‘Married At First Sight’ Season 5 Episode 8: Nate Gains Sheila’s Respect, Fans Lose Hope For Cody And Danielle

Married at First Sight Season 5 might only be on its eighth episode, but the reality show’s three featured couples have already experienced quite a lot in the short weeks that they were married. In this week’s episode, Nate gained Sheila’s respect, Anthony and Ashley finally found a middle ground for their issues, and Danielle and Cody got a lot worse. Overall, two of this season’s couples seem to be progressing well, while one is starting to show signs of a marriage that is destined to fail.

Sheila and Nate have always been one of the current season’s most likable couples. The two just click, and while there were times when Nate seemed to be over competitive, his actions over the past two episodes all but proved that he was taking his role as Sheila’s husband very seriously. This was shown last week when Nate opted to step in and speak his mind when Sheila’s father decided to bring up her sister’s issues during their wedding again. While Nate might have seemed a bit too assertive when he stood his ground and defended his wife, Sheila has revealed that his actions made her feel protected, according to a People Magazine report.

“Nate held his own as he went toe-to-toe with my father and ultimately earned the respect of my dad, and I walked away feeling loved and protected.”

Overall, Nate and Sheila appeared to be settling into their roles as husband and wife very well. While questions seemed to be raised when Nate asked Sheila if she would trust him in a bar setting with friends and single women around, Nate’s actions when he was with his friends suggested that he was really dedicated to his wife. If any, Nate and Sheila’s dynamic and interactions so far suggested that among the three couples on this season of Married at First Sight, these two have the most chemistry.

Ashley and Anthony have become fan favorites since they were first featured on the hit reality TV show. Just like Sheila and Nate, the newlyweds seemed to have progressed steadily over the past few weeks. Last week, however, the couple was met with a huge issue — the idea of Ashley adopting Anthony’s name. While numerous MAFS fans in online forums such as Reddit have stated that the couple’s name-adoption issues are quite trivial, Anthony and Ashley were both very passionate about the topic. Fortunately, this week’s episode showed that the newlyweds were able to find a middle ground, with Ashley agreeing to a hyphenated last name.

One thing that viewers and avid Married at First Sight fans noted in this past week’s episode was how strangely Rachel DeAlto, one of this season’s therapists, acted towards the couple. While some fans maintained that Rachel’s conversation with Ashley, which ended with the latter being upset, was reassuring, others stated that the therapist appeared to have placed some seed of doubt in the newlywed’s mind. Nevertheless, Anthony and Ashley still seemed to be put together in the recently aired MAFS episode, and avid fans of the hit reality TV series have remained optimistic about their future.

While Nate and Sheila and Anthony and Ashley have progressed, Cody and Danielle seemed to have regressed. This early on in the series, the newlyweds seemed to be destined for failure, with Danielle still having issues with her husband’s lack of assertiveness and Cody still steadily pushing away from his wife. On Unfiltered, Cody even revealed that before being cast on the show, he was “having sex every day,” which came across to many viewers and avid fans of the hit reality TV series as bragging. At this point, it would seem that both Cody and Danielle would need to do something drastic to save their marriage. From what could be seen from Cody’s actions, however, it appeared that he was already preparing to throw in the towel.

Married at First Sight Season 5 airs every Thursday night at 9 p.m. EST on Lifetime.

[Featured Image by Lifetime]