The first six episodes of Love Is Blind’s DC season have dropped on Netflix, and we’re recapping all the drama—and the big Washington moments—throughout the show. Tuning in? Check out our Love Is Blind DC drinking game and bingo.
Let’s get into it.
Recap: Episodes 1-6
The pods are open, the golden goblets are filled, and it’s time to meet our singles! Because we’re attempting to capture six episodes of infatuation and heartbreak in one recap, I’ll be running through the initial group of episodes couple by couple.
Hannah and Nick Dorka
Let’s start with our messiest dynamic, the romantic polycule: Hannah, Leo, and Nick Dorka, and then Hannah, Leo, and Brittany (more on that below). Despite the premise of the show being about dating without appearances, these four people could literally be interchangeable.
I need to dedicate some space here to Nick Dorka—that’s “dork with an A,” as he puts it. A former kicker at William & Mary, Nick Dorka is the amalgamation of every Arlington man I have ever swiped past on Bumble. If you combined every man at Whitlow’s who orders a Kona Big Wave draft tower at a JMU watch party, you’d have Nick Dorka. Though it takes some prodding from the other women, Hannah eventually recognizes that Nick Dorka, a Virginia real estate agent, is a good salesman for more than just houses. But she’s hooked, stuck between him and Leo, the art dealer.
Caught in a triangle, Nick Dorka decides he’s out the door. Instead, Hannah calls him back into the pods for date, fearing he has already left. Girl, that man is not leaving television willingly!!!! Once she gets past her fear he’ll break her heart, Hannah decides to accept Nicholas Frederick Dorka Jr.’s proposal.
In the pods, both Hannah and Nick Dorka share their insecurities about appearances. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised the reveals comes up a little short: They both notice she’s taller, and she thinks he misrepresented his height and build. He has a lot of questions about her appearances as well: Does she dye her hair? Does she have lip injections? Would she get plastic surgery? Things only get worse when they’re in Mexico, and Nick Dorka goes to ride a fake duck toy. (Yes, this actually sparks a lot of drama.) Hannah, who is appalled by the thought of a man riding any horse, donkey, or duck, tells him it gives her “the ick,” that instant click of revulsion you feel when your crush does something cringy. Is it a death sentence for Nick Dorka?!
Drama forecast: At the end of Episode 6, Nick Dorka tells the boys about IckGate and that he found a note Hannah had written with ten things about him, including “too into his feelings?” and “self confidence vs. cocky.” The last bullet point on the list is a dagger in the heart of our Northern Virginia Man: “delulu.”
Leo and Brittany
If I had to name a villain in the pods, I would put my money on Leo. And Leo, please let me be clear this would be my money, not yours. The man is absolutely terrified the women will be after him because of his money, which they’d only know about because he tells them about it. (Leo literally says to the men at some point, “I have money.”) The art dealer runs his family business, Capital Art Advisory, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he also had a side hustle as a Rolex brand ambassador: His watch comes up not once…not twice…but three times in Episode 1 alone. There’s also mention of his private school background (St. Stephens and St. Agnes School, according to LinkedIn) and his country club upbringing. Perhaps the most inspiring piece of editing is when Leo is in the confessionals sharing how he learned Italian words for art as a mere bambino. The word he chooses to display this acumen? Sprezzatura, a curated carelessness.
Leo finds himself caught between Hannah and Brittany, an esthetician from Baltimore. (That’s not DC, but we’re pretty sure Leo lives in New York anyways.) He works his charm on both of them, telling Brittany twice that she’s so smart, even if people probably thinking she isn’t because of her voice. In the Love Is Blind universe, where your voice is the first impression, this is the closest you can get to dragging someone’s looks. He also gets pretty vulnerable with Hannah: “I’ll lead with something I’m sort of insecure about,” he bravely states. “Obviously I’m so incredibly financially blessed.” They solve this deep-seated self-esteem issue by deciding everyone is chill with a prenup.
After juggling both women, Hannah pulls herself out of the running, and Leo proposes to Brittany. After the reveal, Leo lists the reasons he loves her. In response, she just…well, can’t find anything to say.
Drama forecast: 100 percent chance of breakup. The reveal is our last look at the pair: They’re not among the couples invited by the producers to join the show in Mexico, and they broke off their engagement weeks later. All that being said, Leo, I’m single and live on a journalist’s salary!
Marissa and Ramses
Hannah/Nick Dorka/Leo/Brittany/Leo’s Rolex aren’t the only overlaps. We also get a love triangle with Marissa, Ramses, and Bohdan, and immediately, the show sets up a dynamic: Bohdan is the masculine military man, and Ramses is our sensitive Feminist King. When asked about her type, Marissa tells Ramses she doesn’t really have one. Her example? She dated a conservative Trump supporter for three years, and then a liberal progressive.
Marissa brings it up with Bohdan, too, noting that her former MAGA man just thinks differently about how society operates. Not an issue for Bohdan, who will not be voting for Trump. He even brings up January 6: “When it comes down to it, are you gonna vote for a guy who tried to overthrow the government?”
