Spoilers for the first nine episodes of Love Is Blind season 9 ahead. Over the past few years, Love Is Blind has established a new norm: Every season will include one couple or love triangle that dominates the pod drama before leaving the experiment ahead of the honeymoons. (See season 7's Leo and Brittany and season 8's Madison saga.) Among this season's Denver, Colorado-based contestants, Patrick Suzuki, Anna Yuan, and Kacie Anita McIntosh's time in the pods has left viewers whirling from all of the twists and turns.
Below, we're breaking down everything to know about the saga on the Netflix reality hit, including what Kacie has said about the pod reveal, and whether Patrick and Anna ever reconnected.
What happened between Patrick and Anna on 'Love is Blind' season 9?
Patrick, a 31-year-old construction manager of Chinese and Cambodian heritage, arrives on Love Is Blind season 9 ready to follow his heart but toting a major insecurity. He alludes that growing up as the "only Asian" in his social groups and dating in predominately-white Denver wasn't easy on his self-esteem. (Shout out to that oft-cited study that Asian men and Black women are seen as least desirable on dating apps.) "Just to be loved for who I am versus my ethnicity or how I look, that is my biggest dream and hope," he says.
Once the pods are open, Patrick makes quick connections with two women: Anna, a 28-year-old hairstylist, and Kacie, a 34-year-old hair and makeup artist. Anna is also Chinese, and she and Patrick quickly realize they have many similarities; both of their parents came to the U.S. from different countries, they both previously dated mainly white people, and they understand the cultural nuances of having immigrant parents. They even compare themselves to the Spider-Man meme.
Meanwhile, Anna is also talking to accountant Blake Anderson (34), who seems sweet and goofy and not "homophobic or racist." Blake seems to be Anna's typical type, and she feels that he's genuine, but she also likes that Patrick is vulnerable with her. She also admits that even though she'd usually write off Asian guys, their shared heritage makes Patrick more attractive. "I think I might be your person," he tells her; she responds, "How am I catching feelings for a lava lamp wall?...Don't fucking hurt me, dude."
At the end of episode 2, Anna becomes emotional in the women's quarters, sharing how she now realizes that she's been shallow in the past, and that her time in the pods has been healing. However, when Patrick arrives for their next date, Anna's pod is empty. Patrick's left blindsided and devastated, and there isn't an explanation of Anna's departure for the rest of the six episodes.
In a Tudum interview released on the day of season 9's premiere, Anna revealed that as the pods continued, she became overwhelmed by the potential ramifications of being on television. She recalled feeling scared that her vulnerable conversations were "going to be broadcast for people," and having the lingering feeling that her parents were worried about her. "With my parents being immigrants and having a language barrier, I’ve always naturally been their helper," she explained. "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?'"
With all of those emotions swirling, Anna ultimately decided to leave the show one night. Even though producers asked if she wanted to go on the pod date and tell Patrick that she was leaving, she didn't want to go back on camera. "I was a wreck. My eyes were almost swollen shut from crying. I was embarrassed," she explained. Over a year later, Anna told Tudum that she feels bad for standing up Patrick, but ultimately did the right thing for herself. "I don’t think I regret it because I don’t think the connections were strong enough to have a successful marriage from there."
What happened between Patrick and Kacie on 'Love is Blind' season 9?
While Patrick and Anna bonded over their shared heritage, Kacie grew up very differently. The wedding-makeup artist was raised Mormon with four brothers and a sister, and she describes herself as "always the hair and makeup artist, never the bride." Still, she does have a tenuous connection to East Asian culture; her father did his Mormon mission in South Korea, and her sister now works as a singer in the country.
At first, Patrick and Kacie's bond seems more surface-level in the pods; they bond over a shared love of basketball and have a flirty banter. As Patrick says, "She's sick, man." Though he's hesitant and admits that he doesn't want to be judged, Patrick tells her about his Chinese and Cambodian heritage and shares that he has been rejected in the past because of his ethnicity. Kacie tells him that she's never dated an Asian guy, but that it doesn't change anything for her. One of her brothers only dates Asian women, and the others have biracial and Mexican girlfriends, so her family would "love to see her with an Asian guy."
After Anna leaves, Patrick does the classic Love Is Blind move of going all-in on the weaker connection, all because he wants to be loved. In this, he ignores the red flags surrounding Kacie. When a producer asks him what they specifically agree about, Patrick can't think of anything. In the men's lounge, Mike tries to give Patrick his take on her, but Patrick cuts him off because "she's waiting for me. I know she is."
Also, Kacie says in a confessional that her ex, whom she met on TikTok, had a wandering eye. (She also says in the premiere that she's "never not been cheated on.") When Patrick asks whether she'd watched Love Is Blind before coming on, she says she was recruited for a different dating reality show, and her ex told her to do it because he'd be there when she got back. Apparently, the ex told her the same thing about LIB; Kacie says that if she gets engaged, she'll probably block him and won't tell him. "He doesn't think this is gonna work. He's gonna be very wrong."
After that wild conversation, Patrick is understandably concerned that Kacie has a backup plan in case things don't work out. She assures that she doesn't, and that she isn't going to screw him over. Before she changes the conversation to be about her landing strip and wanting to give him what he needs, she makes a very telling confession: "I want you to love me, but I don't know if I can fully love you until I get to touch you."
Did Patrick and Kacie get engaged on 'Love is Blind' season 9?
