July 31, 2025 • 50 mins
Welcome back to Andi & Mich, the podcast where two sisters, two generations, and way too many opinions come together to unpack life, love, and reality TV chaos.
In this hot take episode, we deep dive into Love Island USA Season 7—aka Make Out Island. We're breaking down:
- The spit-swapping spectacle (seriously, where’s the mouthwash?)
- Performative relationships vs. genuine connections
- Bro code bromances and when “girl code” becomes mean girl behavior
- Tribe mentality, cultural bias, and the unspoken judgment of single moms
- The real MVPs, red flags, and what this show says about Gen Z + modern love
From friendship dynamics and over-produced chaos to the subtle (and not-so-subtle) moments of misogyny and racial bias, we’re spilling all the tea—affectionately, passionately, and with a side of iced green tea.
💥 Whether you’re here for the pop culture commentary, cultural analysis, or the sisterly laughs—this episode delivers. Because let’s be honest, some of y’all are moving like you’re in a villa…and it’s showing.
🎧 Grab your cafecito and tune in—then hit subscribe so you never miss an episode!
#LoveIslandUSA #RealityTV #GirlCode #BroCode #LoveIslandSeason7 #RealityCheck #AndiAndMich #LatinaPodcasters #PodcastClips #ModernDating #SpitSwapCulture #FriendshipPolitics #CulturalBias #WomenInPodcasting #LoveIslandRecap #TVTea
If you liked this episode please like and follow our podcast, leave us a comment, and share it with a friend. Visit us on Youtube for extra content and full episodes https://www.youtube.com/@AndiandMich
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-Andi and Mich
The Andi and Mich Podcast: Two Sisters, Two Generations, Unique Perspectives, Lots of Laughs
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Andy and Mitch,the podcast where two sisters,
two generations, and way toomany feelings come together to
talk about life, love, and theabsolute madness of modern
reality tv.
And today we are taking youstraight to the villa.
That's right, Love Island USASeason 7.
And let's just say there was somuch tongue, not enough
(00:24):
emotional depth or mouthwash forthat matter.
We're talking about everythingfrom the performative romance
and kiss, counting, chaos to thefriendship, politics, bro code
loyalty, and when girl codeturns into low key bullying.
Plus we've got thoughts oncultural bias, tribe behavior,
(00:44):
and why some contestants getoverlooked no matter how real
they actually are.
So grab your cafecito or youriced green tea and let's dive
in.
Love island, season seven, firstof all, why is it a thousand
episodes?
it was longer than Lord of theRings.
It was so long, that's 36 hours.
(01:06):
I mean, I get they're recording24/7, but like, is that
necessary?
Do I have to give up a quarterof my life to watch this show?
Number two, can we talk abouthow everyone was like making
out, like the amount of spitswapping that happens, like
right out the gate just blew mymind.
(01:27):
It definitely set the tone forwhat was in store but even that
didn't prepare me.
The other part of that is like,where was the mouthwash?
I hope somebody soleresponsibility is to give them
mouthwash.
Also like, do they even realizethat they're just all kissing
each other?
They're getting everybody'ssaliva in their mouth.
I feel like anybody that's likeinto biology is like, this is
(01:50):
the grossest thing I've everseen because of the amount of
DNA that's being passed.
It was a lot, it was over thetop.
We only watched this seasonbecause it's been like popping
off, like everybody's beentalking about it.
And even online, right?
Like how this has been like thebest season of Love Island USA
so far.
So I'm like, okay, let's seewhat this is all about and then
(02:12):
I saw that happening like in thefirst episode and I was like,
okay.
And number one, I understand whypeople are all into it.
It just really should be calledMake Out Island because I don't
think there's a whole lot oflove in this show.
I mean at least some of theseother shows, there's like an
introductory period, where likepeople are kind of getting to
know each other before it maybegets a little crazy but they
(02:34):
just fool on through these kidsinto chaos.
It's like, hey what's yourbiggest fear in a relationship?
Que full on make out sessionwith 20 people.
It's 100%.
There's a huge differencebetween like chemistry, like
physical attraction and thisseason was giving like shallow
end of the pool.
What was your initial likethought when you first watched
(02:57):
the show?
I had some interns that wereobsessed with Love Island.
They would always talk about itand I'd never sat down to watch
it, I had no interest.
And then we decided to do thisepisode, so sitting down and
watching it, and thenremembering all the
conversations that they hadabout it, I was like, got it.
Would you have gone on a showlike this, I mean, they're all
twenties.
It's not for me, I don't think Iever had that phase.
(03:19):
I definitely think I would neverhave gone on that show, if I had
seen what the season entailed.
The cluster make out sessionsand stuff, like, that's not for
me but I don't shame anyone or Idon't have any negative feelings
about people that do go on thatstuff.
It's like people givingthemselves the permission to
explore.
So it's almost like yourtwenties condensed, like all the
(03:42):
years of your twenties condensedinto two months.
Because it's like they got afree pass to just act wild and
crazy'cause it's on TV andthat's what's being asked of
them.
Which is kind of crazy when youthink about it.
That, season got 18.4 billionminutes of views.
It's like peacock's most watchedoriginal season ever.
(04:05):
18.4 billion minutes, over 54million social media
interactions and their TikTokgrew up to 232%.
Really?
Like, that's why I was like,what's the deal?
Why is this such a big deal?
Why did it blow up?
Cause they were saying a lotduring the show, like, oh, this
is new or for the first timeever.
(04:27):
It was also the first, Latinocouple to win Love Island USA in
all of the seasons so far.
Oh, wow.
That's pretty cool.
It's interesting because it'slike a quote unquote love dating
show.
Where they're trying to findlove, and I think it's defined
in all the wrong ways for thisshow, but it really is also a
competition, right?
This is a game, it had like verymuch game show attributes to it.
(04:51):
Yes.
And it does have a, a prize atthe end too.
It's like a cash prize.
When I was thinking about it, Istarted really trying to like
challenge myself, okay, whywould 20 year olds love this?
There's a lot of socialimplications.
It's very freeing to themprobably to see stuff like this,
because I was reading somestatistics about like the
(05:14):
younger generations are reallyconservative compared to the
older generations.
And so this is kind of like ashock and awe for them.
And then the other element thatblew my mind was this concept
that it does give them theopportunity to explore beyond
socially structured oracceptable norms and outside of
(05:37):
their own culture.
In a way that.
Is hyper explorative, right,they're like Dora, exploring the
shit out of them.
Because it's normalized on theshow and that's like the con the
concept going into it.
They all have this likeunderstanding like, we're going
into this, we're beingopen-minded and we're just
trying new things.
And so they created such astrong bond, the original villa
(06:01):
and I think it was because theyhad created a community within
themselves that allowedthemselves to explore without
being demonized or shunned.
That's really fascinating the,that like younger generations
are more conservative.
Yeah, so in hookup culture, genZ is having less frequent sex
averaging three times per monthlower than millennials, and
(06:21):
showing less participation inone night stands overall
reporting 23% are open to casualhookups while 62% say they and
their peers typically avoidthem.
Though, nearly 48% of Gen Zteens consider casual sex about
65 say, sex should occur when incommitted relationships with
roughly 40% reporting low or nointerest in sex at all.
(06:45):
Yeah.
I mean, it makes sense be to mein some ways because of,
technology and the culture thatthat drives.
Where we've talked about before,like people aren't spending time
together the way that they usedto they're not forming those
connections.
And 52 to 63% are open tonon-traditional arrangements.
So that is where they are moreexplorative.
(07:05):
Most lean toward monogamy andemotional alignment rather than
casual or polyamorous setups,but they are more open to
non-traditional arrangements.
I mean it was shock and awe forme.
Also, the language, it'sdefinitely geared toward younger
generations.
I will say that it's definitelygeared toward baby millennials
(07:26):
and gen Zs, right?
Because the language they wereusing, I was like, I need a
social language dictionary.
They all were using similarslang terms and different things
That I was like, I, I felt veryeducated by the end of this
series.
And some of the things that theywould say to describe things
(07:46):
like the cap.
No cap.
No cap.
Stand on your business.
The cap.
Crashing out.
I feel like in my generation weused crashing, like, I'm gonna
crash out.
But it meant somethingdifferent.
Like, I'm gonna go to sleep.
Yeah.
Like I'm spent When I firststarted watching it, I think I
really felt like one, it wasvery performative I felt like
(08:09):
majority, if not all of themwere there because they want
screen time.
And they're really interested inlike, making a name for
themselves or seeing what opother opportunities can come
from being on a show like this,which does happen for a lot of
these folks.
Their host Ariana, she's fromVanderpump Rules, she's a OG
reality TV girl.
Some people could see this as anopportunity for a career.
(08:31):
Yes to advance their careers ortry to make it or get other job
opportunities because I do thinkwith the younger generations,
you know, social media orreality TV is an avenue that
they see as a very viableopportunity.
How do you feel about thepressure that was applied for
people who needed to appearbonded in order for them to get
(08:54):
more time on screen?
I will say, as much as I loveNick, I really felt that with
him because I genuinely waslike, oh, I like him as like a
person, right?
Like he has a cool little vibeto him.
He's like, seems really down toearth.
He did seem to really want toexplore everything.
All the time.
And he was cute, attractive fora young, for a youngin.
(09:15):
He kind of reminded me of like ayoung James Marsden.
He very much had that vibe.
Yeah.
I think he was like a model tooor something.
No, nick was a nurse.
Oh yeah nick is a nurse, buthe's, you know what's weird is
later in the season he talksabout modeling.
I'm sure he probably did modelat some point.
That's why he had that like verycharismatic, caring, nurturing
(09:38):
kind of tendency, I feel like,'cause of his profession.
But Amaya was also a nurse.
Amaya, but she felt like a nursethough.
We'll talk about her in a minute'cause I actually really liked
Amaya, but.
I do too.
We'll talk about thecontroversy.
I felt that with Nick.
I did feel that definitely withAustin.
Again with the men I felt likeon, they were genuinely trying
(09:58):
to explore but they also wantedto get as far as possible there
was two motives there.
And like, it was pretty clearand I couldn't really pick up
too much outside of Huda for thewomen that that was the case,
maybe Iris.
