A Lot of Thoughts About the Silver Goblets From 'The Ultimatum'

Netflix is back with its newest social experiment on love, and its premise is more chaotic than ever. The Ultimatum follows six couples where one person has issued the other an ultimatum: “Marry me or it's over.” In the experiment, the couples are split up and scrambled, going on three-week “trial marriages” with each other's partners with the goal of arriving at some sort of clarity on whether their original match was meant to be. After switching back to their original pairs, the couples have two options: to leave engaged or break up. Because, of course, the most logical test for a struggling couple is to trial-marry someone else and then be forced into an engagement. But hey, it's reality TV.

“Who signs up for this?????” asked Food52's Editorial Lead Margaret Eby. “Hi I love my partner but I’d love to break up publicly or force them into marriage.”

As if the show’s premise wasn’t perplexing enough, the iconic wine goblets have returned in a different color! Enter in: The Ultimatum’s silver goblet.

The signature cups follow the contestants everywhere. There are stemless silver goblets for poolside hangs and picnics at the race track, in addition to being used at home or by bartenders at restaurants. You can spot one in nearly any scene ('drink every time you see a silver goblet' would be a very bad drinking game—do not try this at home!).

Now, why has Netflix chosen this metallic motif for their experiments with love? Is it protection from the atrocity that was Jessica Batten (yes, that Jessica from Love Is Blind season 1) feeding her dog red wine from a clear glass on camera? Is it to conceal how much the contestants are actually drinking?

Like with Love Is Blind, the actual answer is that the opaque goblet does wonders for continuity. My background in food video production tells me the same. When putting together a video, editors will often swap the order of clips, piecing together dialogue to fit a storyline or making a more sensical order. Things like noticeably empty drink cups that were delivered to the table five seconds ago can throw a wrench in an editor’s ability to manipulate the show’s order. But back to the chaos. The thing is, it's not just infatuated fans like me who are seeing the comedic potential of these goblets—the show is in on it too.

Cut to the reunion episode and hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey gifting perhaps the messiest couple, but The Ultimatum success story (leaving them nameless to be spoiler-free), a silver goblet sippy cup to celebrate the news that they are expecting. The perpetuity of the cups goes back to Love is Blind, too. Season 2 sweethearts Danielle and Nick gave Nick’s mom a gold goblet post-show, bringing her into the LIB family in the way she had hoped. Glasses, goblets, chalices—whatever you choose to call them, they have a life of their own in Netflix’s world of love, living with couples on and off screen, and even following them back to their normal lives.

The real question is: are the wine glasses the real protagonists of Netflix’s reality TV take on love? They’re certainly the least messy thing about it.

Have you also thought too much about the silver goblets? Let us know below!