90 Day FIance continues, introducing a brand new couple — but not the last introduction of the season.
On Season 8, Episode 3, Yara goes to see Jovi’s mother … who has a lot of questions and concerns.
We are introduced to Andrew and Amira, who have concocted a very bad plan to try to see each other.
Tarik is hyped for Hazel’s arrival. He also finally explains the falling out with Dean, his brother.
On a mom-mandates tour of Washington DC, Julia comes face to face with how little autonomy Brandon has.
Natalie raves about sex with Mike … but can she cope with Mike’s living situation?
Jovi Dufren and Yara Zaya
Jovi prepares Yara, his fashionista fiancee, to visit his mother. Gwen lives some distance away, on the bayou.
“Jovi is from the swamp”
Yara doesn’t truly understand what “the bayou” means yet, so he has to direct her on how casually to dress — like, a tee-shirt. Yara wanted to dress to impress to meet his mother, so it’s a little weird for her. Once again, these two are just totally different people.
It’s an amicable meeting
Yara is reluctant to stay the night at Gwen’s house because she does not yet know her and she likes her sleeping arrangements to be just so (relatable), but she greets Gwen warmly. Between Jovi’s nudging and the general rules of good manners when Gwen asks, Yara agrees to spend one night.
Gwen has mixed feelings
She says that she obviously sees what Jovi likes about Yara (she’s hot), she’s unsure, and if she sees red flags, she’s prepared to “open her mouth” to Jovi about them before he makes what she considers to be a mistake.
Yara wants a Vegas wedding
She explains that she understands that Jovi’s family will want to be there for his wedding, but notes that her own family in Ukraine cannot be there. The idea of livestreaming a wedding and reception back to her family while Jovi’s family has fun seems cruel, so she wants to avoid that — and just have the wedding be the two of them. Gwen continues to prod about this all evening.
Jovi gets a call
Work needs for him to travel a few days early. Remember, Jovi travels the world repairing underwater pipelines, which is how he met Yara in the first place. Unfortunately, the timing is pretty bad. Yara has been in town for just a couple of days and he’s going to have to leave even sooner than expected.
Yara did not enjoy the stew
She doesn’t say this to Gwen herself, but — having previously been unfamiliar with stew as a concept — she describes it as pretty flavorless. Honestly? Stew is often like that. Not everyone digs gravy. Anyway, Jovi protests and thinks that it’s delicious and says that his mom is a great cook.
She’s also not a fan of his hometown
Yara notes that Jovi’s town looks “like everyone died,” with empty streets. Jovi says that it looks like “a ghost town,” so he’s not disagreeing. Yara’s discomfort is understandable — and she’s not the only blonde from Ukraine who found herself on the set of a horror movie in Episode 3.
Yara doubles down on her wedding plans
Despite “pushing” from Gwen, Yara insists that she doesn’t want “to get married in a trailer park.” Whether that characterization is fair or not (something tells us that producers spoon-fed her that term), who can really blame her for wanting her wedding to be on her own terms?
Andrew Kenton and Amira Lollysa
Andrew and Amira are finally being introduced, and they’re not even the last couple to be featured on this season (that will be next week). We first see Andrew donning a costume with dramatic music, and your mind is whirling — is he a hardcore LARPer? Was this somehow filmed at Halloween? No, no — he’s a daycare worker and he goes above and beyond to entertain the adorable kids who stop by as he reads to them, and that includes reading to them in costume. He notes that there are not a lot of men in the profession, but that positive male caretakers can be an asset in childcare. He’s not wrong at all.
Amira is from France
She says that one of her real interests is makeup — buying it and looking up stuff about it. I HAVE to imagine that she listed other interests and TLC just cut them out to make her look ridiculous (beware when listing things on reality TV — they can make it sound however they want it to). Interestingly, fans have been demanding someone from Western Europe for a while now, for a change of pace, so maybe Amira will be exactly what they want.
She’s bored of Saumur
Saumur is a beautiful part of France where some of their best wines are produced. It is also a town of about 26,000 people. That’s … well, that’s like a small college town, not really a place where most people would be content to live. Additionally, she notes that she is half-Egyptian, and feels out of place in France, which is what motivated her to join an international dating app in the first place. The subtext here is that, like so many places, France has a serious racism problem.
