'Love Is Blind' Reunion: Shake Defends His 'Physical Preferences,' Says 'Love Is Not Purely Blind'

"You don't choose. It's nature, baby. We're animals," Shake Chatterjee says in PEOPLE's exclusive look at Love Is Blind's second season reunion

Abhishek "Shake" Chatterjee is not sugarcoating his feelings on attraction during Love Is Blind's second season reunion.

In PEOPLE's exclusive look at the full-cast reunion special, the 33-year-old is put in the hot seat when co-host Nick Lachey suggests that what Shake was looking for on the show could be found within the "conventional dating world." But the DJ and veterinarian denies that notion, saying he desired to find an "emotional connection."

"I want the emotional connection, everything that we know the show is supposed to do," says Shake. "But there's also certain criteria there that goes beyond the emotional connection. ... Love is not purely blind to me."

To that point, fellow co-host Vanessa Lachey reiterates that Shake joined "the wrong dating show."

Shake reunion
Netflix

"But I wanted to be partially blind," Shake continues. "I wanted to be, 'Love Is Blurry.'"

Vanessa, 41, then mentions how she thought she witnessed "a change" within Shake on the belief that the experiment actually worked for him. Chiming in, Shake's ex-fiancée, Deepti Vempati, argues that there's "no change" whatsoever.

From there, Shake goes on to explain his controversial views on attraction.

"We all have our physical preferences. Listen, every woman in here is beautiful. I think you're all beautiful," he says. "I'm not attracted to all of you. Unfortunately, the only one I'm attracted to is Vanessa — and I wish I wasn't! I wish I wasn't. The point is, it's not a choice."

Adds Shake, "You don't choose. It's nature, baby. We're animals."

Nick, 48, then counters: "No, you treat animals. We're human beings. There's a big difference."

shake and deepti
Shake and Deepti on Love Is Blind. netflix

Ever since the Netflix hit's sophomore season aired, Shake has received criticism for the ways in which he spoke about women's physical appearances. He did, however, propose to Deepti, 31, when they were in the pods, but their relationship hit a rough patch when he admitted he wasn't feeling an "intense physical connection" with her.

While at the altar, Deepti told Shake why she wasn't going through with marrying him: "I deserve somebody who knows for sure. So I'm choosing myself and I'm going to say no."

Love Is Blind's season 2 reunion premieres Friday on Netflix.

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