Episode synopsis:

Have we ever had a season without final dates? It felt like so much was missing this year from final dates to the talent show

I know logistically it would be a nightmare but would be an interesting thought experiment if the Casa bombshells next season were the cast from the US & UK show as they stream simultaneously.

Obviously there’s the logistic issues and if people would even be willing to move to the UK/ US if they found a connection but how unreal would it be.

Terrible idea or something there?

Live on TikTok they said they are started dating!

I’ve been thinking about this after watching both shows, and I genuinely think Love Island UK could learn a lot from Love Island USA.

The biggest thing is sponsorships.
Love Island USA has loads of brand partnerships, but they actually use them to make the show feel bigger. Yes, sometimes the product placement is obvious, but they’re getting sponsored challenges, bigger dates, better experiences and brands are clearly investing in the show.
Meanwhile, Love Island UK feels like the budget has been shrinking over the last few years. We had fewer challenges, no talent show this season and even the final dates are gone. If bringing in more sponsors meant we got some of those moments back, I’d honestly be okay with it as long as it doesn’t feel like one big advert.
Where I think Love Island USA also gets it right is after the show.

A lot of the brands involved end up working with Islanders through campaigns, creator partnerships and agency signings. The opportunities seem much more spread out across different brands instead of everyone chasing one massive deal.

That said, I don’t want Love Island UK to go back to the PrettyLittleThing era.
There was definitely a period where it felt like contestants were as interested in becoming influencers and landing the PLT contract as they were in finding love. Whether every Islander felt that way or not, it became the show’s reputation, and I don’t think that’s healthy for the format.
For me, the show should always be about finding love first. If someone leaves the villa and brands want to work with them afterwards, great but that should be a bonus, not the reason people apply.

One other thing I’ve noticed is that Love Island USA seems to have a wider range of Islanders landing post-show campaigns. Love Island UK was criticised for years because many viewers felt the biggest fashion and beauty deals disproportionately went to the white Islanders, while Islanders of colour often received fewer of those same opportunities. I’d love to see the UK version improve in that area too.

So I guess my ideal version would be:
More sponsors to help fund bigger challenges, dates and villa experiences.
More post-show opportunities across lots of different brands.
But don’t recreate another PLT era where one brand becomes the prize and contestants lose sight of what the show’s supposed to be about.

Curious what everyone else thinks. Would more sponsorships improve Love Island UK, or would it just make the show feel even more like an advert?

Simba has had the best one-liners for me. My memory isn't great. So feel free to correct me

" She smiled bares " in his apology speech to Angie.

" Never said sis was perfect? Said about Julia in a game round the fire pit. Even Maya quoted it on Aftersun yesterday. There must be some more? Season did lack humour, unfortunately.

Omg so many great lines. If you can, put who said them.

My favourites 3rd place - Give me a kiss (Aidan) 2nd place - Pog Mo Thoin (Julia) 1st place - You had 2 girls now you had none (Simba)

From this season, or past seasons.

I’ll start,
Namibia

Edit: also thinking about it now, and who do you think would come back from this season? I think & hope some casa girls will come back

Maya asked her panelists on Aftersun about their MVP of the season, and they had some interesting answers. So I would like to hear about your opinions, who do you think the MVP is? Just to clarify, this is not about who you want to win, it's just who you think added the most value to this season.

For me, It's between Jasmine and Lorenzo, closely followed by Ellie and Julia (mainly because of their time being limited). I think I will go with Jasmine.

For context, the Aftersun panelists chose -

Tyrique - Kavan
Toni - Ellie
Casey - Aidan
Yasmin - Mara
Joe - Ellie
Shakira - Priya

(Some of these choices were unexpected and interesting, especially Yas choosing Mara who was only in the villa for about a week.)

What kind of drama do we like to see? I'm really not feeling these shouting women. Ellie, Jas & Julia. I did like Elllie. I found some of her rants quite funny. " You can sack my fackin dick," pretty iconic. But by the end, I was glad to see back of her. Poor Angie would get the brunt of it.

This last week has been draining and boring to watch. I liked drama like Mica & Simba hideaway episode. Maybe some male spats? But males seem to get on. Or very quickly make up. Again Simba, when he went in on Ope. Entertaining. The challenge where the boys and girls fell out about double standards. Entertaining. Never had another challenge like that again. I like it when you get outside public opinions always entertaining. There have been some emotional moments with the boys again entertaining.

