We’ve finally made it – it’s MAFS Final Vows time!
After heartbreaks, scandals, the Couples Retreat from hell and many fiery telling-offs by the experts, only four couples remain.
Now they must choose if they want to continue their relationships outside the experiment, and while some are a sure thing (*cough* Stella and Filip *cough*), others keep us guessing right until the end.
There are tears! There are walk-offs! There is even a whole heap of love!
Alissa and David
David’s done a lot of fighting for his and Alissa’s relationship, but he’s been talking to a brick wall and he knows it.
He’s upset about the many rejections he’s faced since wearing his heart on his sleeve, while Alissa’s still annoyed about him taking off his ring.
That one time. That he’s definitely apologised for.
Despite all the hurt, David still loves her – which is exactly why she thinks it will be her breaking his heart.
They have an awkward hello, before David pulls the rug out from under her.
Of course, his vows start with all the good times. How Alissa helped him break down walls he didn’t even know he had and opened his heart to love.
But then, the curveball.
“What I’ve come to understand is that with you there was no version of me that could win. If I pushed harder, I would’ve been called controlling. If I held back, I was labelled disconnected.”
He’s spent their entire relationship listening to her, and he’s done.
“I’m walking away because loving you shouldn’t mean losing myself,” he says.
As in … he literally walks away. Before she’s even had a chance to start her vows.
Alissa is SALTY.
“I just wasted three months of my life and now he won’t even listen to me,” she says to, well, us, I guess. There’s no one else there.
Then she starts to read her own vows into the void.
“I love you, David, for who you are, but not for me,” she cries.
Rachel and Steven
Rachel returns to Melbourne to ponder her decision, but it is pretty much set – giving her a lot of free time to worry if Steven will do the same.
Meanwhile, his fear is he won’t be able to meet Rachel’s relationship expectations in the real world.
She goes first and talks through all their struggles, from his rejection during her fantasy night to the disastrous Couples Retreat.
But despite all that, Steven proved himself worth bringing her walls down for. Steven has accepted her for her, and she chooses him.
“Even with all the fears that whisper in the background, I want this. I want you,” she says.
Ummmmmm, cute!
Steven admits he spent a lot of their relationship worrying he wasn’t enough and holding back to avoid being hurt.
Until he didn’t, and thanks to her he realised he could be loved.
“I choose you, and I’m diving in, head first, fearless,” he says.
What’s next for the newly official boyfriend and girlfriend?
“More pashing,” Steven says.
Take that, Intimacy Week!
Bec and Danny
Back in Adelaide, Bec is convinced that Danny loves her.
“I think he is going to take this time away and realise that we make each other better people,” she says.
But in reality, Danny has major whiplash from all the intense ups and downs of her behaviour and is unsure about what to do.
Luckily for him, Bec shares her vows first.
“I look at you now and I see the man I want to build a life with,” she tells him.
She promises to choose him everyday because, “simply put, I love you”.
Danny and his blinks are back!
“… Aw, thank so much, that was beautiful,” he responds.
He’s certainly not getting any acting gigs after that.
Then he begins sharing his vows, VERY nervously.
He remembers their early struggles, their midway struggles, their late struggles … I mean, there’s some good stuff peppered throughout, but let’s be honest, he’s pulling from a lot of bad memories!
Then comes the penny drop.
“I believe you can have multiple soulmates in life. Some who are your best friends and some who are your lovers.
“Bec, I believe you are my soulmate as a friend, but I’ve come to realise there’s doubt in my mind if you are my soulmate as a lover.”
The cherry on top? Danny says the toxicity of their relationship means he doesn’t believe they should bring children into this world together.
He apologises and says they deserve a healthy relationship.
Then, he awkwardly waits in anticipation of an outburst that never comes.
“OK, I don’t think there’s anything more to say,” Bec responds, walking off into a mysterious-looking forest to sob.
Oddly, Danny’s pissed because Bec reacted … too well?
“How flawlessly did she take that,” he tells a producer.
“Why couldn’t she have been like that the whole way through the experiment? I’d be with the girl.”
Meanwhile, “the girl” feels completely blindsided.
“Get me out of here, now,” she cries.
Stella and Filip
They met, they fell in love, they made a plan to move in together, they obviously don’t need a week away from each other to make a decision!
Let’s just get to the lovefest.
Stella, who we all know is a crier, is emotional before she even utters a word!
“You have this rare ability to make me feel both held and free,” she tells Filip.
“Now standing here at the end of this incredible experiment I can say with absolute certainty that we are soulmates.”
Filip’s vows are just as cute.
“I have never wanted to move somewhere for someone, but now I realise home is simply wherever you are,” he tells her.
He can see their future so vividly, it brings him to his knees.
Wait. Make that ONE KNEE.
“Stella, will you marry me?” he asks.
Stella’s squealing, I’m squealing, we’re all bloody squealing!
She’s too excited to even give him an answer, launching at his face to instead plant a million kisses.
“Hang on,” Filip laughs, asking again.
Finally he gets a very enthusiastic: “Yes!”
It’s the ending they deserve. It’s the ending we deserve, after our months-long commitment to uncomfy couch sessions and Dinner Party madness.
Everyone say thank you, Stella and Filip!
The experiment may be done, but the mayhem is not.
Next week, it’s Reunion time. Familiar faces are back … as are some we’d definitely forgotten about.
Tune in next week, for the final episodes of love, chaos and by the looks of things, Bec yelling.