That they were more focused onplaying the game than just
finding quote unquote love or aconnection.
(10:20):
Yeah.
Actually, I think Iris kind oftoo, because she had such a
strong connection with TJ andthen she kind of was like, yeah,
I could explore Pepe, but it waspretty clear that she was like,
I don't really like him.
There's signs that we dophysiologically when we don't
necessarily like someone, orwe're not really attracted to
them.
And one of them is the piercingof the lips.
But, okay, i'm gonna saysomething really controversial.
(10:44):
She had lip fillers, so shecan't stop pursing her lips.
Like they're permanently, like,she could barely move her face
around.
No, don't be mean.
It wasn't just her, a lot ofother girls had the same thing.
Ciera got let go, she also hasBotox lip filler.
Are you sure?
Yeah.
It was a post that she wasposting about getting injections
(11:06):
that got her kicked off theshow.
The one from Utah.
She had all, they remind me ofSecret Lives of Marmon wives
because they're all young too,she had a boatload of plastic,
plastic surgery and like fillersand injections.
It breaks my heart becauselisten your youth is the time to
not do that.
That's the time for you to enjoythe beauty that you naturally
(11:26):
have and then when you get old,like me, you start exploring
other options.
If you, if you do it too soon,you're gonna screw yourself over
you're gonna look older faster.
It's a generational thing too.
'cause this, these youngergenerations are really big on
doing it like immediately.
I have a theory too.
And even the boys, because Iquestion, TJ.
(11:49):
Oh, did he have Botox?
He was from Florida.
He looked like he had somethingwork done on his face.
He just looked like he had noemotion to me.
For real?
They were like, oh, he lookslike, Leonardo DiCaprio and I
was like leonardo DiCaprio alsolooks like he has no emotion.
He also dates like 12 year oldsall the time and he's like a
57-year-old man.
(12:09):
Anyway, back to the point.
No hate, no shade, just love.
I'm gonna say that for now whenI say controversial things.
The intimacy as currency in gameformat was kind of crazy too.
Yeah, I think that's what threwme off'cause I think it made me
feel confused of what kind ofshow am I watching?
What am I paying attention to?
(12:30):
They know it's a game, sothey're all gonna play each
other to try to get ahead.
And then what stood out to memore was not so much the
relationship connections but thefriendship connections that they
were making.
And I wonder if that was just away for them to kind of protect
themselves so that they couldconnect with people but also
still play the game.
(12:50):
You know what I mean?
It also felt like okay, likesome diabolical producers'cause
they do some diabolical shit tothem in the show.
We're like, hey, let's just tryeverything because every time
they would meet up for achallenge or something, it was
always a different approach toit.
Yeah.
(13:10):
And the way they wereeliminating them was different.
And then they started havingthem eliminate each other, and
that was cold.
I was like, holy cow.
I'm gonna say something that'skind of controversial, but I
truly believe this is thatwhoever is the show runner or
producers were big fans of SquidGame.
Oh, is that the it gave you?
I've never seen Squid Game.
Yes that's the vibe it gives mebut Squid Game ends with murder,
(13:31):
no one got killed on loveisland.
But it felt like that, wherethey make them kind of question
themselves, turn against eachother, they're basically baiting
and creating a perfect settingfor tension and trouble.
And I will give credit wherecredit's due, this cast
definitely did a good job ofmitigating that because they
(13:52):
could be, they could have beenway more reactive.
Mm-hmm.
And really the only times thatwe saw some significant
reactions was between, you know,Huda and that situation with
Jeremiah.
And then, Olandria and Taylorbut outside of that, most of
like any kind of negativetension was not broadcasted in
(14:13):
the editing.
Yeah.
For the most part, they didreally well as a cast,
navigating the kind ofintentional turmoil.
You're trying to walk the linebetween like being yourself, but
like also performing to belikable, have a certain kind of
experience here or whatnot.
By the first, second week yougotta be exhausted.
(14:35):
They also had them on aschedule, so they'd wake'em up
at a certain time.
Send them to sleep at a certaintime.
Like this was such a controlledenvironment.
That was very experimental andthat does something to your
psyche.
I feel like once they're out ofthere, they're probably watching
it back, like an actor wouldwatch a movie.
Not even that they were acting,but like, it would be a similar
(14:57):
kind of experience because likeyou said, it was very controlled
and intentional environment thatthey put them in and you really
don't know how you're gonnareact to that until you're in
it.
And so it's likely that thepeople that we saw on screen are
very specific versions of thesepeople.
Probably a little bit morelikable.
They came off fairly likable.
When they first started Uhhuh,who do you think were drawn to
(15:20):
each other because they hadgenuine vibes?
Shelly seemed to have reallygenuine intentions for Ace.
Huda actually seemed to havegenuine intentions for Jeremiah,
they were just both not a goodfit.
It was very toxic.
He was love bombing her hard.
Yeah.
And I do think he was playingthe game.
it was interesting because Idon't think he knows he's a
(15:41):
manipulator.
I think he genuinely thought hewas being genuine but then once
he recoupled, I was like, oh,okay, so this is your M.O.
Even like when he wasexplaining, when they were
sharing their numbers.
It became clear like, oh, you'vetold a lot of people that you
love them.
It was a red flag for the boys,I was surprised with that.
I think Olandria was probablyone of the more genuine people
(16:02):
on the show.
She probably was the most Iwould say genuine.
I would also say Ace was prettymuch himself the entire time.
ACE is a big softie and he wastrying to be too cool and too
hard in the beginning, but hewas pretty consistent.
(16:22):
Like everything that he said wasconsistent.
He didn't really change what histhoughts were, or his approach
to things.
So he didn't feel likemanipulative.
Olandria was definitely beingherself but she was very
guarded.
Oh dude.
When she went off, I was like,this girl has been played.
Yeah, she was really hurt.
(16:42):
Because she's such a genuineperson, you know that that was
like deep pain that came out.
Dude, for sure because you neverknow, like you're gonna get
triggered.
You can get triggered bysomething in the present and
then all the feelings from thepast come with that.
Especially if it hasn't beendealt with, you know?
Yeah.
I also wonder like, did you feellike the show was overproduced?
(17:06):
'cause in some parts I felt likehow much of this is the
producer's?
Planting seeds, manipulating theengagement versus how much of it
is actually just organicallyhappening and it is what they're
capturing on the cameras.
It's a combination to somedegree, there was obviously
production that went behind it.
(17:26):
For the challenges hyperproduced.
Like they told them make outhard with everybody, borderline
stripper.
Just to get those camera angles,you have to be very
instructional with people andthere's multiple cameras the
lighting, so that was superhyper produced.
When you go to the villa stuff,maybe they were pulling people
(17:47):
aside and letting them knowcertain things.
Prompting them to go talk withsomebody or.
I think editing goes a reallylong way, like you can change an
entire narrative with editing.
Yeah.
I felt a lot of the time theywere just like laying around all
day and then also why was nobodyever in the swimming pool?
Like rarely.
Was anybody ever in the swimmingpool?
It was like they jumped inbecause of some celebration or
(18:08):
being goofy, but it was like athousand degrees I'm certain and
they're just lounging aroundbecause it's hot and
uncomfortable and they're forcedto be outside all day.
Yeah, there's a funny, satireshow where this comedian he does
a love island skit and he getskicked off the island'cause he
(18:31):
won't stop using the zip line tojump into the swimming pool.
And she's like, I don't eventhink you're here to find love.
I think you're here just to usea zip line and this shows
multiple times as he zip linesinto the pool.
It's the funniest shit ever.
Like behind people and stuff.
I definitely think it was a lotof heavy editing.
I also think they didn't wantthem in the pool because, you
(18:53):
know, people don't look ascamera ready.
That's where maybe productionkind of stepped in.
Which would suck like, you're inFiji, it's hot as hell.
Alright, let's talk about thebromance.
This is when I started torealize that the friendship
dynamic became a very bighighlight in this season and
that might also be why peoplewere really drawn to it because
(19:13):
we've talked about this before,right?
The loneliness epidemic, Ishould say, is real, you don't
often get to see people actuallytrying to bond with each other
and create friendships.
Because that became like anotherlayer that almost became more
interesting than the romanceparts.
Yeah.
But the romances were sointeresting.
(19:36):
Especially for the first group.
And you can see how much theybecame bonded, both the girls
and the boys as they brought newpeople in later, there was the
one, the one episode where theythought Nick was getting kicked
off and they started bawling.
And one thing that my partnersaid to me who was watching it
with me was, it is so hard formen to make friends.
(19:58):
Even when they're at that age,even in their twenties'cause
they're not in high schoolanymore, where you have more
access to people to try tomaintain friendships.
Once you're out of that, it isharder to make friends.
And for men it's even harder,harder than for women'cause
we'll seek out like connectionswith people.
Yeah.
Where men aren't really taughthow to do that and prioritize
that.
So they actually got along welland they just had this
(20:21):
opportunity to like really bondwith each other and the fact
that they were crying, they werelike bawling.
I think Ace at one point waslike, we're talking about him,
like he's dead.
What about the Girls Girl Codeor Mean Girls?
It was Girl Code at first and atsome point Shelly became pretty
(20:42):
selfish.
Right?
And I was shocked.
I really, I was disappointed.
Shelly, I think I was kind ofsurprised'cause I was like, how
are you gonna play that card onHuda when you are the one that
is keeping the door open?
After telling this man that youwanted to become closed off with
him until they gave you anotheroption.
(21:04):
There was a double standardthere.
And she became a littleterritorial with Ace.
So that when Huda was playingthe game as they've been asked
to play.
That she turned into a mean girlon her and Sierra was the other
one too.
I did not like that, the waythat Sierra also became.
Like Huda had her own issues,right.
(21:25):
She was not, an angel by anymeans.
Seeing how her personalityplayed out, it was not
intentional, like she didn't doit to like hurt her feeling.
She was like, okay, I'm justgonna go all in and then it
backfired and then the originalgirls started to turn on her.
They were creating these likeunspoken rules and boundaries
and expectations of each other,of each other that were
(21:48):
contradictory to the point ofthem being on the show to begin
with.
And Huda was technically singleand that other guy was single.
