[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for 90 Day Fiancé Season 9 Episode 10 “In the Ring.”]
We’re about halfway through Season 9 of 90 Day Fiancé and avid viewers are actively wondering if any of the seven participating couples will actually make it to the altar. If you haven’t indulged in the current season of 90 Day Fiancé yet, it’s still a perfect time to jump in and take the ride — don’t worry, we’ll catch you up!
90 Day Fiancé and its many spinoff shows center around American singles hoping to marry their partner who lives in another country. If the partner is granted a K-1 visa by the U.S. government, they can come to the United States, but they must get married within 90 days in order to remain in the country.
Season 9 features the stories of six new couples and one pair familiar to the so-called 90 Day Universe: Ariela and Biniyam, who previously appeared on Seasons 2 and 3 of 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, the series following Americans who are living abroad. You’ll learn more about Ari, Bini and the newcomers below.
Episode 10 shows six of the seven couples facing notable challenges that would be hard to move past in any relationship, including fights about a potentially deadly career choice, a meddling parental intervention and a prenuptial agreement casually presented while riding a Ferris wheel. (Ouch!) Let’s take a closer look at what happens in this episode.
Emily and Kobe
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Emily, 29, first hooked up with Kobe, 34, in China, where they had seemingly endless sex and conceived their son, Koban. Kobe moved from Douala, Cameroon to Emily’s hometown of Salina, Kansas, when Koban was 17 months old and felt gawked at by the majority white community from their very first dinner outing. He also immediately exhibited signs of extreme jealousy at Koban’s continued breastfeeding and declared that he didn’t want to share.
With 46 days left before they need to get married, Emily and Kobe take a drive out to see the giant sandstones at Rock City Park. Kobe says in an interview that it’s one of Emily’s favorite spots to visit, but he thinks it’s pretty silly. Still, he agrees to be stuffed in a giant hole in a rock in order to take the picture that “everyone” supposedly takes.
We’re then taken to a shop called Princess and Penguin, where Emily is trying on wedding dresses for her completely unenthused sister, mother, and grandmother. Right when they look like they couldn’t be any less excited, Emily reveals that she bought herself a backup wedding ring, just in case Kobe doesn’t replace the cheap band he bought her on the street in China when he proposed. The ring is big and sparkly, and none of her family members want anything to do with it.
Jibri and Miona
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Jibri, a 28-year-old musician from Rapid City, South Dakota who is in a band called Black Serbians, has 39 days to get married to Miona, who is 23 and moved to the U.S. from Nis, Serbia. Though Jabri greets her with a truckload of matching outfits as presents, Miona would rather be wearing flip flops on the beach in California, where she wants to get married and live, than cowgirl boots on the prairie.
The couple is living with Jibri’s parents until they can save enough money to contemplate a move. It’s been clear for 10 weeks that his mother, Mahala, doesn’t think that he and Miona should get married. Mahala criticizes Miona’s crop tops and her cooking, which Miona was only doing under Mahala’s insistence.
Mahala’s critiques, which are occasionally seconded by Jibri’s dad, Brian, are starting to get to Jibri. Complicating matters is the fact that Jibri’s friend and Black Serbians bandmate Davide, who is also Serbian, isn’t too sure about Miona, and he’s had physical fights with Jibri over it.
In Episode 10, Jibri goes to coffee with his parents, who fret that he doesn’t seem happy and scold him for giving in to Miona’s demands for that beach wedding. They inform him that no family members will be able to attend because it’s so last minute.
“I just feel like I’m in a waiting room right now,” Jibri says. “And the walls are closing in and I feel like I have to choose a door to escape for the next chapter right. Whatever door I choose, somebody’s getting left out. I’m just overwhelmed.”
Miona has noticed a change in Jibri over the last few weeks that she attributes to him being too swayed by what his parents think. She tells him to stop listening to their BS and if they don’t get married within the 90 days, she will go home and stop dating him.
