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90 Day Fiancé Recap: Jovi Ruins Our Chance at Joy

90 Day Fiancé

Forgive But Never Forget
Season 8 Episode 13
Editor’s Rating 4 stars

90 Day Fiancé

Forgive But Never Forget
Season 8 Episode 13
Editor’s Rating 4 stars
Photo: TLC

With every season on any version of 90 Day Fiancé, there comes a time when the story starts to feel trapped in the same patterns and arguments. In “Forgive But Never Forget,” this is where stories like Brandon and Julia’s, Mike and Natalie’s, and Tarik and Hazel’s are starting to suffer. Still, this mix of couples has kept things interesting enough for this to be one of the show’s best seasons in years. Look at how much is still going on: Jovi is on the edge of blowing up his entire relationship; Amira, against all better judgement, actually flew to Serbia; Zied is already threatening to move out of Rebecca’s weird, empty apartment; Stephanie is a whirlwind unto herself.

I thought Yara and Jovi would feel shallow, like last season’s Blake and Jasmine, the latter of whom’s clear desire to be an influencer made their participation on the show feel empty. But this is not the case with Yara and Jovi, who have opened up with so much emotional depth they might now be the Harry and Meghan of 90 Day Fiancé for me. When Yara went dress shopping with Jovi’s mom, I cried with them! You can tell Jovi’s mom really likes her and wants to support their wedding, and Yara finally saw how much the invitation meant to her and let her guard down. If it was all about creating drama for the show or a green card, Yara could have just interpreted Jovi’s mom’s crying as manipulative and said, “Forget it; you can’t come.” We’ve definitely seen her stick to her guns before. Yara is softening to Jovi, New Orleans, and his family in a way that feels really sweet.

It also helps that Jovi has been acting like a good fiancé the past few weeks, which probably makes Yara feel more secure. The stage is set for Yara and Jovi to have a beautiful wedding in next week’s episode, a wedding so full of love it would probably create 20 whole minutes’ worth of serotonin in our brains. But will we get that? No. Because Yara agrees to let Jovi go to his bachelor party (even after her health scare), and Jovi does every single thing Yara doesn’t want him to do. With eight hours to pack before they head to Vegas for their wedding, Jovi is definitely having sex with a stripper in a VIP room.

I do think Brandon and Julia will have a nice wedding. And at the very least, the venue they’ve selected is one of the nicest we’ve seen on 90 Day Fiancé. It beats the conference room Tarik showed Hazel. I just don’t feel the love with Brandon and Julia, though. I was screaming when he couldn’t remember why Julia selected that date. They had an entire conversation with his parents about it! I am a complete stranger to them, and I was like, Buddy, it’s the day you messaged her that she looks like your future wife!! They titled the first episode of this season after that quote! Brandon is going through the motions. I think he was raised to believe that you just meet a nice girl, you get married, and that’s it. Like getting a first car or job, marrying Julia just checks a box for him. Julia didn’t come all the way to America for that. She wants romance and a fiancé who actually cares about their wedding. These things are fair. They’re both still naive enough to go through with it, though, so I don’t think Julia is going to give us a Yara-level blowup.

Brandon and Julia and Yara and Jovi are the only couples I think will actually make it down the aisle this season, though. I’m pretty sure Stephanie is only on the show this season so she can inevitably be spun off into The Single Life. She’s accidentally calling Harris by Ryan’s name, and her idea to bring Harris to America feels like drunken rambling. Harris has children. He and his wife are “separated,” but he’s just going to leave his three kids and go to Michigan? None of it sounds very realistic, but Stephanie is finally getting some dick and living in her dreams. Also, won’t it set off some red flags if she’s submitting K-1 visa paperwork for a different man while her other visa is being processed? Also, it was great when Harris said he could go to America and provide a better future for himself and his family and then added, “and even Stephanie … I could be good for her, too.”

At this point, if Harris wants to use Stephanie for her money, I don’t feel bad for Stephanie. Harris isn’t even hiding the plan; she’s just being willfully ignorant — unlike Rebecca, who is slowly realizing things aren’t what she thought. It’s heartbreaking to watch Zied tell her he’s not happy when she’s so insecure about their relationship. Zied’s demands also don’t make sense when you look at it from Rebecca’s perspective, since they’ve stayed together during Ramadan before. Rebecca set a firm boundary when she said she didn’t want to rush this time. That’s how things went badly with her ex. Zied is bulldozing right over that with this ultimatum, and it makes me hate him. He’s playing into Rebecca’s insecurities to get her to rush into this, and I hope she realizes that before it’s too late.

And even though Natalie finally got her ring, it still feels like Mike is toying with her. I couldn’t believe Natalie accepted his proposal after his angry little outburst when she asked if they could start with a blank slate. I don’t know if Mike just didn’t understand Natalie, but he gets weirdly aggressive with her over minor misunderstandings. The woman is trying to plan a wedding, and she isn’t even sure if she can buy a dress yet. Mike really isn’t even meeting her halfway and still says they have “things” to work on without any specifics. At least that ring will buy Michael more time before Natalie’s next outburst.

Hazel doesn’t play this game like Natalie. When she has an issue with Tarik, she forces him to stop breaking down boxes and talk to her about it. Hazel is right to still be suspicious of Tarik because he clearly does still have feelings for Minty. Of course he should delete Minty’s number! There’s no reason to talk to Minty! It’s starting to feel like Tarik doesn’t have much interest in continuing their open relationship without Minty, and that’s strange. It also seems like they have things to figure out between them outside of their open relationship. They still clash over so much and it’s starting to feel like Minty and polyamory are a distraction from other issues.

And finally, there’s Amira and Andrew. Andrew begs Amira once again over video chat to go to Serbia, and I have to imagine Amira said yes because Andrew has one of the most annoying, whiny voices I’ve ever heard over the phone. The way he says “baby” is so sickening I’ve started instinctively saying “I hate him” whenever he says it. At the very least, Amira does land safely in Serbia and makes it to her hotel. Now, though, she has to stay there alone for two weeks. She doesn’t know if she can even leave her hotel room safely, and it’s clear Andrew didn’t consider what this would be like for her at all. If Andrew keeps up this toxic “Cheer up, baby” positivity, I think Amira will just go home. Amira still can’t even talk to him honestly about what she’s going through.

90 Day Fiancé Recap: Jovi Ruins Our Chance at Joy