Shelly made it very clear thatshe wanted him to chase her and
earn her.
And you know, when you showsomebody interest, it needs to
be a two-way street.
She wasn't even talking to theother guy and she told Ace as
she was.
It very much in the early, earlyepisodes felt like, okay, cool,
(22:12):
they're bonding the girl code.
Right?
Like they're really taking careof each other, looking out for
each other, being open with eachother.
Right.
And then it flipped real quickand became like mean girls and I
noticed it before because whenthey started bringing in new
bombshells they wouldn't likepull them into the inner circle
(22:33):
and then once casa amorhappened, if you notice in the
filming you'll see the casa moregirls were separate than the
original Villa girls.
They were not like open toadding anybody else into their
group.
That like solidified theirlittle mean girl core and it
also kind of show showcasedShelly as the ringleader.
(22:57):
Well, that did a disservice toher character and that's why
America voted the way they did.
Because it was, it was shocking'cause that was not how she was
carrying herself the entiretime.
No.
And then it created, like, I wastalking with other people about
it, and they were like, yeah.
It made me feel like, oh, soyou've been playing this whole
time.
You are not showing us who youreally are, but you're
(23:17):
pretending to be reallyauthentic.
Whether that was her intentionor not, that's the shift that
happened because she was verymuch like, well now you're not
part of our group, so we're justnot vibing now.
You know, like, that's not thekind of friend I want but girl,
you were not being a good friendeither.
You were putting your stuff onher and making it about her to
(23:38):
take the heat off of you andwhat you were doing that your
own coupled up person wastelling you like, Hey, you
doubled back on this guy.
Yeah, that was, you kissed him,went forward, came back and did
it again.
I think that was ruder than Hudalap dancing on him or whatever.
Yeah, she did like a full onstrip tease.
(23:58):
She did it to make Chris jealousbut outside of that, there's
nothing and Ace is a hundredpercent for Shelly.
As women, we're veryintentional.
And yes, we're smart.
Yeah, we're smart as hell andwe're also cruel as hell.
I also feel like she got realjealous that he was not pursuing
her in the villa and he was sofocused on Huda.
(24:19):
And I think that's even more sowhy Huda became a target.
Then her using this idea like,oh, well you broke girl code.
To just take it out on her tothe point.
For sure because one of thethings that I loved about
Chris's character in this wholething is like he very much knows
who he is to the degree where hewas like, nah.
He would just be like, shellywas being wishy-washy, he was
(24:42):
like, I ain't gonna do that.
Focus on Huda and then Hudastarted showing all, you know,
her imperfections and then hewas like, hang on a second.
Huda, the only reason why itwasn't even her imperfections,
she very much is just trying tofigure out who she is still.
And it's very clear that she'sgoing through that part of her
life.
Well, they're, they're allbabies.
I mean, also the basketballplayer was like 28, 29.
(25:03):
So he was one of the.
He was older.
More mature, older ones.
But also Huda has the differentdynamic of being a single mother
trying to find a partner andalso explore her twenties.
Your twenties are forexploration, whether it is that
you are actually going into acave or you're kissing 20
people, choose your ownadventure, design it, you could
do both.
But the point is that that'swhat it is, and that's what this
(25:24):
show really showcases.
I think with, Huda, her dynamicwith Chris that I didn't favor
was that she hid him, and I getthe reasoning in her head as to
why she might've done that'causeof how things went when Jeremiah
love bombing her and how thatplayed out for her, you know,
becoming like the leastfavorites, almost voted off
multiple times.
She didn't want people to judgeher for it.
(25:45):
But I think that really messedup her opportunity to get really
close to someone who wasgenuine.
Which is that Chris fella.
Who didn't care that she was aparent, straight out the gate
didn't gasp like Jeremiah did.
Oh, that was such a cringeymoment.
Do you think the other girlswere judging her for that
without like, even though theydidn't say it and they said they
were like, okay.
And supportive of her, but doyou think that was one of the
(26:07):
things?
'cause I feel like they alwayskind of treated her a little bit
on the outs.
Oh yeah.
Because even when they broughtin new girls, Huda was one of
the ones who was always outthere talking to all the new
people.
Trying to like make connectionswith them too and the like new
girls.
Even as a young parent, you kindof gotta figure out your shit
before a lot of other peoplebecause you're raising a kid.
(26:30):
And so Huda has a little bitmore of like a self-developed
image.
The only thing that I reallysabotaged her wasn't really, I
mean, outside of her personalcommunication issues with
calling everybody a bitch.
The thing that I saw thatsabotage her the most was her
wanting to be liked.
She wanted to be included sobad, you know, by the wrong
(26:50):
people.
Olandria was the only one thatreally sat down with Huda and
had like a real conversationwith her.
And apologized.
But the other two, Shelly andsierra they were a little
problematic in that zone.
And very much acting like theywere older than they are.
So it was kind of interesting tosee play out.
At the end of the day, we allmake mistakes and we all have
those moments, these momentshappen to many people throughout
(27:11):
the course of your life.
And I hope they look back andwatch that and they found
opportunities to developthemselves'cause that really
was, that was a lot to see as awoman.
Because you know what thissociety is all about
perpetuating drama betweenwomen.
Yeah.
Like, it sucks, but people loveto see women hating on women and
(27:33):
we as women fall into the trapover and over and over again.
And that's what we kind of sawplay out there is like you guys
were baited because they didthat.
Like sharing anonymous thoughtsabout each other, whatever.
So they were all emotional, allheightened, and then they
started just digging in on eachother, Instead of like
addressing the real issues inthe space, they started hating
(27:56):
on each other which is like thething that we're fighting so
hard to move away from.
So you can't use language likegirl code", but you were also
being rude and disrespectful toyour girl.
I think there were underlyingjudgements about her being a mom
and being there on this show,subtle, unspoken, but it
impacted the way that theyviewed and engaged with her
(28:17):
because they were judging herfor it.
Not all women, but there aresome people, and I'm gonna say
this, and women are gonna know,oh, yep.
I'm no person like that.
They move in a way where they'reso, so certain of themselves,
it's almost rigid.
There's no room for flexibilitythere.
We're human and you gotta besomewhat malleable.
Be open to have a little bit ofgrace with other people and to
(28:40):
know that you're not perfect.
And you might make, you know,bad judgements or snide comments
or whatever and there's likeroom for development and growth
still.
Yeah.
But that rigidity is just, it'sinsecurities.
Being masked as I know myself.
They're all in their earlytwenties.
They're learning.
That I also found fascinatinghow they were trying to portray
themselves as so mature andgrown up, but like, but I'm
(29:04):
like, you're 22 years old.
What are you even talking aboutright now?
Majority of 20 year olds thinklike this.
You've barely stepped intoadulthood and you won't really
figure it out until you're maybein your mid thirties, maybe
early forties if you're lucky.
Yeah.
There was one scene where,Sierra, this was right before
she got kicked off, and I don'tremember who she was talking to.
(29:26):
I think it was Amaya, it was oneof the times Amaya was crying
and she was like giving her awhole speech about like, you
just need to stand in your worthand you just need to know who
you are.
You know, trying to give herthis hype up speech, but she
came at it like she was somature and so wise.
And Amaya's face too was like,yeah, I know, but that's like,
(29:47):
not why I am hurt.
You know what I mean?
My feelings were hurt and peoplearen't accepting me for who I
am, people want me to besomebody different.
And then I think it was not thatlong after that she got kicked
off the show.
Did she get kicked off?
She got kicked off.
Let's talk about it.
Two people got kicked off theshow.
I knew the first one.
The Cubana from the beginning..
She got kicked off and I thinkit's because she was on a
(30:08):
podcast and she said a racialslurs.
Oh gee.
And the show actually has it intheir contract that that is not
allowed so she got kicked off.
And then later in the show theybarely even talk about it.
Sierra got kicked off, which shewas also Latina.
I did not know that.
Because she posted something onsocial media about her getting
(30:31):
Botox and fillers and she used aracial slur against Asian people
in her post and it resurfacedand started circulating.
And from one day to the next,she was gone.
Was it an old post or a newpost?
It wasn't that old.
Oh.
Yeah, it was not that old.
I found on Reddit, somebodyposted a picture of the post.
(30:52):
Okay.
So you could see what it was.
And then she got kicked off.
So this is like some of the reallife stuff that the show very
quietly avoided and didn'treally talk about, but it was
like online and like the newsand people who were following
it.
Both for discriminatory posts,but they were removed with like
(31:15):
zero on air accountability, nodiscussion just gone.
Now that you've said that,that's very problematic and they
probably should have some kindof media accountability behind
it.
For the first girl, that'ssurprising'cause we didn't see
her at all.
Like she was off the show soquick but the, but for Sierra,
she, again, she painted herselfin a certain light.
(31:36):
Clearly there's room for growththere.
I definitely think that beingracist or discriminatory against
other people because of thecultural differences is very
ignorant and you definitelyshould maybe educate yourself a
little bit more and be open.
It's also like, comes from aplace of immaturity and
ignorance but it's interestingbecause those were two things
(31:57):
that happened that were relatedbut not really discussed or
pointed out on the show.
Like the show, the narrator justbriefly said, uh oh, so and so
has left the villa.
And then they went, moved onbecause they used the term left
the villa.
Mm-hmm.
Wasn't kicked off the villa, butthey were kicked off.
Which is different.
So that was one piece but in thesame like umbrella of thinking
(32:19):
about like diversity andculture, things came up with
Amaya, right.
That like were shown, but notlike fully shown or explored on
the show.
And there's probably footage ofit that they just edited out.
Likely, yeah.
But with Amaya's personalitybeing big and loud.
I liked her.
(32:39):
I was like, I get her.
And then as it played out, thenit became very apparent of like
the lack of culturalunderstanding that then people
were labeling her something thatshe wasn't.
Mm-hmm.
Because they didn't get it.
Like you were just saying, likethe diversity piece is so
important.
The cultural piece is soimportant.
And if you're gonna go on a showthat is going to embrace
(33:01):
diversity in the casting andengagement, then you gotta be
more open-minded and aware.
They haven't had thoseexperiences.
As Puerto Rican women, we getit.
Loud, proud, beautiful, funny,emotional women.
