Love Island USA Recap: Sol Is Stuck in the Bermuda (Love) Triangle

Love Island
Episode 9-11
Season 8 Episodes 9 - 11
Editor’s Rating ★★★★
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This was a good weekend of Love Island, folks. There were tears, betrayals, connections, and conversations about “butt stuff,” all of which are essential to a successful Love Island episode — especially when the betrayals and connections come from unexpected quarters. But, much as I enjoyed the past two episodes, and I really did, I do have one major gripe to get off my chest. I hated, hated, hated that recoupling twist. America should not be in charge of recouplings, and bombshells should be allowed to fail. Okay, fine, that’s two gripes.

Usually, the public votes on which Islanders or couples are their favorites, and those with the fewest votes are left vulnerable. However, occasionally on Love Island USA, as in this case, the public gets to vote to place the bombshells with the Islanders of their choosing, like creating fan fiction with real people. The public puts Sol with Sincere, Caleb with Kenzie, and Jen with Gabe, leaving Melanie, Corbin, and Bea, respectively, single. (Aniya and KC, Zach and Kayda, and Trinity and Bryce remain in their couples.) This starts to feel a little ethically squicky since these people are actually sharing beds (unless, like Melanie, they decide to sleep outside instead). The voting public as a whole is famously stupid (just ask Kamala Harris or Charlie from last season), and I can tell you right now I would not like it to be deciding whose morning breath I’m waking up next to based on 15 minutes of footage from my day.

The other thing is that ensuring the bombshells’ survival is how we end up with Jen in the villa and Bea out. Instead of having all the Islanders together vote someone out of the villa, production decides to let Corbin alone choose between Melanie and Bea, which feels like patriarchy somehow, and everyone already knows he’s going to pick Melanie, which he does. This leaves Bea single and dumped, which I view as an injustice. Jen is fine, I guess, but Bea’s one-liners about her leg alone were worth keeping her around. In episode nine, for instance: “I’ll stand ten toes down on that, and I don’t even have ten toes.” Jen and her childhood sharkbite anecdotes could simply never compete. Bea had real relationships in the villa and a personality for TV, while Jen isn’t giving me anything Kenzie hasn’t already delivered, but more interestingly. Plus, Gabe, despite his wandering tongue, really seemed to prefer Bea. Says Kenzie the following day, with some surprise in her voice, “Bro, he cried. Like, he actually liked her.” I understand if the producers worry that Islanders will become too complacent in their couples and the bombshells will never get picked, leading to a dull season — as social media seems particularly put out by Islanders who do not do enough “exploring” — but that has never happened in the history of Love Island. If there’s one thing that you can count on Islanders for, it’s that their heads will be turned and a mess will be made.

Which brings us to the person most of the drama revolves around these days, the aptly named Sol, who is about to break Melanie’s record for the most amount of tears shed in the villa this summer. At the start of episode nine, Sincere is recommitting himself to Melanie (again) after having kissed Sol four (4) times.“We’re pilot and copilot, and we’re making rest stops, rest stops, rest stops, but can’t we just get to the destination?” Sincere asks the beach hut. Melanie agrees to forgive him on the condition that any further Sol-ar exploration be conducted without kissing, then is gleefully carried back to the group while shouting, “I got my man back! Ha ha!” Her bliss is short-lived. The next morning, Sincere decides to make breakfast for both Melanie and Sol in the name of “balance,” which all of the boys agree is a dumb decision and leaves Melanie lamenting to Kayda, “I’m just not having fun anymore.”

For what it’s worth, Sol isn’t having fun anymore either, which becomes abundantly clear during the pie challenge. She gets pied twice. The first time, she is pissed. The second time, she runs from the challenge in tears, which has even Melanie feeling bad for her. She is consoled by two Islanders: KC, who tells her he’s there for her whenever she’s ready to talk (more on him in a minute); and Sincere, who advises her — in the speakeasy, mind you — not to let her feelings engulf her and to remember the strong, beautiful woman that she is. 

This whole situation was already heading for drama without the public’s interference because at some point during this time, according to what Sol tells Melanie after the recoupling, Sincere kisses Sol again, breaking his promise. The public vote effectively nips this drama in the bud by pairing Sol with Sincere and letting Corbin choose Melanie. At least being forcibly separated from Sincere — who has just been whispering to her that whatever happens, they will still make this work — allows Melanie to state for the record that she is happy to end this love triangle and to stop fighting with Sol. 

Sol, however, is apparently not done bombshelling, and is soon rising to the center of another love triangle. This time between KC and Aniya. I normally don’t like to spend too much time reliving the challenges because they are largely revolting, and this one was no different. But I do have to note that during the soccer challenge (“It’s called football,” insists Zach, in case we forgot he’s British), Zach and Kayda publicly call out KC for failing to act on his attraction to Sol because, per Zach, “he didn’t want the hassle.” For obvious reasons, this upsets Aniya. Zach, chastising himself later, says to Kayda, “I’m just too real.” 

Now, KC did say he doesn’t want to risk his relationship with Aniya for Sol. Zach interpreted this as KC calling Aniya the safe option. KC insists to Aniya that he only meant he’s happy with where he’s at. I’d be more inclined to believe KC if he didn’t tell Sol on two separate occasions today that he had been holding himself back from pursuing her. He is, in fact, in the middle of telling Sol exactly this when Aniya pulls him for a chat about their relationship status. She says she wants to have a serious conversation, and he laughs in her face, as though these are the ramblings of a madwoman, which is more than enough to strike KC from my good graces forever. If he really wanted to pursue Sol, he would have, he tells Aniya, even though he is lowkey pursuing Sol at this very moment. Unfortunately, KC seems like a pretty skilled gaslighter, and I worry that when Sol inevitably rejects him for Sincere, KC will successfully convince Aniya that he was the one who rejected her.

But the biggest surprise of the weekend didn’t have anything to do with Sol. Or Bea, for that matter. It’s that Kenzie and Corbin — who have been freely flirting with other people while still in their couple — can’t seem to quit each other even after the public splits them up. The public vote puts Caleb, her “type to a tee”, with Kenzie, leaving Corbin free to couple up with Melanie, whom he’s already asked for a kiss. This should make everybody (except Melanie, who can’t get through the phrase, “blessing in disguise” without crying) happy. Instead, Corbin and Kenzie are sneaking off to Soul Ties for horizontal makeouts in the middle of the day. Says Corbin, “Our connection was literally amazing.” Kenzie tells Melanie she has really strong feelings for Corbin, so the split has been hard. Nevertheless, Kenzie gives Melanie the green light to try getting to know Corbin, and Corbin tells Melanie that she is going to be his new focus. Nobody should believe him. 

As for Zach and Kayda, they are off to the hideaway despite Bryce’s third and hopefully final failed attempt to woo Kayda away. How Bryce convinces Trinity, who is developing real feelings now, that he’s really only interested in her after this is unclear. But I want to take her pretty little face in my hands and make her listen when I tell her that no 30-year-old aspiring DJ is worth her time if he’s still looking over his shoulder at someone else at this point. 

Quotes of the Week

• “When I was a kid in middle school, kids would come into school with, like, shark bites.” — Jen 

• “All I have to do is bend over and then he does the rest.” — Jen. 

• “He knows everything but his name.” — Melanie 

• “I’ll stand ten toes down on that, and I don’t even have ten toes.” — Beatriz 

• “What’s the meaning of life?” — Zach 

• “I said no to the kiss if you didn’t see the episode.” — Melanie to Ciara and Tefi 

• “We’re caught up.” — Ciara to Melanie