At the end of episode 4, Patrick asks Kacie to marry him, and she says yes. Before the reveal, she mentions that she's always been so looks-heavy and that she doesn't know how it's going to be. When they see each other, Patrick is absolutely stoked, and they're both super nervous, but it's not the worst reveal we've ever seen. Still, Kacie seems much more muted in the confessional after.
Some time later, Kacie and Patrick meet in their hotel lobby, which is never a good sign. A tearful Kacie tells Patrick that she can't do the TV show anymore and needs to go home. She assures that it doesn't have to do with how he looks and mumbles something about her family; Patrick thinks the reveal went well, so he's just ready to leave the experiment with her and be with her in Denver. And Kacie's reassuring him how much she loves him, koala-hugging and kissing him.
Of course, Kacie's real reasons are still caught on tape. In the official confessional, Kacie soft-pedals and says that Patrick deserves someone better than her. But speaking to the producers, she says, "I just unfortunately don't think my attraction to him is gonna grow that much. And it sucks...I just don't think I could get there with him, like, period."
Speaking to Tudum, Kacie recalled how she felt during her and Patrick's reveal. "He’s a handsome guy. It was more about him being a stranger in my arms than it was what he looks like," she told the outlet, adding that she soon realized that she needed to slow down. "If we had any shot of it actually working out, I needed to do it off camera and wanted to date him slowly at our pace at home in Denver. It was hard. I remember being very emotional about it, and I felt bad."
Kacie also reassured that the hotel conversation wasn't meant to be a breakup. "I really wanted to talk to him more, pursue going on dates, and get to know each other on a more physical level to see if this was really real," she said. "I'll never be able to explain the feeling of, you think you're really in love with this person, and then you meet them, and you're like, 'Oh wow, I actually don't know this person.' I did crash out a little."
Are Patrick and Kacie still together after 'Love is Blind' season 9?
Though Patrick returned to Love is Blind for episode 9's pod reunion party, Kacie was nowhere to be found. All we learn about the pair, courtesy of Patrick, is that she broke things off via text after they returned to Denver. He also says that after he asked for the engagement ring back, she "basically stopped talking to [him]; her last text was, "You act like you're the only one that's hurt in this situation. I'm gonna keep the ring."
While they didn't reunite on camera, both Patrick and Kacie have spoken out about their breakup in the week since season 9's premiere. Speaking to The Swoon, Patrick added that Kacie's silence after the ring exchange "gave [him] the closure [he] needed."
He also admitted that the pair did see each other again outside of cast meet-ups. At one event, Kacie reportedly told Patrick that she was "remorseful" about what happened. "I can take that, but I already had the closure I needed. I’ll take that for what it is, and I’m not too upset with her," he told the outlet.
Patrick went deeper into how he healed after the rejection in an interview with PEOPLE. "It took me many months of travel, many months of therapy, and stuff like that. The closure, I figured out pretty quickly. The healing part was the hard part," he said. "But for me, I'm just happy that I went with the experiment the way I did. I mean, I'm not mad at her or anything like that. I wish there was an easier way to handle it. But any breakup is difficult, no matter what, especially when you're deeply involved like that."
Speaking to PEOPLE, Kacie argued that their time in Denver went differently. "I know that's getting misconstrued that I ghosted him. That's not what happened. I really did think I fell in love with him. I cared about him. I still care about him. I feel really bad that right now this is such weighing heavy on him. And I saw, he said [to PEOPLE], 'Is it because I'm ugly or is it because I'm not cool?' And I obviously thought he was pretty fricking cool. I fell in love with him."
When asked if she had any regrets about how she handled things, Kacie's answer seemed to reference not being upfront with Patrick during their talk at the hotel. "I was trying to protect his feelings and his insecurities, and it came off weird. It came off wrong. It was like gaslighting, and I think that was my biggest regret. Unfortunately, nobody knew what was going through my head. I'm a lover girl. I was like, 'Wait, maybe this could work in Denver.' But yeah, I regret making him feel more insecure about his biggest thing, and not being completely honest."
"Nobody wants to say right to their face, 'I don't know if the attraction can grow. Let's go home,'" she added. "I just didn't want to say that right then in that moment. We just came off seeing each other [at the reveal]...I didn't want to break his heart in that way."
Did Patrick and Anna get together after 'Love is Blind' season 9?
One side of this love triangle does have a reunion in episode 9. When Patrick and Anna sit down to chat, Anna tells Patrick that she feels "really bad" that she left without speaking to him, adding, "I probably should have given it more of a chance." Patrick quickly affirms that he would've proposed to Anna if she had stayed, but Anna points out that he did say, "I love you," and got engaged to another woman. Still, Patrick is firm that he was "dead set" on her.
Patrick adds that he thinks Anna left because she wasn't at the stage of "choosing yourself over everything else." He tells her, "I knew I was going to ask you to marry me, but I think you would have said no at the altar." The conversation ends with her replying, "Who knows? I don’t know."
In an interview with Vulture, Anna confirmed that she and Patrick did not rekindle things after that conversation. She's currently in a relationship with someone else, while Patrick is keeping his romantic life private. Recalling her time on the show, Anna admitted that she likely wouldn't have ended up married if she had stayed.
"I’ve built pretty good friendships with both Blake and Patrick. Adore them—they’re great, great men. But I don’t think there’s a world where it would have worked for them to be my husband," she told the outlet. "I also dated other guys in the pods, and meeting them in real life…there’s nothing bad about them, but I truly saw how incompatible we are. I learned that there’s lots of things that I need to see in a person to really decide that I love somebody and want to say the words, 'I want to marry you.'"
