overnights

90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way Recap: Hitchhikin’ Steven

90 Day FiancĂŠ: The Other Way

Facing Fears
Season 3 Episode 5
Editor’s Rating 5 stars

90 Day FiancĂŠ: The Other Way

Facing Fears
Season 3 Episode 5
Editor’s Rating 5 stars
Photo: TLC/Sharp Entertainment

If you think I felt bad after declaring my full hatred for Steven last week, please know that I was absolutely sure about my choice after watching him hitchhike with Alina. This man is hitchhiking in a country where he barely knows the language and has never lived! He’s telling his fiancé to jump out of a moving car if he “gets a feeling” things are bad! Every instinct I had about this kid was correct. And yes, he may be old enough to get married and move to another country, but he is a child in his thinking. He didn’t realize getting married abroad would require paperwork? He isn’t ready to marry Alina but asks her to leave her family and home? It’s more fun to hate Steven since he and Alina have fewer stakes. Unlike this season’s big villain, Ari, they don’t have a kid on the line.

To Alina’s credit, she is appropriately suspicious of Steven, and I don’t think these two will get married. At least, I believe she has too much sense to marry someone who would make her hitchhike! I do think Steven will end up cheating, or she’ll be upset he lied about being a virgin, but either way, she’ll feel great when this is over. Hopefully Alina doesn’t end up stuck with someone making promises he can’t keep for almost nine years like Sumit and Jenny. This week, Jenny is upset that Sumit’s family isn’t treating her like family. Of course, they’ve told her the circumstances for her to come to events multiple times (she’s invited as a friend, not Sumit’s fiancée), and Sumit has backed down from his threat to his parents that he’ll stop coming if Jenny can’t come every time.

I don’t really understand why Jenny would want to spend time with Sumit’s family when it’s so clear they hate her. They just openly dislike that woman. It feels like she’s so afraid of being alone she can’t even let Sumit go to a baby shower by himself. It is sad that Jenny doesn’t have anyone else in the country, but there’s really nothing she can do about Sumit’s family at this point. There have been too many lies on both sides to fix the relationship. Jenny keeps saying she’ll give up on Sumit, but I think it’ll be his family that finally convinces her to move back to America. Sumit admitting to them that he’s engaged to Jenny will probably make them dislike her even more.

Family is a key component to the dynamic of international romance, and Kenny and Armando proved that this week. Kenny’s daughter coming to visit in the last episode helped the two families blend a bit more. If this is what helps Armando finally feel comfortable telling his parents about the wedding, I love it. When Armando’s mom says she accepts her son and isn’t crying because he’s gay, I was also sobbing. Especially when Armando breaks it down: his parents might support and love him, but they aren’t happy for him. His father won’t even confirm his attendance at the wedding right after saying he loves Armando no matter what. Armando has taken leaps out of the closet since last season, but it’s easy to see why it took so long when his family reacted this way. Kenny has been more understanding of their cultural differences this season (look at him still trying with that Spanish!), but I don’t think he knows what this wedding means to Armando.

I was a bit harsh on Victor last week. Seeing his family interact with Ellie after the hurricane makes their relationship feel more stable. Ellie is really understanding of the trauma and difficulties they’re facing. Of course, Victor feels how much she loves him. Still, Ellie’s friend will eventually keep her focused: After this hurricane stuff, what about the cheating stuff? At some point, all those issues will circle back around after this honeymoon period. Of course, the trauma of what Victor has just experienced could be a bigger issue than Ellie thinking he’s constantly cheating.

Evelin’s family hates Corey now, which almost makes it a waste of time putting her parents through this mess. There’s no world where these two stay together! It seems most likely they’ll be divorced by the end of the season after going through this whole reveal. Evelin is messy, but Corey doesn’t have any sort of spine, and it’s a frustrating mix. Maybe Evelin thinks telling her family all of this will guilt Corey into paying for a more expensive wedding before they break up again? Nothing in their relationship makes sense, but the disgust on Evelin’s mother’s face when she looks at their iPad marriage is great. It also doesn’t help that Corey is still lying to Evelin and has to be forced into telling her the truth. These two just need to call it quits.

90 Day Notes

• Steven really said, “You’re down to marry me?” Don’t marry anyone who says that. I was also grossed out by his whole “You don’t want to be cuddly” thing.

• Kudos to Evelin for just going, “I’m not happy, and that’s not a lie.” We didn’t think you were lying, girl! You are not happy! We know.

• Ari is a demon; of course she didn’t like that Holy Water.

90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way Recap: Hitchhikin’ Steven