Love Island<\/a><\/p>\nEpisode 13<\/p>\n
\n Season 8<\/p>\n
Episode 13\n <\/p>\n
\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n
4 stars<\/p>\n
****\n <\/p>\n
\n America\u2019s matchmaking didn\u2019t last long. The couples torn apart immediately got back together in a recoupling ceremony that involved giant mailboxes.
\n Photo: Peacock\n <\/p>\n
Each season of Love Island USA is approximately 1 million episodes, and we are recapping all of them. Check back for morning-after recaps of weekday episodes and a Monday roundup of the weekend\u2019s shenanigans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I was saying, the heart wants what the heart wants, and no amount of well-intentioned matchmaking on America\u2019s part is going to keep these Islanders from sleeping with the people they want to sleep with. At this recoupling, everyone was actually allowed to choose who they wanted to couple up with \u2014 with the exception of Caleb and Sol, who were forced into a consolation couple that the public is, for some reason, allowed to vote for as the favorite couple. We never know exactly what the consequences of America\u2019s votes will be, but, based on history, it\u2019s likely that the lowest-ranked couples will be at risk of dumping, which means that Caleb and Sol could still be saved by the fans.<\/p>\n
I know we just had a recoupling like five minutes ago, but things move fast in this villa, so try to keep up. For tonight\u2019s ceremony, Love Island brought back the oversize props: giant mailboxes that Zach probably imagines are what real American mailboxes look like. The game is a little reminiscent of last year\u2019s \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d exercise, but significantly less mean-spirited. The Islanders are tasked with writing a love letter to the person they want to couple up with, and then the letters go into the appropriate recipient\u2019s mailbox. If an Islander doesn\u2019t get any letters, that means no one wants to couple up with them, a bit like fourth-grade Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
Most of the couples stay exactly where you expect: Jen and Gabe, Zach and Kayda, Aniya and KC, and Trinity and Bryce. Their letters to each other are written with varying degrees of eloquence. Aniya brought KC to tears, and I\u2019m coming around to Trinity and Bryce after Bryce\u2019s opening line: \u201cDear Trinity, when I first kissed you behind the doggy-style door, I knew we had something special.\u201d It\u2019s Sol, Sincere, Caleb, Kenzie, Melanie, and Corbin who remain the theoretical wildcards, even as Sincere and Melanie and Corbin and Kenzie recouple, leaving Caleb and Sol to match by default.<\/p>\n
Personally, I\u2019m satisfied with how everything worked out. Everybody gets to be with who they want to be with, and we got to hear some real emotions from the Islanders, some of them (ahem, Jen and Gabe) for the first time. The only thing I don\u2019t love is that Caleb and Sol are still here. They both seem like perfectly nice people, but after failing as bombshells, shouldn\u2019t they just be dumped from the villa or at least left single? How many chances does a bombshell get these days? Plus I still have not forgotten the injustice done to Bea, no matter how much sex Gabe and Jen are currently having under the covers.<\/p>\n
You could feel trouble brewing in paradise from the moment Zach asked, in the darkness of the hideaway, if Kayda would kill him for cracking on with a bombshell. Unless you\u2019re Kayda, that is, who is only feeling increasingly confident and secure. \u201cDo you love kissing me?\u201d she asks Zach on the daybeds. \u201cDid you think you\u2019d come in here and find this right away?\u201d After learning about the love-letter recoupling, Kayda says she is feeling \u201cecstatic!\u201d But with less than a week until Casa Amor, I can\u2019t help but feel we are being primed for heartbreak, because Zach, meanwhile, asks the group aloud, \u201cCan I write to Bryce?\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first week or so, Zach was completely obsessed with Kayda. But now that she seems equally obsessed with him, I get the feeling he feels like he\u2019s missing out on something. Obviously, he still writes his love letter to her, because what else is he going to do, but putting two \u201cwho would have thoughts\u201d into one short note doesn\u2019t have me convinced that he\u2019s giving this his all. Mark my words: Casa Amor is going to come for them hard.<\/p>\n
Corbin and Melanie may have spent their first night together and actually kissed in bed (!), but we all knew where this was going when Corbin made a special, extra heart-shaped pancake just for Kenzie in the morning.<\/p>\n
Kenzie tells Caleb she wants to focus on growing their connection, and she thinks watching him fix an elevator might be hot, but I\u2019ve seen her make out with enthusiasm before, and this is not that. Corbin, for his part, can\u2019t think of a reason not to write his letter to Kenzie other than it might provoke a temper tantrum from Melanie, who he says (unfairly, if you\u2019re asking me) will cry and threaten to leave the villa if she\u2019s not chosen.<\/p>\n
So, it is exciting, but not entirely shocking, when Kenzie opens her big mailbox to find two letters inside. The first, from Caleb, is very sweet. The second, from Corbin, includes the line, \u201cI knew we had something that was not worth giving up.\u201d Caleb, sadly, opens his mailbox to find it empty because Kenzie has likewise written her letter to Corbin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss our time together, but most of all I miss you,\u201d she writes to Corbin. Corbin and Kenzie are officially back on. Corbin triumphantly says, \u201cAmerica can\u2019t break this shit up!\u201d If you still think Corbin and Melanie are a better match after this, then I don\u2019t know what to tell you, because Melanie didn\u2019t write her letter to Corbin either.<\/p>\n
One has to feel for Sol, who spends the entire morning telling everyone how honest and up-front Sincere is and how much he\u2019s been reassuring her and how close they\u2019ve been getting. Only for him to return to his one true Bad Romance at the end of the day.<\/p>\n
When Sincere opens his mailbox, there are two letters: one from Sol and one from Melanie. The letter from Sol is a sort of poem that rhymes, and the letter from Melanie is long and emotional, because it is filled with all two weeks of their history. I think Sincere honestly believes himself when he says he is always upfront with people, but he has been telling both Melanie and Sol how much he cares for them, so both have a right to feel confident in this moment.<\/p>\n
And yet, when Sol finds her mailbox empty, she tells Ariana her \u201cwoman\u2019s intuition\u201d told her that this would happen. Personally, I don\u2019t think it was a woman\u2019s intuition so much as it was she heard Melanie\u2019s stage-whisper to Kayda about her conversation with Sincere in the speakeasy. But all is not lost yet, Sol. America may yet vote for you and Caleb for their favorite couple.<\/p>\n
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