Yahoo News 'Love Is Blind' Season 4: Two Couples Got Engaged That You Didn't See — Here's Why
PEOPLE talks exclusively to Love Is Blind creator Chris Coelen about the decisions that went into season 4 of the Netflix hit, including the couples they chose to follow and the ones that they didn't
Warning: This post contains spoilers from the season 4 finale of Netflix's Love Is Blind.
Love Is Blind season 4 showed five couples getting engaged — and only four of them making it to the altar. But what fans didn't see was two other couples who formed connections in the pods and walked away from the show engaged.
Jimmy Forde and Wendi Kong, and Josh "JP" Schultz and Ava Van were two pairings who met on season 4 of the series and headed back home to Seattle with a new fiancé, according to Netflix's Tudum.
Jimmy, 29, and Wendi, 28, got engaged after being each other's top picks from the start. They bonded over their joint interests, including shared careers in engineering, and the relationship continued to grow over time.
Once they returned to Seattle, Jimmy and Wendi dated for three months, but she ended up breaking up with him after realizing they had different perspectives on dating. They have since remained on good terms.
Related:Love Is Blind Season 4 Finale: Who Got Married and Who Said 'I Don't'
As for Ava and JP, they first connected in the pods. While Ava was set on JP from the start, he had connected with Chelsea Griffin and Micah Lussier. After Chelsea and Micah decided to pursue their other connections, JP focused his attentions on Ava, and the two later got engaged.
Unfortunately, things didn't pan out for the couple past the airport. JP, 30, ended up texting Ava, 32, to end the engagement because he wanted to take things slower and date instead. For Ava, she felt the end of their engagement was a breakup, and the pair have not been cordial since.
However, neither of these couples' journeys were featured on the Netflix hit's fourth season. So why is that the case?
Love Is Blind creator and executive producer Chris Coelen exclusively tells PEOPLE, "We may choose to follow some people for some part of the process and then not tell their story, or we may choose to follow certain people only through their reveal. It really just depends on the circumstances."
"I think really what it comes down to is how people get there in the first place. We're looking to tell the most genuine, most authentic stories that we can and that's really the criteria by which we judge what stories we're going to follow, and the stories we're going to then tell on the program," he continues. "That is the number one organizing principle of what we do."
Related:Love Is Blind Will Have a Live Reunion Special for Season 4 — a First for the Series and for Netflix
Coelen notes this wasn't the first season that other engagements happened that weren't shown on camera.
"It happened in season one. We had eight engagements, we followed six. In season two, we had eight engagements, we followed six," he shares. "In season three, we only had five engagements and we followed all of them. In season four, we had eight engagements and we followed five."
And while fans might assume that Coelen's decisions about who to follow are based purely on what makes good television, he debunks that theory.
"It's actually not that. That is what you would think... but I think what makes good TV is authenticity," he explains. "That's what, to me, is most compelling. I think we repeat that to the participants over and over from the very first time we meet them. This is your lives. This is not a TV show. This TV show is documenting a moment in your lives."
"But for those of you who end up getting married at the end of this, you have a whole life that lasts way beyond," he continues. "And for those of you don't, you have a whole life that lasts way beyond. This is a blip."
Adds Coelen: "I always say to the cast that we don't want them to do anything that is inauthentic. If they do, then we may showcase that, like Andrew with his [fake] tears [from season 3]. But we don't want you to do that. We want you to be you and we want to tell your stories. And ultimately what is real is ultimately most compelling."
For the cast members who weren't featured on Love Is Blind, Coelen says they all knew ahead of time that having a storyline wasn't a guarantee.
"Everyone knows that coming in from the very beginning that some of them won't ever feature on the show at all. They just won't. Even their face won't even be shown," he explains. "Some of them might even get engaged. Some of them might even go to the romantic getaway... and they won't be featured on the show."
He adds: "The thing I will say is we have never stopped following a couple who has gone on to get married. Almost a hundred percent of the couples that we have chosen to stop following have broken up relatively quickly. And if not, some of them fairly immediately, to be honest."
While the couples who get engaged but don't get featured may be disappointed, Coelen hopes they still find a silver lining in their journey.
"The people who get engaged that we don't follow out of the pods, hey, you're leaving here and you have a fiancé. I mean, that's why you came here, right?" he says. "It was to try to find someone to spend the rest of your life with, and you did it. And kudos, you did it. We hope then that they are happy in the future."
Related:Love Is Blind's Micah Let Paul Answer at Altar First So He Didn't Feel 'Backed in a Corner'
In addition to Jimmy and Wendi and Ava and JP, five other couples got engaged on season 4: Tiffany Pennywell and Brett Brown; Bliss Poureetezadi and Zack Goytowski (after he and Irina Solomonova mutually agreed to call off their engagement); Chelsea Griffin and Kwame Appiah; Micah Lussier and Paul Peden, and Jackelina "Jackie" Bonds and Marshall Glaze.
In the end, only Tiffany and Brett, Bliss and Zack and Chelsea and Kwame decided to get married. Paul said no to Micah at the altar, while Jackie and Marshall broke up in episode 10 before their wedding.
Jackie has since pursued a relationship with fellow season 4 star, Josh Demas.
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Love Is Blind season 4 is streaming in full on Netflix, and Love Is Blind: The Live Reunion will broadcast on the streamer this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
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