She and Andrew connected quickly
It took them a while to get their K-1 visa approval. The very same day that it was approved, Donald Trump (months too late) banned travel from Europe. The visa will expire anyway … so she and Andrew feel the need to get creative.
They have come up with a terrible plan
Their plan is for Amira to fly to Mexico (during a pandemic) and then cross the border into the US (during a pandemic) with her French passport (during a pandemic), as if border agents can’t read that she’s from France on the passport and that she left just days ago. That’s why passports get stamped the way that they do.
Andrew meets up with his sister
He’s going to end up missing her baby shower (that’s she’s having during a pandemic? LUNACY) while meeting up with Amira, but he does gift her a periwinkle (she calls it blue? Maybe it is and it just looks periwinkle on camera) beret for her baby. Get it? Because his fiancee is French.
Amira meets upw ith her dad
He has a lot of concerns, from the lockdown in the US to traveling during the pandemic. But his biggest worry is Andrew pressuring Amira, once again, to do what he wants.
Pressure, pressure, pressure
Like we saw on The Other Way with Biniyam Shibre, it looks like Andrew just asks and asks again and again until he gets his way — until Amira caves and agrees to what he wants. That is not healthy.
“This is not love”
Amira’s father is seriously concerned about this red flag and is worried that there may be others. Amira … this plan to come to the US is terrible.
Tarik Myers and Hazel Cagalitan
Tarik is on his way to meet up with his close friend, Angela, who will help him pick out a special outfit to wear to greet Hazel when she arrives in the US for the very first time.
Okay, but what happened with Dean?
We knew that the two of them had a falling out. It turns out, Tarik explains, that Dean was harshly critical of Hazel and her intentions, and that he then turned around and proved to be a hypocrite … which has Tarik fuming. He does not expect for this falling out to ever be resolved.
He finds a suit in Hazel’s favorite color
His biggest concern, he expreses, is finding out whether Hazel can be an effective co-parent. He knows that he and Hazel love each other, but his daughter, who is on the autistic spectrum, always comes first.
REUNITED
In his powder blue suit and with flowers in hand, Tarik greet Hazel on her first trip to the US. He is immediately tearful as they embrace.
They are so happy to be together
Hazel reminds the cameras (because some viewers are deeply, unfairly resentful of mothers trying to make a better life for their families) that she loves her son and misses him, and that her hope is that he can come and join them one day soon so that they can all live a better life.
Tarik takes Hazel home
Tarik’s house isn’t DIRTY, but it is MESSY. That is an important distinction. It’s nothing that can’t be tidied in about 15 minutes, which makes you kind of wonder why he didn’t tidy it up beforehand.
He shows her his dishwasher
Obviously referring to previous discussions when he was visiting her, he shows her a dishwasher. Hazel is mistrustful of it and expresses her intention to wash dishes by hand. (Note, this is not uncommon in first-generation immigrants, but it’s not good either — dishwashers are PROFOUNDLY more water-efficient than handwashing, which makes scrubbing dishes by hand a waste of time, energy, clean water, and money)
She’s kind of overwhelmed
Hazel explains that the size of Tarik’s house has her feeling overwhelmed and even intimidated. Change is difficult, and it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, even when the change is unquestionably for the better.
Brandon Gibbs and Julia Trubkina
Brandon has already gotten up, gotten dressed, gone to grab some coffee, and returned to the hotal room while Julia is still asleep. Clearly, he grew up on a farm. Julia, still recovering from jet lag, is not ready to get up yet.
Julia is feeling a little overwhelmed
She arrived and was so happy to see Brandon … and then everything went wrong. She found out that there’s a house rule that two grown adults can’t share a room until they’re married (Betty is 100% the bad guy on this), that Brandon knew but didn’t warn her. Then, Brandon’s mom cornered her about her birth control or lack thereof, and Julia found out that Brandon refuses to stand up to his control freak mom.
