Elizabeth and Matthew were paired up by the experts in last night's episode. Photo / Supplied
Elizabeth and Matthew were paired up by the experts in last night's episode. Photo / Supplied
In case you missed it: This was one of the Herald's top stories on social media this week.
While a 29-year-old virgin's vivacious romp through his wedding night plays out in front of Australia on Sunday night's Married At First Sight, an arrogant groom gets all Michelle Bridges and continually body shames his new wife before threatening to wake her up at ridiculous hours to go running.
No one should be exposed to such heinous threats.
It's all happening on Sunday night and the experts are thrilled to be back in the lab ruining more lives.
"I love this process!" John Aiken beams as he randomly picks up the photos of two people from a messy stack of applications and pairs them together.
"Who's next?" Mel Schilling chirps as she leans back in her chair and swings her legs up excitedly on the table, kicking off Dr Trisha's magic potions.
Good question, Schilling. Your next victim for the evening is Matthew, the 29-year-old virgin.
When we meet Matthew, producers make sure to only show him doing really virgin-y things like hiking through forests and reading and sometimes hiking through forests while reading. He really likes to read.
"I'm a vivacious reader," he tells us proudly. I don't know what you need to do to be a vivacious reader but it sounds like it involves a lot of animated page-turning.
We see him in the kitchen with his overbearing mother Rhonda, who asks her son what he's doing this weekend.
"Not having sex!" we yell at the television.
When Matthew's not reading vivaciously or hanging out with Rhonda, he's taking singing lessons with this dame.
He begins to tell us what his experience with girls has been like.
Sorry Matthew, but we're a bunch of cheese heads and we can't let this go. Photo / Supplied
Matthew tells his family and no-nonsense Rhonda is unimpressed.
Matthew's sister Ashleigh is just as judgy.
"Everyone's gonna see it. And people aren't nice about things like this," she huffs.
How dare you, Ashleigh. You don't even know us. We're delightful and we've been totally respectful about Matthew being a virgin who can't drive. You're officially uninvited from the viewing party of your brother losing his virginity.
After a long chat with John Aiken, Matthew is made to sign a waiver that says he will have sex on this program with whomever he is paired with.
We all feel so lucky that we get to be involved and experience the moment with him. How is it going to be executed? Will we be made wait with the cameraman outside the slightly ajar door while Matthew does it in John Aiken's office with Dr Trisha in a lab coat just inches away, coaching him through it? I hope so. That would be really intimate and nice.
"I just want a natural, beautiful woman," he insists.
He's paired with Lizzie, a 27-year-old store manager who has never watched a YouTube makeup tutorial she didn't immediately try. Girlfriend adores makeup. Too much is not enough. Napoleon Perdis didn't fall into receivership this week, they actually just ran out of makeup to sell because Lizzie bought it all.
"Guys are very intimidated by me," she tells us but, honestly, I think most people are intimated by her.
On her wedding day, we catch her in her cabin at 5am. The light is soft and the chaos of the day hasn't begun. The lip liner hasn't been touched, mascara wands have not been exhausted. It's all very A Star Is Born.
But the peace is soon disturbed when a random makeup artist rocks up and suggests a nude lip.
Sam is a conflicted man. On one hand, he says he wants a girl who sees past his really, really ridiculously good looks and into his kind soul. He just doesn't want to have to do that for someone else.
"My biggest fear is I turn around and I've got a girl that's bigger than me there — imagine that!" he scoffs.
Yeah, what a nightmare. How brave of you to go through with this, Sam.
The moment finally comes for Lizzie to make her way down the aisle. When she sees her new husband in the distance, she pauses for a second.
"Does he look porky? He looks tubby," she shrieks. Turns out they're both as bad as each other. But then he turns around and her fear of tubbiness is eliminated.
Sam, though, is not relieved. He suddenly gets all Michelle Bridges.
"I've never really dated girls as big as Elizabeth in the past, to be honest," he squints.
"Maybe I'll get her running in the mornings with me. Maybe drag her outta bed with me. I don't know. She'll be right. We'll get her going. She'll be fine."
Early morning running. It's a cruel threat.
Across town, Matthew prepares for his wedding day by eating a carrot stick and reading vivaciously.
At the ceremony, Rhonda starts getting all judgy again.
Matthew and Lauren love each other which is all very boring and then they kiss but it only lasts a nanosecond. At first we're disappointed by the meh kiss, but then we remind ourselves this is a long-game and we don't want to scare Matthew off.
"He has a very soft kiss," Lauren gushes, unaware those lips she just felt have never been touched.
"I do have a surprise planned for my new wife," Matthew confides in us.
"My heart's fluttering, I've got butterflies in my stomach. My knees wanna shake a little bit. My adrenaline's starting to pump."
Oh my gosh. He's going to do it. Matthew is going to shrug off his purity in front of all these people right now. We ambush the DJ and grab the AUX cord so we can plug in our iPhone and play some Sade to set the mood.
But Matthew's vivacious singing teacher has beaten us to the punch. She plonks down next to us and starts banging away on the electric keyboard.
A spotlight suddenly flashes down and Matthew appears centre stage. He begins to belt out the bolero-mambo classic Sway. It's just like a Michael Bublé concert but even worse.
We escape the mortifying scenes and zip over to Sam and Lizzie's reception, where Sam is still being full of himself and trying to sell gym memberships.
He has ditched his new wife to go talk to his mates out the back.
"She's obviously not as slim as the girls I dated in the past. She's bigger. Hopefully she's into running a lot," he says.
Oh, Sam. You're the one who better like running. Because Lizzie isn't gonna let you go. She's stuck on you like the non-FDA approved waterproof mascara she bought on the internet.
After his rousing performance, Matthew feels electrified. There's nothing he can't accomplish. He is the maker of his destiny. So he takes a deep breath and tells Lauren he's a Cher Horowitz.
