’90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way’: Family Matters (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way Season 3, Episode 5 “Facing Fears.”]

Some hard conversations with family members are in store for Sumit and Armando as 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way Season 3 continues.

Meanwhile, Steven and Alina may not be on the same page about planning their future, and the clock is ticking for them in Turkey. But things are looking up for another couple. And for Ellie and Victor, they face the reality of their situation when they see the devastation left by a hurricane to the island that’s to be their home.

Read on to find out all the drama that went down in “Facing Fears.”

Ariela and Biniyam

Following her ex-husband Leandro’s visit, Ariela and Biniyam are working on their relationship. Their next step: She joins him in experiencing the healing power of holy water to respect his faith. He believes it works and even healed his brother. She feels that everything she does to adapt to his culture should show him how much she’s changed and does for him to make their relationship work.

Steven and Alina

Two days after they arrived in Turkey, Steven and Alina meet with an immigration lawyer — hitchhiking to his office! — to find out what they need to know about getting married there and moving to Russia. It’s a long process, the lawyer warns them, recommending they start it immediately. While Alina is OK with that — she feels like she’d be ready in about a week to make a decision — Steven is clearly uncomfortable (probably because he hasn’t told her he’s not a virgin). She worries he’s hesitant because he’s not ready to stop talking to other girls, which is why she’s testing him with her friend’s flirty messages.

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Ellie and Victor

Hearing about the devastation to the island of Providencia by the category five hurricane is very different from seeing it herself for Ellie, as she and Victor head there for the day to bring supplies to his sister — whose house was destroyed — and check out the damage to what’s supposed to be their own home. Rather than being lush and green as she knew it, the island “looks like it’s burned,” she says.

To their surprise, their house isn’t too badly damaged, especially compared to the buildings that are completely gone. Part of the roof, as well as at least one window, did come off, and Victor’s mother and uncle’s homes are destroyed. The beach is rocky. But as Ellie puts it, it’s hard to be happy that their place isn’t as messed up as someone else’s. They’re staying on San Andres Island for the time being, but while Ellie loves Victor and wants to support him, Providencia has no infrastructure and nothing in terms of medical care. She wonders how safe or smart it is to move there now?

Jenny and Sumit

Jenny may not be able to get a missionary visa and doesn’t want to become a Hare Krishna devotee, but she did find peace from chanting when she visited the ISKCON temple. Sumit takes her to a market to get her own beads, and she hopes chanting helps keep her calm and less stressed. And all her stress comes from how Sumit’s parents treat her and the fact they don’t approve of her. For example, she’s never invited to family gatherings, so when Sumit goes, she’s left alone.

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Speaking of one such function, the family gathers to celebrate that Sumit’s brother Amit and his wife Shree are having a baby. Sumit plans to talk to his parent about leaving out Jenny, but he knows it likely won’t go well. He’s right. Jenny can be accepted as a friend, but not a family member, he’s told. Society won’t accept their relationship and will cut off his parents for it, they explain. When he tells his parents that he and Jenny are engaged, his parents end up walking away. Sumit doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong, but it looks like his brother agrees: he doesn’t want a negative atmosphere around his baby.

Corey and Evelin

If you’ve been wondering what the big secret Corey is keeping from Evelin about Jenny, the girl he was with in Peru when the couple was on a break (after getting married!), wonder no more.

Now that Evelin’s sisters know they’re already married, it’s time for the couple to tell the rest of her family the … step-below-neutral news? Needless to say, it doesn’t go over well. It really doesn’t help that Evelin admits she’s not completely happy. (Remember, she never wanted to get married; they only did because his visa was expiring.) Now she just feels even more trapped because her mom doesn’t believe in divorce.

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With that secret out, Corey meets with Raul, his best friend in Ecuador. He’s also Evelin’s friend, which makes the conversation that follows awkward, to say the least. Corey reveals that while he’s led Evelin to believe Jenny was just a “one-night thing,” that’s a lie. “It was serious. She introduced me to her family,” he says. He believed he and Evelin were done and when they reconnected when he returned to get his stuff and the pandemic hit, he’d been planning to move in with Jenny. The pandemic changed everything, and he and Evelin quarantined together. So he just cut off communication with Jenny without ever fully ending things with her. Raul tells him to do the right thing: talk to Jenny, then to Evelin. And if he doesn’t tell his wife everything, Raul will.

Kenny and Armando

While Armando didn’t tell his parents that he and Kenny have started planning their wedding and want it to be a big affair the first night of their visit, he does on the second day. First, he tells his mom to find out how to approach his dad, since his family wasn’t accepting when he came out. (Everyone was more welcoming at the dinner the night before, and Armando hadn’t wanted to ruin the atmosphere.)

His mom Virginia has yet to tell his dad, Armando Sr., their son is engaged, even though she’d said she wanted to be the one to do so. Now, she wants Armando to do it. While he worries she hasn’t said anything because she doesn’t accept him, she says she does, He still feels like she’s not happy for him, though.

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Armando then goes to see his dad to tell him his news and find out if he’ll attend the wedding. (Virginia doesn’t know if he will.) Sadly, while Armando Sr. tells his son he’s proud of him and will always love him and in time, he and Kenny might get to know each other more, he also says that he doesn’t pay attention to how he lives his personal life. As for attending the wedding, he can’t give Armando an answer. He needs to think about it, Armando Sr. says, claiming he didn’t even attend his nieces’ quinceañeras. But as Armando points out, he did attend his daughter’s wedding.

90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, Sundays, 8/7c, TLC