Patrick and Thais
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With 67 days to wed, Patrick (31, Dallas) and Thais (25, Montes Claros, Brazil) have recently moved to a new Texan townhouse with Patrick’s brother John. For the last several weeks, we’ve seen that Thais and John permanently side-eye each other, and he definitely doesn’t trust her.
This week, Patrick takes Thais to a home furnishings store in order to learn more about her taste, but he refuses to buy everything she picks out. She says she wants something colorful that feels like her. He says he grew up poor and doesn’t think about decorations, but he likes gray, black, and white, which she thinks looks like what you’d see at a hospital or cemetery. After watching Patrick shut everything down, the salesman suggests that they start with something small, like a vase. She picks one out that Patrick agrees to buy; it runs $46.01 with tax.
Later, at home, Thais wonders why he took her to the store if he didn’t really want to buy her anything. She says she wants a painting, and he snottily tells her that she can buy stuff when she has the money and they need to save for the wedding. Thais says that he likes to control everything and he hasn’t told her anything about how much money he makes, which makes him bristle.
“I make enough,” he says.
He points out that he’s spent over $10,000 on her since she’s arrived, and that her hair, nails, eyebrows and lashes are always done.
“It’s your job,” she says.
He reaches for his wallet, throws his credit card and a few bundles of cash towards her on the table, and tells her to go buy a painting. Thais says she doesn’t want it and leaves the room. She says in an interview that no woman anywhere in the world deserves to be disrespected like that.
Thais comes back in the room and asks Patrick to try to be better about not keeping her in the dark about everything. Patrick recognizes that he needs to work on it, and wants her to also see that it doesn’t come easy.
Kara and Guillermo
Episode 10 doesn’t do much to advance the story of Kara, a 29-year-old balloon artist slash real estate agent from Charlottesville, VA who hasn’t yet sold a house, and Guillermo, a 23-year-old from the Dominican Republic who met Cara while living in Caracas, Venezuela. In previous episodes, we see Kara attempt to control the relationship and even the money that Guillermo has saved to bring over. She rejects his desire to buy a computer with some of those savings and balks at spending too much on a wedding.
In Episode 9, Kara takes Guillermo to an elaborate winery to get an understanding of just how expensive a big wedding could be and then basically tells him that they can never have something like that. Now, with 55 days to go, Kara meets up with her friend Tim for a day drink ‘n chat, while Guillermo stays home and does laundry instead.
Tim reveals in an interview that he thinks that this coupling is weird and worries that his crazy and fun friend who everyone always wants to be around has changed. (That really doesn’t sound like Kara at all, so maybe she did morph into someone else.) He also doesn’t think Kara is going to get her white picket fence, and isn’t 100 percent sure that she’ll be with Guillermo in five years.
Bilal and Shaeeda
Bilal, a 42-year-old, divorced father of two from Kansas City, MO, has 60 days to get married to Shaeeda, a 37–year-old yoga teacher from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. For 10 weeks, they’ve been the most uncomfortable couple to watch all season, and that is really saying something.
Despite having pleasant visits to Port of Spain, Bilal, who is a successful real estate agent, still isn’t sure that Shaeeda isn’t here just for his material possessions. When she first arrives in Kansas City, Bilal takes her to his childhood home, which is much smaller and run down compared to his flawless McMansion, as a test of whether she’s a gold digger or not. It’s just the first of many awkward encounters between the two. While they are both devout Muslims, they clash on big topics such as whether to have kids (Shaeeda has none and wants some) and if they should sign a prenuptial agreement.
Bilal likes to say that he’s “Mr. Romantic,” but this episode should put a firm end to that whole notion. This week, with 60 days left before they must tie the knot to keep Shaeeda in the country, Bilal and Shaeeda visit his sister Nefertari in Atlanta. Nefertari takes Shaeeda to a store called Winnie Couture to shop for a wedding dress.
While shopping, Shaeeda gives Nefertari a window into her problems with Bilal and says that he needs to win every conversation, which Nefertari doesn’t see as a quality her brother has. Shaeeda also mentions that Bilal is indecisive when it comes to having more kids and this would be a dealbreaker for her. Nefertari tells the camera that she has doubts and wonders if Bilal will eventually become Shaeeda’s third ex-fiancé.