That's our norm.
Touchy-feely, huggers.
(33:21):
I mean, she's Caribbean, half ofour background is Caribbean.
Right?
And like, that's just theculture, the culture is loud,
engaged, funny, uses certainlanguage, like touch, we touch
each other's shoulders.
Like we're not creepy, but weare like, yeah, we, we each
other, we like close people.
That's what intimacy looks likefor that culture.
(33:43):
And it's like, everything islike, con carino, like we do it
with care and affection and loveand love.
Not like, oh my God, I wannamarry you love but like, oh, I
see you and I appreciate you,kind of affection.
At times, you know, and like,and this is for everybody, she
was edited to seem like she wasannoying at times and that, you
(34:05):
know, might have been doneintentionally to create a
narrative there just to keeplike the interest of the viewer.
I would see when she would begetting ready, you know, her
demeanor was normal, she wascalm.
No matter what culture you comefrom when you're put in spaces
that you're trying to interactwith someone and you don't
necessarily vibe with them, thebest parts of you ain't gonna
come out.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
(34:25):
So I think like, her being withAustin, they made the decision,
both of them to be in the game.
Because Amaya tried to put hergenuine foot forward mm-hmm.
Where she was like trying tomake a connection but Austin was
very resistant and like, theonly reason he was like, leaning
into it or from the way thatthey portrayed it, was that he
was getting action from Amaya.
You know, and Amaya wasgenuinely like, I just want
(34:46):
somebody to like me and I wantsomeone to hug me and like, show
me interest, you know?
And then when she was like,wait, you don't like me as a
person?
That really hurts my feelings.
I think it was a lot of sexismtoo.
I think of the cultural piecebut I do think that the men
really jumped on this.
Oh, you're too clingy, you'retoo overbearing, it's too much.
You need to tone yourself down.
(35:08):
And that's where the culturalpiece comes in.
Like, she said, if I'm not yourcup of tea, don't drink it.
Don't pretend that you'reinterested in me and don't
pretend that you wanna hang outwith me.
And then turn around and tell meI'm too much, knowing very well
that I just am who I am.
I was disappointed in all of'emfor not standing up for her
austin, Ace, they all like shiton her so hard in that circle.
(35:33):
Yeah, there was the tonality ofsexism there.
There was also a tonality oflike cultural misalignment.
Maybe they just genuinely neverdealt with like a Latina woman.
Yeah, I noticed that when Brian,the one that she ended up
winning the whole show with.
When he stood up for her and hewas like, no, wait a minute,
like, you guys are getting thiswrong this is, this is our
(35:54):
culture, you're forgetting thatlike, she's a Latina, this is
part of who she is.
Like that's normal to us.
I saw in Ace's face itregistered and he had a moment
of like, oh shit.
That's why I liked Ace.
But also the girls like goingback to the girl code, like they
didn't stand up for her and thatma that bothered me.
At the time of the circle,Sierra, you're a Latina.
(36:16):
Yeah.
Why are you letting everybodyhate on her?
But also Sierra's she's a very,Americanized Latina from what I
can see is like, she may notalso agree with it'cause she may
not also do those things.
That's why I feel like you haveto have someone like Brian who's
like, wait a minute, she's justlike the people that I know and
I love, you know.
She's not trying to freakingmarry you.
She's not trying to bedisrespectful and like, and if
(36:38):
you don't, and if you feel likeit's a lot for you, then you
just have to communicate that toher.
But this is the part that's likeyou are exploring people of
different cultures, in the likesthat you probably never have on
camera because it's like ifyou're doing it in private and
you can have takeaways andmeaningful moments of learning
outside of a camera, but you'redoing it in front of a camera
(36:58):
they're capturing it all.
What bothers me too is in thisidea of like, shows like this,
like where it's like romance anddating.
It's like a fetish for Latinawomen, they're sexy and they're
all this and that until theyopen their mouth and then all
of, now all of a sudden it'sthis like huge judgment on them.
They wanna romanticize it.
(37:19):
They're perpetuating thosestereotypes?
And had Brian not said anything,it would've just went unchecked
nobody in that circle would haveaddressed the fact that, hey,
maybe she's not the problem.
Maybe y'all the problem becauseyou're not being open to
understand the differencesbetween each of you.
(37:42):
If they're ignorant to it, theywouldn't know.
No, listen, ACE is from L.A.
I've dealt with a lot of peoplefrom L.A.
that come from differentcultures and that are very
ignorant of different culturesthan their own or what they're
like normally exposed to.
So if he's not exposed toCaribbean women and he doesn't
understand how they move, it canmake him uncomfortable.
(38:04):
Ace particularly has realspecific standards, the way that
he moved throughout the show,even with Shelly, like, he was
like very guarded, right?
Well, it's because he is a bigsoftie.
But because of the way he movedand she was so like, babe, and
he's like, no, this is too much.
And he was like, I'm a set aboundary like super quick.
(38:25):
You know?
The way he set the boundary wasreal ugly too.
Which is the machismo side ofit, the deeply rooted in
patriarchy approach to things,right?
That's the machismo side oflike, well, I'm gonna set a
boundary because I'm the man andI don't want you as the woman to
be too much.
But I also think that it camefrom a place like they didn't
know any better and it tooksomeone like Brian to say, hey,
wait, hang on a second let meadd a perspective here that
(38:46):
changes and gives you nuance.
And for the most part, a lot ofthem changed the way they worked
with her after that.
After Brian finally said, youknow, wait a minute, you guys
have blinders on here.
You're not seeing X, Y, and Z.
And then they were like, oh,you're right.
Now all of a sudden the girlswere a little bit more inclusive
of Amaya.
Yeah.
Because the cultural dynamics,that's where all the details and
the nuance lives.
(39:09):
And that's where the depth livestoo.
And for a show like this whereit's really superficial surface
level with people that weretrying to get deep and create
like deep connection, deepfriendships and whatnot.
They were really missing themark in a lot of ways which is
really unfortunate that thatplayed out, but I'm glad that
(39:31):
they addressed it in the showand that Brian said something.
And, you know, defended her,even if it was I felt like he
was being genuine about itbecause later he had said
something about like, shereminded him of his family, of
his own mom.
And he didn't like that the waythat they were digging in on
(39:51):
her.
It seemed very genuine becausenumber one, she's gorgeous, she
looks like a freaking Disneycharacter.
And they came from similarbackgrounds.
So there was a lot of connectionthere.
How would you rate this show?
10 outta 10?
Five?
Yeah.
If there's nothing else on tv,I'll watch it but I'm not gonna
(40:12):
go out of my way to continue.
Because the show itself was toomuch, it was too confusing.
I was too disgusted by all ofthe spit swapping.
You there is a tasteful amountand this one just pushed it too
far.
It was just like, really?
This is so unnecessary.
It wasn't sexy, it wasn't cuteanymore.
It was just kind of gross.
There's an element there.
(40:32):
Like you kind of find thebalance.
You knew every time they weregonna do a challenge, that's all
it was gonna be, was a make outsession.
What's interesting about thisshow is there was a, a sense of
over sexualized engagement.
Which like you said at thebeginning, right?
Like that's not what love isabout.
So they need to change the title'cause it's not Love Island.
(40:53):
That's what they should call it.
Exploration island.
If you like to explore swappingspit with 20 different people.
Please tell me that you guyshave a frigging Listerine
person, a dedicated Listerineperson.
It took 10 years of watching it,so I don't know how long they
recorded it.
I started the show when I was,27.
I was 32 when I started.
(41:13):
I'm now 46.
What does that tell you?
Come on.
I'm gonna be real.
I didn't really like this show.
I didn't love it.
I think people love it becauseit gives them an outlet for
whatever they might be missingin their personal lives in terms
of like what they're comfortableexploring for themselves and
things.
But for me it was like, I feltso bad for the people in the
(41:33):
show.
I was like, this is not normal.
And I didn't like how many bugswere on the show.
I mean there were some partsthat that were like interesting.
I will say that, you know, orwhen they started stirring up
stuff, it was like, oh, okay,we're gonna see some people
react.
And when you're reacting thereare parts of you that you are
not showing that start to comeout.
(41:55):
They're true colors.
I don't disagree with theirthoughts on Jeremiah and like
voting him out.
I think he should have beenvoted out a long time ago.
I was surprised that like Hudaus stayed and had more
opportunities.
I mean, yeah, girl's trying tofigure herself out.
I was just like, isn't that whatthey're supposed to be here to
(42:17):
do?
Isn't this the point of theshow?
To figure it out.
What I found fascinating was thetribe mentality that was playing
out.
You're either in or you're outand we have to accept you and
you have to follow these rules.
Who do you like least?
The way that they wererepresented on the show, who I
liked least would be austin.
(42:39):
He wasn't really showing toomuch of who he really was.
Something about him, I couldn'tfigure it out.
I just didn't like him.
He was a arc.
He wasn't even 27, he was like43, with his like.
700 body count?
Something the insane.
Barney Stinson style.
He was definitely in it for themoney.
That's what I felt.
(43:00):
I felt like he's in it for themoney.
He was intentional because healways flirted with the host,
and she would come in.
Oh yeah, yeah.
He would always make a littlecomment.
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, Hmm, you'regross.
Well, when you're 43, yeah, thatmakes sense.
I'm a pool boy, like you're apool man.
You're a male escort onCraigslist.
That's how he got that numberFacebook Marketplace.
(43:21):
How about you?
The person I liked the least wasJeremiah.
I knew you were gonna say that.
He just gave me, disingenuine,dishonest vibes.
I thought somebody like that canbe very predatorial.
So of course he's gonna go forthe one that is the most
(43:43):
insecure, who is like showingher emotions on her sleeve'cause
she can be manipulated moreeasily and controlled more
easily.
And goldmine, she's a mom inanother touch point that I can
control and manipulate.
He just felt very predatorial tome and I did not like that.
I wasn't buying anything he wasselling, you know?
I also didn't like Sierra on thegirl side, I didn't think she
(44:07):
was genuine either.
I do think she liked Nick andshe was really like trying to
figure that out'cause I thinkher intention was to come on
here and play a role forvisibility and there's a part
where you can see when they'rein like Casa Amor, where she's
like upset and she's likestruggling a little bit and
(44:27):
she's like mad at herself forit.
