photo credit: Tatum Ongaro
Fans everywhere are tuning into the “Love Island” reunion to catch up with their favorite islanders who are now seen in a different light, living their lives normally, not how people have seen them in the villa. The reunion brought back 27 islanders, including Casa girls, the Originals and Bombshells. The reunion aired six weeks after the finale, and many things have changed since being in the villa.
For viewers who don’t know, “Love Island” is a reality show that takes real-life people and puts them in an enclosed space called the villa for an entire summer. During the show, another villa, Casa Amor, tests the loyalty of each contestant. A group of bombshells were brought into each villa, and they got to know each other for a couple of days. The boys could choose to bring back a bombshell from Casa Amor or go back solo and hope their partner stays loyal.
The final four couples in the last “Love Island” episode were Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales, runners-up Olandria Carthen and Nic Vansteenberghe, third-place Huda Mustafa and Chris Seeley, and fourth-place finishers Iris Kendall and Pepe Garcia-Gonzalez. It was confirmed that, “Espinal and Arenales, Carthen and Vansteenberghe, and Kendall and Garcia-Gonzalez are now exclusively boyfriend and girlfriend” according to the show.
Espinal and Arenales addressed rumors about Arenales cheating on Espinal due to a suspicious video surfacing on the internet. They confirmed they were still together and happily exclusive. However, hours before the reunion actually aired, fans caught that they had unfollowed each other on Instagram, ultimately confirming the rumors without officially confirming their breakup.
The runners-up Carthen and Vansteenberghe have said they are happily taking their relationship at their own pace. Mustafa and Seeley, having broken up on the last day in the villa, still have bad blood between them. Seeley expressed this when he claimed that Mustafa was influencing hate on him in her recent social media interviews.
As for fourth-place Garcia-Gonzalez and Kendall, they said they are happily boyfriend and girlfriend. Once again, however, speculation grew when fans noticed they also unfollowed each other on Instagram before the reunion aired. Many fans were outraged because they got fourth place, but I think it was for the best due to whatever’s going on right now.
Unreleased footage got released during the reunion of Hannah Fields getting unanimously voted off by every girl in the villa, and she got teary-eyed. Though this hurt Fields, she said she is grateful for the beautiful connections she has made despite getting kicked off.
I personally think that this was such a crazy, mean girl move from the girls in the villa. Cierra Ortega, one of the Originals, actually stated, “She had one of the strongest connections and was probably going to continue to explore strong connections.” This is NOT a reason to vote someone off of Love Island at all. In fact, it should be the opposite of this.
People joke on the internet that Bissainthe, Carthen and Ortega relate to the “Mean Girls” movie because they’re fake friends. I could not agree more to this comparison because though “Love Island” is a show about finding love, in past seasons girls have blossomed beautiful friendships simply because you are LIVING with these girls for the entire summer. This season, they picked out specific girls and bullied them for no particular reason, and fans and I myself caught on VERY quick.
Jeremiah Brown and Mustafa finally discuss their relationship during the villa and how the world has seen it versus how they have seen it. They both claim it wasn’t love bombing and that they did actually really care for one another despite what it looked like on camera.
I disagree with this entirely, because up until the “mean girls” bullied Mustafa specifically, people on the internet HATED her, and I wasn’t so innocent myself. It was extremely valid though because she acted so crazy when in her couple-up with Brown. She would lie to the girls in the villa about things he said, she would make sure no one else went for him, she’d even lie to Brown himself. Once they got broken up, she kind of stopped acting this way and THEN the girls came for her. There wasn’t a reason and it made me feel for her.
During “Love Island”, multiple fans were extremely against Ace Greene because people believed he controlled Vansteenberghe and Taylor Williams when it came to making decisions. This was brought up in the reunion and Greene denied all accusations and stated “he couldn’t ring lead grown men.” Brown, the one most targeted by The Three Musketeers, shot back and said that he did in fact influence the villa boys to vote Jeremiah out.
I agree 100% with Brown on the controversy. The Three Musketeers were basically like the three mean girls but for the boys side. Fans were so shocked to see that a grown man would act like that, furthermore THREE grown men. People started voting for the three boys to be off just so that they didn’t have to see bullying on the show anymore, not even caring about their relationships.
Yes it is a show to find love but it’s not okay to treat anyone like that and many fans, myself included, did not like the show this season. Both Originals Yulissa Escobar and Ortega had videos surfacing the internet of them saying different racial slurs, resulting in them getting kicked off the show. This along with the love-bombing, bullying, and just down-right bad people the directors picked made fans very angry. I myself wonder how people on the internet could do better background checks in a day on the people chosen than the actual directors.
I give the reunion a 6/10 due to the reunion being filmed so far in advance because so many things have changed since then. The break-up rumors, the unfollowings, and the drama have caused people to even joke that they want a reunion for the reunion.
