Warning! The following contains spoilers from the 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days episode "Prepare for Take-Off." Stream the episode with an HBO Max subscription, and read at your own risk!
The drama is heating up in 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days, and I'm so glad this season will bleed into the 2026 TV schedule. We're already getting some major drama from couples, but surprisingly, the latest episode's biggest headline wasn't from any of the duos I was most excited about, but rather Rick and Trisha.
Rick Van Vactor wasn't on my radar at the start of this season of the 90 Day Fiancé spinoff, as his story with Trisha from Madagascar seemed like the "standard older male seeking out a younger woman in another country" set-up. Unfortunately for the couple, their story took a dramatic twist when Rick talked about how his potential fiancé was unreachable for five days, and why he wanted to know what she was up to.
Trisha Explained Why She Went Quiet For A While
Rick wanted to know why Trisha didn't answer his calls for five days, and why she even went so far as to actively decline when he rang. She explained that during that time, her ex-boyfriend was robbed and blamed her, suspecting her to be an accomplice involved in the crime. Additionally, she claimed her brother hit another person with his scooter, and that she and her family were busy providing for the injured man and making amends with the police to prevent charges being brought against her sibling. Yikes.
Readers might wonder, much like I did, why all that would have prevented her from answering the phone to talk to someone completely uninvolved. Rick is also included in that list, but Trisha explained that if she opened up about it out of the blue, he'd think she was making the story up to get money out of him. He accepted that response, though I felt it still didn't make that much sense. That's fine, because it didn't matter to me as much after hearing why Rick wanted to know so badly.
Rick's Explanation For Why He Wanted To Know Made My Stomach Turn
After Rick found out he had nothing to worry about, he admitted in the confessional that he now had to come clean about something. When Trisha stopped talking to him, he assumed she was with another man. Because of that, he got in contact with an ex who lived in Colombia, and made plans to visit her.
Trisha got back in touch with Rick again before he went to Colombia, but because he was so sure that she stepped out on him, he went anyway. He then confessed to "acting like a couple" with his ex and being intimate with her several times.
Hearing about this made my stomach turn, and personally, I think it's even more terrible than how Jasmine Pineda cheated on Gino Palazzolo. I think what made it worse in this instance is that Rick didn't seem all that remorseful about what he did, and even seemed to brag about the number of times he had sex with his ex-girlfriend. He wasn't so upset about what he did, aside from the fact that he might lose Trisha over it.
The nearly 30-year age gap between Rick and Trisha on 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days was enough to make me wary of this relationship, but this cheating storyline has me upset about what's to come. And here I thought Sheena's parents stealing Forrest's money would be the highlight of the season. It turns out, we may get a scene more brutal than when Tom Brooks broke up with Darcey Silva, as Rick has to come clean about his infidelity.
Catch new episodes of 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days on TLC on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Aside from Rick's unsavory revelations, I'm excited for the rest of this season and need to see how this storyline plays out.