Later, Bilal takes Shaeeda for a VIP ride on Skyview Atlanta, a huge Ferris wheel. Shaeeda is nervous as soon as the ride starts and notices that the floor is made of clear glass. Bilal somehow decides that the best way to distract her from being scared is to mention that he has received a copy of their prenup over email. He opens the message to show her what it looks like. RIP Mr. Romantic. Bilal then whisks her into a horse and carriage ride, but the day is already ruined for Shaeeda, who asks to see the contract again.
“If she doesn’t sign it, I really can’t see us getting to the finish line,” he admits in an interview.
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Ariela and Biniyam
Ari is 30, hails from Princeton, NJ and has just moved home with her baby, Avi, and her fiancé Bini, 30, a dancer, fighter and martial artist from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ari doesn’t have work lined up and Bini (who is also known as Baby) can’t get a job until after they get married, but Ari’s mom rented them an expensive two-bedroom apartment and told them they’d need to start paying for it on their own soon. Ari and Bini have 69 days left before they need to make it official.
Earlier in the season (and also in Seasons 2 and 3 of 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way), we see the family living together in Ethiopia. Ari is openly loathed by Bini’s sisters Wish and Mimi, and Wish throws red wine in Ari’s face the night before they leave for good after Bini springs the news on them right then and there. To the sisters, Ari is a reminder of Bini’s American ex-wife, who had his first son and then went back to the United States without him. When they leave, Ari refuses to say goodbye to Bini’s family and won’t let them see Avi.
Ari is already feeling uncertain of when or if they’re going to get married, and Bini takes an opportunity to achieve his American dream of becoming an MMA fighter that Ari worries will distract him even further. She throws a fit when she finds him grappling with a woman competitor during a practice session at his new gym. This brings up jealousy issues that Ari had in Ethiopia, where Bini’s ex-girlfriend was his steamy dance partner long after they split due to his infidelity. She agrees to let him sign up for a fight and then later unsuccessfully tries to talk him out of actually going through with it.
Ari told Bini that she had a bad feeling about the fight beforehand. But when fight night comes, Bini destroys his opponent in an astonishing 33 seconds flat, opening with a flying kick and closing with a martial arts move called a rear naked chokehold. He celebrates by climbing to the top ropes and backflipping back into the ring.
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She hopes that he’s gotten the fighting bug out of his system enough to now put some focus on making some wedding plans. Bini agrees and also says he needs to learn more grappling techniques and sharpen his jiu jitsu. The episode ends as Bini carries Ariela off into the night, a rare tender moment witnessed between the couple.
Next Time
In Episode 11, we’ll pick up the story between Yve, a 48-year-old mother from Albuquerque, and Mohamed, a 25-year-old devout Muslim from Egypt. Yve has previously told Mohamed that she doesn’t plan to convert to Islam — and that didn’t go down very well.
“Yve was raised with too much freedom,” Mohamed says in an upcoming interview. “I don’t think she is going to be a good behavior for my child.”
“My child, you can’t get him confused about his religion,” Mohamed tells Yve after she talks about wanting to have a baby. “If my child will not be a Muslim, I prefer not to have a child.”
Meanwhile, Kobe goes ring shopping for Emily and plans a romantic proposal, forcing her to decide if she’ll tell him that she already bought herself a backup ring. Ariela’s chummy ex-husband Leandro pays the family a visit and resurfaces Bini’s well-established distrust for him.
Also: Jibri calls Miona an “entitled Millennial,” which is sure to be the least best thing that he could say. Shaeeda gets tough and asks to add a clause about having children in the prenuptial agreement. And Thais surprises Patrick by making him drive to a Vegas wedding chapel, only to have him decline.
“This is how you marry a stripper,” he tells her.
It’s pure class all the way, next time on 90 Day Fiancé. See you next week!
90 Day Fiancé, Sundays, 8/7c, TLC (Streaming, discovery+)