Warning! The following contains spoilers for the 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way episode "Mistrust, She Wrote." Read at your own risk!
The 90 Day Fiancé franchise finds a way to make every season unique, though with so many spinoffs, it can sometimes feel like you've seen a storyline before. Despite the show giving us yet another American woman who moved to India with no idea what the cultural norms are, we've finally gotten something entirely new after being introduced to The Other Way's Shekinah and Sarper. TLC showed great restraint in hiding a wild reveal about Shekinah, though, in hindsight, I shouldn't be surprised knowing the history of this network.
For those who missed the episode on TLC and haven't had a chance to catch up with their Max subscription, viewers learned something wild about Shekinah that was left out of the trailers. I'd even go so far as to say this is more surprising than when Tyray Mollett discovered he was catfished in Before The 90 Days' season premiere, despite the fact that it's a totally on-brand reveal for the network.
Shekinah Was Raised Amish
At first glance, Shekinah may seem like the average 41-year-old aesthetician living in Los Angeles, California. Soon after her introduction, however, she revealed that she was raised in the "Amish lifestyle" throughout her childhood. Shekinah was the oldest of six girls and lived in Tennessee with them and without the modern luxuries others her age enjoyed.
Shekinah added that neither of her parents were Amish, but they had a lot of friends who were. This convinced them to adopt the lifestyle which, among other things, meant that Shekinah could never cut her hair. Shekinah said she was the most rebellious of her sisters and ultimately convinced her parents to leave the Amish lifestyle, and now lives her life as glamourous as she possibly can. It was quite a wild story, especially since her family had zero ties to the Amish community outside of friends.
TLC Has A History Of Putting Amish On Television
While Shekinah was not officially Amish, I'd say being raised in the lifestyle counts just as much. TLC, of course, has featured the Amish on its network over the years through various shows like Breaking Amish and Return To Amish. As I said, it shouldn't be surprising that we now have someone like this in the 90 Day Fiancé franchise. Still, I am shocked that it wasn't mentioned when the season was first announced!
I can imagine Shekinah's past was excluded because it wasn't relevant to her current life. Shekinah lives a very modern lifestyle in Los Angeles, and as she said in her introduction, her parents walked away from the Amish lifestyle. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed by that, only because I'd love to see an international resident go to visit their parents and be blindsided by the niche way of living. Fortunately, what we've heard about her and Sarper's story so far sounds interesting, so we'll have to see where it goes.
90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way airs on TLC on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. I'm sure there are some surprises on the way, even more wild than the one we just learned, but as for what they may be, we'll just have to wait and see.