I do think she actually startedto like him.
And now she was like tornbetween am I still playing the
role or should I just kind oftry to be myself now?
But when she started doing themean girl stuff with Shelly, I
was like, yep.
Called it Nope.
What about Taylor?
Hot takes on Taylor.
This is where the doublestandard comes in again, she was
(44:49):
totally okay with keeping Tayloron the sideline while she was
exploring Jaylen and Taylor wasjust there watching.
I forgot about Jaylen, he was ablip in my mind.
And then, when Taylor actuallyhad interest in the other person
and I can see why he picked her,because I think he felt one, the
(45:10):
connection to that she was moreinto him.
I like Taylor and I liked Clark.
She was consistent the wholetime.
What you got was what you got.
You know, like if she was mycoworker, I'd love to hang out
with her at work.
Yeah.
She was pretty chill.
What I saw with Taylor and Clarkwas that Taylor was so giddy
(45:32):
about Clark from the get.
He had those butterflies withClark.
You know, that he did not havewith Olandria.
And so to, for me to be like asa onlooker, like, yeah, but you
should be with her because she'sbetter.
As a person.
That's my own personal opinion.
I would never want somebody todo that to me'cause it's about
how you feel when you're makinga decision about who you wanna
(45:53):
end up with, so, you know, I waspretty disappointed that America
voted them off.
This is the name of the game.
He's there to try to find aconnection and if he realized
right away that like, actuallythis is a stronger connection
for me.
And so he went for it and thenhe got hate for it.
I think the part that he gothate for was that he still kept
the option open with Olandriabut only because he didn't wanna
(46:16):
hurt her feelings.
And because I do think he likedher, I think he respected her
and he didn't wanna hurt her.
And he didn't wanna be the badguy.
The way he kissed her, I waslike, he doesn't like her that
much.
He's trying to, he likes her asa person, but he doesn't have
that physical connection.
And remember what we talkedabout, love is not blind.
It is not blind.
And there has to be some kind ofphysical chemistry.
Its multi-layered..
Yeah.
And he did have that with theother girl.
(46:38):
Especially and kept Austin onwhat the, you kept Austin over
them.
I dunno how Austin made itthrough.
Like honestly, like if theywould've cut and he would've
just been cleaning the pool formost of the season, it would, I
would've been like, yeah, thatmakes sense.
That would've been really funnyactually.
Missed opportunity producers.
(46:58):
You wanna hire us by the way?
What about the, what about thecommentary guy?
I loved him.
He was my favorite part of theshow.
So here's my take you don't needthat many after sun episodes?
Maybe just one after sun episodein the center in the middle,
catch everybody up.
Move on.
Tone down the makeout sessions.
Just make it more classy.
Yeah, just tone it down a littlebit.
I'm just watching a Carl's Jr adlike where the girls are like
(47:21):
rubbing the burgers and stuffand they're like shooting water
hoses at them that's what itfelt like during all those make
out sessions.
When they would do the slow mos,please don't.
What happened to like mystery.
They had a full on sex room inthere.
Yeah, the hideaway, which theydidn't showcase until the end.
The couple, the two couples thatwent in there with the
(47:42):
bombshells.
Oh yeah, yeah.
They just like spanked eachother and fell asleep.
I'm so curious how many peopleactually go on the like Love
island or other relatable showsand really think that they're
gonna find love.
I can see it more for love isblind.
And that's why they're open tohigher age ranges.
(48:03):
Because I think when you go onit you have this doubt, but
you're also like, maybe, maybe Ican find them here.
I think for Love Island it, ifyou're going in it because you
really wanna be open to the ideaof maybe finding your soulmate
there.
That's like thinking you'regonna find your dream boat up in
(48:24):
the club.
He's gonna be grinding onanother girl from a distance,
we're gonna make eye contact.
Exactly.
He's gonna walk over and belike, you know what?
I saw you and I was like, you'remy boo.
It's very reminiscent of clubculture.
Oh, that's an interesting takeactually because you saying it's
very reminiscent of clubculture.
These shows are.
Usually looking for like ahookup or someone maybe you
could go out with, you weren'treally looking for like, oh, I'm
(48:45):
gonna find my true love.
Club culture, like for me, Iwould be like, I just wanna go
dance and then maybe just havesomebody that takes me out on
dates.
Some sort of connection,interest.
Someone that shows you likeinterest.
But not like, oh, I'm gonna getdressed up in my holiest clothes
and go find my future husband.
I mean, some people thought likethat, but not for the majority.
It was like, we're just gonna gohave a good time and meet
(49:06):
people.
Hopefully we meet some coolpeople that maybe wanna hang out
with again.
Oh, that's so interesting thatyou're saying this'cause now I'm
like, I see what the producersdid.
They picked, who they wouldconsider the hottest people in
the club.
They put them in a villa.
You're in this unusualenvironment.
The hottest people in the clubcrammed all together.
Yeah.
To see what happens.
(49:27):
So let's just call it what itis, it's a fun little social
experiment where they are tryingtheir best to make everyone have
anxiety.
Love Island might look like justanother dating show, but it's
also a low key sociologyexperiment, maybe with some
better outfits.
From performative kissing tofriendship politics this season
(49:49):
reminded us that being seen,supported, and respected matters
more than a spark or a kisscount.
So next time someone tries torush your heart or ice you out
in the name of loyalty.
Ask yourself, is this real or isthis just reality TV in
disguise?
Thanks for tuning in.
Keep your heart open and yourred flag radar sharp.
(50:12):
And remember, some of y'all aremoving like you're in a villa
and it's showing.
You know who you are.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Welcome back to Andy and Mitch,the podcast where two sisters,
two generations, and way toomany feelings come together to
talk about life, love, and theabsolute madness of modern
reality tv.
And today we are taking youstraight to the villa.
That's right, Love Island USASeason 7.
And let's just say there was somuch tongue, not enough
(00:24):
emotional depth or mouthwash forthat matter.
We're talking about everythingfrom the performative romance
and kiss, counting, chaos to thefriendship, politics, bro code
loyalty, and when girl codeturns into low key bullying.
Plus we've got thoughts oncultural bias, tribe behavior,
(00:44):
and why some contestants getoverlooked no matter how real
they actually are.
So grab your cafecito or youriced green tea and let's dive
in.
Love island, season seven, firstof all, why is it a thousand
episodes?
it was longer than Lord of theRings.
It was so long, that's 36 hours.
(01:06):
I mean, I get they're recording24/7, but like, is that
necessary?
Do I have to give up a quarterof my life to watch this show?
Number two, can we talk abouthow everyone was like making
out, like the amount of spitswapping that happens, like
right out the gate just blew mymind.
(01:27):
It definitely set the tone forwhat was in store but even that
didn't prepare me.
The other part of that is like,where was the mouthwash?
I hope somebody soleresponsibility is to give them
mouthwash.
Also like, do they even realizethat they're just all kissing
each other?
They're getting everybody'ssaliva in their mouth.
I feel like anybody that's likeinto biology is like, this is
(01:50):
the grossest thing I've everseen because of the amount of
DNA that's being passed.
It was a lot, it was over thetop.
We only watched this seasonbecause it's been like popping
off, like everybody's beentalking about it.
And even online, right?
Like how this has been like thebest season of Love Island USA
so far.
So I'm like, okay, let's seewhat this is all about and then
(02:12):
I saw that happening like in thefirst episode and I was like,
okay.
And number one, I understand whypeople are all into it.
It just really should be calledMake Out Island because I don't
think there's a whole lot oflove in this show.
I mean at least some of theseother shows, there's like an
introductory period, where likepeople are kind of getting to
know each other before it maybegets a little crazy but they
(02:34):
just fool on through these kidsinto chaos.
It's like, hey what's yourbiggest fear in a relationship?
Que full on make out sessionwith 20 people.
It's 100%.
There's a huge differencebetween like chemistry, like
physical attraction and thisseason was giving like shallow
end of the pool.
What was your initial likethought when you first watched
(02:57):
the show?
I had some interns that wereobsessed with Love Island.
They would always talk about itand I'd never sat down to watch
it, I had no interest.
And then we decided to do thisepisode, so sitting down and
watching it, and thenremembering all the
conversations that they hadabout it, I was like, got it.
Would you have gone on a showlike this, I mean, they're all
twenties.
It's not for me, I don't think Iever had that phase.
(03:19):
I definitely think I would neverhave gone on that show, if I had
seen what the season entailed.
The cluster make out sessionsand stuff, like, that's not for
me but I don't shame anyone or Idon't have any negative feelings
about people that do go on thatstuff.
It's like people givingthemselves the permission to
explore.
So it's almost like yourtwenties condensed, like all the
(03:42):
years of your twenties condensedinto two months.
Because it's like they got afree pass to just act wild and
crazy'cause it's on TV andthat's what's being asked of
them.
Which is kind of crazy when youthink about it.
That, season got 18.4 billionminutes of views.
It's like peacock's most watchedoriginal season ever.
(04:05):
18.4 billion minutes, over 54million social media
interactions and their TikTokgrew up to 232%.
Really?
Like, that's why I was like,what's the deal?
Why is this such a big deal?
Why did it blow up?
Cause they were saying a lotduring the show, like, oh, this
is new or for the first timeever.
(04:27):
It was also the first, Latinocouple to win Love Island USA in
all of the seasons so far.
Oh, wow.
That's pretty cool.
It's interesting because it'slike a quote unquote love dating
show.
Where they're trying to findlove, and I think it's defined
in all the wrong ways for thisshow, but it really is also a
competition, right?
This is a game, it had like verymuch game show attributes to it.
(04:51):
Yes.
And it does have a, a prize atthe end too.
It's like a cash prize.
When I was thinking about it, Istarted really trying to like
challenge myself, okay, whywould 20 year olds love this?
There's a lot of socialimplications.
It's very freeing to themprobably to see stuff like this,
because I was reading somestatistics about like the
(05:14):
younger generations are reallyconservative compared to the
older generations.
And so this is kind of like ashock and awe for them.
And then the other element thatblew my mind was this concept
that it does give them theopportunity to explore beyond
socially structured oracceptable norms and outside of
(05:37):
their own culture.
