MAFS Intruder Joel has arrived like a gust of chaotic energy. Paired with bride Juliette, the duo were framed as the season’s tonal palate cleanser, a kind of rom-com interlude amid the emotional carnage.
Juliette is cast as the effervescent receptionist archetype: supermarket-dancing, sunshine-in-human-form, partial to goofballs and grand gestures.
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Joel, meanwhile, is introduced as a “former fat Uber driver” turned model, a drum-playing (more of that later), self-improvement enthusiast who laughs at absolutely everything. Are they simply two high-octane extroverts searching for their giggly, class-clown counterpart?
At the altar, Joel is self-deprecating but intense, earnest to the point of combustion. He meditates, speaks in affirmations and wants, desperately, to be the perfect man for his dream woman. His laugh borders on unhinged and, for a fleeting moment, you almost root for him. Almost.
Then he keeps revealing more about himself. There is also his mother, Sharyn, whom he reverently describes as his “guru.”
“Sometimes it’s intense,” she says of their bond. “I want him to cling onto another woman.” Minutes later, she is guiding him through a meditation session with his head resting in her lap.
Juliette, by contrast, feels refreshingly sincere. Optimistic without being naïve, she’s close to her sister, open-hearted and seems genuinely invested in the experiment.
Image: Nine
Their waterside vows are sweet and largely drama-free, despite jeers from some of the original couples watching on. But the tone shifts quickly. In his speech, Joel describes himself as “smelly and undesirable,” outlines towel-hanging rules and somehow lands on sewage metaphors. The camera cuts to Juliette’s face, and it says everything.
His mother’s speech is even more confronting. References to eating disorders, extreme weight loss, breastfeeding anecdotes. She calls him a “gluttonous pig,” casually reveals he still sleeps with his teddy and enjoys lying in her lap for back scratches.
Still, Juliette perseveres. Even as their honeymoon involves separate beds and a slow, stilted attempt at connection, she tries to build something with him.
By the commitment ceremony, her unease is unmistakable. “I’m trying to find any good signs really,” she tells the experts. “If I wasn’t part of this experiment, and I just met Joel out, I wouldn’t be proceeding.”
Joel, meanwhile, still seems fairly optimistic that Juliette will fall for his antics. “I’m patiently waiting for her to grow that attraction to me. Take as long as you need, babe.”
Image: Nine
Yet in Tuesday night’s episode things somehow went from bad to worse when Juliette revealed her friends had sent her a video of Joel “playing the drums with dildos.”
“I can’t help feeling embarrassed,” she tells the cameras. It is, objectively, fair.
“It’s just a bit of harmless humour,” Joel insists, smiling. But Juliette is resolute. “I just think we’re completely different people,” she continues, “I’m icked out. I’m so icked out.”
From there, the shift is visible. Juliette completely closes down for the rest of the episode.
At tonight’s Dinner Party, Juliette came in swinging. Fixated on Joel allegedly calling himself “the star of the show,” she repeated the claim to the rest of the group, framing it as proof of his ego. She also told him, pointedly, “you’ve created a deranged girl.”
In reality, Joel had told Juliette she couldn’t see his star, which felt less like self-praise and more like a pointed way of saying she didn’t like him for who he is. And, to be fair, she doesn’t. Gia, ever the loyal ally, confirms Juliette’s disdain for Joel, lamenting that “he’s insufferable.”
“She’s gone down the route of reputation savaging,” Joel tells the cameras.
His teddy bear also became a point of contention at the table, dividing the group over whether the sentimental sidekick was endearing or just plain odd.
“I actually like the teddy more than I like Joel,” Juliette declared, a line so brutal it visibly startled the experts.
“Did she just say that?” expert Mel asked, recoiling slightly in her seat.
We’ll have to see how it plays out, but at this rate Joel and Juliette’s trajectory is shaping up to be a cautionary tale in unchecked weirdness and terminally mismatched energy.
Writer
Caitlin Napier
Writer
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