Spoilers for the Love is Blind season 10 finale ahead. There’s always at least one contestant on Netflix’s Love Is Blind who feels like the reality show was truly intended for them. More often than not, it’s someone a little shy and unsure, but blooms with the opportunity of opening up to another person—laying bare some of their most intimate vulnerabilities—without ever having to see their face. That person in season 10, which premiered on Wednesday, February 11, is 28-year-old retail merchandiser Emma Betsinger.
Emma enters the pods constantly braced for impact and heartbreak. Armed with a laundry list of reasons she believes no one will want to marry her, she eventually forms a connection with 30-year-old sales manager Mike Gibney. But it’s still unclear whether their connection is strong enough to overcome their differing opinions—particularly regarding children—and take them all the way to saying “I do.” Here’s what we know about Emma and Mike’s relationship so far, and whether they’re still together after the Love Is Blind cameras stopped rolling.
What happens in the pods between Emma and Mike on 'Love Is Blind' season 10?
Emma makes three connections within the first episode of this Ohio season of the hit reality show. There’s account manager Connor Spies (32), finance professional Steven Sunday (32), and Mike. Despite having three potential suitors on her bench, Emma holds herself at arm’s length, afraid to open up and divulge her deeper insecurities. The 28-year-old retail merchandiser explains in a confessional (and to her connections at various points) that she was adopted, with no knowledge of her birth family. She also explains that she had to surgically remove several potentially pre-cancerous birthmarks, which left visible scarring specifically on her arm. This medical predisposition, combined with her ambiguous biological medical history, makes her wary of having children in the future. Still, Emma knows that to find the connection among her many, she needs to open up and start a “deeper” dialogue with each of the three men.
Throughout the first episode, Mike seems all in on Emma, telling her he’s had her high on his list, despite her reservations around having kids and his eagerness to have a “whole baseball team” of a family. Emma remains unsure, though, saying she wasn’t enamored with him but that he still makes her feel comfortable and cared for.
She later confides to Connor that, in the past, she’s maintained very surface-level relationships and wants to break free of that pattern in the pods, but is nervous about trying hard only for someone to leave. Her attempts to form a deeper connection with Steven only reveal their incompatibilities, and they part ways. (Steven did not leave the pods engaged, and has since faced allegations of sexual assault.) Considering she’s still anxious about who she’s more drawn to, Emma ultimately confides in both Connor and Mike about her adoption, medical history, and fears around having kids. She leaves her conversation with Connor feeling like he’s the one—but the pods have other plans.
While Connor became closer to Emma, he also developed a relationship with 34-year-old senior merchant Brianna “Bri/Breezy” McNees. When he tells Emma he felt a “different feeling” on his date with Bri, Emma tearily tells him she “thinks that’s a sign.” The two break up, leaving Emma afraid she might be settling for second best with Mike. He, however, proves steady and steadfast in his commitment to Emma—so much so that she gives him a box of letters her mom wrote to her over the years and says she could see herself having a family with him. “I was hoping that someone was going to get to know me so well,” she tells him. “I found that in you.”
Do Emma and Mike get engaged on 'Love Is Blind' season 10?
It feels inevitable when Mike proposes to Emma in episode 5. The two maintain a strong connection in their first few days out of the pods during a honeymoon with the other couples in Cabo. Emma appears to have found the kind of love she was looking for with Mike, giggling excitedly and hardly sparing a second glance at her former flame, Connor, when she sees him at the two couples's mixers.
Do Emma and Mike stay together after the pods on 'Love Is Blind' season 10?
If the pods in Love Is Blind reveal a couple’s emotional connection and the honeymoon tests their physical intimacy, then the return to the real world demonstrates the true compatibility of a relationship. As the prospect of a future together feels even more within reach, Emma and Mike can’t help but discuss their differing stances on children.