In a way that.
Is hyper explorative, right,they're like Dora, exploring the
shit out of them.
Because it's normalized on theshow and that's like the con the
concept going into it.
They all have this likeunderstanding like, we're going
into this, we're beingopen-minded and we're just
trying new things.
And so they created such astrong bond, the original villa
(06:01):
and I think it was because theyhad created a community within
themselves that allowedthemselves to explore without
being demonized or shunned.
That's really fascinating the,that like younger generations
are more conservative.
Yeah, so in hookup culture, genZ is having less frequent sex
averaging three times per monthlower than millennials, and
(06:21):
showing less participation inone night stands overall
reporting 23% are open to casualhookups while 62% say they and
their peers typically avoidthem.
Though, nearly 48% of Gen Zteens consider casual sex about
65 say, sex should occur when incommitted relationships with
roughly 40% reporting low or nointerest in sex at all.
(06:45):
Yeah.
I mean, it makes sense be to mein some ways because of,
technology and the culture thatthat drives.
Where we've talked about before,like people aren't spending time
together the way that they usedto they're not forming those
connections.
And 52 to 63% are open tonon-traditional arrangements.
So that is where they are moreexplorative.
(07:05):
Most lean toward monogamy andemotional alignment rather than
casual or polyamorous setups,but they are more open to
non-traditional arrangements.
I mean it was shock and awe forme.
Also, the language, it'sdefinitely geared toward younger
generations.
I will say that it's definitelygeared toward baby millennials
(07:26):
and gen Zs, right?
Because the language they wereusing, I was like, I need a
social language dictionary.
They all were using similarslang terms and different things
That I was like, I, I felt veryeducated by the end of this
series.
And some of the things that theywould say to describe things
(07:46):
like the cap.
No cap.
No cap.
Stand on your business.
The cap.
Crashing out.
I feel like in my generation weused crashing, like, I'm gonna
crash out.
But it meant somethingdifferent.
Like, I'm gonna go to sleep.
Yeah.
Like I'm spent When I firststarted watching it, I think I
really felt like one, it wasvery performative I felt like
(08:09):
majority, if not all of themwere there because they want
screen time.
And they're really interested inlike, making a name for
themselves or seeing what opother opportunities can come
from being on a show like this,which does happen for a lot of
these folks.
Their host Ariana, she's fromVanderpump Rules, she's a OG
reality TV girl.
Some people could see this as anopportunity for a career.
(08:31):
Yes to advance their careers ortry to make it or get other job
opportunities because I do thinkwith the younger generations,
you know, social media orreality TV is an avenue that
they see as a very viableopportunity.
How do you feel about thepressure that was applied for
people who needed to appearbonded in order for them to get
(08:54):
more time on screen?
I will say, as much as I loveNick, I really felt that with
him because I genuinely waslike, oh, I like him as like a
person, right?
Like he has a cool little vibeto him.
He's like, seems really down toearth.
He did seem to really want toexplore everything.
All the time.
And he was cute, attractive fora young, for a youngin.
(09:15):
He kind of reminded me of like ayoung James Marsden.
He very much had that vibe.
Yeah.
I think he was like a model tooor something.
No, nick was a nurse.
Oh yeah nick is a nurse, buthe's, you know what's weird is
later in the season he talksabout modeling.
I'm sure he probably did modelat some point.
That's why he had that like verycharismatic, caring, nurturing
(09:38):
kind of tendency, I feel like,'cause of his profession.
But Amaya was also a nurse.
Amaya, but she felt like a nursethough.
We'll talk about her in a minute'cause I actually really liked
Amaya, but.
I do too.
We'll talk about thecontroversy.
I felt that with Nick.
I did feel that definitely withAustin.
Again with the men I felt likeon, they were genuinely trying
(09:58):
to explore but they also wantedto get as far as possible there
was two motives there.
And like, it was pretty clearand I couldn't really pick up
too much outside of Huda for thewomen that that was the case,
maybe Iris.
That they were more focused onplaying the game than just
finding quote unquote love or aconnection.
(10:20):
Yeah.
Actually, I think Iris kind oftoo, because she had such a
strong connection with TJ andthen she kind of was like, yeah,
I could explore Pepe, but it waspretty clear that she was like,
I don't really like him.
There's signs that we dophysiologically when we don't
necessarily like someone, orwe're not really attracted to
them.
And one of them is the piercingof the lips.
But, okay, i'm gonna saysomething really controversial.
(10:44):
She had lip fillers, so shecan't stop pursing her lips.
Like they're permanently, like,she could barely move her face
around.
No, don't be mean.
It wasn't just her, a lot ofother girls had the same thing.
Ciera got let go, she also hasBotox lip filler.
Are you sure?
Yeah.
It was a post that she wasposting about getting injections
(11:06):
that got her kicked off theshow.
The one from Utah.
She had all, they remind me ofSecret Lives of Marmon wives
because they're all young too,she had a boatload of plastic,
plastic surgery and like fillersand injections.
It breaks my heart becauselisten your youth is the time to
not do that.
That's the time for you to enjoythe beauty that you naturally
(11:26):
have and then when you get old,like me, you start exploring
other options.
If you, if you do it too soon,you're gonna screw yourself over
you're gonna look older faster.
It's a generational thing too.
'cause this, these youngergenerations are really big on
doing it like immediately.
I have a theory too.
And even the boys, because Iquestion, TJ.
(11:49):
Oh, did he have Botox?
He was from Florida.
He looked like he had somethingwork done on his face.
He just looked like he had noemotion to me.
For real?
They were like, oh, he lookslike, Leonardo DiCaprio and I
was like leonardo DiCaprio alsolooks like he has no emotion.
He also dates like 12 year oldsall the time and he's like a
57-year-old man.
(12:09):
Anyway, back to the point.
No hate, no shade, just love.
I'm gonna say that for now whenI say controversial things.
The intimacy as currency in gameformat was kind of crazy too.
Yeah, I think that's what threwme off'cause I think it made me
feel confused of what kind ofshow am I watching?
What am I paying attention to?
(12:30):
They know it's a game, sothey're all gonna play each
other to try to get ahead.
And then what stood out to memore was not so much the
relationship connections but thefriendship connections that they
were making.
And I wonder if that was just away for them to kind of protect
themselves so that they couldconnect with people but also
still play the game.
(12:50):
You know what I mean?
It also felt like okay, likesome diabolical producers'cause
they do some diabolical shit tothem in the show.
We're like, hey, let's just tryeverything because every time
they would meet up for achallenge or something, it was
always a different approach toit.
Yeah.
(13:10):
And the way they wereeliminating them was different.
And then they started havingthem eliminate each other, and
that was cold.
I was like, holy cow.
I'm gonna say something that'skind of controversial, but I
truly believe this is thatwhoever is the show runner or
producers were big fans of SquidGame.
Oh, is that the it gave you?
I've never seen Squid Game.
Yes that's the vibe it gives mebut Squid Game ends with murder,
(13:31):
no one got killed on loveisland.
But it felt like that, wherethey make them kind of question
themselves, turn against eachother, they're basically baiting
and creating a perfect settingfor tension and trouble.
And I will give credit wherecredit's due, this cast
definitely did a good job ofmitigating that because they
(13:52):
could be, they could have beenway more reactive.
Mm-hmm.
And really the only times thatwe saw some significant
reactions was between, you know,Huda and that situation with
Jeremiah.
And then, Olandria and Taylorbut outside of that, most of
like any kind of negativetension was not broadcasted in
(14:13):
the editing.
Yeah.
For the most part, they didreally well as a cast,
navigating the kind ofintentional turmoil.
You're trying to walk the linebetween like being yourself, but
like also performing to belikable, have a certain kind of
experience here or whatnot.
By the first, second week yougotta be exhausted.
(14:35):
They also had them on aschedule, so they'd wake'em up
at a certain time.
Send them to sleep at a certaintime.
Like this was such a controlledenvironment.
That was very experimental andthat does something to your
psyche.
I feel like once they're out ofthere, they're probably watching
it back, like an actor wouldwatch a movie.
Not even that they were acting,but like, it would be a similar
(14:57):
kind of experience because likeyou said, it was very controlled
and intentional environment thatthey put them in and you really
don't know how you're gonnareact to that until you're in
it.
And so it's likely that thepeople that we saw on screen are
very specific versions of thesepeople.
Probably a little bit morelikable.
They came off fairly likable.
When they first started Uhhuh,who do you think were drawn to
(15:20):
each other because they hadgenuine vibes?
Shelly seemed to have reallygenuine intentions for Ace.
Huda actually seemed to havegenuine intentions for Jeremiah,
they were just both not a goodfit.
It was very toxic.
He was love bombing her hard.
Yeah.
And I do think he was playingthe game.
it was interesting because Idon't think he knows he's a
(15:41):
manipulator.
I think he genuinely thought hewas being genuine but then once
he recoupled, I was like, oh,okay, so this is your M.O.
Even like when he wasexplaining, when they were
sharing their numbers.
It became clear like, oh, you'vetold a lot of people that you
love them.
It was a red flag for the boys,I was surprised with that.
I think Olandria was probablyone of the more genuine people
(16:02):
on the show.
She probably was the most Iwould say genuine.
I would also say Ace was prettymuch himself the entire time.
ACE is a big softie and he wastrying to be too cool and too
hard in the beginning, but hewas pretty consistent.
(16:22):
Like everything that he said wasconsistent.
He didn't really change what histhoughts were, or his approach
to things.
So he didn't feel likemanipulative.
Olandria was definitely beingherself but she was very
guarded.
Oh dude.
When she went off, I was like,this girl has been played.
Yeah, she was really hurt.
(16:42):
Because she's such a genuineperson, you know that that was
like deep pain that came out.
Dude, for sure because you neverknow, like you're gonna get
triggered.
You can get triggered bysomething in the present and
then all the feelings from thepast come with that.
Especially if it hasn't beendealt with, you know?
Yeah.
I also wonder like, did you feellike the show was overproduced?
(17:06):
'cause in some parts I felt likehow much of this is the
producer's?
Planting seeds, manipulating theengagement versus how much of it
is actually just organicallyhappening and it is what they're
capturing on the cameras.