Despite her chemistry with Bohdan, Marissa chooses Ramses. We don’t know if he is liberal or conservative, but we do know he’s a Cancer/Leo/Leo, so that’s something. Marissa says she always wanted to date a guy like him, but never did, because she judged them as too soft. It doesn’t seem to be an issue in Mexico: I think we can go ahead and crown this pair our Official Horny Couple.
Drama forecast: Taking down the pod walls seems to be working for them, but there’s an awful lot of talk about masculinity, so that’s something to watch.
Monica and Stephen
Come on, it’s a DC season—you know Marissa wasn’t the only one bringing up politics. Monica, a sales executive, and Stephen, an electrician, talk about past relationships on their first date, but it isn’t until their second screened date that we get our October surprise: Stephen’s past voting record. The veteran begins by establishing that, yes, he did vote in the last two elections, but “it was rough” because his feelings about both candidates.
Stephen cast a vote for Trump in 2016 because he didn’t like Clinton, and then he voted for Biden in 2020 because he didn’t like how 45 handled his time in office. “I’m very much a centrist,” he says, showing Monica he’s the kind of guy who can cross an aisle, political or wedding. Monica is unperturbed, charmed by a story he shares about growing up Italian, only to find out through an ancestry.com test that his heritage is actually from a few places around Africa, which is famously not Italy.
Despite a smooth proposal and reveal, trouble begins to emerge after a mixer with the other couples in Mexico. When we leave them at the end of the Episode 6, Monica is complaining she can’t get a word in.
Drama forecast: Beyond the chattiness, we seem to be setting up for some kind of conflict back in DC: Monica has mentioned more than once she typically goes for a man with a strong résumé, contrasting that with her fiancé’s background. The editors seem to agree: Why else keep the clip of Stephen saying he doesn’t really like champagne?
Taylor and Garrett
Our first couple to makes it from pods to proposal is a nerdy pairing of two hyper-independent, ambitious people: He’s a physicists, and she could be an Olivia Munn stunt double but has instead opted for a career in clean energy policy consulting. Yes, our only consultant in the group found love! It’s a true DC fairy tale. Taylor’s betrothed charms her by comparing her to Shrek (luckily for him, we’re still in the sight-unseen period), and the movie becomes a running bit for the two of them.
Drama forecast: Taylor seemed nervous about Garrett knowing her ethnicity before the reveal, but that appears to be assuaged. On the beach of Mexico, Garrett mentions that two “professionally aggressive” people have to figure out their lives together. Could this be a Washington workaholics plot line?
Ashley A. and Tyler
Another instant connection, the couple bond over horseback riding and a shared desire to sky dive in the pods. She says she’s always wanted to go skydiving with her fiancé the day before her wedding, and if the duo makes it that far, we anticipate a skydiving scene in the future—Chekhov’s parachute, if you will. He proposes on his birthday, and it’s all love and good vibes through Mexico.
Drama forecast: Our unproblematic pair appears to be bulletproof in the first six episodes…but let’s see what happens when they get back inside the Beltway.
Alex and Tim
They start as one of our more serious couples, and the focus of Tim and Alex’s time in the pods was his family: His two sisters passed away, and he gifts Alex a bracelet his older sister had given to his middle sister, and she wears it when he proposes.
However, it all starts to devolve at the reveal. “Ain’t nothing but the dawg in me,” he tells her. As a seasoned spotter of the ick, it’s clear to me she’s been infected. Tim, if you know what’s good for you, it’s time to tame that dawg!!!!
Unfortunately, the barking only gets louder in Mexico. Not only does he “dawg” out again, but he even says “woof woof,” and I see her getting ready to walk into the ocean. It’s clear he might be permanently in the dawg house when they go shopping: She has things to say about his sun hat, his gray hairs, and even how he eats corn. The morning after the mixer, we discover Alex and Tim got into a fight the previous night. He lost his temper, she covered his mouth with her hand. Needless to say, this moves past ick territory.
Drama forecast: The speedy spread of the ick is enough for me to declare this romance in the danger zone. Add a blowout fight to the mix? That’s curtains in 3…2…1….
Top 3 DC moments
- In the pods, Nick Dorka talks to one of the women about her job in professional football. “Please tell me it’s the Commanders,” he says. She quips it’s the better team, the Ravens. Let’s be clear: Both teams play in Maryland, but only one is the former Washington Football Team.
- After they’re engaged, Garrett tells Taylor he doesn’t think they would have talked “on The Hill.” (Capitalization courtesy of Netflix captioning.) He goes on to refer to himself a “country bumpkin from Fredericksburg, Virginia,” for which we will be asking the City of Fredericksburg for comment.
- Remake alert: Tim tells fashion-loving Alex that the movie character she would be is “Devil Wears Prada, modern DC melanated version.” As magazine editor in DC, I’m totally seated for this.
Best quote
On their first day in Mexico, Nick Dorka informs Hannah he doesn’t kiss and tell. The reason why? “I got, like, not an image, but, like, a brand back home.” I simply need to know more about this vaunted brand. As far as I can tell from his Instagram bio, his personal brand is “real estate matchmaker,” so I’m not exactly sure what the problem is here.
One final question
The show cast sisters for the first time ever—one of whom is a Washington Post staffer—and they’re not even going to acknowledge it on camera once? Democracy truly dies in darkness.
Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Northeast DC.
