Everyone's favorite summer sport is back in full swing. The country is tuning in. There are tears. There are shrieks of joy. There is a surprising and concerning amount of toe-sucking! Love Island USA, in its eighth season, has now aired three full weeks of episodes. With tonight's episode, the show will be halfway through the mid-season twist known as Casa Amor. Now seems like as good a time as any to check in with our bravest soldiers: the members of the Defector Staff who willingly sacrifice their time and sanity to watch five-to-seven hours of this damn television show every week.
First off, who are your Sweeties this season?
Luis Paez-Pumar: I only have one sweetie, and it is Trinity. This is not a bold take, but it is my truth. When I watch the small amount of reality TV I watch—mostly Survivor, The Traitors, and various cooking/baking shows—I value confessional skills quite highly, and Trinity is by far the best on this cast at that. This also translates to real-time commentary (“Oh, she bad” during the Casa Amor girls reveal…she was so real for that one). During a season that has lacked entertainment for a variety of reasons, Trinity has been the shining light.
Israel Daramola: My sweeties are Kayda and Trinity. They are kind of the only people who deserve happiness in this whole show, although that probably would involve them finding completely different guys. That said, I am starting to fall for the Tryce (Bryce and Trinity) agenda a little bit. I also defend Melanie with my life, she might be unhinged and a total pick-me but at least she is 100 percent committed to being herself.
Alex Sujong Laughlin: Surprisingly Bryce has ascended to sweetie status for me. The homoerotic undertones of this season mixed with his open-hearted simping for Trinity has made him much more appealing to me. Certified cutie patootie. I also love Aniya, who is simply too good for KC. Also, probably against my better judgement, Melanie is a sweetie for me. I relate strongly to her emotional volatility and I can’t wait for her to leave Sincere.
Sabrina Imbler: Trinity is so funny. I loved when she quizzed Bryce about her favorite color (warm pink, not hot pink, thank you very much!). I loved when she reassured Bryce that she thinks his job fixing garbage trucks is sexy, which she was right to say. I loved when, during an emotional moment, a weeping Trinity muttered: “fucking boo-hoo crying in this bitch.” As the days have gone by, I find myself forgetting how young Trinity is given how chill, communicative, and clear-headed she’s been in the villa. She is kind and empathetic, and her affection for Bryce feels genuine.
I am a big fan of Melanie, who is a tad chaotic but a joy to watch. I loved when she kissed Corbin after kissing Sincere—she said she couldn’t tell the difference, but who can blame a girl for wanting to kiss another guy? You deserve so much more, Melanie! I also clocked when she kissed Kayda and Trinity back-to-back during one of those challenges. Happy Pride!
I am also rooting for Kayda, the woman who introduced Love Island to the concept of New Hampshire, a model with a charmingly raspy voice. Do I like her taste in men? No. Speaking of which…
Kelsey McKinney: Like everyone else, I am also rooting for Trinity and Bryce. I typically root for any islander that is funny because most of them are too dumb to be funny. So I'm rooting for Melanie, Trinity, and Bryce. I find all of them really earnest in a way that feels painful and beautiful. Also, against my better judgement, I like Sincere. I like his terrible stupid metaphors. I like that he said the word "epitome" like "tome" as in a big book. I think I am blinded by his beautiful hair and face, but that's fine. So is Melanie.
Who are your enemies?
Luis: Zach has grown into one of the worst people I have ever seen on TV. Manipulative, whiny, jealous, possibly red-pilled, made out with someone his brother also made out with—Zach’s hits keep on coming! I hate this British man, and I hope that he is deeply embarrassed before going home in the next week or so.
Israel: Zach is the enemy. Kenzie and Aniya are annoying but harmless ultimately. KC and Sincere are awful but in ways I recognize very easily. They're just dogs at heart. And Corbin is like the fuckboy supreme. But none of them are my enemy. Zach is my enemy because Zach is a very specific kind of evil man who will destroy Kayda if given the opportunity. Yes, I'm going soap opera mode, it's that serious.
Alex: Kenzie for her covert and overt racism. Caleb because his specific Southern accent is triggering to me, personally. Sincere for his nonsense. Corbin jumps between sweetie and enemy for me depending on his activities, but I do love to hear the incomprehensible shit he says.
Sabrina: Zach! He’s been throwing hissy fits, like when he didn’t want to chat with Kayda or told her to make her own breakfast. I’ve been wondering if some of this is insecurity, like if Zach likes Kayda so much that he’s self-sabotaging because he recognizes how she really could date literally anyone in the world if she wanted to. Maybe some of this is bottom shame. Zach clearly wants to be the one handcuffed in the bedroom, and as such seeks out strong women who would be into that, but then his inner heteropatriarchal scripts kick in so he feels the need to reassert his power and dominance over her. It’s OK to be a male bottom, Zach! And just in case you need to hear this, it’s OK to interrogate your feelings for Bryce in case they transcend the platonic!
Although I am charmed by Kenzie’s bubbly energy and frequent bug-eyed, open-mouthed reactions to various announcements and happenings in the villa, I find her annoying to watch.
