Ghosting plays a very real role in modern dating, so, of course, it also happens from time to time on Love Is Blind. But in Season 9, multiple connections get cut off without an explanation. So, are the two daters who did the ghosting still haunted by their decision to leave?

The season’s first jaw-dropping exit goes down when Patrick enters the pods, expecting to have another date with his strongest connection, Anna. But it becomes clear she’s not there, and Patrick must come to terms with the fact that she’s unexpectedly left without saying goodbye. A producer then informs Anna’s other connection, Blake, of the news. Not long after, Megan W’s sparkle is slightly dimmed when she steps into a date with Blake, her current top match — and he also doesn’t show up. 

So what exactly happened that made Anna and Blake decide to walk away from Love Is Blind? And why didn’t they say goodbye to their romantic connections? For answers to these burning questions and more, read on to hear from Season 9 ghosts Anna and Blake — no séance necessary. 

While her “biggest goal” was to meet her future partner, Anna was at peace with the idea that she might not. “I went in there thinking that anything could happen,” she tells Tudum. “I’d be OK if I didn’t find somebody because it’s such a wild thing, and it’s so far off from how any of us have dated before.” Blake had a similar mindset. “Worst-case scenario, you have the opportunity to go through a really wild, kind of weird, unique experience that you’ll remember for the rest of your life,” he shares.

Anna was first attracted to the way Blake spoke. “I was drawn to the kindness in his voice,” she says. “He also seemed very normal. I definitely went on a few dates where guys were so animated that I was like, ‘OK, are you taking this seriously?’ ” Blake didn’t need to put on a performance for Anna, because the two just naturally clicked. “We share a similar sense of humor — the way we view the world and kind of the ridiculous nature of the experiment we were in,” Blake says. “Anytime I’d walk into a pod and hear Anna’s voice, I’d be like, ‘Oh, awesome, this is going to be fun.’ ”

As it goes, other romances were also brewing for Blake, who bonded with Megan W and grew close with Kait. Anna, meanwhile, was taken aback by her interest in Patrick. Initially, she perceived him as very “bro-y” because the very first thing she heard him say over the pod speakers was, “Let’s send it, boys.” Anna recalls butting heads with Patrick early on due to his tendency to steer the conversation away from deep topics. 

Eventually, Anna broke through and discovered they had more in common than either expected. “You can gather information about who somebody might be by talking about your past or your childhood and what you’ve been through,” Anna explains. “We’re both children of immigrants, and there are very specific things that every child of immigrant parents goes through. Even if we’re not saying exactly, ‘Oh, yeah, growing up with parents who have a language barrier is difficult,’ we can gather things from that.”

These emotional discussions felt special, but they also began to feel overwhelming. “I started seeing myself being pretty vulnerable, and it scared me a little bit because this is an intimate part of my brain. These are very sensitive topics for me,” she says. “It’s not that I’m just sharing it with whoever I’m dating or the other women — this is going to be broadcast for people.” Anna began to wonder if being in the experiment was even worth it — and how her decisions could impact her family back home. 

Anna’s parents weighed heavily on her mind during filming, as they were completely unfamiliar with reality television and Love Is Blind. From the beginning, they didn’t fully understand where she was going or what she was doing in the pods. “With my parents being immigrants and having a language barrier, I’ve always naturally been their helper,” she explains. “When I told them, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad, I’m going on this show, they’re going to take my phone, they were like, ‘Are you being kidnapped?’ ” Despite explaining why she couldn’t communicate with them during the first phase of the experiment, Anna couldn’t shake the feeling that her parents were still worried about her.

With all that going on in her brain, Anna eventually broke down and thought, “What am I doing here?” The night she finally decided to leave, she felt incredibly guilty for taking the spot of someone who could have found love in the pods. “I was a wreck,” she says. “My eyes were almost swollen shut from crying. I was embarrassed.” Producers did ask if she wanted to go into the pod date with Patrick to let him know she was leaving. But in the swirl of emotions, with her pajamas on and no makeup, she simply didn’t want to be on camera anymore. 

In hindsight, Anna wishes she hadn’t stood Patrick up — but she also knows she made the best decision for herself at the time. “I don’t think I regret it because I don’t think the connections were strong enough to have a successful marriage from there.”

When Blake found out that Anna had left, he wasn’t upset. Instead, he was just concerned about her. “At that point in the experiment, Anna and I hadn’t talked about a proposal or an engagement. It certainly felt like we weren’t close to that,” Blake says. “We certainly had a good bond and friendship. I don’t want to speak for her, but I think she made the right decision for herself at the moment, and I’m proud of her for doing that.” 

In the pods, Blake was developing connections with several people, but like Anna, he began to accept that the experiment wasn’t going to work for him. “Sometimes I’m practical to a fault, and as the days ticked on, I just realized that a proposal wasn’t in the cards for me,” he says. Once he had that realization, Blake felt strongly that the right thing to do was to remove himself. Though it did come soon after Anna left, he insists that his decision wasn’t influenced by her at all.

Blake admits that the idea of telling Megan he was leaving “wasn’t even on his radar,” which he feels “horrible” about. “In the moment, I think I was almost exclusively concerned with where my head was at, my emotional state, and I really thought I was doing the right thing,” he says. “So I didn’t play that out, which feels clumsy and foolish. If I could go back, I definitely would change that.”

In this experiment, as in relationships, trust is everything. Blake is well aware of that, so he looks back at how he handled his exit with regret. 

“In a pod date, you’re trusting that someone’s going to be there on the other side,” he says. “When you go in, you’re getting butterflies, adrenaline’s pumping. It’s a nerve-racking experience, and I certainly found comfort in knowing there’s someone going through the exact same thing. So what hurts is knowing that someone was going through that, and I wasn’t there to metaphorically catch them.”

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