It's a combination to somedegree, there was obviously
production that went behind it.
(17:26):
For the challenges hyperproduced.
Like they told them make outhard with everybody, borderline
stripper.
Just to get those camera angles,you have to be very
instructional with people andthere's multiple cameras the
lighting, so that was superhyper produced.
When you go to the villa stuff,maybe they were pulling people
(17:47):
aside and letting them knowcertain things.
Prompting them to go talk withsomebody or.
I think editing goes a reallylong way, like you can change an
entire narrative with editing.
Yeah.
I felt a lot of the time theywere just like laying around all
day and then also why was nobodyever in the swimming pool?
Like rarely.
Was anybody ever in the swimmingpool?
It was like they jumped inbecause of some celebration or
(18:08):
being goofy, but it was like athousand degrees I'm certain and
they're just lounging aroundbecause it's hot and
uncomfortable and they're forcedto be outside all day.
Yeah, there's a funny, satireshow where this comedian he does
a love island skit and he getskicked off the island'cause he
(18:31):
won't stop using the zip line tojump into the swimming pool.
And she's like, I don't eventhink you're here to find love.
I think you're here just to usea zip line and this shows
multiple times as he zip linesinto the pool.
It's the funniest shit ever.
Like behind people and stuff.
I definitely think it was a lotof heavy editing.
I also think they didn't wantthem in the pool because, you
(18:53):
know, people don't look ascamera ready.
That's where maybe productionkind of stepped in.
Which would suck like, you're inFiji, it's hot as hell.
Alright, let's talk about thebromance.
This is when I started torealize that the friendship
dynamic became a very bighighlight in this season and
that might also be why peoplewere really drawn to it because
(19:13):
we've talked about this before,right?
The loneliness epidemic, Ishould say, is real, you don't
often get to see people actuallytrying to bond with each other
and create friendships.
Because that became like anotherlayer that almost became more
interesting than the romanceparts.
Yeah.
But the romances were sointeresting.
(19:36):
Especially for the first group.
And you can see how much theybecame bonded, both the girls
and the boys as they brought newpeople in later, there was the
one, the one episode where theythought Nick was getting kicked
off and they started bawling.
And one thing that my partnersaid to me who was watching it
with me was, it is so hard formen to make friends.
(19:58):
Even when they're at that age,even in their twenties'cause
they're not in high schoolanymore, where you have more
access to people to try tomaintain friendships.
Once you're out of that, it isharder to make friends.
And for men it's even harder,harder than for women'cause
we'll seek out like connectionswith people.
Yeah.
Where men aren't really taughthow to do that and prioritize
that.
So they actually got along welland they just had this
(20:21):
opportunity to like really bondwith each other and the fact
that they were crying, they werelike bawling.
I think Ace at one point waslike, we're talking about him,
like he's dead.
What about the Girls Girl Codeor Mean Girls?
It was Girl Code at first and atsome point Shelly became pretty
(20:42):
selfish.
Right?
And I was shocked.
I really, I was disappointed.
Shelly, I think I was kind ofsurprised'cause I was like, how
are you gonna play that card onHuda when you are the one that
is keeping the door open?
After telling this man that youwanted to become closed off with
him until they gave you anotheroption.
(21:04):
There was a double standardthere.
And she became a littleterritorial with Ace.
So that when Huda was playingthe game as they've been asked
to play.
That she turned into a mean girlon her and Sierra was the other
one too.
I did not like that, the waythat Sierra also became.
Like Huda had her own issues,right.
(21:25):
She was not, an angel by anymeans.
Seeing how her personalityplayed out, it was not
intentional, like she didn't doit to like hurt her feeling.
She was like, okay, I'm justgonna go all in and then it
backfired and then the originalgirls started to turn on her.
They were creating these likeunspoken rules and boundaries
and expectations of each other,of each other that were
(21:48):
contradictory to the point ofthem being on the show to begin
with.
And Huda was technically singleand that other guy was single.
Shelly made it very clear thatshe wanted him to chase her and
earn her.
And you know, when you showsomebody interest, it needs to
be a two-way street.
She wasn't even talking to theother guy and she told Ace as
she was.
It very much in the early, earlyepisodes felt like, okay, cool,
(22:12):
they're bonding the girl code.
Right?
Like they're really taking careof each other, looking out for
each other, being open with eachother.
Right.
And then it flipped real quickand became like mean girls and I
noticed it before because whenthey started bringing in new
bombshells they wouldn't likepull them into the inner circle
(22:33):
and then once casa amorhappened, if you notice in the
filming you'll see the casa moregirls were separate than the
original Villa girls.
They were not like open toadding anybody else into their
group.
That like solidified theirlittle mean girl core and it
also kind of show showcasedShelly as the ringleader.
(22:57):
Well, that did a disservice toher character and that's why
America voted the way they did.
Because it was, it was shocking'cause that was not how she was
carrying herself the entiretime.
No.
And then it created, like, I wastalking with other people about
it, and they were like, yeah.
It made me feel like, oh, soyou've been playing this whole
time.
You are not showing us who youreally are, but you're
(23:17):
pretending to be reallyauthentic.
Whether that was her intentionor not, that's the shift that
happened because she was verymuch like, well now you're not
part of our group, so we're justnot vibing now.
You know, like, that's not thekind of friend I want but girl,
you were not being a good friendeither.
You were putting your stuff onher and making it about her to
(23:38):
take the heat off of you andwhat you were doing that your
own coupled up person wastelling you like, Hey, you
doubled back on this guy.
Yeah, that was, you kissed him,went forward, came back and did
it again.
I think that was ruder than Hudalap dancing on him or whatever.
Yeah, she did like a full onstrip tease.
(23:58):
She did it to make Chris jealousbut outside of that, there's
nothing and Ace is a hundredpercent for Shelly.
As women, we're veryintentional.
And yes, we're smart.
Yeah, we're smart as hell andwe're also cruel as hell.
I also feel like she got realjealous that he was not pursuing
her in the villa and he was sofocused on Huda.
(24:19):
And I think that's even more sowhy Huda became a target.
Then her using this idea like,oh, well you broke girl code.
To just take it out on her tothe point.
For sure because one of thethings that I loved about
Chris's character in this wholething is like he very much knows
who he is to the degree where hewas like, nah.
He would just be like, shellywas being wishy-washy, he was
(24:42):
like, I ain't gonna do that.
Focus on Huda and then Hudastarted showing all, you know,
her imperfections and then hewas like, hang on a second.
Huda, the only reason why itwasn't even her imperfections,
she very much is just trying tofigure out who she is still.
And it's very clear that she'sgoing through that part of her
life.
Well, they're, they're allbabies.
I mean, also the basketballplayer was like 28, 29.
(25:03):
So he was one of the.
He was older.
More mature, older ones.
But also Huda has the differentdynamic of being a single mother
trying to find a partner andalso explore her twenties.
Your twenties are forexploration, whether it is that
you are actually going into acave or you're kissing 20
people, choose your ownadventure, design it, you could
do both.
But the point is that that'swhat it is, and that's what this
(25:24):
show really showcases.
I think with, Huda, her dynamicwith Chris that I didn't favor
was that she hid him, and I getthe reasoning in her head as to
why she might've done that'causeof how things went when Jeremiah
love bombing her and how thatplayed out for her, you know,
becoming like the leastfavorites, almost voted off
multiple times.
She didn't want people to judgeher for it.
(25:45):
But I think that really messedup her opportunity to get really
close to someone who wasgenuine.
Which is that Chris fella.
Who didn't care that she was aparent, straight out the gate
didn't gasp like Jeremiah did.
Oh, that was such a cringeymoment.
Do you think the other girlswere judging her for that
without like, even though theydidn't say it and they said they
were like, okay.
And supportive of her, but doyou think that was one of the
(26:07):
things?
'cause I feel like they alwayskind of treated her a little bit
on the outs.
Oh yeah.
Because even when they broughtin new girls, Huda was one of
the ones who was always outthere talking to all the new
people.
Trying to like make connectionswith them too and the like new
girls.
Even as a young parent, you kindof gotta figure out your shit
before a lot of other peoplebecause you're raising a kid.
(26:30):
And so Huda has a little bitmore of like a self-developed
image.
The only thing that I reallysabotaged her wasn't really, I
mean, outside of her personalcommunication issues with
calling everybody a bitch.
The thing that I saw thatsabotage her the most was her
wanting to be liked.
She wanted to be included sobad, you know, by the wrong
(26:50):
people.
Olandria was the only one thatreally sat down with Huda and
had like a real conversationwith her.
And apologized.
But the other two, Shelly andsierra they were a little
problematic in that zone.
And very much acting like theywere older than they are.
So it was kind of interesting tosee play out.
At the end of the day, we allmake mistakes and we all have
those moments, these momentshappen to many people throughout
(27:11):
the course of your life.
And I hope they look back andwatch that and they found
opportunities to developthemselves'cause that really
was, that was a lot to see as awoman.
Because you know what thissociety is all about
perpetuating drama betweenwomen.
Yeah.
Like, it sucks, but people loveto see women hating on women and
(27:33):
we as women fall into the trapover and over and over again.
And that's what we kind of sawplay out there is like you guys
were baited because they didthat.
Like sharing anonymous thoughtsabout each other, whatever.
So they were all emotional, allheightened, and then they
started just digging in on eachother, Instead of like
addressing the real issues inthe space, they started hating
(27:56):
on each other which is like thething that we're fighting so
hard to move away from.
So you can't use language likegirl code", but you were also
being rude and disrespectful toyour girl.
I think there were underlyingjudgements about her being a mom
and being there on this show,subtle, unspoken, but it
impacted the way that theyviewed and engaged with her
(28:17):
because they were judging herfor it.
Not all women, but there aresome people, and I'm gonna say
this, and women are gonna know,oh, yep.
I'm no person like that.
They move in a way where they'reso, so certain of themselves,
it's almost rigid.
There's no room for flexibilitythere.
We're human and you gotta besomewhat malleable.
Be open to have a little bit ofgrace with other people and to
(28:40):
know that you're not perfect.
And you might make, you know,bad judgements or snide comments
or whatever and there's likeroom for development and growth
still.
