The first dinner party after couple-swap week had a heartbroken Jamie turn up alone after Dave continued to admit the pair weren’t on the same level of affection as each other.
“That is not the Dave I’ve been married to. Who is that person? He doesn’t even care,” she tells producers as she breaks down in tears.
“I do care about her feelings,” the groom pleads, but his face and distant eyes tell a different story.
It seems like a rather sudden turn, one that suspiciously occurs after Dave had a “great” three days with Veronica, who had refused to emotionally connect with a willing Eliot and constantly berated him.
Adrian seems to think Dave’s sudden change of tune lies with his underlying attraction to Veronica, something he refutes at the dinner party.
But Dave’s true colours emerge when he tells his fellow grooms “I don’t hate the girl” as the experts watch on in shock.
“This is not the Dave we know,” Mel Schilling remarked, while John Aiken buried his head in his hands.
Jamie decides a public confrontation is the way to go and rips into Dave about his deflecting attitude and for having “no remorse, no passion, and no empathy”.
“I feel like I had real feelings for a fake relationship. You’ve broken me,” Jamie cries, telling Dave he needs to prove he’s committed to their relationship or else it’s done.
“What is the state of your relationship?” a producer said, giving Dave a chance to clear the air.
“Still married,” the groom gulps. But for how long?
In other drama, Awhina confronted Carina over the disparaging remarks she made to Paul about her twin sister Cleo being “low calibre”.
“You threw me under the bus,” Carina fumed, describing it as a knife to her heart. Originally happy couples on the edge of falling apart seem to be the new trend.
Veronica and Eliot also came in separately to the dinner party. The verbose bride had previously lashed out when he voiced his concern about her honesty letter, which heavily talked about Dave.
“She stormed out and I’ve been in the bachelor pad ever since,” Eliot said, with the pair borderline refusing to talk to each other at the dinner besides some heated deflections.
Paul and Carina are at odds. Photo / Nine AU
Ryan is still trying to come to terms with Jacqui’s scathing honesty letter and the “disturbing” language she used about “trad wives” and “breadwinners”.
Jeff takes the opportunity to question the pair on the letter, and Jacqui seems to think it worked and gave Ryan a reality check.
Ryan replies that the letter was garbage but the pair still end the night in a bizarre, united front like they so often do.
It seems increasingly likely that there might only be one or two couples left by the time this crazy experiment is over, and who those couples are is anyone’s guess.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024 and has taken on the unofficial role of Mafs correspondent for this season. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.