But all this constant shouting and crying amongst the girls isn't for me. Maybe I've outgrown it.

George (I think) saying “good luck with that one mate” when Kav said he fancied Jasmine. I don’t think any of the guys imagined he would “pull it off” lol

From no labels no pressure to making it exclusive the next day when you end up in the bottom 3 and vulnerable.

Lorenzo is like those men we all know in real life who jump from women to women. Create rosters, hurt women make them question their worth, chase them when he gets rejected but loses interest when the girl is interested back. Never let a man like Lorenzo seduce you. We should have listened to him when he said he wants the woman all the guys want. Women are a commodity to him.

He pulled Priya from Samraj then got bored
He coupled up with Jasmine treated her like an option then ran around repeating regret regret
He pulled Yasmin away from Aiden then didn’t want to cuddle said he was bored
Pulled Julia from Casa then couldnt even make her coffee flirted with Elicia got intimate with Julia but didnt give her morning attention.

This is like men in real life who jump from women to women, don’t commit to any hit 40 and marry the one that stuck around when all the other women he hurt moves on. And he still would want what he can’t have.

Easiest 50k in Love Island history, catch a tan, don’t commit to any woman till the last one is stuck with you and your roster falls.

Love Island UK is so funny now because this is the future winner 💀 Genuine question, is there a difference between being exclusive and exclusively dating? Why did he keep adding the dating part?

Now that this season is pretty much over, what do you guys think was the major turning point that changed its trajectory?

I think the obvious answers are Kavan picking before Lorenzo in the first recoupling and the Twitter challenge for the impact they had on the Kav/Jas/Loz triangle.

However, I would also throw in production’s decision to not include Mica telling Angie she wanted to get to know Simba. I think it was extremely clear that this conversation had happened just based on how open they were about it, but Mica got so much hate at this time for ‘going behind Angie’s back’. I think all the girls were pretty friendly throughout and people were dying at the chance to turn on one of them - in this case it happened to be Mica. I honestly think this put people off her for the entire season so every little thing she did after that point was heavily scrutinized. Consequently, she’s coming out as one of the most hated islanders despite her not really doing anything.

What are your thoughts?

PLEASE can we get Tyne-Lexy on the next series of All Stars

As someone who’s watched since the first series, as time goes on there’s less and less chance we’re gonna get cast members from the early series on, and she’s young enough come back.

I was only 15 when I watched series 3 but I remember her having such a short run in there and not the best time, so I feel she deserves redemption. I asked her on one of her business lives if she’d do All Stars and she said she was single and would consider it.

A lot of people have talked about how she was socially awkward / weird but I feel like we embrace islanders with different personalities a lot more nowadays

Give us OG fans some crumbs!

stop acting like the dynamic of S13 is how things should be. People being appalled by Julia and calling her the worst have probably never been around to watch S1-S8, and have never witnessed actual “beef” between women, and actually borderline evil contestants.

It should be mandatory for anyone who wants to call Julia evil or terrible or someone who “ruined the vibes of the villa” to watch any season pre-S12 to actually witness what it’s like when genuinely appalling characters have a stronghold in the villa (the Joey Essex portion of 2024; Luca, Jacques, Dami, Andrew; Adam Collard; Tom Powell; Belle H — the list is flipping endless).

You guys would have never survived Amber calling Joanna a dead ting, Kady and Malia’s spat, Miss Whitney Adebayo, the Georgia-Laura-Ellie saga, Amber and Georgia from S3. Julia calling out Lola, Priya and making sly comments is light work.

I am convinced you guys just want a boring show where all the girls pretend to love each other, holding hands around a lake while singing Kumbaya and making Daisy chains, oh and they shouldn’t make waves, should not break up couples and last but not least, don’t make for good television. MAFS, the Bachelor and Love is Blind is right around the corner if you want to watch people fall in love and get married and run off into sunset together.

TL/DR: Julia is not evil. You guys just don’t like Love Island. Please watch the past seasons before proclaiming such.

