Married at First Sight Recap: Couples Reveal They Faked Storylines, Plotted Everything Behind the Scenes

While the "reality" in reality TV is loose, at best, Denver's season of Married at First Sight took inauthenticity to a new level.

During the first reunion episode, cast members revealed that they conspired from day one to manufacture storylines and carefully control what was said on screen. All of the couples were in on the plotting except for Chloe and Michael, since their marriage began weeks after the rest.

Some of the most notable deceptions included Clare and Cameron faking their religious differences to hide lacking physical attraction, Orion telling Lauren on day two of their marriage that he only applied to be on the show to highlight his Indigenous community, and Clare and Cameron planning out their infamous "One, two, three: divorce!" announcement at the group dinner.

Was what we saw on the show ever authentic? "Never. Ever. It was not," Clare said. "And that's the saddest part."

"We united together to come up with a plan to benefit us all," Brennan said, defending the strategy. "Was it right? I don't know. But we all agreed, and that was the plan."

However, the women said they felt pressured into going along with what their husbands wanted, questioning the men's motivations for joining the show. "It was the men trying to strategize with us about how to look good, how to get an Instagram following after this, how to get a business, how to do whatever," Becca said. "They acted like it was a game of Survivor, and we honestly just went in hoping for marriage."

So in the end, the first season of Married at First Sight to take place in Denver was the least successful, the most fabricated and the most contentious, according to host Kevin Frazier, who said the contestants have never before been on such bad terms that the spouses refused to sit together during the reunion episode.

Here's what happened on the "Denver Reunion: Part One" episode of Married at First Sight, which aired on April 10:

Clare and Cameron
According to the women, Cameron was the ringleader behind the plotting operation. But Cameron claimed Clare influenced him the whole time, saying she asked him to come up with a way out of the relationship without revealing that the core issue was physical attraction. "She was very scared of the optics," Cameron said, adding that he made up their religious differences and that Clare "straight up said, 'I don't care about religion. I don't care about how my kids are raised.'"

Clare denied that Cameron was ever following her lead, calling herself "the puppet" and Cameron "the master." She also denied Cameron's accusation that Clare said she was still in love with an ex-boyfriend and that she was probably "fucking" him during their marriage. "You are lying. You are making things up," Clare said.

Even after hurling these accusations against Clare, Cameron ended their interview by saying he wanted another shot at their relationship. "I wonder if we threw something away. ... I want to start fresh with the opportunity to try again," he said. Clare quickly shut his proposal down. "I'm never going to put myself back in that situation," she said. "I was literally dealing with two different human beings: the one that was strategizing, the one executing. I still don't know who you are."

Becca and Austin
While Clare said "everything" between her and Cameron was planned, Becca and Austin said some of their moments of affection were genuine — but the plotting made their relationship too confused to work. "I don't know what was real," Becca said, saying she wishes "every single day" that she didn't go along with the plan. When Becca saw inconsistencies with Austin on and off camera, like promising to work on physical intimacy, she started openly discussing their issues on the show. This angered Austin for violating the group's agreement. "I thought we were a team and we wanted to get through this in a way that we both felt comfortable," Austin said.

Becca claimed that, from the beginning, Austin said he would say "yes" on Decision Day no matter how he felt, and they would "figure out" their relationship after the show wrapped. Austin denied this, saying he really wanted the marriage to work. Austin also rejected a theory that the male contestants had conspired together to agree not to have sex with their wives, though Becca and the show's host remained unconvinced.

Chloe and Michael
Even though Chloe and Michael were the only couple not involved in the plot, Chloe still left the experience questioning her ex-husband's motives for appearing on the show. She said from the day after their honeymoon, she didn't feel Michael was invested in their marriage. "I was feeling like Michael had his own reasons for coming in, but they were not to be married to me," she said. The fact that Michael never told his mother about Chloe or their marriage only solidified her suspicion that he never intended to say "yes" on Decision Day.

Michael insisted he regrets choosing divorce, saying he wishes he communicated his concerns to Chloe from the beginning. "I do regret not giving it a try," Michael said, explaining that he said no because he didn't feel they had built a "strong enough foundation" for a marriage. But Chloe is not interested in giving Michael a second chance, saying he is not her soulmate. "What's meant for us will never pass us," she said. "There's no regret there."

To watch Emily, Brennan, Lauren and Orion battle it out, tune in to the final episode of Married at First Sight, on Wednesday, April 17.