Kelsey: The amount I hate Zach is actually concerning to me. It forced me to do some serious self-interrogation. But in the end, I decided that I am right to hate him. He's vindictive and manipulative and he does it all under this absolutely insufferable guise of nice-guy behavior that I think is actually insecurity. It is fine to be insecure. It is not fine to make your own personal insecurities everyone else's problem by being an asshole. Also, he's British.
What do you think about this season so far?
Luis: Until Sunday’s episode, I was really reconsidering my newfound tolerance for reality TV. Between the closed-off couples, the vaguely sinister vibe thanks to Sincere and Zach’s whole deal, and the distraction of the World Cup, I was pretty checked out. The Casa Amor twist didn’t fully get me back in and the episodes since Sunday’s have been merely fine, but I’m into it now. Before this season, Kelsey told me that the concept of a "bad" Love Island season just doesn’t exist because production can tweak things on the fly based on reactions to make it more interesting, and she was right! That’s exactly what happened.
Israel: It kinda sucks? I think the U.S. series especially is running into a problem where all the guys are super aggro and take all their talking points from manosphere content, and the women are also half-trad and overly conservative. It's affecting the way people date in there, which is that they don't really. They find someone they like and mostly try to avoid exploring. This would be fine if they actually liked each other a lot, but it doesn't seem like most of them do.
Alex: I am weirded out by how strange these people are, which I think can be explained by the fact that their major adolescent years were during the pandemic. They don’t know how to kiss or communicate and it’s very unsettling. It is possible this is just the uncanny valley of hot people interacting with each other?
Sabrina: I’ve only ever seen one season of Love Island USA before (UK is better, sorry!) but this has felt like the most monogamous season of all time in a frustrating way. People have been so locked into their week-long couples and have shamed people like Kenzie and Gabe who have tried to explore—which, again, is the purpose of the show—in a way that feels so boring and puritanical. Even at Casa Amor when KC asked Titi how she’d feel if he slept in a bed with Sydney and she became incredibly pissed off. The point of this show is to explore other connections to test your couple! Having a day-long bond with someone in Casa Amor does not exclusivity make.
Kelsey: The point of this damn show is to suck face with as many people as possible and then to gain a lot of Instagram followers as a result. You can see the producers working has hard as they possibly can to force these sheltered conservative islanders to behave in the way the show needs them to, but they're so conservative and also so media-aware that it's an uphill battle. You can see the more puritanical shift in American culture through this, but unfortunately, that sucks. That said, I do like the challenges, which are so deranged they're almost hard to watch.
How did you react to the Casa Amor twist?
Luis: The producers are malevolent deities. It was phenomenal television to force the women of the Villa to sit through watching their guys meeting six new Casa girls and act an entire fool over them. I’d go as far as saying that it was the best thing I’ve seen on the show in my two seasons of watching, and I can’t think of a close runner-up. But seriously, it was so messed up. A necessary evil and I couldn’t look away.
Israel: The producers clearly agree with my point above because they've really gone out of their way to make Casa Amor a much bigger bomb within these couples' dynamics. I'm all for it. Especially as it exposes everyone's true characteristics.
Alex: I kinda loved how evil it was. It’s stunning to me that production managed to pull off such a devious episode mere DAYS after their executive producer died. It’s a chilling indication of what the vibes must be like behind the scenes, which doesn’t feel good, necessarily, and yet I keep watching.
Sabrina: Honestly, thank god Ariana sent the girlies 12 boys. I feel like she could have sent any six random women to the boys and they would have forgotten their partners. But the women of Love Island are generally more discerning than the men, and I’m glad the girls had a chance to get to know some guys before selecting which ones would stick around.
Do we think the burgeoning influence of Big Wasia led Love Island producers to cast Chay and Carl? While I’m not attending any wasian meetups anytime soon, I am glad to see these guys onscreen. Chay looks like a Disney prince and Carl seems like a total sweetie with a good head on his shoulders
Kelsey: I honestly cannot remember a more iconic reality television twist. To make the girls watch the boys in Casa on a big TV and then gift them with 12 boys to choose from is the kind of malevolent, insane idea that only reality television producers can come up with. The islanders are still too fucking monogamous and conservative to really play, but if anything was going to get them to try someone outside of their original couples, it was this.
Do you have a favorite moment so far? Or a least favorite?
Luis: I’d say that my favorite moment was Sol going “mama happy” in a truly bizarre voice. I don’t know what she was going for, but I have been quoting that relentlessly in my day-to-day life since.
As for least favorite, I’ll go with Casa girl Alannah—who might have been exposed for possibly saying and singing various racial slurs, and who reportedly got fired for it—acting very strangely towards the Black men of the Villa in the initial Casa challenge. The most charitable reading of her behavior is that she just has a type that doesn’t include Black men, and that’s not very charitable at all. We'll see on Thursday night if she did, in fact, get removed from the Villa, becoming the fourth woman in two seasons to be removed for slurs.
