Well, another season of TV’s boldest — and dare we say best? — reality dating show has come to an end.
Love Is Blind makes headlines for its audacious premise — participants communicate with one another through a screen and get engaged without every laying eyes on one another — but its continued success is rooted in the fact that it feels more grounded, more relatable — simply put, more real — than most reality shows.
The Chicago-based, mostly 30-something cast comes in all shapes and sizes.
They struggle, strive, and drop uncensored f-bombs as they struggle not only with finding the right partner, but with all the compromise and confusion that so often characterize the first weeks of an intense romantic relationship.
Of course, the downside to all that realness is that real people really get their feelings hurt.
After weeks of drama we found out who got married and who didn’t on this week’s Love Is Blind season finale — and there were some major surprises.
Nick Thompson said “I do” despite Danielle Ruhl’s pathological need to start a fight every time he opens his mouth; Shayne … exploded on Natalie … causing her to have a change of heart ahead of their planned nuptials …
… and Deepti Vemptami and Abishek “Shake” Chatterjee couldn’t overcome their lack of physical chemistry in order to take their relationship to the next level.
In itself, that wasn’t terribly shocking.
The surprise was that it was Deepti who called the whole thing off, not Shake.
Throughout the couple’s time together, Shake complained that despite his strong emotional bond with Deepti, he wasn’t feeling the intense physical attraction that he feels is a necessary component of a healthy relationship.
He can’t help how he felt about her, of course.
But maybe he didn’t need to tell everyone on the planet, including his own mother, that he just wasn’t attracted to his fiancee.
Deepti’s family is understandably not thrilled with Shake, and it seems their main complaint is his insistence on endlessly prattling on about their lack of activity in the bedroom.
“Now normally I don’t get involved in drama but I’mma defend my sister here: ‘Shake’, bruh, you’re a loser,” Deepti’s brother Sunny wrote on Instagram over the weekend.
“You minimized my sister’s life by making some awful and cringeworthy comments about her.”
Sunny went on to blast Shake for the many crude comments he made about Deepti in front of the cameras.
“You made these statements knowing your own mom would one day watch it; my parents and my entire family had to sit through you talking behind my sister’s back about insecurities she fought her entire life,” the protective brother wrote.
“In spite of your best efforts to pretend this was all fictional and it was because of the ‘edit’, no one forced you to say those words,” Sunny explained.
“We welcomed you into our home, and you saw it as an opportunity for clout; so forgive me if I’m not sympathetic towards you and the hate you’re receiving.”
Sunny concluded by praising Deepti and roasting Shake on behalf of the Vemptami family”:
“Deepu, we are SO incredibly proud of you! We’ve witnessed you grow into such an incredible and beautiful woman,” he wrote.
“We wish you didn’t pick that [clown emoji] but despite his childishness, you carried yourself with grace and continued to see the good in people,” her family continued. “We’re so damn proud to call you our baby sister, and know we’re there for you always.”
Deepti reposted he brothers open letter with a caption reading:
“The love and support from my family is unmatched.”
So Deepti may not have found the kind of love she was looking for during this grand experiment.
But as a consolation prize, she received a moving reminder of how beloved she is by those know her best.
