The ‘Love Is Blind’ finale is here. Our writers discuss how Season 5 went off the rails

Love may be blind but it’s also a hot mess.

Season 5 of Netflix’s hit dating show “Love Is Blind” started off with a bang last month. Set in Houston this time around, the series offered the usual mix of clout-chasing singles looking to amp up their social media following — and maybe find their life partner — by spending a few weeks in a windowless warehouse talking to strangers through a wall. While lounging on Ikea sofas, they opened up about their past relationships, their hopes for the future and their love of the American flag-themed apparel.

So far, so normal.

Then at the end of Episode 3 came a bombshell: Two contestants, Uche Okoroha and Lydia Velez Gonzalez — both of whom were close to getting engaged to other people — had dated just months before joining the show.

Like a butterfly flapping its wings and accidentally unleashing a typhoon, the revelation sent the entire season into chaos, and not the fun kind. As soon as they landed in Mexico for a getaway, one of the engaged couples — Jared “JP” Pierce and Taylor Rue — struggled to find anything to talk about, got into a fight about false eyelashes and broke up.

Heading into Friday’s finale and Sunday’s reunion, only two engaged couples remained: Gonzalez, a geologist who has been portrayed as this season’s villain because of her previous relationship with Okoroha, and Milton Johnson, a Pokemon player eight years her junior. Also, Stacy Snider, a Pilates instructor with a