Warning: This post contains spoilers from episodes 1-4 of Love Is Blind season 5.
Love Is Blind‘s Milton Johnson needed a moment to process after learning some big news in the pods.
Netflix dropped the first four episodes of season 5 on Friday. In the final episode of the batch, viewers saw Lydia Velez Gonzalez, who Milton had connected with in the pods and later got engaged to sight unseen, revealing that she previously dated fellow participant, Uche Okoroha.
Milton was understandably shocked by the revelation and remained quiet in the pods, which upset Lydia, who wanted more of a vocal response from him. When Milton couldn’t provide that, the two decided to take a moment away from the pods and inside their respective living quarters, before reuniting to discuss the bombshell.
Though viewers didn’t get to hear what Milton was thinking in the moment, he’s now opening up to PEOPLE about what was really going through his head after learning the news.
“That’s typically what I do. I put my head down, I revert into my shell for a second, and then I just think,” the 25-year-old petroleum engineer explains. “And I’m like, okay. I’m very logistical with the way I plan things out. And I thought about it and then I said, ‘Okay, now what is my heart telling me?'”
“And everything aligned up and I said, ‘Oh, well, this is before me. We all have a past, we all have exes.’ It didn’t bother me,” he says. “It was just like, yeah, okay, no problem. That’s interesting. Now what are we doing next?”
courtesy netflix
Though Milton wasn’t too phased by the news, fellow participant Aaliyah Cosby couldn’t say the same.
After choosing Uche, 34, as her top connection, and overcoming several challenges together — including a fight they had after she owned up to past infidelity in a relationship and he had a explosive reaction to the news — the two appeared ready for engagement.
But right as Uche was entering the pods to propose, it was revealed that Aaliyah left the experiment early, seemingly due to the history between Uche and Lydia, who became her closest friend on the show. In particular, Aaliyah appeared uncomfortable with Lydia’s commentary on Uche and the details about the lawyer/entrepreneur’s life.
courtesy netflix
Speaking to PEOPLE about her decision to leave, Aaliyah, 29, says she “considered a lot of different things” before settling on an early exit.
“I was very analytical. When things started kind of shifting, I had to kind of take my emotion out of it when it came to certain aspects and points along that journey for me,” she explains. “My conversation with her, my conversation with him, when I had time to myself to just process, it was tough.”
“But I ultimately just felt like I had to do what was best for me in the end,” the ICU travel nurse continues. “Marriage is such a huge step. It’s very sacred and it’s something that I take very seriously and I just wanted to really enjoy that moment. I was like, ‘If I’m going to be engaged once and marry once, because that’s my goal, I want to be happy and enjoy it and be at peace and I want my family and everybody to take to the situation, to my person.’ All of that. So it’s just one of those things where I felt like I had to do what was best for me and really follow my intuition.”
Netflix
Fans did not get to see anything beyond Uche learning through producers that Aaliyah had left the experiment. The episode ended with him disclosing the information to the rest of the men, simply telling them, “She’s gone.”
But the upcoming episodes, which drop next Friday, teased more of Uche and Aaliyah’s story. The two will have a heated phone conversation, including a moment where Uche confesses that he wanted to “spend the rest of my life” with Aaliyah, before they reunite in person to discuss the state of their relationship.
“We have a lot to talk about,” Uche points out to a physically tense Aaliyah.
As for the other couples in season 5, two more engagements have taken place so far: Taylor Rue and Jared “JP” Pierce, and Izzy Zapata and Stacy Snyder.
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Episodes 1-4 of Love Is Blind season 5 are currently streaming on Netflix. The next batch of episodes will drop on Friday, Sept. 29.
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