged to the camera before adding, “She’s going to have to adjust to my work hours.” Fortunately, Vanessa didn’t hear that part.

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Sam and Neil Take a Few (Small) Steps Forward

Perhaps no couple got off to a rockier start than Sam Role and Neil Bowlus, who bickered for most of their honeymoon and capped the trip off by narrowly avoiding a potentially fatal accident. Since returning stateside, however, things have been on an upswing (though it would have been hard for them to get much worse).

Neil surprised Sam with a date night, complete with a home-cooked meal, flowers, and romantic lighting, and Sam actually appreciated his effort. “At first I was not attracted to Neil, but eventually attraction grows for me,” she said to the camera.

After a check-in with Dr. Logan Levkoff, the pair tackled some questions about sex and intimacy from the fishbowl she’d left. Though Sam flat-out announced, “I don’t like these questions,” somehow the exercise still brought the quirky pair a little closer.

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“Maybe we’ll start holding hands soon,” Sam quipped before adding, “But let’s not get crazy.” By the end of this episode, Sam and Neil had even conquered a pretty major issue: agreeing they’d made a mistake in their choice of home and deciding to relocate to Sam’s apartment instead (well, for a while, at least). “I actually don’t think the dumb stuff [Neil] says is dumb,” Sam mused with a smile. “I think it’s funny.” Compared to just a few weeks ago when they weren’t even speaking, these two have come a long way.

David Is Fed Up With Ashley

Meanwhile, David Norton‘s home-cooked dinner for bride Ashley Doherty didn’t go as planned. Long story short, he slaved away in the kitchen on a gourmet meal to share with her in celebration of completing her finals, and she arrived home an hour and a half late — without so much as a call. The usually upbeat David looked rather deflated as he confessed to feeling “disheartened” by the state of his marriage. It turned out that Ashley’s exams had run late, and her commute had been slower than she’d anticipated, so David let it slide. (Though why she hadn’t bothered to call or text him once she’d gotten in her car was not addressed.)

During a session with Dr. Levkoff, Ashley laid her cards on the table. “I just don’t feel that romantic connection with him, and so that just makes this process obviously really difficult, and I’m not sure what I can do,” she lamented. “I don’t know — I’m just stuck. That’s the main thing.”

By this point, David had pretty much had it. “I’m frustrated beyond belief, and I don’t know what to think, what to do,” he said to camera. “I want to keep trying, but I don’t know if it’s worth the risk of me getting hurt.”

Vanessa Nelson and Tres Russell
Vanessa Nelson and Tres Russell

Vanessa Really Wants to Share a Bathroom … Tres Says She Farts in Her Sleep

As she debriefed with Dr. Levkoff, Vanessa admitted she was bothered by the fact that Tres insisted they use separate bathrooms. (For his part, Tres said he’d only suggested that because it seemed “convenient,” which isn’t totally crazy.) A little while later, cameras captured Vanessa brushing her teeth in the bathroom in front of Tres, so we can count that as a small victory — well, sort of.

As Tres watched his bride clean her pearly whites, he announced that she farted a lot in her sleep. “I might pass gas in my sleep, but who doesn’t?” she laughed to the camera later. Tres then admitted, “I haven’t heard her fart in her sleep, but I just wanted to give her a hard time about it and see what she would say.” That’s love, people. Oh, and in case you’re not yet convinced, Tres even said it himself. “I think I’m falling in love with Vanessa,” he mused. “And it feels good to say that.”

David Tries to Kiss Ashley. It Does Not Go Well.

Despite Ashley’s continued resistance, David tried to get her to open up by answering the sex and intimacy questions from Dr. Levkoff’s fishbowl. (Every couple got one.) Not surprisingly, Ashley refused. “I’m trying to be a good sport,” she said moments after announcing that she would not answer any of them. “You’re not though,” David snapped.

“This is what frustrates me,” David explained. “She talks about how we’re just stuck in this front level, and we’re not more than friends, but anything that even remotely revolves around intimacy Ashley shuts out.” He’s most certainly not wrong.

For some mysterious reason, however, despite Ashley’s icy demeanor, David found himself admiring her. “I feel like I’m falling in love with Ashley,” he revealed. “There’s times that I don’t think I like her. But there’s times where I know I’m falling in love with her.”

Perhaps fueled by these emotions, David then arranged for a romantic nighttime Ferris wheel ride with his wife. Things seemed to be going swimmingly, as Ashley was more relaxed than, well, maybe ever, and David decided to seize the moment.

“I’m going to kiss my wife,” he told the camera. He then went in for a kiss — and Ashley gave him her cheek. (Burn!) David was pretty dejected after that. “Why won’t my wife kiss me?” he asked the camera. “I’m very intuitive, and I know there’s more to it. It’s not just because she moves slow. You can move slow, but there’s still progress, but we have no progress. I want to fix it, but you can’t fix something if half the partnership doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Tell Us: Do you think Ashley should have kissed David?

Married at First Sight airs on FYI Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST. 

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