The Internet Is Divided By The MAFS Expert Panel’s Takes On All That Commitment Ceremony Beef

You can enter an episode of MAFS as a hero but if you get enough screentime you’ll end up a villain. I believe a superhero said that once, maybe Robert Pattinson. And thus comes the complex relationship the internet has with the MAFS panel of experts after Sunday’s Commitment Ceremony.

In Sunday’s episode of MAFS expert John Aiken emerged as an anti-hero. Throughout the episode, the audience careened between being staunchly #TeamJohn and yelling at him through their TV screens.

The duality of man, is all I have say here.

If you missed out on the ep or want to relive all the juicy goss, you can catch PEDESTRIAN.TV’s recap here. Look away now if you don’t want spoilers, though to be honest I’m not sure why you’re reading this article if you don’t want spoilers.

None of the couples left the experiment, much to the despair of the folks who wrote “leave”, including Kate and Carolina.

But what emerged as a highlight of the ep was the experts grilling the contestants on their behaviour.

Example one? Kate, who seems deeply uninterested in her husband Matt. John straight up her how she was trying to make the relationship work.

Then during Mitch and Ella’s session the experts went in on Mitch’s constant complaining about being on camera. My friend, you are on a reality TV show that airs four nights a week. This should not be a shock.

So the audience absolutely ate it up when John called out Mitch for blaming the “experiment” (as they insist on calling it) for his relo difficulties.

Even I felt scolded and I’m not a straight person who’s been married to a stranger for 22 episodes.

https://twitter.com/ramendiaries/status/1500393110970728452?s=20&t=faCSMvH0v-0Uahw8gMnZ6A

The first bump in the road for the John fandom came during himbo Al and his wife Sam’s couch chat. John criticised Al for telling Sam’s parents that he mostly plays video games in his spare time.

But what was Al supposed to do? Lie? He likes doing shoeys and gaming. No shame in that.

John’s comments also incensed the gamers. I had no idea that there was a Venn diagram overlap between MAFS enjoyers and video game enjoyers but God I’m glad there is.

During Dion and Carolina’s session though, the audience acclaim swung back round when John revealed he’d taken notes (!), like actual handwritten notes (!!!), of Carolina’s treatment of Dion.

And none of the judges were impressed when Carolina said she’d openly laughed at Dion’s dancing.

https://twitter.com/KelKnez/status/1500400206050828290?s=20&t=faCSMvH0v-0Uahw8gMnZ6A

Expert Alessandra was also praised for her callout of Carolina. During the session, Carolina tried justify her behaviour by saying that she’s Latina.

“I’m Latina! I have a temper!” Carolina said.

Alessandra immediately shut that shit down.

“I was, I think, even a little personally insulted with you trying to justify such nastiness on being Latina – as if Latina women are disrespectful,” Alessandra said.

“As a Latina woman, I can tell you we are of course very feisty and very passionate – never ever disrespectful and nasty and demeaning. I’m not going to accept that as a representation of Latina women.”

The pendulum of popularity swung back against the experts — particularly John — when Dion revealed he wanted to change his “stay” to a “leave”. They wouldn’t let him.

Poor Dion and his sparkly jackets.

So there you have it: a complex tapestry of feelings about the expert panel there. Ah, the power and pitfalls of reality TV.

The episode ended with a fiery argument between Domenica and Olivia. Then, in a bit of TV magic, the preview for Monday’s ep showed us a continuation of the fight with Dom appearing to smash a glass.

Sacre bleu!

Gold stars for the MAFS editors.

Married At First Sight airs on Sunday at 7pm and Monday to Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine and 9Now.

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