The separate living arrangements are absurd
Julia notes that of course the two of them can have sex even if they aren’t sharing a room, but that’s not the point. This is just an untenable situation.
And the hits keep coming
Now, Brandon’s mom has made “plans” — an entire itenerary — for them. There are people like this and they will never voluntarily yield control, and I’m just going to say it — Brandon needs to make an OnlyFans or something, whatever he needs to gain financial independence and just ghost his mom and never look back. As long as she has money and he doesn’t, she will always get her way, and even if he were a millionaire, she has him so conditioned to accept whatever she says that he’s just going along with it.
Today’s plans include a visit to DC
After some weird body-shaming of strangers by Julia in the car (she’s not the first to do that this season; some people come from cultures where it’s considered acceptable to just openly comment on the bodies of strangers like it’s your business), they get out. When Betty points out the White House and says “our President” lives there repeated, anybody else feel the hairs on the backs of their necks stand up?
Julia didn’t take the bait
Betty may have been fishing to find out whether Julia is a (fellow?) Trump-lover. Honestly, maybe she was saying “our” in the sense of American presidents, but tbh I haven’t heard someone say “our President” in nearly half a decade, so that is the vibe that Betty with her ’80s hair are giving off. Unfortunately, the REASON that Julia doesn’t take the bait is that she doesn’t care about politics, which is … unfathomable. Unfathomable until you remember that she’s from Russia, where the same man has remained in power for many years by dubious means.
Betty talks to Brandon about “red flags”
She thinks that Julia’s hesitation to do exactly what Betty wants at all times is a “red flag.” This is what happens when you live alone on a farm with two men who obey your every word because they have learned that objecting will not do them any good — the slightest resistance to what you want sounds like open hostility.
All Julia wants is “you time” with Brandon
The two of them go to a restaurant, and Julia tries to talk him into putting his foot down with his mom, and that if she still insists on her ridiculous separate rooms policy, they should just leave immediately.
But Brandon basically has no money
He spent a lot on going out to see Julia in the past, so he confesses that he’s under his mother’s thumb (even more now than before) because he doesn’t have the money for a new place. Julia understands at least to some degree, but it’s not clear if she fully grasps that Betty is using her financial situation to add a layer of control over Brandon.
Mike Youngquist and Natalie Mordovtseva
Mike and Natalie have woken up in the very, very nice Seattle hotel room, where Natalie is quick to praise their time in bed the night before. “Last night was great. Me and Mike have ups and downs, but when it comes to our sexual relationship, then we have ups.”
They go to a restaurant and meet with Uncle Beau
Uncle Beau is the guy who has effectively been kicked out of the house for Natalie’s comfort, but they are cordial with each other. Of course, it’s unclear how much she knows of Uncle Beau (actually Mike’s cousin) and his extensive criminal history. Nobody cares about the substance-related charges or the illegal fishing, but multiple arrests for domestic violence and assault … that’s serious, and TLC is once again giving airtime to someone without telling the audience vital information about them.
Natalie doesn’t seem to know any of this
She inexplicably praises Beau’s sense of style and his manner, which sounds like either a joke that doesn’t translate to her tone, or like she’s just being super nice to be nice to Mike.
The waiter is a little flirty
Natalie realizes that she’s unsure of how to introduce herself. She has a K-1 visa, but is she really Mike’s fiancee if he hasn’t given her the ring back yet?
Time to get “scary”
You know when you’re driving somewhere and you take a back road and you find yourself in a spooky nowhere-town and you know that you need to leave ASAP? Well, Natalie’s going to go live in a remote house in the middle of nowhere, and it’s spooky. The road on the way is scary, and she says that the house is like something from a horror movie. It’s also cold and untidy. Untidy, sure. It may be that she’s just a tiny person and gauges what is “hot” and “cold” differently than Mike.
Natalie is feeling a lot of things
She doesn’t even have the ring back yet and she’s just moved across the world to live alone with Mike. As always, moving is overwhelming, so it’s normal to feel overwhelmed.
She tears up
Mike seems like a really nice guy, but that doesn’t mean that Natalie is sure that this is the future that she wants. As always, love and compatibility are very different things.