Accusations of stalking and betrayal.
A man who exclusively dresses like an American flag.
In fact, the latter is likely how we’ll best rememberLove Is Blindseason five.
COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Find out what he had to say to those questions and more, below.
Glamour: We know there were multiple other engagements not shown this season.
What goes into the decision to follow some but not others?
Uche Okoroha and Lydia Velez Gonzalez in episode 507
After Taylor and JP break up and there were only two engagements left being followed.
Were there conversations about revisiting some of those other couples?
Chris Coelen:I mean, every season there are a multitude of stories we choose not to follow.
Lydia Velez Gonzalez and Aaliyah Cosby.
Every season, there are multiple couples that get engaged that we don’t follow.
Sometimes we follow stories of peoplelike on season fivethat don’t get engaged but we still find compelling.
Because I believe that the audience, and I, can sense when something is inauthentic.
Lydia Velez Gonzalez and Milton Johnson in episode 506
I just don’t think that’s very interesting or compelling.
Some we don’t follow at all.
Some we follow a little bit, and then we stop following.
Taylor Rue and Jared Pierce in episode 505
If it seems inauthentic, we have a go at not tell those stories.
In some cases, a couple gets engaged and breaks up at the airport, literally.
So I feel pretty good about the choices that we’ve made.
I think that’s the right way to approach it.
Do the other engaged couples that aren’t shown go on the trip, though?
I did not know until day one of dating in the pods that they knew each other.
That is when I found out.
We attempt to provide that genuine experience.
I’ve never run across that situation.
We took them aside into separate interview rooms [once we learned about their past].
We have 89 cameras.
So I said, hey bring them into the men’s interview room and the women’s interview room.
To be honest with you, my most significant emotion was disappointment.
I was really disappointed for them.
Let me tell you all this information…
It would undermine the experience of all the other participants as well as undermine each other’s experience.
They really, really, really wanted to stay.
They each professed to not have any interest.
Neither of them professed to have any interest whatsoever in the other, and they really wanted to stay.
You could feel how much they wanted to stay.
It’s a really cool experience.
I want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to have this experience.
So c’mon keep that information to yourselves.
Because you’re not interested in each other, it doesn’t matter.
We never police what they say.
They can say whatever they want.
They can talk about me if they want.
They can talk about production.
They can talk about anything.
We don’t tell them anything.
We don’t limit them, but this was an exception.
They both were so great about honoring this idea of trying to keep the integrity of the experiment.
We’re cool with it because everybody has started to zero in on one or two people.
If you want to tell them, have at it or don’t.
You don’t have to tell anybody.
If you want to tell them, you might.
If you don’t want to tell them, you don’t have to.
Then the results of that play out on the show, and that’s what you see.
Aaliyah alludes to feeling uncomfortable around Lydia.
Were there more conversations between them that we didn’t see?
And what was their goodbye like?
Did they speak again after leaving the pods?
Are there other conversations that they had in the pods that we didn’t see?
Possibly, I don’t know.
We’re filming with a lot of cameras, and I haven’t seen every single bit of footage.
Lydia Velez Gonzalez and Aaliyah Cosby.
Listen, they go back to their hotels at night, or whenever they want to.
Again, I don’t know for sure, I wasn’t there.
It’s not on camera, but they had a conversation that Aaliyah found upsetting.
That’s what she recounts in that scene with Uche.
We don’t have that conversation on camera.
I don’t know what they said.
I only know what each of them may or may not have to say about it.
I have no idea what their goodbye was like.
I have no idea.
All we can do is document their story as it presents itself when it’s on camera.
Let’s move on to Milton.
There wererumors that he might have had a relationshipbefore coming on the show, or even during.
Do you have any comment on that?
Do you vet the cast to check that they are truly single?
And if so, how?
I have no knowledge of that, number one.
That became an issue for them in the real world.
Sal was like, “It wasn’t a relationship.
I made it very clear it wasn’t a relationship.”
Did Milton have a relationship?
I have no ideawhat is a relationship to one person?
Was he friends with someone?
Did he kiss someone?
I have no idea.
The other thing that I would say is the obvious, which is Milton falls in love with Lydia.
Their engagement was certainly a surprise for a lot of viewers.
That’s what I love about this show.
We really go to great lengths to give a shot to paint three-dimensional pictures of people.
Nobody is one thing or the other thing or whatever.
That’s called being a human.
This show documents being human really, really well, and I love their love story.
I think they are amazing, one of my favorite love stories of all time.
Why do you say that?
I think we all want love in different ways at different times in our lives.
But we all want love.
That’s a very universal aspiration.
They overcame those obstacles at every single turn and love triumphs in the end.
Love won, and I just think that’s amazing.
Will we see JP and Taylor at the reunion?
Because we don’t check in with them in the finale.
They’ll be invited to the reunion, sure.
Again, we strive to show everything that happens on the show.
They got engaged and appeared to be in love.
Truthfully, I thought they were absolutely going to get married.
That’s what I thought when they got engaged.
That’s how I felt, and I was dead wrong.
Again, that’s why I love being part of this show because it constantly surprises me.
It’s an experiment of two parts.
Can you find someone to fall in love with based just on who they are on the inside?
And if you do, can that love survive the obstacles of the real world?
Which include all kinds of things about what they look like and opinions of others, et cetera.
Their love cannot withstand that.