It defines them as a couple throughout the second half of the season, dominating almost every conversation. “I want to have a family,” Mike says to Emma at the end of episode 7. “If we get married because you are like, ‘Yeah, no, I can see a family with you. I am open to kids,’ and then something down the road changes, and you resent that, I can never live with that.”
That sentiment sets the tone for both of them meeting each other’s families. Both encounters follow a similar rubric: Their family loves the person their child picked and would welcome them with open arms, but have concerns about the major compromises Mike or Emma would have to make to fulfill the other person’s needs regarding starting a family. Mike’s mother, Patty, and Emma’s sister, Hannah, in particular, seem trepidatious. Hannah, who wanted children herself and has her own family, expresses how it’s “one of the most terrifying thoughts” that her sister might “choose to have kids simply because they’re trying to make a partner happy.” This feels especially poignant after Mike tells Emma’s family that, while he’s trying to remain open regarding Emma’s stance on kids, he’s slowly realizing he doesn’t think he can “not have kids,” putting him and Emma in a precarious game of chicken.
Still, through it all, Mike and Emma seem to support each other, telling both their families they’re not compromising themselves or their desires for the other person, and that they feel in it together. Emma repeatedly tells her family that Mike has never pressured her into having kids. “I have the right to change my mind,” she says, and that she wouldn’t have accepted Mike’s proposal if she weren’t at least open.
Do Emma and Mike get married on 'Love Is Blind' season 10?
As the pair go through the motions in anticipation of the fast-approaching wedding day—trying on dresses and tuxes, attending their respective bachelor/bachelorette parties, and even applying for their marriage license together—the question of whether or not they’ll say “I do” remains unanswered. On their final date, Emma tells Mike she’s been thinking more about starting a family. When he presses for more information, she says, “I 100 percent think you are the right partner. The way I feel with you—safe and stable and confident—it’s one in a million. I am continuing to be open-minded. I do see a family with you.”
However, it remains an unknown factor for the couple, as Mike tells his friends during his bachelor party that they have a “question mark” about children. While it sounds like she may make a decision that aligns with his, Mike doesn’t know what she’ll say at the altar.
His answer seemingly comes sooner than expected when at least part of Emma and Mike’s wedding is aired at the end of episode 11. Ahead of the wedding, Mike tells the camera he would “love” for Emma to go first so he can know she sees starting a family with him. He gets his wish when, at the altar, Emma is tapped to give her answer first, haltingly and slowly talking through her thoughts before ultimately saying yes to marrying Mike. “There’s a lot of things we still need to go through, whether that’s today or whether that’s two years from now,” Emma says. “I’ve been thinking about how you make me feel, and I can’t see a future without you. And I love you, I really, really do.”
But, before the audience can hear Mike’s answer, the camera cuts, signaling the end of the episode.
After viewers have to wait a full week to hear Mike's answer, the season 10 finale begins with the groom saying, "I do...I do love you. Right now, I'm not ready to say, 'I do.'"
He continues, "I want kids. And I want to know that you definitely 100 percent want to have a family with me. I don't want to say yes and jump into something and then it change [sic] down the road."
Emma assures that she does love him before walking back up the aisle and up the stairs on her own. (Those stairs put this season very low on my personal venue ranking.) Both Emma and Mike and their respective parents rehash the issue, but Mike is adamant that Emma needed to be 100 percent—not even 99 percent—wanting to have kids. At the very end of the finale, Emma reflects that "love is blind," but "there are big things in life like children that you, I guess, can't be blind on. Especially for him."
Are Emma and Mike still together after 'Love Is Blind' season 10?
Despite reaching a very obvious and expected impasse at the altar, Emma and Mike's last words on the wedding day didn't include a definitive break-up conversation. Plus, both Emma and Mike still follow each other on Instagram, which may indicate they’re still on good terms. There's a chance that the pair could join the several Love Is Blind couples who attempted to date after filming ended. (Although it's worth noting that none of these couples have been together as of their respective reunions.) But we'll have to wait until the March 11 reunion to see if anything continued between them.
