Part of the excitement of a date is that you never really know where it’s going to go, or what it’s going to look like when you get there. Sometimes, an awkward first date leads to a lifelong commitment. Other times, a 10th date with someone you’d previously been vibing with makes you realize that you’d literally rather be anywhere else. And on some occasions, a date is just a date — a fun, sexy blip on the radar, never to be thought of again.
Rarely, however, does a date lead to a months-long forced international staycation at the beginning of an unprecedented pandemic. For Matt Robertson and Khani Le, that’s exactly what happened. Their story became the subject of Longest Third Date, the rom-com slash social-experiment documentary you can watch on Netflix right now.
After matching on Hinge and going on two dates of the (comparatively) regular variety, the pair decided to take a page from the gospel of YOLO and and fly to Costa Rica for the third. Unfortunately, that spontaneous decision was made in March 2020, right at the beginning of a global lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19. In other words, once Robertson and Le got to Costa Rica, they immediately had to quarantine in their short-term rental and remain on their spontaneous first date for the foreseeable future. Thus began the longest third date of their lives. Much of the film is comprised of footage of them that Matt captured, including learning to cohabitate, trying to have fun during lockdown and dealing with the stress of being far away from friends and family at a time when no one knew what would come next.
“To me, it’s still very surreal,” Robertson tells Tudum. “All these little things weren’t little at all, but had to happen for us to probably be where we are now.”
And where are they now, exactly? After watching Longest Third Date, the one question likely left in everyone’s mind is: After all of that, did Matt and Khani end up together?
“Yes, we’re still together,” Robertson says. “And now we have a family with our little Frenchie, Banks.”
The pair say that when airline restrictions shifted and they were finally able to leave Costa Rica, they knew they wanted to be together — but “settling down” wasn’t on the agenda, at least not for awhile. That June, three months after they arrived in Costa Rica, they took a government-issued flight into Houston. Wary of more plane travel during the thick of the pandemic, they decided to rent a car and drive first to Maine and then to Seattle, stopping at national parks on the way, all while trying to work remotely. Both admit to thinking about what “normal life” would look like when their third date finally came to a close.
“Part of me was like, ‘I can’t wait to get back to normal life,’ ” Le says. “But at that point, what was even normal anymore? That definition changed so much during the pandemic.”
Instead, they used that time to continue to take road trips to see friends and family when possible. And then they made another unconventional dating decision — with much the same energy as deciding to have a third date in Costa Rica. They got a dog.
“It was pretty interesting trying to house-train and raise a puppy that’s eight weeks old while traveling around in a Jeep across the country,” Robertson says. “I wouldn’t recommend that.”
The pair moved back to New York City in September 2020, and it was only then that they finally slept in their own beds.
“Part of me was just relieved that we weren’t on the move and [could] let everything sink in for once,” Le says. “We didn’t really have a chance to pause and reflect on everything [until then].”
Two-and-a-half years later, the couple says they’re just enjoying taking things slow. As for what’s next? Both agree there are more adventures around the corner — maybe even a return to the site of their third date.
“I’d love to go back to Costa Rica,” Robertson says. “I feel like we’ve got to go back and do it again.”
