Warning! The following contains spoilers for the 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days episode "Prepare For Arrival." Stream the episode with an HBO Max subscription and read at your own risk!
With some couples resolving their major issues, and others leaning toward calling it quits, it feels like 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days is in the home stretch for its latest season. As such, I was honestly expecting news about which 90 Day Fiancé series was up next on the 2026 TV schedule on Sunday nights, not Elise Benson finally arriving in an upcoming episode.
While I was excited for Elise's return when that was revealed ahead of this season, I'd begun to wonder if something happened to cause producers to quietly scrub her from this spinoff. However, the latest episode shows her storyline is finally starting, but I can't help but feel disappointed by her arrival.
Why I'm Disappointed By Elise's Arrival
Elise was shown in the preview for next week's episode of 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days, which will be Episode 11 of the season. While the length of seasons has varied over its run, last season (the longest to date) was 23 episodes, with four of them being the tell-all special. If we assume this season will follow suit, that means her entire story will need to play out in nine (or fewer) episodes. While still competing with several other couples for screentime.
Ever since her debut on 90 Day: Hunt For Love, I've thought Elise has what it takes to be a big star within this franchise. Unfortunately, this deep into Before The 90 Days' season, she's at a huge disadvantage, with an arrival that mostly feels shoehorned in, at a point when any viewers who already tuned out aren't around to see her. Given we're much deeper into the stories of all other cast members, her showing up just gets in the way of me seeing more of Forrest and Sheena's messy drama over finances.
What Is Elise's Storyline About?
We learned ahead of this season that Elise will be meeting a man named Joshua, whom she's talked to online for five months before deciding to make the trip to visit him. Unfortunately, she said she's had bad luck with love and had a few failed engagements in the past. She even revealed in the trailer for her premiere that an ex stole her identity, so I think it's fair to speculate she has trust issues.
We saw on 90 Day: Hunt For Love that Elise can bring drama, having gone after Rob Warne for talking to other women very early into their time at the resort. I'm curious to see if she can be as entertaining as she was on this spinoff, especially if she doesn't have as much time in this storyline.
I'm also curious how serious this storyline is, and if Joshua is actually someone she wants to get engaged to. After all, I'm always a little suspicious when a single 90 Day castmember suddenly is thinking about marriage with someone outside the country they've only known for a handful of months. I guess we'll get the answer to that when watching, and maybe my opinion on her coming in this late in the game will shift as her storyline gets rolling.
90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days will continue, with Elise in tow, on Sundays over on TLC at 8:00 p.m. ET. Her late arrival aside, this season is pretty solid so far, and I can't wait to see how it ends for all the couples.
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