[PREVIEW] 'Love Is Blind' 3: In The End, It's The Friendship For Us

“Love Is Blind” came to a crashing conclusion on Wednesday, with a dramatic finale and a still-more dramatic reunion. Some people said no, some people said yes; some couples showed up to the reunion looking relaxed and happy while others showed up with more of a “blink twice if you need help” vibe. Accusations were made about clementines and lies. Deleted footage was aired out. The Cole and Zanab storyline, in particular, has polarized the audience, with each garnering floods of passionate defenders and haters. We’re passionately in favor of everyone going to therapy after this, especially Cole and Zanab. (And Colleen. Love you, girl.)It was the most dramatic “Love Is Blind” yet, which is saying something after a season that featured ultimate reality show villain Shake. We’re conflicted about what that means for the show: the more compelling it is, the more it leans into conflict that demoralizes real people, and leads to their real demonization. With “Love Is Blind” ascendant in the space, its major players are reaping the social platform boosts, but also the overwhelming hate and harassment, that “Bachelor” franchise contestants long have. There was a lot to digest, and so this recap is objectively our most unwieldy pod yet — we almost released it in two more wieldy parts, but ultimately decided we couldn’t wait with our reunion takes. It’s a long pod, but we enjoyed every minute of taping it, and we hope you enjoy our hot takes, slightly petty jokes, and lively debates. Happy “LIB” finale week! xo ShareWe’ve been watching…I started “Buying Beverly Hills,” which is sort of like “Selling Sunset” except about The Agency. The Agency is another LA-headquartered luxury real estate firm founded by Mauricio Umansky, best known as Kyle Richards’ husband from RHOBH. You really just love to see rich reality stars out here building their empire. I can already tell I’m going to binge all of it. -EmmaNetflix’s latest cult/scam documentary, “Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste.” It tracks the rise and fall of the self-anointed sexual healer Nicole Daedone and her company OneTaste, which promised people better living through better sex. The organization offered workshops, classes, and gatherings centered around what Daedone called “stroking” or "OMing” (short for orgasmic meditation) — essentially a standardized, ritualistic approach to stimulating a woman’s clitoris. The company, and the charismatic Daedone, attracted a fervent community, media buzz, and floods of investment dollars. But beneath the girl-power, sex-positive gloss, OneTaste was, according to some ex-followers, turning into a sexually coercive space that, despite its focus on the female orgasm, actually urged women to cater to men’s sexual desires — even violent and nonconsensual ones. It was a disturbing watch, with some fair if not entirely groundbreaking points about how female leadership doesn’t necessarily prevent toxic power dynamics and sexual exploitation within an organization. It also contains a fair amount of sexually explicit material drawn from footage of OneTaste events, which prompted a lawsuit from some former members. It was compelling, and I hope that the victims who told their stories in the documentary felt that it properly honored their stories, but at times it did feel ethically questionable that film itself made lurid use of the same sexually titillating experiences that it purported to critique. -ClaireWe’ve been reading…My reading has really fallen off this week. There was simply too much “Love is Blind” and too much election anxiety. I have however, been unable to stop thinking about this The Cut piece I read recently, “Could Thin Be In Again?” Michelle Santiago Cortés explores the resurgence of an online culture most millennial women are probably painfully aware of: the fetishization of extreme thinness and extreme weight loss. I found it to be a deeply stressful and depressing read, but also a deeply important one. I kept asking myself, how do we stop this shit from wreaking havoc on us all…. again? -EmmaWho has time to read a book these days? Not me, I’m afraid! Once again I’m resorting to reading about books instead. Last week I recommended Brandon Taylor’s great essay on “character vapor,” and this week, an essay from the excellent writer Lincoln Michel digging into what Taylor called “trite physicality” a bit more deeply. The clichéd physical details they discuss — Taylor often, hilariously, bemoans characters “toeing off their shoes”; I also loathe the needless outfit descriptions Michel mentions — are one of my great pet peeves in fiction, and Michel has some great points about why this may happen. -Claire We’ve been listening to…“If Books Could Kill,” a fab new pod from our former colleague Michael Hobbes, who also co-hosts “Maintenance Phase.” In this new show, which only has one episode out so far, but I devoured it, Michael and his co-host, Peter Shamshiri, dissect the pop science “airport books” that topped bestsellers lists and proliferated some pretty fucking terrible ideas in the process! First up? “Freakonomics.” -EmmaI also immediately listened to the first episode of “If Books Could Kill”!! In addition to Michael’s resumé, I wanted to note that Peter Shamshiri is one of the cohosts of the lacerating Supreme Court pod “5-4,” making this a kind of dream collab of two of my favorite podcasters. Not to mention a dream topic: overhyped nonfiction. I never read “Freakonomics,” despite the best efforts of my high school econ teacher. But its cultural impact was so profound that I found I was familiar with a lot of the concepts it peddled, in which Michael and Peter delightfully poke holes. -ClaireWe’ve been buying…I made two fun and frivolous purchases recently: A Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb lip gloss in Fenty Glow (it’s Sephora sale time and I had seen this gloss recommended all over the internet!), and this silk corset top from Abercrombie, which is a great dupe for a more pricey Reformation one. -EmmaMy brother-in-law’s wedding is approaching, so obviously a tiny H&M suit for our toddler to wear in some family photos! I also snagged a navy tulle Ellie secondhand to wear to the wedding, and I can’t wait to wear it with some burgundy heels and a bold lip. (I will NEVER participate in the dark-liner-shiny-gloss lip trend.) -ClaireShare Rich Text