Love Island
Episode 3
Season 8
Episode 3
Editor’s Rating
The Islanders had a lot of big feelings last night, no matter how many times they repeat that they are so fine and over it.
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.
The Islanders had a lot of big feelings last night, no matter how many times they repeat that they are so fine and over it. As Aniya says, “The villa is villa-ing.” Bea thinks it would be more valid for Sean to be like, “Woah, what the fuck,” if they had been together for, like, five nights instead of just the one. I know that out here in reality, this seems like a hilarious distinction to make, but villa time is like living in dog years, where every minute of conversation is worth a six-hour date in the real world. These people have nothing to do but stew in one another’s sweat and pheromones for 24 hours a day. Trying to apply real-world dating logic to Love Island is like watching Game of Thrones and complaining that dragons are actually a physiological impossibility. You are missing the point.
Kenzie is so over Zach that she does not even want to have the chat he keeps trying to pull her for (his brother Charlie is way cuter anyway, she says). She’s busy redoubling her focus on whatever she’s got going with Sean, which has gone from zero to sixty in 2.6 villa seconds. One minute they’re discussing their interests — Sean is into anime and dragons and shit, in addition to line dancing — and the next, he is kissing her on the mouth while dropping off her freshly prepared breakfast. Based on her face, this is as much of a surprise to Kenzie as anyone else. Melanie and I ask at the same time, “Did I miss an episode?”
One hopes that Sean has learned his lesson about settling into a couple too quickly, because later in the day, Kenzie is pulled for a chat by our resident Lothario, Gabriel — which Bea observes with studied disinterest. You cannot deny it, there are vibes, which Kenzie later describes as making her “kitty purr a little.” I’ll tell you right now that Gabe would be interested in seeing Kenzie’s morning splits. At one point, someone asks Gabriel if he likes blonde girls and he is baffled by the very question. He likes girls, period. Gabe asks Kenzie, “Why don’t you move to Miami?” She says, “I think you’re flirting a little.” Then “Diet Pepsi” plays and I could not imagine a better track to score this sexy, braindead little moment.
So now Kenzie, who is not a roster girl, is on the way to building herself a little roster. Personally, I applaud it. I think a roster is healthy for a young woman, and being without one is basically a safety hazard on Love Island. You do kind of have to feel for Sean, however, if he loses two girls in a row to Gabriel.
Actually, I’m pretty sure she sees Bryce as a much, much older brother. Or like an uncle. Or maybe like her best friend’s dad who she secretly thinks is kind of cute but is still, like, old. After the bombshell recoupling throws them back together, Trinity and Bryce cheerfully resume their sexless courtship that no amount of lap-sitting or jokes about being an “eater” can spice up. It’s a shame, really, because they both have delicate little ballerina faces that I think would look good together if Trinity wasn’t too busy looking for wrinkles.
There’s nothing wrong with a good friendship couple, of course — this is a Love Island tradition, after all — but I hope someone who doesn’t bore Trinity to tears comes in soon.
Melanie admits she’s the jealous type, and we love to see that kind of self-awareness in the villa, but it has not stopped her from charging statement-necklace first down a path of self-sabotage. While everyone else pretends to be unbothered when their partner pulls somebody else for a chat (except for Trinity, who truly could not give a shit who Bryce talks to), Melanie dissolves into tears when Sincere pulls Kayda for a chat. She sniffles, explaining to Aniya that men are always so infatuated at first and then they get sick of her because she’s too much and too emotional. Oh, sweetie. Some day, someone will give her a copy of Women Who Run With the Wolves and she’ll put her face card to good use by becoming a menace to men in general. Until then, I empathize.
In the evening, it’s time for a variation on one of Love Island’s classic party games. Islanders have to read an embarrassing biographical fact about one of their castmates, then guess who the fact describes. Usually, the guessing involves making out, but this time they’re pushing each other into the pool, which is a nice change of pace. We learn a lot of interesting things in this sequence, including that Aniya once did Terminator role play in bed and that Trinity has entirely too few boundaries with her mother after admitting to blowing a guy while her mom was driving. (Her excuse? “It was daylight savings!”) The last card reveals that Sincere is guilty of texting other people while with someone else, which is exactly the red flag Melanie has been waiting for. “If he cheats, then I’m just gonna cheat back!” she declares, a little wildly. “Let’s be cheating,” Trinity agrees supportively. Obviously, Sincere must now pull Melanie for a chat in order to iron all of this out. Melanie says she is not going to die on the hill of Sincere, but she is calling Kayda “Katie” which is petty but made me laugh.
Wisely, Sincere does not repeat his fishing analogy — ”if you go fishing and you catch one fish that you like and then you catch another fish that you like, then you have two beautiful fishes” — and tells Melanie that he still thinks they have the strongest connection here. She just repeats that if he wants to explore, he should explore! He’s like, but I’m a green dot! Eventually, Melanie concludes that there’s really nothing Sincere can say, she just has to see how he moves in the future in order to draw her own conclusions. I might regret saying this, but Melanie should take a page out of Kenzie’s book and start building herself a starter roster — not in the spiteful way she says she’s going to after the pool game, but in an intentional, bombshell-prepared kind of way.
At this point in the season, there is almost always a clearly identifiable set of marrieds in the villa — a day-one couple that remains strong for the first few weeks and often until the very end. For two days, Melanie and Sincere seemed like they were going to be that couple. But if their relationship is about to implode, as seems likely at this point, what does that mean for villa dynamics? Who will the other Islanders turn to for sage relationship advice? To whom will they look for guidance when it comes time to vote someone out of the villa? KC and Aniya, you’re up.
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