Love Island
Episode 18
Season 8
Episode 18
Editor’s Rating
Aniya and Melanie can’t bring themselves to get even with KC and Sincere, while the guys (minus Bryce) behave like fools at Casa Amor.
Photo: Youtube
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Aniya, sweetie, I want to tell you a little story about a beautiful Islander named Olandria, who wanted to walk out of the Love Island villa with Taylor, the country boy of her dreams. Or so she thought. Olandria thought things with Taylor were going okay, even though they never truly connected physically, until Casa Amor came, and Taylor met another beautiful Islander named Clarke. Still, Olandria stayed true until Taylor said the three little words that ended their courtship forever: “I pick Clarke.” While things worked out in the end for Olandria, there are no guarantees in this villa, and you are walking straight into an “I pick Clarke” situation that I would really love to spare you from.
This is what I would say to Aniya if I had her in front of me. But since I don’t, I’m hoping that maybe just putting these words into the universe will be enough to reach her on some spiritual level, because the thing is, she already knows what KC is doing at Casa Amor. And she is still about to squander a potential connection with this perfectly lovely six-foot-four man who wants to teach her to speak Mandarin and makes her feel beautiful.
What I’m saying is that I’m frustrated. At Casa, the boys are all (mostly all) behaving exactly as they were expected to, that is, badly, while the girls, especially Aniya and Melanie, seem to have lost some of the rage fueling them last night.
The girls have all the advantages right now. They’ve already seen that their boys have no plans to stay loyal to them while in Casa Amor. They get to choose from among 12 new boys, twice the number of bombshells their boys are introduced to at Casa. (I especially enjoyed the extra touch of bringing the new guys in by yacht-sailing right past Casa Amor, so that the OG boys could see the dozen dudes coming for their girls.) They surely slept better, since they got beds to themselves without any French fries to keep them awake, and they’re wearing comfy, unsexy pajamas for once. The girls even have Ariana Madix in the villa all day to personally hype them up in hopes of finding a better match. And yet! I’ll be surprised if half of them choose to recouple with bombshells at the end of all of this.
The one thing all of the girls can agree on that has continued from the night and into the morning is that it is “Fuck Corbin” all day, every day. Kenzie vows she will never speak to him again, and I fully believe her. If only Aniya would listen to Trinity when she says of KC, “He done fucked around with your feelings for the last time and I’m genuinely irritated.” Same, girl.
Ariana arrives after the girls’ breakfast in the morning to give them the good news: Their Casa experience officially starts now. Twelve hot guys are about to enter the villa, whose only job is to make themselves as attractive to the OG girls as possible. Melanie, a secret poet, says, “It’s like when your mom takes you to the buffet on Sunday, and they have everything. Like, they even have the crabs out.” The day’s activities include swimming, posing, chatting about tuna tartar (Kenzie’s never tried because she tries to stay away from cheese), and, of course, making out. Aniya gets a lot of love, which makes me happy for her, and Kenzie gets an opportunity to do her splits on a man, which is what she came to this villa for in the first place.
I’ll be honest that I did not bother to memorize all of their names, since the girls can only pick six of them to stay for the rest of the Casa experience. They choose Corey, Chay, Gal, Ronnie, Dylan, and Carl, who has his sights set on Aniya. When Melanie pulls Aniya away to chat, for a brief moment, I hope she’s going to tell her to go for it. Alas. They say, in unison, “I miss my man!” and I begin to lose all hope. Especially when Aniya says, out loud, that she knows KC isn’t putting her feelings first. Yes, exactly, Aniya! So what are you doing? Both Melanie and Aniya have talked a big game about getting their lick back and wilding out in retribution, but neither can fully commit.
The more exciting news is that Chay and Kayda have a promising chat in the speakeasy, and Trinity and Corey are really hitting it off. If I were to make a prediction now, I’d say that Kayda is still likely to pick Zach at the end of the day, but I’m not so sure about Trinity.
Trinity, despite the occasional shocking revelation about her sexual history, has been this villa’s most grounded Islander, often offering sage wisdom sandwiched between bon mots. With Bryce, she seems comfortable, more than anything else, but now, for the first time in three weeks, this girl seems almost giddy. There is a part of me that wants to see at least one of these men humbled — at least until I see how much Bryce seems to be missing her.
Ugh, boys. I’d like to spend a day in Sincere’s brain as a matter of scientific inquiry. He is sharing a bed with Amora, whom he did kiss, but just to “get it out of the way.” That said, he tells the boys he still misses Melanie. He says he’s going to give all these Casa women the same chance he gave Sol. But really, he just wants Melanie. Sincere does know that none of that is mandatory, doesn’t he? He could just say, “I’m going to stay loyal to Melanie” and not share a bed with a Casa girl at all. Once upon a time, this was the mark of a passing grade on the Casa Amor test, in fact. But Sincere, that psychological mystery of a human being, is going to choose not to recouple with a Casa girl, return to Melanie, and earnestly congratulate himself on his honorable behavior the entire time. How does this work?
Corbin is at least less confusing. He justifies everything he has done and plans to do in Casa by citing Kenzie’s “rap sheet.” Kenzie’s “rap sheet” was literally just you, my guy, but whatever. We’re done with him. Zach, who’s been rolling around under the fuzzy blankets with Alannah, simply reasons that “Casa doesn’t count.” I assure you, it does. Also, Alannah made out with your brother, and that doesn’t bother you? KC, well, KC is visibly and obviously so much more into Tierra than he is into Aniya that it almost hurts to watch.
Only Bryce is struggling to connect with anyone in Casa. Instead, he stares mournfully at the main villa, where, unbeknownst to him, Trinity is taking flirty pics with Corey in the photobooth. He says to Sincere that none of the Casa girls laugh at his jokes, but Trinity always does. He’s almost crying when he says, “I just really like her, you know.” He tells the beach hut, “Trinity does make me feel like I’m in love.” Bryce and Trinity’s relationship hasn’t had the kind of electric spark that Sincere and Melanie share — which is more like the kind of spark that starts electrical fires and destroys buildings, anyway — but they’ve both remarked on how their bond has grown over the weeks. When I think about it, I can totally see how their sense of humor might mesh, actually. Does this make Bryce and Trinity this season’s marrieds? I know I was skeptical at first, but I’m happy to be proven wrong. Because that is a twist I would be into.
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