‘Married At First Sight The First Year’ Spoilers: Who Spent Thanksgiving Alone? Episode 5 Recap

“Married At First Sight: The First Year” Season 1, episode 5, started off with the couples planning their first Thanksgiving together. While the holidays are supposed to be all about family, both Cortney Hendrix and Jamie Otis were separated from their families. Their husbands Jason Carrion and Doug Hehner realized that they couldn’t do anything to help their wives.

Doug and Jamie

After Doug revealed that he didn’t feel like Jamie was sexually attracted to him in episode 4, Jamie tried to make her feelings clear. She brought Doug a sexy dice game that involved body parts on one die and verbs on the other.

“It’s always fun seeing Jamie open up and be open to these new intimacy games. … I can see that she’s really trying,” Doug said.

Jamie was also planning new traditions that were more family friendly. She and Doug decided that they would host both of their families for Thanksgiving. Jamie even invited her mother, despite their distant relationship. Their families were getting along well, but Jamie’s mother didn’t show up.

Jamie went to the bathroom to call her mom. She told her diary cam that she didn’t want to have a breakdown in front of the family. However, her mother didn’t even respond to the call. “That’s just sending a very clear message: whatever she’s doing is more important than even calling your daughter,” Jamie said.

Though the dinner went extremely well, Jamie was still upset, and Doug knew there was nothing he could do about it. “It’s like she loves me when she wants to love me, and that’s the hard part,” Jamie said.

After Thanksgiving, Doug decided to reach out to Vaughn to see how he was holding up post-divorce. The husbands don’t keep in touch the same way the wives do, so they hadn’t spoken in some time. It turns out that he handled the divorce well and was dating again, just like Monet.

“I definitely don’t regret it. I don’t consider it a failure,” Vaughn said of his short marriage. He said that both he and Monet were looking for the wrong things in a partner, and they understood their needs better now.

Vaughn revealed that he was casually dating a girl in New York. She could cook, unlike Monet, but they weren’t rushing into a serious relationship. “I haven’t asked about ménage a trois yet,” Vaughn joked.

Monet

Monet Bell brought her best friend Clay to the gym after Cortney bailed. He has been the one setting her up on blind dates with Garritt and Daymon. Clay asked whom was “winning” between the two of them, but Monet hadn’t decided yet. She wasn’t planning another wedding anytime soon, so it didn’t matter.

Monet decided to meet with psychologist Dr. Joseph Cilona after she signed her divorce papers. “It wasn’t anything mean or bad or anything like that, but it was still a kind of a bittersweet feeling,” she explained

Dr. Cilona asked her about her dating life. She said she sort of broke things off with Garritt, but she was liked Daymon a lot. She mentioned how he fit her idea of a traditional male and Dr. Cilona seemed a little wary.

“Just think about what you learned about yourself when it comes to the alpha male issue,” he said. He explained that some guys have their alpha tendencies come from confidence, and those were the type of guys she should look for.

Cortney and Jason

Despite Jason’s work schedule, Cortney decided that she would stay in New York for Thanksgiving. Jason appreciated the gesture and promised they would celebrate the holiday the day after when he had time off.

All of their time apart made Cortney really emotional. Jason was home for a few hours, and his wife had plans to go to the gym with Monet. Cortney was crying, and Jason didn’t know what to do. He understood that the breakdown was caused by all the stress they were under, but he couldn’t really do anything about it. Cortney canceled her plans with Monet, but her friend understood. “If I were married and I only got X amount of hours with my husband, I’d bail on you too,” Monet said.

As Cortney spent more time alone, she started to realize that she missed North Carolina a lot. She spent Thanksgiving alone in New York. However, they had a belated Thanksgiving dinner the next day with their close friends. “I wish I was with [my family], but I’m not going to leave Jason alone on Thanksgiving,” Cortney said.

She couldn’t leave while Jason was having his own personal struggle. It was the first Thanksgiving without his mother, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Yet Cortney’s homesickness didn’t go away after Turkey Day. “I’m not myself. I’m not a sad person normally … and the only thing I can think to do is go home to my dad,” Cortney said.

She told Jason that she wanted to go home for a few days. Jason was concerned that she wasn’t looking for a break from New York, but from her husband. Jason worried that she might want to move back home to be near her parents, and he wasn’t sure he could do that for his wife.

Cortney took the Diary Cam down to her hometown and showed audiences a lot of rural areas with large space; it’s vastly different from Brooklyn. However, she returned to find that her apartment had plenty of space -- because everything in it was missing.

“I walk in and when I open the door, I see that there is nothing in that apartment but freaking curtains,” Cortney said.

She called Jason, and he said, “Yeah, about that…” Unfortunately the episode ended before he could explain.

“Married At First Sight: The First Year” Season 1 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on FYI. What do you think happened to Cortney and Jason’s apartment? Sound off in the comments section below!