[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Ultimatum: Queer Love Episodes 1-8.]
The Ultimatum: Queer Love delivered its second batch of episodes (5-8) on Wednesday, May 31, and the premature end of one of the trial marriages came with them. While that relationship was ending, a new love was growing. And that bond created the season’s next biggest source of drama following the pushback to Vanessa Papa in Episodes 1-4.
The Ultimatum requires participants to break up with their partners, date new people, and then get back together with their former loves in a two-month experiment. The time apart, the Netflix format argues, will show these people what and whose needs aren’t being met in their original relationships.
As Season 1, Marry or Move On, and Season 2, Queer Love, show, the issuers of the ultimatum were unprepared for the consequences of coming onto this show. And like in Season 1, some ultimatum issuers surprise themselves by connecting with their trial marriage partner, which throws a wrench into their original intentions.
Any person who follows a polyamorous relationship style would say these people don’t have to expect all their needs to be met by one person. But The Ultimatum doesn’t allow for polycules (a connected network of people and relationships predicated on consent by all partners involved) to form, although it doesn’t explicitly ban it.
While the cast of The Ultimatum: Queer Love seems largely monogamous, select cast members are certainly more OK with their partners falling in love with someone else. Some are capable of making space for their partner’s new connection to coexist with their own (as shown by the Mal, Yoly, and Xander love triangle in Episodes 5-8). Regardless of their openness to ethical non-monogamy, the ultimatums must be answered by the end of the season.
Episode 8 ends with the first proposal, ending on a cliffhanger that won’t be answered until the last two episodes come out on June 7. Here, we break down the relationship statuses of the trial marriages and the original couples as of the end of Episode 8.
The Ultimatum: Queer Love, Final Two Episodes, Wednesday, June 7, Netflix