Spoilers for the first 11 episodes of Love is Blind season 9 ahead. The entire premise of Netflix’s mega reality hit Love is Blind rests on whether someone can let go of physical expectations for a partner and marry solely based on an emotional connection. For season 9 stars Madison Maidenberg and Joe Ferrucci, physical attraction seems to be driving a wedge between the couple that said “yes” inside the pods. Ahead, we break down everything we know about Denver, Colorado-based contestants Madison and Joe’s relationship so far on Love Is Blind, including whether the couple might still be together after leaving the reality dating show.
Madison and Joe from Love Is Blind season 9.
What happens between Madison and Joe in the pods on 'Love is Blind' season 9?
When Madison, a 28-year-old UX/UI designer, and Joe, a 29-year-old sales representative, first meet in the pods, their interactions are silly. They plan a hypothetical date that involves karaoke and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos from 7-Eleven, and poke fun at each other’s choices that up the ante of the date. But things quickly become more serious when Madison reveals that she has a rare eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, in which her eyesight is slowly deteriorating and she could become completely blind. Joe’s reaction is strong: He comforts Madison by telling her that he would like to be there for his wife, should they get to that stage of the experiment.
Her health issues open the door for more significant conversations. Joe tells Madison that he’d be comfortable moving into her condo after getting married, as she is a homeowner and he is not. He also reveals that he is divorced, but ended things because his former partner was too introverted, to the point where he’d often be doing things alone instead of creating memories together. In the pods, he writes Madison a love letter, and she says it made her feel chosen.
Shortly after they meet, Joe admits that Madison feels "like a stranger" in person.
Do Joe and Madison get engaged on 'Love Is Blind' season 9?
By the end of episode 2, they’re engaged. At the reveal, their happy bubble seems to get its first puncture. Joe isn’t profuse about his love and attraction to Madison, and he later admits that he had a hard time connecting the women he had formed an emotional connection with in the pods to the person standing in front of him. He says a few times that she feels like a “stranger,” which isn’t exactly reassuring from the person you’re supposed to marry in a month.
In Baja, Mexico, their connection remains unsteady. Madison opens up more about her eye condition, they have sex (which she raves about to the girls), and he reassures her that he finds her attractive even though he’s still connecting the dots between the emotional and physical versions of her. In his confessional, though, he finally comes clean to say that Madison isn’t his typical physical type, and Madison picks up on the imbalance in their relationship when she points out that she’s always the one saying, “I love you,” first—except when they’re being intimate.
Things go from unsteady to properly bad by the end of episode 6, when Joe leaves the pool party with the rest of the Pod Squad early. Madison was already showing some annoyance towards him as he wasn’t being very attentive to her and kept talking over her to other people—but when she checks on him at the end of the night, she gets freaked out. Joe doesn’t recognize that she’s wearing the same outfit from earlier and repeatedly asks her the same questions. We don’t see exactly how many drinks he slung back (damn those opaque goblets!), but it’s pretty clear that Joe blacked out, and Madison isn’t here for it. As week 1 ended, Madison and Joe were in a horrible place with each other.
The couple faced a few dramatic confrontations in Baja, Mexico.
When the series returns for its second batch of episodes, we pick up where things left off in the midst of their fight. Joe, still drunk, asks if Madison is okay because he can hear her crying, but he doesn’t make an effort to get out of bed to check on her. She feels embarrassed for crying, and Joe continues to do the bare minimum, even laughing at her emotions and telling her he “can’t believe she’s doing this right now.” Madison spends the night apart from Joe, and in his confessional, he reveals that he doesn’t know what he did wrong or what she wanted from him.
After waking up separately, Joe arrives and apologizes in the light of sobriety the next day. Madison also takes accountability for not properly communicating her needs and feelings, and they both vow to try harder as they learn what the other needs. Joe soothes Madison’s fears by saying he intends to never make her feel abandoned and acknowledging that he should’ve consoled her the previous night.
Madison as she's upset amid one of her fights with Joe.
Though things eventually get back on track for Madison and Joe for the remainder of episodes 8 and 9, there are still a few difficult conversations between the couple before Madison meets Joe’s family for the first time. Madison conveys that she’s nervous because she’s never introduced anyone to her family, which Joe finds odd at this stage in life. Poking holes a bit further, Joe says Madison doesn’t show her reservations about the relationship and thinks that it “doesn’t feel human” that she is so sure about him. She defends herself by saying there are things he does that make her second-guess him (like when he pulls away from her or shuts down), but she’s choosing to focus on her overwhelming love for him instead.
That answer isn’t enough to assuage Joe’s fears. He reveals that he’s struggling with the “emotional whirlpool” of the experiment and wants to be reassured that she’s also experiencing the same thing. Madison says she’s acknowledged how “crazy” the experiment has been, and also wants to hear him talk about his excitement for her and their relationship. The conversation gets heated, and they’re unable to communicate without getting upset, which leads to the argument culminating with Madison saying Joe “isn’t marriage-minded,” leaving her ring on the counter. Phew!