Israel: My favorite moment is probably every Melanie stalker moment or Bryce stupidly trying to blow up his own relationship and friendships just to be very obviously friend-zoned by Kayda. My least favorite moment is anything involving Sol. Poor Sol. Absolutely done dirty by this group in all kinds of ways. She's too pretty for that. I hope she's on some famous athlete's yacht right now or has Michael B. Jordan in her DMs or something. Anything would be better than this.
Alex: I am sooo bored watching the games because I get absolutely nothing from watching them lick each other. A standout moment for me has gotta be Bryce and Zach’s “girth check” moment. I have unpacked that with multiple straight men in my life, trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and I feel no closer to a resolution. Sometimes the mysteries of the heart and mind are more satisfying than any answer could be.
Sabrina: My favorite moment was when Bryce read his love letter to Trinity saying: "When I first kissed you behind the doggy style door, I knew we had something special."
My least favorite moment was when Bea was voted out. Justice for her! She was such a baddie and I appreciated seeing a more tomboy-ish woman in the sometimes fascistically feminine fields of Love Island.
Kelsey: As much as Kenzie annoys me, she has gifted me an iconic moment, which will stay in my heart forever: her sitting on the dock alone, thumping her fingers against her chest saying "I am beautiful. I am angel." It's so dumb. I love it.
My least favorite moment was when certified hottie Gabriel was voted out of the Villa by the girls for being "lustful" when he did the same exact shit as Kenzie! Gabriel is one of the worst kissers I have ever seen on my television, but he did not deserve this!
What is bothering you?
Luis: Now that it seems production has forced the Villa folks to explore, I’m bothered most by the usage of the word “lustful.” Just say “horny,” you weirdos!
Israel: This. No, but seriously, as much as we make Woke 2 jokes, Love Island USA is a good case study in just how casually radicalized young men, and really young people, are. The KC thing was obvious to me, I know too many guys like him to not pick up on the facade he was putting together. I don't love Sincere being the wizened elder of the group despite mixing metaphors and not knowing how to be honest about his intentions. And then Zach's over there winning the Most Insecure Man Alive contest. The guys last year were pretty bad but these guys take the cake.
Alex: Kenzie’s blaccent and the gratuitous use of the word "lustful" as an insult.
Sabrina: What the fuck is "french fries?" Hand stuff? Mouth stuff? Actually, I don’t want to know.
Although this season’s challenges have been insanely NSFW, I would still rather watch Bryce sucking on someone’s whole foot than any of these islanders kiss. The way people kiss on Love Island always makes me consider a Testament Of Ann Lee era of celibacy. Maybe it’s the way the kissing sounds echo on the mic, maybe it’s the close-up of the hands, I don’t know! But it’s fascinating how this show makes me nauseated by two ostensibly hot people kissing.
Kelsey: I know we are all obsessed with Bryce and Zach having a weirdly intimate homoerotic friendship, but I really think we need to be paying more attention to the fact that every single time she gets the opportunity, Melanie is kissing her friends! My girl! Pop off!
What are your hopes and dreams for the Villa?
Luis: I hope that Bryce and Trinity find their way back to each other. I know that Love Island isn’t the place for a true love story, but damn it, I’m a sucker for the way this is shaping up. Bryce is absolutely miserable in Casa because he misses making Trinity laugh. Trinity is miserable and closing herself off because she misses Bryce’s “scrawny” ass. It’s great! I love real yearners like these two dummies, and I hope that both come back single and realize that home is where the laughs are.
Israel: I think we might be past hope for these people. I just hope America actually shows they won't stand for the bullshit happening amongst many of these Islanders. Frankly, if Trinity and Kayda could win it together that would be ideal. But sans that outcome, at the moment it looks like Tryce might be the strongest couple left.
Alex: I hope everyone makes it through the rest of the season with relatively regular digestive systems. I am so concerned about whether they’re constipated because I just know I would be so backed up there. My favorite couple is Bryce and Zach, but if I must stick with the hetero couples I’d go with Brinity at this point.
Sabrina: God, I hope some of these Casa boys stick! Maybe I’ll eat my words soon, but they seem like total sweeties who are also grown-ass adults. I unfortunately do think that Corbin and Parmida seem great for each other, only in that they are both so feral for each other that they could have a brief but fiery romance that lasts for a few months outside of the villa. They both look to me like if Love Island bombshells were designed in a lab, which is to say a kind of sterile but unbelievable hotness that is fascinating to watch.
Although I rarely root for day-one couples, I would be thrilled if Trinity and Bryce made it to the end after all these tests
Kelsey: I hope that only Bryce and Trinity stay together in their original couple after Casa. I hope that Movie Night destroys everyone and creates chaos that shakes every single one of these conservative dummies from their monogamy mindsets. I also hope that they have saved a few unbelievably hot bombshells for after Casa. I want drama! And there is still plenty of time for it!
[Editor's Note] These sickos were so locked in, that they each filed almost 1,000 words in response to a few reasonable questions. We have edited these down, but the watchers will be in the comments to discuss the show if anyone has any specific beefs that were not addressed.
