Today’s column is gonna be a little different. Nothing to recap about last night’s episode because, well, it’s not all that important. What is important is this. I finally saw it. Yup, you guessed it. I’m all caught up on this season of Love is Blind. I’d only seen one episode of one season before this, and I can’t remember what season that was. But I have a lot of thoughts about this show and this season. But that was on yesterday’s podcast. Today’s Daily Roundup and today’s column are essentially the same. I’m gonna try and make them as similar as possible. I wrote the column before I recorded the podcast, so that makes it easier to kinda follow along with what I wrote when I recorded. But there might be some things that I added into the podcast that I forgot to cover in this column today. But the major points are definitely covered and that’s the key part. It’s been quite a ride this season and it’s about to take a major turn for the…better? Worse? I guess it all depends on your perspective.
First off, get your “Reader Emails” in for tomorrow’s column. I’m sure you’ll have PLENTY to say after today. Email me at steve@realitysteve.com. If I can address it, I will. But lets see what you got and I’ll do my best to answer.
So lets get right to it. No beating around the bush here. The spoiler is wrong.
Joey is engaged to Kelsey A. and has been since filming ended.
Take a deep breath and now we will examine everything that it entails. First off, the biggest question I know I’ll receive is “Why were you so adamant all season that Daisy won when she didn’t?” Well, it’s not that simple. I believe in my sources. If I gave the spoiler and hemmed and hawed and said “Well, I think this is it” then nobody would have any confidence the spoiler was right if I didn’t have any confidence in it. But most importantly, I believed it was. For sure. Why wouldn’t I? So I put it out there and for 3 months absolutely felt I had the right info that Joey was engaged to Daisy. He wasn’t. Spoiler was wrong. There’s no need to sit here and try and explain to you why I believed it to be true, because I’d be compromising sources. Bottom line was it wasn’t, and now you have your correct spoiler to the season. The thing that obviously bothers me is, well, two things: 1) getting the wrong spoiler. Of course I don’t like having the wrong spoiler out there. It’s been 8 seasons since I put out the wrong ending and had to change the spoiler. 2) The fact that every other detail about this season was correct except I had the final 1 and final 2 mixed up sucks as well. Could’ve pitched essentially a perfect game this season but didn’t. Sucks, but it happens.
I have never, and will never, blame my sources for the wrong info. It’s on me. Always has been, always will be. Got it wrong. I have no problem admitting I’m wrong. Did it for Rachel’s season, did it for Hannah Brown’s season, etc, and am doing so again. The other thing I need to eat crow on is how I handled the spoiler all season, basically being combative with emailers and IG messages who would question social media activity and what not. I should’ve just not responded to those people and had any back and forth, and that’ll be how I handle it in the future. There were about 3 or 4 people who were consistent every week doubting my spoiler. Now, they were doubting, but not with any hard proof. It was a lot of social media stuff. And I told you it’s easy to create a narrative on social media of who you think wins based on social media activity. Just because we know now it’s been Kelsey the whole time, doesn’t change the fact you could’ve still put a social media case together it was Daisy based on several different social media factors. All up until last weeks pictures that were found of Kelsey and Joey at the Happy Couple house that was identified.
So I have absolutely no problem eating crow and telling the person online who goes by “sandbetweenhertoes,” that she absolutely nailed the video of Kelsey in the backyard of a Happy Couple house 2 weekends ago. When those pics were sent to me, I was about 98% sure the spoiler was wrong. Why? Because Kelsey and Joey being at the same Happy Couple house on the same weekend is about as hard of evidence you can get. Hell, for ANY season if you can determine who is at the Happy Couple house, you’ve got your winner. Because Joey wouldn’t have been at a Happy Couple weekend with Kelsey if he was engaged to Daisy. I said I was 98% sure the spoiler was wrong because there was that small possibility that he’d originally picked Daisy but now was with Kelsey. I didn’t really think that was the case, but, I still had to check and see if that’s what happened. But no, that’s not what happened. The spoiler was just wrong. He had never picked Daisy and he’s been with Kelsey the whole time. And that was confirmed when those pics got out last Tuesday night of Kelsey shooting a TikTok in the backyard of a Happy Couple house. I’ll leave you with this: the best news to come out of all this is now I know exactly how to identify Happy Couple weekends. I know every house now they’ve used this season going back to December, and will know going forward in future seasons when a Happy Couple weekend has taken place. So my apologies go out to “sandbetweenhertoes” because I was pretty rough on her in the last couple weeks. But she was able to crack the case this season. I’m just saying in seasons going forward, we’re on an equal playing field now because I know how she does it. This isn’t some sort of competition, it’s just, I don’t know, we both have the same info now and know where to look. She nailed it this season so I shouldn’t have been so combative with her. For that, I’m sorry and I hope she hears that.
