SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the “Love Is Blind” Season 2 reunion, streaming now on Netflix.
Shake Chatterjee is “Love Is Blind” Season 2’s villain: There’s no arguing that. During the Season 2 reunion, which dropped on Netflix on Friday, he admitted that himself — but blamed the editing. In fact, he kicked off the one-hour special by saying he was nervous about how he’d be edited, because of the way he was portrayed during the nine episodes.
“If we were afraid of that comment, we could have taken it out. But I’m not afraid of that comment, because during this process, we want to give people the opportunity to say whatever they want to say,” creator Chris Coelen tells Variety. “Every other member of the cast seems to think that he got a pretty good edit.”
During the reunion, cast member Natalie Lee claimed the show actually showed “a very watered down version” of the harsh things he said about the looks of his ex-fiancée, Deepti Vempati.
“He says at the end of the reunion that he owns his actions. He’s doubling down on it, and I think all of that speaks for itself,” says Coelen.
The reunion, which filmed at the end of February, more than six months after filming of the season wrapped wrapped, also featured an intense interaction between hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey and Chatterjee.
“The problem that I have, Shake, is that you sit there and berated every single one of these women physically and then went through the process with this beautiful soul over here all because you wanted someone that you wanted to fuck, not fall in love with,” Vanessa told him.
In most reunions, hosts don’t get involved in the drama, but the producers weren’t going to stop the Lacheys from contributing.
“We don’t tell them what to say or not to say, it’s their thing,” he says. “Shake was jumping in from the word ‘go.’ Nobody tells him to do that. That’s what he decided to do, he wants to get his point of view across and I guess, good for him.”