Love Is Blind season 8 reunion served as a warning to men who apply to dating shows: be 1000% ready or don't bother

Getting back to the season 8 contestants though; I had two big questions ahead of the release: Would Dave apologise to Lauren? And would Meg and Mason get engaged after details of a shock engagement were teased. We already know the identidy of the betrothed couple, but we did learn that Meg and Mason are now really good friends after trying to date a couple of times out in the real world after the season finished filming. It seems love isn’t friendship on fire for this two, it is just friendship.

I was pleased to see that Dave did apologise to Lauren for the way he treated her and refused to believe her when she told her side of the story about the man she had been seeing prior to going in to the experiment. He genuinely seemed remorseful and said that in the year after the show was filmed he had learned that the man, who has remained nameless, was fabricating his version of events. There seemed to be suggestion that he had lied to try and get on to the show and have his five minutes of fame, which was not a shock to hear.

It was sad that the victim of his behaviour was Lauren and Dave’s relationship as it seems perhaps they could have had something, but a highlight of the reunion for me was when Dave said he regretted that his relationship with Lauren had come to an end and he would like to be with her, and she responded by telling him she didn’t believe him because he’d had a year to speak to her privately and hadn’t done so, and actually he wasn’t emotionally mature enough for her.

In fairness to the guy, he didn’t disagree and seemed to accept that he’d been a total idiot. Warning number one to men before they go on dating shows: don’t constantly question and disrespect your partner on national TV and then think she’ll want to date you. She won’t. Lauren gave Dave more than enough chances during the show and I’m so happy to see she stood up for herself and told him he wasn’t good enough for her, because he’s not.

Moving on to Sara and Ben. They argued over what happened between them after the show ended. She thought he was going to live with her in Nashville for a bit, he just thought they’d broke up. I’m still not entirely clear how you can get those wires so badly crossed, but there you go. There was also talk of the TikTok video Sara saw during the experiment where a woman accused Ben of mistreating her during their romantic connection, which contributed to her saying ‘no’ to him on their wedding day.

Ben was then forced to admit he had taken advice from season 6 cast member Jimmy on how to approach his relationship with his ex-fiancée ahead of the reunion, which didn’t go down well. Jimmy, as dedicated viewers such as myself will know, is the man connected to two of Love Is Blind’s most memorable moments, one when he got excited that his match Chelsea told him she looked like Megan Fox and, two, when he rejected Jessica in favour of her and she told him he’d choke when he saw her.

He doesn’t really have the best track record on Love Is Blind either, and yet still Ben took his advice on board. Warning number two to men: Don’t allign yourself with men who did an even worse job than you on the show you’re on. It is true that you can tell a lot about a person by their friends and this does not send a positive message.

Next to Devin and Virginia. She said that they realised they had some different values in the run up to the wedding day which led to her saying no at the altar. At first she didn’t elaborate on that, saying that there were some things Devin didn’t want to speak about on camera - but then admittedly she did pretty much through him under the bus by giving her opinions on the LGBTQ+ community and abortion, leaving no doubt in the viewers that those were the topics that the pair had not seen eye-to-eye on. So, admittedly that was some shady behaviour by Virginia there.

The pair then fought over who had ghosted who at the end of the relationship, with some of the other girls jumping to Monica’s defence. Nneither of them came off particularly well in the end, in my view, but still warning number three to men: Women do talk and they will tell each other what you have said to them so don’t think you can change your story to suit different scenarios.

Finally, to Monica and Joey. She gave her ex some home truths about how she never felt completely loved by him, and also accused him of trying to get the attention of fellow pod-squad member Madison by sending her a direct message on social media while they were still engaged - and then said he’d claimed she had come on to him in a bar, something which she absolutely denied. This is a classic case of ‘he said, she said’ where only the people involved know the truth of what happened, but regardless it was heartbreaking to hear Monica say she felt like Joey was never really that in to her. The fourth and final warning to men: Do not sign up to a dating show, or stay with a connection once you are on one, if you are not 1000% sure. It’s just not fair to play with someone’s heart and waste their time.

The only two men that came across well in the reunion for me were Daniel, who has been happily married to Taylor for one year, and Ollie, who of course announced his engagement to AD. All the others came across as immature boys who weren’t ready at all for the complexities that a real long-term relationship brings, let alone a marriage. In short, I would describe it as a man bashing episode. I wouldn’t normally be in support of this, butit was completely justified. The men have, for the most part, behaved appalingly in this season. Yes, there’s been some questionable behaviour at times from some of the women too, but nowhere near on the same scale as the men.

I recently wrote about my concerns that men on dating shows are exhibiting some very problematic behaviours so it was good to see the women calling this out, refusing to settle for less than what they deserve in their relationships and taking a stand on their self-worth.

At the end of the reunion episode, we learned that season 9 will be filmed in Denver, Colorado, so let’s hope that the Denver men have been taking notes on what to do and what not to do.