Now for some new tea or spoilers, and that is, “What’s this thing they’ve been hyping all season they said has never happened before.” Well last Tuesday in this column and on the pod, I told you I’d heard my first rumblings of it and, yes, it was something that hadn’t happened before. But I needed to find out some more details about it before sharing and I got those. Well, at least the gist of them because I can’t word for word know the actual words that are said. But you’ll understand.
So here it is: After Daisy’s last date with Joey, she realizes it’s not her. So she goes to Kelsey’s room and essentially tell her “it’s not me, it’s you, and I’m gonna tell him that tomorrow.”
So yeah, never happened before. Was it earth shattering? Not really. But it wasn’t nothing either, which is why I said it was about a 5 on scale of 1-10. Because once the final 3 rose ceremony happens and it’s down to two people, those two never interact with each other, whether it’s Bachelor or Bachelorette season. They don’t want them chatting each other up and what not. So Daisy must’ve made a plea to producers (or producers thought it’d be a “first” for a storyline) to let a girl who thinks she’s not getting picked to go talk to the other girl. And that’s what they did. I was told that conversation was pretty straight forward, it was supportive, and Daisy just knew she wasn’t getting picked the next day. Here’s the crazy thing though: When I told you last week I’d heard the rumblings but it didn’t change anything about the spoiler, I wasn’t lying. Because I was told that info WITHOUT names. It was basically told to me “Yeah, one girl realizes it’s not her on her last date so she goes and talks to the other girl.” But no names were given to me. So I was like, “Sweet, now I know the HOW of what happens in the end they’ve been promoting.” I just assumed Kelsey didn’t have a great last date, realized it was Daisy, and went to her room, when in reality, it was the other way around.
Which brings us to final rose ceremony day. Daisy DOES arrive first and basically tells Joey what she told Kelsey the night before. She realizes it’s not her. The one major detail I wanted to find out was did Daisy go off on him Clare Crawley style? Was it a negative conversation of like, “Why did you bring me this far if you knew it wasn’t me, etc” but I was told it wasn’t. Obviously I don’t know any of the conversation that took place, all I was told was that it was positive, Daisy basically told him she knows it’s not her, and it was a positive breakup. Which, I really couldn’t ever see Daisy going off on him since I don’t think she has that in her, but I wanted to find out what the gist of that conversation was. Was it positive or negative? And it was positive. So I guess technically that’s TWO things that have never happened before. 1) the final 2 girl going to the final girls room and basically conceding she won, and, 2) the final 2 girl knowing she lost heading into final rose ceremony and tells him that before he has a chance to dump her. And I now I think it’s clear the opening 2 minutes of the season showing Joey on the altar with one rose, then walking away and taking off his jacket and talking to producers, is right after Daisy leaves but before Kelsey arrives. Basically he just needs to take a breather because he didn’t know Daisy was going to tell him what she did. But the hype all season of the “unprecedented ending” was about Daisy going to Kelsey’s room after her last date knowing she wasn’t going to be picked and then pre-emptively breaking up with him. Some guessed the second part in recent days, but nobody had ever said “after the last dates, one of them realizes she’s not getting picked and goes to the other girls room to tell her essentially “it’s not me, it’s you.” If someone did, I’ll give you sucker.
And now knowing their conversation was positive, it immediately makes you think that’s the perfect set up for her to be “Bachelorette.” Is she? Does she want it? I mean, I don’t know anyone in that position who’d turn it down but I just don’t know behind the scenes and if this is what Daisy wants. But clearly the show would want Daisy in that position. How could they not? The most followed woman on social media in 5 years, the amount of positive publicity this would give to the deaf community, she’s obviously well liked by the public, etc. Seems like a no-brainer but what do I know? Can’t you just see the speech she gives to Joey? Again, this is just my guess, but knowing it’s positive, I’m sure it’ll be something along the lines of, “came here to find my husband…was hoping it’d be you…but realized you felt stronger for someone else…loved this journey…met incredible women…wish you guys happiness…etc.” I mean, that has her “Bachelorette” season set up on a tee if you ask me. Bowing out graciously hoping one day she finds her man. Geez, seems too easy. But again, I have no idea if that’s what she wants.
More on the fallout from the changed spoiler on Page 2…
