Spoilers ahead for Love Island USA season seven.
Many of us have followed the Love Island summer tradition for years, but after the bombshell season of last year’s USA version, I decided to put a pause on my regular U.K. programming and put America first this time around. (That should’ve been the first red flag.) What followed was one of the most cuckoo six weeks of television we could’ve asked for, and instead of enjoying it, some of us were left feeling like tuning in every night was a chore. Sure, it’s fun to be part of the monoculture, but did this season kinda feel like hell for anyone else?
There were great reality-TV moments, but they felt sparse among the endless drama that seemed to stem from producers, America, and the islanders’ pasts. Our votes were chaotic, the challenges were endless and gross, and, in response, there were only two couples in the finale that had a real connection (and you could even argue against that if you really wanted to). Still, there were some high highs, from the meme-worthy moments (“mamacita,” “sensitive gangsta,” etc), the Nicolandria ending so many online stans dreamed of, and the fact that America’s sweetheart took home the prize. Read on for more of what the Cut team thought of Love Island USA season seven.
Brooke Marine, deputy culture editor: This was my first Monday morning in weeks when I did not clock in to the factory to have my breakfast alongside those in the villa. I stayed up for two hours last night blasting my eyeballs with all of that neon just to end up oversleeping and missing my morning workout. How is everyone else feeling?
Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez, senior writer: I am just so glad it is over. When I hit “play” last night and saw the episode was two hours long, I yelled “What!” and scared my cat.
Olivia Craighead, blogger: Exhausted. I won’t lie, I was liberally skipping through some parts. I wasn’t trying to watch Iris and Pepe’s date.
Brooke LaMantia, editorial assistant: I also missed my morning workout.
Lizzy Gulino, night blogger: Emotionally drained. The finales are never fun to watch.
Brooke M.: I’m a Love Island newbie — I know, I know. Are the finales usually this boring?
Andrea: They are and they are not. I don’t think anyone has ever broken up in the finale, like Huda and Chris, but I sometimes enjoy the couple’s final dates if I am invested in the couples. I was not invested in anyone this season, though.
Lizzy: In my opinion, they are! I often skip through them. We’ve already watched all of the drama, which is the entire reason for watching the show.
Catherine Thompson, features editor: The Love Island finale is a formality — we absolutely do not need two hours of filler for Peacock to run ads against before we learn who America voted for. But the Chris and Huda breakup was an interesting twist that I wasn’t mad about seeing.
Emily Gould, features writer: The only ep more boring is meeting their families. I just want to see which hereditary facial features people had surgically altered, but for that I only need a still image, not video.
Andrea: Emily, you’re crazyyyyyy — I love the meet-the-families episodes! I always cry!
Emily: Crying is contagious. “Damn, they got me.” —Pepe
Brooke M.: I am ashamed to admit I cried several times this season. One of them being during the family eps when the boys were crying and then again during their declarations of love at the finale.
Jen Ortiz, deputy editor: The family episode was cute but weird, like Coffee-Mate creamers (was that the ad sponsor?).
Olivia: I cried when Taylor and Clarke got voted out, sue me! They have something real!
Andrea: I skipped the declarations of love. No one is in love! They are barely in like! Perhaps in horniness.
Brooke M.: Wait, everybody say your favorite sponsor from the season. Mine is CeraVe.
Catherine: HOT GIRL SWIM.
Jen: Hot Megan Swimwear or whatever it was called.
Andrea: Meg’s new swimwear line.
Brooke L.: Meg being on it was iconic! But I think that’s when they realized how popular they were, and it went down from there.
Brooke M.: For the experts and OGs in the chat, how does this whole season compare to previous seasons of USA? (I’m not comparing to UK because, as I understand it, it might as well be a completely different show.)
Lizzy: I only watched last season of Love Island USA, but there were far better connections, both romantically and friendship-wise. I feel like I got to really know the islanders, and this season felt more PR friendly — no one wanted to stir the pot. Also where was Movie Night???
Brooke L.: Movie Night would’ve killed these islanders.
Brooke M.: Explain Movie Night for the newbies.
Jen: Tell me it’s footage of them that others haven’t seen …
Danya Issawi, fashion news writer: The producers will see me on Judgement Day. And I’m denying them entry into the pearly gates.
Andrea: Movie Night is a night when they compile old clips and show them to the islanders. It typically happens post Casa Amor, and it always stirs the pot.
Catherine: To answer your question above, Brooke: My only prior Love Island USA experience is season six, and I found this season was vastly inferior to last summer’s. I didn’t get the sense that the islanders were genuinely trying to form connections, so the producers’ manipulation was incredibly heavy-handed and obvious as they tried to force the appearance of “strong couples.” Watching season seven felt like whiplash because production was clearly scrambling to control outcomes and produce couples they felt the audience could root for because those couples just weren’t forming organically.
