Major spoilers for Love is Blind: After the Altar on Netflix are ahead.
If you watched Love Is Blind, then you know exactly what I mean when I say Diamond Jack had an eventful quest for love. After her unnecessarily disrespectful blowout with ex-fiance Carlton Morton, social media was aflame with hot takes about the couple’s breakup. And after watching the show’s three episode follow-up, Love Is Blind: After The Altar, it’s clear that Netflix had their ears to the streets and finally gave Jack the screen time she deserved last season. In theory, giving Jack another chance at love sounded like a good thing — but it came with a catch.
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In After The Altar, now streaming on Netflix, viewers are reintroduced to the dating show’s alumni two years after filming season one of Love Is Blind to celebrate the anniversary of the only married couples from the pods: Cameron and Lauren Speed-Hamilton, and Matt and Amber Barnett. In episode one, which takes place two days before the anniversary party, we catch up with a stunning Jack in back-to-back scenes from a sleek look with high ponytail, laid baby hairs, to a shimmering navy blue anniversary party gown. (I’d love to see Carlton come at her for her wig slipping this time.) Jack is still looking for love in the midst of running a business and ends up finding a seemingly perfect match when her friend Ebony Alexis sets her up on a blind date with her boyfriend’s friend. After only a few minutes of getting to know each other, Jack and Rumeal hit it off; I briefly pushed his gushing over her cup size to the back of my mind in favour of Jack’s confidence that this might be the relationship she sincerely hoped for since last season.
But of course Netflix and fate couldn’t let true love happen that easily for Jack. Instead, her date ends up ghosting her up until the day of the anniversary party. After agreeing to attend the anniversary special with her and his good friend, Rumeal spent the evening sulking because Jack wasn’t paying him enough attention as she mingled with her fellow castmates, and wound up leaving the event early without her. Attempting to comfort her as she cries over Rumeal, Speed-Hamilton and Alexis reminded Diamond that she has a lot going for her without a man by her side. Still, no one wants to have their heart broken and be unnecessarily embarrassed by dusty men on TV twice.
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In case you forgot about Jack’s first reality TV heartbreak, let’s talk about her Love Is Blind couples’ getaway. Way back when the show was filmed in 2018, and after the pod couples got engaged, they were all sent on a tropical “honeymoon” in Cancun, Mexico. Instead of basking in the bliss of a free vacation, Morton spent his time taking shots at his fiancé. Almost immediately, he broke the romantic mood when he told her he “pick[ed] the craziest person in the house.” Jack responded by asking if her tendency to speak her mind made her crazy, and Morton said yes — ironic because that’s the same quality she said she admired in him — and told her that she’s lucky she’s “pretty,” because otherwise he would have “punched it” or left already. His aggressive behaviour began after Morton told Jack he’s bisexual, a fact that left Jack feeling misled, and Morton feeling unaccepted. The conversation turned into a crème de la crème reality tv show argument with curse words, flying drinks, and an engagement ring thrown in the pool.
When Strong Black Lead’s Instagram posted stills of the cast ahead of the reunion premiere, fans flooded the comments. Many viewers were not here for Morton’s return, but it’s clear now that the show inevitably brought him back to help finish his and Jack’s story. During the reunion, both reveal they received death threats and nasty comments from viewers after the episode aired. In February 2020 the two did an interview with PEOPLE Magazine where Jack said she would have handled the situation differently. “I would change the approach of it. I was trying to be very understanding, but I had questions because I’ve never been with a bisexual man,” she explained. “I don’t really know that community that well, but I respect the community. I love the community. I just had questions.” Despite Jack’s acknowledgement of her missteps, Morton continued to harass her on social media. In an April 2020 TMZ interview, Jack explained that she blocked Morton after he apologized at the reunion because “[he] was being very foul-mouthed against me on all of his social media pages” and threatened legal action against her.
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In After the Altar, Morton sits down with Speed-Hamilton and talks about his experience dealing with the aftermath of his fallout with Jack. In their conversation, he focuses on how the relationship with Jack negatively impacted his relationship with the rest of the cast instead of focusing on his own inappropriate behaviour. He also makes a point to link his breakup with Jack to biphobia in the Black community. But after the way he blew up on Speed-Hamilton during their chat, it appears that his fractured relationship with the cast could be his own doing, and the reason why he only appears briefly in the reunion. “I feel crazy still being emotional about it so much time after but I...didn’t get the chance to talk to my ex-fianceé,” he tells Speed-Hamilton. The conversation, nor the show itself, addresses Morton's past harassment of Jack.
Ultimately, at the end of this exhausting saga, we’re left with a disappointing conclusion for Jack: on one hand, we got to root for her to find love for the second time on TV, but on the other hand, it felt like Jack became a catalyst to stir up the drama for an otherwise uneventful reunion (minus the Damien Powers and Gianna Gibelli fight).
Whether or not it’s fair that Jack’s quest for love also doubles as the season’s most dramatic plotline is just the reality TV way. While I’m not sure the recipe to true love is finding your match by speaking to them through a wall, I’m still rooting for Jack to find her soulmate — just not on a Netflix dating show.