Love Island
Episode 2
Season 8
Episode 2
Editor’s Rating
Gabriel and Kayda shake things up with an overnight throuple situation while Kenzie and Sean are definitely not thinking about Zach and Beatriz.
Photo: Ben Symons/Peacock
Each season of Love Island USA is approximately 1 million episodes, and we are recapping all of them. Check back for morning-after recaps of weekday episodes and a Monday roundup of the weekend’s shenanigans.
I love when we get to watch Islanders do what Islanders do best: sit around the pool doing absolutely nothing. The only way to truly understand a citizen of the Love Island villa is to watch them affect nonchalance on a daybed while spinning out over whether or not their current other half is making out with somebody hotter than them. Kenzie, who reminds me more of Anna Faris with every passing minute, has taken a giggle-through-the-tears approach. Sean spends most of his day telling the other Islanders exactly how over Bea he is because he’s loyal, babe. Meanwhile, Zach and Beatriz are, in fact, making out with people they find hotter than them. It’s a classic Love Island set up, and I just think this is going to be a wonderful summer.
Picking up where we left off, bombshells Gabriel and Kayda have each whisked away a pair of Islanders for tandem threesomes at a place called Paradise Cove. As far as I can tell, Paradise Cove is just like the Hideaway, except here, there are multiple huts equipped with extra-wide beds because we are sleeping three to a mattress. For whatever reason, production has decided that bombshell dates should be overnighters this year — perhaps as a sort of low-grade Casa Amor — and sprang for a set of Alaskan Kings to accommodate a minimum of three sexy singles in one.
In this environment, you can hardly blame Gaberiel for taking things in the rather porny direction that he does. Disrobing once again, he barely has time to tell Bea and Trinity that he lives in Miami before the ear-popping snogs continue, which they are taking in turns. Bea is getting more attention than Trinity, which is probably fine because Gabriel is 26. As Trinity makes clear during their picnic the following day, 26 is basically 30, which is practically middle-aged, which means he should have a family by now.
In the other room, Kayda is entertaining Bryce and Zach, who are openly drooling, and the scene could not look more like Challengers if Zendaya were playing Kayda. Up to a point, that is, because once the lights are out, Kayda and Zach are cuddled on the far side of their enormous shared bed, while Bryce huddles alone on the other end. When Bryce does try to get in on Kayda and Zach’s good night kisses, she very firmly pushes him away with a whispered, “Not tonight.” Better luck next bombshell, buddy.
At the main villa the following morning, Kenzie is jumping on the bed because she’s not going to cry today, and Sean is making her breakfast. I am fairly sure that Sean is making Kenzie eggs as a kind gesture so she doesn’t have to be reminded of her recent rejection, but he does plate them in the shape of a heart, which is all the opening she needs. Kenzie is not a roster girl, remember, so she doesn’t seem to entertain KC when he asks if she’d ever go for someone one of her friends (like, Aniya, for example) is talking to. Instead, all the energy Kenzie can spare when she’s not pumping herself up — “I love how I look,” she tells the beach hut confessional — is going into chatting up Sean.
Kenzie tells Sean that she would like to be chased “like a little gazelle” with a lion after her and only her, but I’m pretty sure Sean is the gazelle in this situation. He comes away from their conversation reflecting on how nice it is just to vent to someone who really gets it, ya know. He’s still singularly focused on Bea, the chemistry he thought they had, his surprise that she wasn’t standing on the green dot, his desire for the kind of girl who would be standing on the green dot, while Kenzie is basically wagging her arms in his face and screaming, “I was standing on the green dot!” She thought his making her eggs was really attractive, she tells him, adding that they were just the way she liked, and the chicken sausage was a great touch. Sean laughs and says, “Yeah.”
This wasn’t a shocker of a recoupling. Ariana informed the Islanders that each bombshell would get to steal an Islander of their choice, and we pretty much learned everything we needed to know from the vibes in the Cove: Kayda obviously prefers Zach, even if he is deeply boring, and Gabriel and Beatriz have barely stopped kissing long enough to have a full conversation.
The bombshell group returns to the villa, where everyone else is already assembled around the firepit. Instead of having the bombshells prepare a little speech explaining who they’ve chosen to couple up with, they are instructed to lock in their choice with a kiss. Says KC, “This is crazy, bro,” clearly still amazed that this is actually happening to him. And I agree! Sean is visibly displeased when Gabriel picks Beatriz, and they make out for way longer than is necessary, but at least he didn’t also have to listen to their mouth noises as picked up by the mics. Kayda picks Zach, which we knew she was going to do the minute we saw the sleeping arrangements. This leaves Bryce and Trinity back together, exactly where they started. A big to-do is made of the fact that Kenzie and Sean are now single, and they are sent to the front of the firepit. I am half convinced the Islanders are about to be forced to vote one of them off, when the last texts, read by Bea and Zach, of course, reassure us that they aren’t going anywhere yet. They are just single and therefore vulnerable. Though not for long, if Kenzie has her way.
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