Lizzy: There weren’t enough dramatic clips or strong connections for Movie Night to happen.
Jen: That’s demented. I would like to formally apply to intern for production.
Andrea: I think the lack of Movie Night also speaks to LIUSA being only six weeks compared to the eight weeks of LIUK. There’s not enough time! For most things! That make this show incredible!!!
Danya: They tried to re-create the structure of season six and just kept throwing drama and dramatic instances into the villa instead of letting the islanders relax and feel safe and secure enough to get to know one another.
Brooke L.: There were too many challenges and not enough time for actual drama and connections to brew.
Jen: The challenges are not high stakes enough. Just gross? So much milk!
Brooke M.: The milk was nasty. Ericka Hart was posting reactions after each ep on Instagram, and I need everyone to clock this tea about the restructuring at the company and how that probably trickled down to this season looking cheap and certain relationships being manufactured. But which of the couples from the entire season do you believe have a shot IRL?
Catherine: The only couple I think has a shadow of a shot is Amaya and Bryan because they are connecting on a shared background and family level. Iris and Pepe have nothing holding them together outside of the construct of the show.
Andrea: The fact there were no organic recoupings between Belle-A and the final week is criminal.
Lizzy: I think Taylor and Clarke, and Ace and Chelley. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if Chellace showed up to the reunion consciously uncoupled.
Danya: The butterfly effect is Belle-A staying and that being the factor that made this season good.
Brooke M.: I realize Chellace should have won. But I still believe Nicolandria will be in each other’s lives for years, the nature of which has yet to be determined …
Catherine: Nicolandria was propaganda created by production to give the appearance of “Look, we create strong connections on this show!” I would actually love someone to give me a cogent argument that Nicolandria are a real couple. I believe they will be close friends forever, but there is absolutely nothing romantic there.
Jen: Sorry, not buying Nicolandria, but they are faves individually. Nickypoo.
Andrea: The challenges are meant to stir the pot and give islanders the opportunity to show who else they are interested in. But this time they were mostly insane and gross and didn’t do anything. Ex: The heart-raising challenge — they usually stir the pot because girls and boys are separated, right? But this time doing it in couples just felt like a really weird sex party. This season was so bad I stanned Nicolandria for 24 hours. That’s how parched I was for romance.
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Danya: They need to let viewers more into each of these islanders’ emotions and backgrounds, like they do on Survivor. All the viewers have zero empathy and can’t connect with the people they’re watching.
Lizzy: When Hannah was booted, she went on a podcast to say her and Pepe had really deep conversations about their lives that weren’t shown, and I would’ve liked to see more conversations like that!
Brooke L.: I wish they had rules where the booted islanders can’t post until the season is over. They also need to be allowed to talk about politics.
Catherine: I don’t think the show should continue having America decide recouplings by vote. That was what set this season down the path to ruin at the start. You have to give the islanders agency over their recouplings or you end up with a season like this, where no connection felt genuine because they were manufactured by a combination of producer manipulation and audience votes.
Brooke M.: Well, Americans can’t be trusted with democracy in their own government to begin with.
Olivia: Do you guys think there should be ranked-choice voting for “Favorite Couple”?
Danya: As a society we are so individualistic: These viewers need to be confronted with the actual humanity of these islanders via their backgrounds and drawing connections about who they are and what experiences they’ve had and why they move through the villa the way they do.
Andrea: Agree with Danya and Lizzy — those types of deep convos are so great! I know we watch for the drama, but what I also like about Love Island in general is seeing these fools on my TV fall in love or get to like each other. And that simply didn’t happen this season. There were no outside dates, no Hideaway, etc.
Danya: Survivor is a massive show, but those people aren’t getting death threats at the same rate as the islanders, and I think that’s partially because we know so much more about each of the contestants as actual people.
Jen: While I’m not Amaya Papaya’s biggest fan, I was happy for the Dominican Cinderella and she made me tear up like she did Ariana.
Danya: Huda and Amaya are two genuine girls, and no one in that villa knew how to handle them. Because everyone else was acutely aware they were being perceived by America.
Catherine: The lack of dates was also a major contributor to how shallow the entire season felt. No one had real alone time to get to know the people they were interested in.
Andrea: Love Amaya forever. Her one-liners … I can’t stop repeating at home that “GOD FORBID I AM A SENSITIVE GANGSTA.”
