90 Day Fiance Season 10, Episode 2 picks up where the season premiere left off: with Ashley in a state of panic.
At this point, she doesn’t even know if Manuel is going to make it to her in time for his visa.
When Manuel does arrive, they can reunite. But then the drama begins.
Do these two actually have anything in common? This goes much deeper than different faiths.
Ashley and Manuel
When the season premiere ended, Ashley Michelle was on the verge of a panic attack. So, as this episode begins, we see her meet up with her sister, Sienna. Sienna helps to calm her, while Ashley notes that she wishes that she’d worn a grounding crystal for such an important, emotional day. To the camera, Sienna speculates that Ashley has pushed aside a lot of her doubts and anxieties about Manuel coming to see her, and now the reality of it is all hitting her at once. Sadly, that is part of the tyranny of emotion — even pushing them aside or burying them doesn’t rob them of their power.
“Why are you crying?”
In the airport, a still-nervous Ashley manages to calm herself (with her sister’s help), noting that the baggage claim means that his plane arrived. Finally, Manuel descends the escalator and she greets him. This time, Ashley’s tears stem from joy and relief. He’s finally here! Manuel embraces her, quickly reassuring her that she doesn’t need to cry.
“How gorgeous is this woman?”
Manuel showers Ashley with compliments as they embrace and kiss. “Words can’t express the level of relief I felt,” Ashley tells the confessional camera. After many more kisses, she introduces Manuel to her sister, who has made a poster to welcome him to America. Their 90 day journey has begun!
RICO SUAVE
Ashley has an adorable little dog named Rico Suave and he’s SUCH a little sweetie! Ahem, sorry, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. So, Ashley takes Manuel to her house (which is in a really cute neighborhood) and they go inside.
“Oh, I don’t like cats”
Manuel isn’t interested in getting to know Lyra, Ashley’s cat. In fact, he goes on a whole mini-rant to the camera about how he doesn’t see cats as “useful” to him because he thinks of cats as pest-control for wooden houses and not as, you know, pets. He’s not a pet guy. Even in this episode, he’s not done making a stink about this.
But first …
Manuel is going to have to learn a lot of things. Sometimes, it’s just how a house in the US operates — our outlets are different, there are certain features that our homes may or may not have. But he also seems genuinely confused that someone would use warm water to wash their hands or to do the dishes. The doing the dishes part is kind of important, because hot water helps to break up grease. We didn’t fully scope out Ashley’s kitchen, but hopefully she has a dishwasher and thus will not have to worry about Manuel washing dishes in cold water.
Manuel has decided to cause problems on purpose
He gripes that there isn’t a bedroom door, specifically because he wants to keep Rico Suave and Lyra out of the bedroom whenever he likes. If he were living alone, that would not be unreasonable. But he’s only just arrived in Ashley’s home and he wants to rearrange things. And yes, this is a problem. The religious differences could be a dealbreaker or they might not be, but the way that he seems to fundamentally have a problem with Ashley having pets (despite his insistence to the contrary) seems like a bigger issue.
Ashley talks to Manuel
She specifically worries that her dog will find it unsettling and upsetting if, after ten years with her, he suddenly has to sleep outside of her bedroom — and that this will be Manuel’s doing, and that Rico Suave will obviously associate the two. That is very reasonable, and would also be my concern in her shoes. Now, Manuel makes a good point to the camera — they’re going to be partners, so she can’t make all decisions unilaterally. But like … neither can he. Honestly, Manuel’s giving a really bad impression at the moment, but hopefully he’ll turn into one of those “I don’t want a pet” people who becomes a total pet person.
The next day
Ashley says that she hopes that Manuel is growing accustomed to Rico Suave. (Hey, maybe he was just cranky and combative because moving is stressful and he was super sleepy!) Now, it’s (the next?) evening, and Ashley and Manuel are preparing for dinner. Ashley also wants to slowly introduce him to her spiritual practice — just so that he better understands her. She’s a witch, and he knows this, but … Manuel clearly has some hangups about this.
“A person who does harm”
Manuel says that he doesn’t think of Ashley as a witch, because his concept of witches is of people who do harm. We have to note that it’s not like witches only exist in America. Ecuador absolutely has a (small but growing) segment of contemporary Pagan practitioners. That said, the vast majority of the country is Roman Catholic — and it seems that Manuel has very little frame of reference when it comes to people of other faiths. That’s not his fault.
Ashley tries to explain
She gives a very simple description of what it means to be a witch. It’s not just a hobby — it’s part of her identity, it’s her means of spiritual fulfillment, and it’s also her job. Like we said, Manuel just hasn’t had a lot of exposure to other beliefs. He didn’t choose that. What he can control is whether he’s interested in understanding his future wife.
Mansplaining
Sharing your own conceptions of what something means is normal. Telling someone that you know what they are better than they do is … a choice. I’m not going to say that it’s never true, but WOW you need to be really sure before you make a claim like that. But Manuel insists that he doesn’t think that Ashley is a witch because she’s not destructive or selfish, and then decides to look it up.
Ashley needs some air
Manuel scrolls through — we’re not sure where — and decides to read to her about witches gaining unnatural powers from the devil. Obviously, that’s not her whole situation, but it’s also obviously frustrating to Ashley that Manuel is trying to tell her what she is or isn’t. Outside, she vents about this. If Manuel loves her, he’ll listen to her when she tells him who she is. Inside, Manuel says that, as a Catholic, he doesn’t like her calling herself a witch. It doesn’t sound like he thinks that she’s personally evil, which is great. But one wonders if he’ll need to meet other witches to understand his fiancee. If so, if he can’t just take her word for who she is, their problems may run deeper than religious differences.