This is something we’ve seen before in the series. In season 1, Diamond Jack and Carlton Morton dramatically parted ways after a fight in Mexico. In season 2, Shayne Jansen and Shaina Hurley had a connection that lasted outside of the pods and seriously upset his then-fiancée Natalie Lee. It makes for interesting TV. But the difference is that Zack and Irina do something about it before the altar, breaking up at the end of episode 5 before leaving Mexico (they’ve spent the entire vacation sleeping with a pillow fort between them), and — as teased in the season promos — Zack pursues another option within the experiment after the pods. And they’re not the only couple who’ll deal with emotional back-and-forth and partner swapping throughout the course of the season. In the same batch of episodes, we see Kwame Appiah meet one of the women who turned him down in the pods face-to-face and struggle with his need for closure and validation of the relationship. It’s a mess, but it’s also super realistic — because dating IRL is messy. And ultimately, it’s this mess, uncertainty, and romantic floundering outside of the pods that makes season 4 arguably the show’s best yet, because in the chaos of this uncertainty, it’s also the most relatable.