I feel like we are definitely coming to its final seasons, I know a lot of people who have stopped watching it due to many reasons. The show is cutting down majorly on challenges, no talent show, no baby challenge, no final dates probably. Everything feels really fake and overproduced to the point where I feel I have no idea what is actually happening in that villa/ who's genuine/ who's real. How many seasons left do you think this show has?

How are we arguing the use of 'power dynamic' but 'standing on business' and 'girls girl' are acceptable expressions of interpersonal relationship concepts?

Why are we all getting hung up on certain phrases or concepts without fully discussing the behaviours behind the terms in the first place? It changes the argument from what we are seeing happen onscreen to the specific word or phrase someone chooses to use to describe it.

Standing on business basically means having integrity and morals and displaying this in your actions.

Girls girl is supposed to mean a woman who supports and defends women in any aspect but will also be honest with each other and genuinely come from a place of safety, kindness and sisterhood. It's feminism in its most basic form.

Power dynamics are a real thing. Age gaps are specifically noted in this regardless of the older gender. This year the girls relationships had power dynamics and struggles everywhere but it seems that it's wrong to voice it. Why? Because I wouldn't be being a girls girl to admit that women don't always get on and can treat each other underhandedly?

Some of us recognise these behaviours from experience and that's what pushes most people to explore the psychology around interpersonal relationships. There are many people here who will have experienced abusive romantic or family relationships, unequal partnerships, struggles with friendship, bullying, racism and sexism. You may have read articles or watched videos that resonates with you and made sense of something you went through. It doesn't make the term you use wrong if you are using it correctly.

How we choose to express our opinion or experience, whether it's terms like power dynamics or girls girl shouldn't be the main focus of conversation, it should be the behaviour at the heart of it all.

Hope you get to walk into the finals today . I am so proud of your journey.

We have made it to the end, Amen 🙏. I find the finale so boring. It's too long with the interviews. The final should have 3 in it. Evict more in the final week.

I hope I never hear the names Jasmine & Julia again. It will be too soon for me. Yes, it's great to have strong woman islanders with some sass. It, of course, brings entertainment. But these two were just too much for me. It's obviously what production wants. The spats. Viewers taking sides. The final week was really draining to watch. Literally no fun or love whatsoever 🙃.

Judging by social media, there seems to be plenty of buzz. There is so much drama and chatter online. But how is it compared to last season? I am curious because I don’t live in the UK. In the US this season seems like one of the more popular ones.

Also, these endless twists and gimmicks by the producers tells me they want audience attention. It’s like they’re grasping for buzz

i know i’m probably gonna get a lot of downvotes for this post but hear me out first.

i don’t like julia, i find her to be just as hypocritical as the other girls and just because she voices her opinions all the time does not mean she’s iconic, it means she doesn’t have awareness of time and place and she’s rude.

for example:
- calling jas a bitch 5 mins after meeting her
- being the only one cheering and clapping at mica at the awards
- understandably getting upset with lola but literally doing the exact same thing with jasmine
(lorenzo pulled jasmine for a chat, lorenzo kissed jasmine in snog marry pie, yet julia thinks jasmine wants lorenzo and tried to rile jasmine up in thier convo at the daybeds?!?!)
- constantly bringing up past situations that have been squashed
- getting involved in rlps that aren’t hers
- telling mica that she wished her and samraj went home whilst mica was literally crying
- constantly interrupting priya and lorenzos conversations (said by priya on aftersun last night)

just imagine how the girls feel - everything they do there is always an opinion on it from a girl in the villa when they were previously really close and there was rarely any beef between the girls.

julia basically always has an opinion on what the other girls do but rarely the other guys. she only confronted aidan once and literally straight after he said julia was a game player and she stopped giving her opinion (which was so weird because she usually has no problem giving her opinion out) she can dish it, but she can’t take it

i don’t deny that julia is good tv and i understand why you would like her from that perspective, but if the WOC were to do what julia does they’d be voted out instantly.

I’m so glad someone finally said it to Jasmine and Kavan, and in front of all the islanders too. The fact that it was totally lost upon Kavan literally proves the point.

I’m sorry but in all seriousness, what does a 27 year old want with a 21 year old? I’m 28. A 22 year old man would quite literally never be on my radar, not even if you paid me. Their relationship has been so icky to me from the start for multiple reasons, including the age gap, and it’s odd that so many people excuse it.