James Weir recaps Married At First Sight Australia 2023 episode 28

Alarm bells sound on MAFS when the year’s most controversial couple finally splits — and then the wife goes AWOL. James Weir recaps.

Married At First Sight’s gaslit wife finally wakes up and dumps her manipulative husband before vanishing without a trace, leaving the other wives to whisper about the disappearance like it’s the subject of a new Gary Jubelin podcast.

People don’t just disappear — especially at Trash Tower. The freaks are sealed inside that fortress and live under 24-hour video surveillance. How do we just lose one?

This incident leaves us with no other choice – next year, we’re just gonna have to implant the freaks with microchips.

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It’s the morning after the girls’ night, where the ladies tried to again convince Bronte that her husband is the worst. It ended with her storming out of the pub — through the little side-exit in the pokies den. Anyway, she wakes up and proudly informs Harrison of how she stood up for him.

He listens, then sighs. There’s a long pause. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re about to officially enter the final stage of Harrison’s twisted scheme to psychologically torment his wife.

Instead of thanking her, he sides with the others — questioning her decisions and motivations to remain in the marriage after weeks of emotional backflipping.

“You can’t badmouth your partner for weeks on end, call them every name under the sun, and then stay in the relationship,” he says, shaming his wife.

Honestly, Bronte gets blime-fibe-eb more before 7am than Tracey Jewel does all day.

You’re lookin’ a little blime-fibe-eb, doll.

This is the last straw. After two months of manipulation, Bronte finally wakes up from the haze she has been lulled into.

“What the f**k! He’s gaslighting me again!” she informs us, as if it’s brand-new information.

No! Ya don’t say! He seems so reasonable!

Harrison’s gaslight continues to burn bright.

“I’ve stood by you and you’re throwing our relationship away,” he says in a soft, wounded voice.

But Bronte will not be guilted. Not now! Not again!

Inspired by Tayla, who left the experiment in the dark of night and hitched a ride on a salmon trawler back to Tasmania, she marches out and refuses to go to the dinner party.

“I feel completely broken,” she sobs. “I have nothing left. I’m literally getting on a plane and going home. I’m done.”

Look, we wanna believe ya, Bron. But we’ll bet you Melinda’s Porsche that, come Sunday, you’re back on that commitment ceremony couch.

Girl, swear to God, if you rock up on Sunday with the word “stay” scribbled on a piece of cardboard, we’ll scream.

Everything’s going according to Harrison’s plan. He can barely contain his excitement when he walks into the cocktail party alone and fake sulks about being left heartbroken. It’s so exhausting. Harrison, you don’t need to turn this experiment into a joke — it already is one. Please stop terrorising the freaks. … That’s our job.

By the time dinner is served, everyone’s flipping out about Bronte’s whereabouts.

“You’re the last person who saw her,” Lyndall pleads with Harrison.

“Where is Bronte?” Melinda stresses. “Where’s ya wife? Where is Bronte and what did you do? No one knows where she is! Why are you here eating dinner when you don’t have your wife?”

Crazy thought, but, have any of you tried to, like, call her?

Harrison tries his hardest to look confused and offended.

“What?” he glances around the table. “I can’t come and hang out with my friends?”

Everyone bursts into laughter at the bold claim of friendship.

Like every contestant on The Bachelor, he’s not here to make friends.

Meanwhile, producers keep trying to make Cam and Lyndall’s marriage an A story when it’s a C story at best. Cam is umming and ahhing about whether he and Lyndall will succeed outside the experiment because of his FIFO lifestyle. Or, as he puts it, DIDO — drive-in, drive-out.

He works in the desert with no phone signal — often on location for anywhere between two weeks and a year. Honestly, instead of sobbing, Lyndall should be doing cartwheels. The woman has hit the jackpot. I’d kill to date someone who I didn’t have to see or talk to.

It’s around now Harrison pipes up and scolds Lyndall for expecting her husband to abandon his career instead of reassessing her own job as an accountant.

“You could do some remote accounting, Lyndall,” he says.

Ah, yes. The booming DIDO accounting industry.

Harrison’s now on a roll and decides to instigate another argument between Melinda and Layton.

“I’m gonna do a Bronte,” Melinda furiously shoots up from her chair and storms out as all the girls run after her.

In the CCTV dungeon, expert Mel Schilling makes a keen observation.

“The group is so fatigued,” she sighs.

Schill, we the viewers are also fatigued. We wanna DIDO far away from Trash Tower.

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Originally published as James Weir recaps Married At First Sight Australia 2023 episode 28