'A massive sex party': MAFS dinner party plants seeds for partner swaps - The Sydney Morning Herald

With the weddings and honeymoons exhausted, Married at First Sight finally turns to its more explosive scenarios, with Wednesday night seeing the season's first dinner party.

Elizabeth, jilted by "runaway groom" Sam, who's still over in New Zealand cavorting at an ex's mum's funeral, is forced to attend alone, which sets the stage for a shameless takeover from a more divisive face: Ines.

At a preview screening before the season aired, and before I had any awareness of the personalities involved, I offhandedly informed one of the show's experts that Ines was my mother's name. "You don't want your mother to be like this," she replied, an odd admission implying there's no redemptive run to Ines' time on the show.

Which is promising, really. Reality TV needs its unrepentant villains, a figure to stoke the flames of controversy among the hapless cast members. Ines, it seems, is this season's Davina.

That Nine, and producers Endemol Shine, have cast a former child refugee in the role of "the one Australia will hate most" is provocative, but well, here we are.

Bronson and Ines, so happily married.Credit:Nine

In the car, on the way to the dinner party, she's already setting her agenda.

"What if a guy there's like, 'Oh my god, I want your wife, I want to hook up with her'?” she asks partner Bronson. He nervously laughs it off.

She shares more with the cameras. "I plan to walk in 10 metres from Bronson because I'm so embarrassed to be his wife... I do not feel like I'm walking into this dinner party with a respectable human. I feel like I'm taking my rubbish with me... I really wanna know if everyone got, like, a hot husband, 'cause then I'd know I got fully ripped off."

At the dinner party – where, as expert Mel Schilling says, "comparison-itis" is setting in among the couples, who are seeing their loved-up peers for the first time – Ines refuses to even keep up appearances.

"You can full tell my husband looks like an absolute porn star, right?" she asks Martha, still upset she's been paired with a former stripper.

Again, to the producers she's more explicit. "If anyone is willing to donate me their husband, I would definitely like to have a discussion with them about it."

And then, over dinner: "I feel like this season's gonna be different. I feel like everyone's gonna be getting new husbands," she tells the table. "I wouldn't be surprised if this turned into a massive sex party... I've got premonitions that this is gonna happen."

The seeds of a partner swap, perhaps more, have officially been planted.

Who's on offer, though? Matt the Ex-Virgin would be a fun option, but he and Lauren are strong. So too are Jules and Cam, Martha and Michael and, despite some passionate word-y tiffs, Cyrell and Nic. Jess and Mick are a mess, and Bald Mike's eyes are already wandering, but Ines appears to have hers elsewhere.

Hang in there Elizabeth, this will only get worse.Credit:Nine

As if on cue, Sam enters the party, unaware he's already been called a "d---" and a "piece of s---" by guests for leaving poor Elizabeth in the lurch for so long.

Of course, the two feud. "Why didn't you contact me?" asks Elizabeth. "It really hurt."

"You're being a bit of a diva so you should just relax," he shoots back.

Ines is silently watching the whole thing.

Sam, with his best "listening" face.Credit:Nine

"I think Sam went to the funeral, had sex with his ex-girlfriend... Who are you kidding?" she offers. "Elizabeth is too much for Sam. She's just too extreme. I think Sam's attractive. Surely Elizabeth would have to know he's a playboy.

"If I was Elizabeth, I would have sex with him for as long as I could before he left me."

At this point, with Elizabeth and Sam talking over their problems privately, the show's editing turns impressionistic.

"Honestly, I just want you to know I’m sorry," Sam tells Elizabeth. "I do understand now where you're coming from and what you're saying." She beams, surprised at his sudden contrition.

But a voiceover over the scene, echoing Sam's mental state, paints a different picture.

"She won’t stop talking... It's a nightmare, it's a bloody nightmare. Kill me... How do I stop this? How do I tell this girl to stop?" Sam says. Keep an eye on his Instagram, viewers, this is when the "editing" outcry usually starts.

Ines, meanwhile, senses her opportunity.

"That crazy girl, what's her name? In real life you know he'd never look at her... He is that hot and that charming. I think Elizabeth is kidding herself, absolutely kidding herself."

She continues: "Oh my God, Sam is so hot... There's no way those two are going to build a healthy marriage together. Elizabeth, she's a liability in my eyes."

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Robert Moran is an entertainment reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age