Warning: Spoilers from โLove Is Blindโ Season 11 belowโฆ
Jacqueline โJaxโ Guelli and Scott โStewโ Stewart might hold the record for the shortest engagement in โLove Is Blindโ history.
The two Bostonians met in Season 11 of the dating series, which arrived on Netflix Oct. 14. Jax and Stew hit it off in the pods, bonding over their refined tastes and their dreams for a luxurious wedding.
As the experiment continued, they opened up about their insecurities and pasts, with Stew sharing he had never been in love before. The reveal made Jax question if Stew was the right person for her, but she decided her feelings were too strong to walk away. He proposed and she accepted before their first in-person meeting.
When the two saw each other in Episode 4, they embraced as Jax repeated how โweirdโ the situation was. They shared a kiss but in her confessional interview immediately after, Jax told the cameras Stew more closely resembled Mitt Romney than a Kennedy, the nickname he said the male cast members had given him.
โI donโt want to be mean,โ she whispered as a producer asked her to explain how she felt.
At the start of Episode 5, Stew was elated in his interview and complimented Jaxโs appearance. But his feelings were not reciprocated as she told the producers she wanted to leave the show immediately. She also declined to meet with Stew.
Producers informed Stew of Jaxโs departure and shared that she requested the show not give him her contact information.
Looking back at the experience, Jax tells TODAY.com that she felt โoverwhelmedโ after seeing Stew in person.
โThis was all really new to me, so walking in there, it was just incredibly overwhelming. I felt like I was in a surreal dream, so I wasnโt really thinking,โ she explains.
The 31-year-old entrepreneur continues, โBut the connection wasnโt there, like for me at that moment. And there was just too much going on in my head. And I unfortunately didnโt deal with it well, how I wanted (to) or how I may have in real life. I just really wanted to get home.โ
In a separate interview, Stew also shares how he processed the reveal and how it felt to learn Jax had quit the show.
โI think thereโs so much going on at that reveal,โ he recalls. โThereโs so much pressure. Itโs such a new experience. Itโs something that nobody can prepare for. I donโt think I noticed what was maybe being sent out, and so it did come as a shock to me.โ
But he didnโt appear to hold Jaxโs response against her.
โI also think on the flip side, Jax deserves some degree of credit, some grace,โ he adds. โShe probably would have approached that differently had she had a different chance, had the emotions going through her mind not been going through her mind.โ
Still, he says learning that his experiment had abruptly ended caught him off guard.
โBut thinking back on the way that I carried myself and conducted myself in the pods, there was nothing that I really regretted there, and so the outcome was what it was. There were no โwhat ifsโ in my mind,โ he tells TODAY.com.
When asked what he will take away from this experiment, Stew says he discovered a lot about himself after watching his conversations in the pods.
โI think what I learned is thereโs a time for humor, thereโs a time for jokes and thereโs a time to be a little bit more serious, more sincere,โ the 34-year-old director of engineering says. โHad I had the opportunity to do it again, maybe I would have shown that side a little more.โ
As for Jax, she says she also learned a valuable lesson: โTo not ghost people in real life.โ
โAnd to own your own faults,โ she adds.
Their time on the show isnโt over. A teaser at the end of Episode 5 showed the two reuniting to discuss their engagement. Fans will see how the conversation goes when episodes six through eight hit Netflix on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