Brooke M.: Chris and Huda’s final date was so devastating. These people should not be on TV! Chris said he still is attracted to her and that’s why they can’t be friends, and that he wants to continue outside the villa? What about his behavior was giving “I want to keep doing this beyond the show”????? And why did he come back to walk her back but then say he wouldn’t walk her back? Seems like producers just wanted to embarrass them both.
Lizzy: Chris telling Huda “I’m not gonna carry you” once their date was over … my mouth dropped.
Olivia: Why did the producers send out that woman to sing “Moon River”!
Catherine: I giggled a lot during Chris and Huda’s breakup, I have to confess. The comedic timing of the singer showing up to serenade them in the middle of the intense conversation; Huda asking Chris to carry her through the water so her shoes wouldn’t get ruined right after dumping him, and him obviously declining …
Danya: Chris and Huda do not communicate the same way.
Jen: He didn’t wanna get too cancelled.
Lizzy: Huda refilling her Champagne is so me.
Andrea: The breakup was reality-TV gold, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I was so fed up with the entire season. It just felt depressing.
Olivia: I will say if someone did the “I’ll give you three seconds” thing to me while I was trying to sleep, I too would be pissed.
Danya: Huda needs a guy who will turn over and giggle and be like, “OMG Huda chillllll haha. Here’s a smoochie and let’s go to sleep.”
Olivia: I think Huda needs no man for like a full calendar year.
Brooke M.: She said she was so excited to be “freed from the shackles of a man” (relatable).
Jen: The real question is … is Ace five-ten?
Danya: Ace is four-six on a good day.
Emily: There is no way that man is taller than me (five-six) on a good day.
Catherine: I do think Huda showed the most personal growth out of any islander. She went from epic cuss-out meltdowns to having a more controlled if still vulnerable and emotional conversation about not wanting to be in a relationship with someone who wasn’t right for her.
Danya: I watched a really good breakdown of how Ace kind of commandeered the villa and set the precedent that if you develop a real connection quickly, you’re going to get voted out, so everyone was subconsciously afraid of being too excited over someone.
Catherine: To Danya’s point, it is interesting to think about who, over the course of the season, is celebrated for zeroing in on their “person” versus punished for it and who’s celebrated for “exploring” versus punished for it.
Andrea: Ace and Chelley’s journey followed the script of what a winner’s journey looks like (at least in the U.K.): early connection, explore or have some drama, lock it down post-Casa. But it didn’t work here! The fact that Amaya (a bombshell) and Bryan (a Casa guy) won feels very unprecedented to me too.
Brooke M.: I got kind of tempted to watch older UK seasons because of sweet baby Ekin Su and older USA seasons because of Leah. But I don’t know if I can do this to myself again. Also it just doesn’t make sense that they don’t let people be bisexual on this show.
Brooke L. This season made me realize I will only watch UK from now on. They need to do a bisexual Love Island where EVERYONE is bi and it’s chaos but it’s good chaos.
Danya: Season six of USA will give you the warm fuzzies.
Olivia: The bisexual season of Are U the One? remains some of the best TV ever. Do you guys think there’s any way the next season of USA could be good?
Jen: Would love a celebrity Love Island.
Lizzy: The U.K. does all-star seasons of former islanders.
Emily: This is how Eric Adams will find his soul mate.
Danya: This show needs a total restructuring, challenges should change around week four to be more personal or emotional so there’s something actually on the line like a solo date — and the Casa boys need to actually be hot because WTF.
Andrea: I have a list of demands:
• More natural recouplings
• Fewer audience votes about individual islanders
• Fewer “islanders choose who to dump” instances
• Let them use the damn Hideaway
• More one-on-one and outside dates
• Go back to the OG Casa Amor dumping structure rather than whatever the hell this dumping was
• The season has gotta be longer — let’s do eight weeks rather than six
Catherine: We haven’t touched on our canceled islanders — given the NBC restructuring and budget cuts I’m not optimistic, but do we think that after having to yank not one but two contestants, production will make a genuine effort to vet islanders going forward?
Olivia: They need to hire the redditor with the highest screen time.
Danya: Why did the men get a pass for their racism …
Jen: Evergreen question.
Andrea: I’m definitely not gonna watch LIUSA from now on, but my only consolation after wasting however many hours is that Amaya came out on top. A win for the girlies who are told they are Too Much.
Olivia: Unfortunately I already know that I’ll be clocking in to the villa a year from now.
Catherine: The brain rot, it calls me … at 9 p.m. in early summer. Amaya also was most genuinely deserving of the win in that she did exactly what the supposed objective of Love Island is: She explored connections with damn near every man in the villa who’d be open to it, and several of them were horrible to her for no good reason. And yet she persevered.
Jen: Zoomies for all.