Madison and Joe have highs and lows when they return to Denver.
The next morning, she returns, and after they both make an effort to make amends, she puts the ring back on. Joe takes Madison to see his apartment, which she is surprisingly happy with, before they go to dinner with his two sisters and parents. The meeting goes extremely well, as Madison can clearly articulate what attracted her to Joe in the pods and why she loves him. They both agree that the pods felt like marriage counseling because they had to be so open about their feelings and expectations immediately. Madison then shares that she’s ready for this next step in life since she feels settled in her career.
The stamp of approval from his family is the key to making Joe feel at ease. In a confessional at the end of the episode, he says he feels closer to her after this meeting and that the dinner reminded him of the Madison he fell in love with.
Joe and Madison show off her engagement ring.
Do Joe and Madison get married on 'Love Is Blind' season 9?
But as we approach the end of the season, Joe’s change of heart doesn’t last. In the last two episodes before the wedding, he finally meets Madison’s family. While the couple waits for her mom, sister Jessica, and brother-in-law to arrive, Madison conveys her anxiety to Joe and expresses that she needs a hug, to which he somewhat dismissively reminds her that they’re at dinner. He puts on a good face in front of her family, though, telling them that Madison is “crazy in a good way” but likes that she’s direct about what she feels. When he reveals his prior broken engagement, the family is receptive to him listening to his heart, and Jessica and her husband remind them that marriage is always a fight and you never know what’s going to come.
Madison’s mom pokes a little deeper at the timing of his previous break-up, a little worried that he waited until the last minute to end things. She asks that they don’t blindside each other, and is also comforted by his insistence that he’ll care for her through her potential vision loss. Later, during wedding dress shopping, Madison’s mom claims she has a good “ick” radar and that Joe passed the test.
But things are slowly unraveling for Joe during his tux fitting. He tells the room that half of him is elated and half of him wants to jump out of the window; when asked if he’s ready for this step, he responds by saying, “there’s always certain things” he’s not sure about, but doesn’t. When his friends ask if the feeling is setting in, he tells them to shut up, leaving the fitting altogether without telling anyone (effectively giving the 10th episode its title “Runaway Groom,” which ends with an on-the-nose needle drop in “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter).
It seems pretty clear that Joe is not 100 percent in and won’t say yes at the altar—but thankfully, he doesn’t allow things to get that far. At the start of episode 11, Madison tearfully tells her mom on the phone that Joe is gone. Off camera, he told her he had a breakdown and felt detached, and said to her that she’s not his person. When he comes back to their apartment for a face-to-face conversation, she mentions the whiplash of trying wedding dresses on to breaking up, but he can’t clarify to her what exactly is missing for him. Instead, he keeps repeating that it’s just not right and he can feel it.
Joe and Madison have a heated discussion.
Madison notes that this breakup is coming soon after meeting the others from the Pod Squad, and she asks whether there’s someone else he wants to explore things with, but he says no. She pushes him, asking if he’s okay with her being with someone else and never doing anything with her again, and he says he doesn’t love the idea but is unable to conjure up any other reassuring words. Madison (big on hypotheticals) also asks whether he thinks they’d have fared better if they met in the real world without the pressure of marriage, which is what she believes is freaking him out. But Joe says no, he thinks they made it further in this experiment than they would’ve outside of it because he actually got to know her deeply. There’s a lot that Joe isn’t saying—instead, he repeatedly says he “doesn’t know.”
Even in these final moments, Madison seeks comfort from Joe, though it’s not something he has been able to give her throughout the entirety of their relationship. She tells him she’s heartbroken, and while she’s crying, she gets more upset that he’s not hugging her. Cornered, he offers to hug her, but she doesn’t want it in that way. Eventually, Madison takes off her wedding ring, and they begin packing to leave the apartment.
Afterward, Joe tells his confessional that he feels relieved, like a weight has been lifted. For him, it became harder to picture a wedding and kids because he would be miserable. Joe doesn’t really elaborate on why he felt this way, instead repeating over and over that she’s not it for him. For her part, Madison examines the relationship through rose-colored glasses. She says she’s thankful that she did this with him and thanks him for being her journey in this—even though it didn’t work out.
Though the pair had some sweet moments in Denver, they ultimately called things off.
Are Joe and Madison from 'Love Is Blind' season 9 still together?
While Joe and Madison’s relationship ended abruptly on Love Is Blind, they still follow each other on Instagram. Still, it doesn’t seem like the couple has rekindled their flame after leaving the reality show, but their social media behavior suggests that they are at least on good terms. We’ll have to see if they return for the reunion, set to air on October 29, and have anything to say about finding closure—or if they’re dating anybody new.