Yeah.
But that rigidity is just, it'sinsecurities.
Being masked as I know myself.
They're all in their earlytwenties.
They're learning.
That I also found fascinatinghow they were trying to portray
themselves as so mature andgrown up, but like, but I'm
(29:04):
like, you're 22 years old.
What are you even talking aboutright now?
Majority of 20 year olds thinklike this.
You've barely stepped intoadulthood and you won't really
figure it out until you're maybein your mid thirties, maybe
early forties if you're lucky.
Yeah.
There was one scene where,Sierra, this was right before
she got kicked off, and I don'tremember who she was talking to.
(29:26):
I think it was Amaya, it was oneof the times Amaya was crying
and she was like giving her awhole speech about like, you
just need to stand in your worthand you just need to know who
you are.
You know, trying to give herthis hype up speech, but she
came at it like she was somature and so wise.
And Amaya's face too was like,yeah, I know, but that's like,
(29:47):
not why I am hurt.
You know what I mean?
My feelings were hurt and peoplearen't accepting me for who I
am, people want me to besomebody different.
And then I think it was not thatlong after that she got kicked
off the show.
Did she get kicked off?
She got kicked off.
Let's talk about it.
Two people got kicked off theshow.
I knew the first one.
The Cubana from the beginning..
She got kicked off and I thinkit's because she was on a
(30:08):
podcast and she said a racialslurs.
Oh gee.
And the show actually has it intheir contract that that is not
allowed so she got kicked off.
And then later in the show theybarely even talk about it.
Sierra got kicked off, which shewas also Latina.
I did not know that.
Because she posted something onsocial media about her getting
(30:31):
Botox and fillers and she used aracial slur against Asian people
in her post and it resurfacedand started circulating.
And from one day to the next,she was gone.
Was it an old post or a newpost?
It wasn't that old.
Oh.
Yeah, it was not that old.
I found on Reddit, somebodyposted a picture of the post.
(30:52):
Okay.
So you could see what it was.
And then she got kicked off.
So this is like some of the reallife stuff that the show very
quietly avoided and didn'treally talk about, but it was
like online and like the newsand people who were following
it.
Both for discriminatory posts,but they were removed with like
(31:15):
zero on air accountability, nodiscussion just gone.
Now that you've said that,that's very problematic and they
probably should have some kindof media accountability behind
it.
For the first girl, that'ssurprising'cause we didn't see
her at all.
Like she was off the show soquick but the, but for Sierra,
she, again, she painted herselfin a certain light.
(31:36):
Clearly there's room for growththere.
I definitely think that beingracist or discriminatory against
other people because of thecultural differences is very
ignorant and you definitelyshould maybe educate yourself a
little bit more and be open.
It's also like, comes from aplace of immaturity and
ignorance but it's interestingbecause those were two things
(31:57):
that happened that were relatedbut not really discussed or
pointed out on the show.
Like the show, the narrator justbriefly said, uh oh, so and so
has left the villa.
And then they went, moved onbecause they used the term left
the villa.
Mm-hmm.
Wasn't kicked off the villa, butthey were kicked off.
Which is different.
So that was one piece but in thesame like umbrella of thinking
(32:19):
about like diversity andculture, things came up with
Amaya, right.
That like were shown, but notlike fully shown or explored on
the show.
And there's probably footage ofit that they just edited out.
Likely, yeah.
But with Amaya's personalitybeing big and loud.
I liked her.
(32:39):
I was like, I get her.
And then as it played out, thenit became very apparent of like
the lack of culturalunderstanding that then people
were labeling her something thatshe wasn't.
Mm-hmm.
Because they didn't get it.
Like you were just saying, likethe diversity piece is so
important.
The cultural piece is soimportant.
And if you're gonna go on a showthat is going to embrace
(33:01):
diversity in the casting andengagement, then you gotta be
more open-minded and aware.
They haven't had thoseexperiences.
As Puerto Rican women, we getit.
Loud, proud, beautiful, funny,emotional women.
That's our norm.
Touchy-feely, huggers.
(33:21):
I mean, she's Caribbean, half ofour background is Caribbean.
Right?
And like, that's just theculture, the culture is loud,
engaged, funny, uses certainlanguage, like touch, we touch
each other's shoulders.
Like we're not creepy, but weare like, yeah, we, we each
other, we like close people.
That's what intimacy looks likefor that culture.
(33:43):
And it's like, everything islike, con carino, like we do it
with care and affection and loveand love.
Not like, oh my God, I wannamarry you love but like, oh, I
see you and I appreciate you,kind of affection.
At times, you know, and like,and this is for everybody, she
was edited to seem like she wasannoying at times and that, you
(34:05):
know, might have been doneintentionally to create a
narrative there just to keeplike the interest of the viewer.
I would see when she would begetting ready, you know, her
demeanor was normal, she wascalm.
No matter what culture you comefrom when you're put in spaces
that you're trying to interactwith someone and you don't
necessarily vibe with them, thebest parts of you ain't gonna
come out.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
(34:25):
So I think like, her being withAustin, they made the decision,
both of them to be in the game.
Because Amaya tried to put hergenuine foot forward mm-hmm.
Where she was like trying tomake a connection but Austin was
very resistant and like, theonly reason he was like, leaning
into it or from the way thatthey portrayed it, was that he
was getting action from Amaya.
You know, and Amaya wasgenuinely like, I just want
(34:46):
somebody to like me and I wantsomeone to hug me and like, show
me interest, you know?
And then when she was like,wait, you don't like me as a
person?
That really hurts my feelings.
I think it was a lot of sexismtoo.
I think of the cultural piecebut I do think that the men
really jumped on this.
Oh, you're too clingy, you'retoo overbearing, it's too much.
You need to tone yourself down.
(35:08):
And that's where the culturalpiece comes in.
Like, she said, if I'm not yourcup of tea, don't drink it.
Don't pretend that you'reinterested in me and don't
pretend that you wanna hang outwith me.
And then turn around and tell meI'm too much, knowing very well
that I just am who I am.
I was disappointed in all of'emfor not standing up for her
austin, Ace, they all like shiton her so hard in that circle.
(35:33):
Yeah, there was the tonality ofsexism there.
There was also a tonality oflike cultural misalignment.
Maybe they just genuinely neverdealt with like a Latina woman.
Yeah, I noticed that when Brian,the one that she ended up
winning the whole show with.
When he stood up for her and hewas like, no, wait a minute,
like, you guys are getting thiswrong this is, this is our
(35:54):
culture, you're forgetting thatlike, she's a Latina, this is
part of who she is.
Like that's normal to us.
I saw in Ace's face itregistered and he had a moment
of like, oh shit.
That's why I liked Ace.
But also the girls like goingback to the girl code, like they
didn't stand up for her and thatma that bothered me.
At the time of the circle,Sierra, you're a Latina.
(36:16):
Yeah.
Why are you letting everybodyhate on her?
But also Sierra's she's a very,Americanized Latina from what I
can see is like, she may notalso agree with it'cause she may
not also do those things.
That's why I feel like you haveto have someone like Brian who's
like, wait a minute, she's justlike the people that I know and
I love, you know.
She's not trying to freakingmarry you.
She's not trying to bedisrespectful and like, and if
(36:38):
you don't, and if you feel likeit's a lot for you, then you
just have to communicate that toher.
But this is the part that's likeyou are exploring people of
different cultures, in the likesthat you probably never have on
camera because it's like ifyou're doing it in private and
you can have takeaways andmeaningful moments of learning
outside of a camera, but you'redoing it in front of a camera
(36:58):
they're capturing it all.
What bothers me too is in thisidea of like, shows like this,
like where it's like romance anddating.
It's like a fetish for Latinawomen, they're sexy and they're
all this and that until theyopen their mouth and then all
of, now all of a sudden it'sthis like huge judgment on them.
They wanna romanticize it.
(37:19):
They're perpetuating thosestereotypes?
And had Brian not said anything,it would've just went unchecked
nobody in that circle would haveaddressed the fact that, hey,
maybe she's not the problem.
Maybe y'all the problem becauseyou're not being open to
understand the differencesbetween each of you.
(37:42):
If they're ignorant to it, theywouldn't know.
No, listen, ACE is from L.A.
I've dealt with a lot of peoplefrom L.A.
that come from differentcultures and that are very
ignorant of different culturesthan their own or what they're
like normally exposed to.
So if he's not exposed toCaribbean women and he doesn't
understand how they move, it canmake him uncomfortable.
(38:04):
Ace particularly has realspecific standards, the way that
he moved throughout the show,even with Shelly, like, he was
like very guarded, right?
Well, it's because he is a bigsoftie.
But because of the way he movedand she was so like, babe, and
he's like, no, this is too much.
And he was like, I'm a set aboundary like super quick.
(38:25):
You know?
The way he set the boundary wasreal ugly too.
Which is the machismo side ofit, the deeply rooted in
patriarchy approach to things,right?
That's the machismo side oflike, well, I'm gonna set a
boundary because I'm the man andI don't want you as the woman to
be too much.
But I also think that it camefrom a place like they didn't
know any better and it tooksomeone like Brian to say, hey,
wait, hang on a second let meadd a perspective here that
(38:46):
changes and gives you nuance.
And for the most part, a lot ofthem changed the way they worked
with her after that.
After Brian finally said, youknow, wait a minute, you guys
have blinders on here.
You're not seeing X, Y, and Z.
And then they were like, oh,you're right.
Now all of a sudden the girlswere a little bit more inclusive
of Amaya.
Yeah.
Because the cultural dynamics,that's where all the details and
the nuance lives.
(39:09):
And that's where the depth livestoo.
And for a show like this whereit's really superficial surface
level with people that weretrying to get deep and create
like deep connection, deepfriendships and whatnot.
They were really missing themark in a lot of ways which is
really unfortunate that thatplayed out, but I'm glad that
(39:31):
they addressed it in the showand that Brian said something.
And, you know, defended her,even if it was I felt like he
was being genuine about itbecause later he had said
something about like, shereminded him of his family, of
his own mom.
And he didn't like that the waythat they were digging in on
(39:51):
her.
It seemed very genuine becausenumber one, she's gorgeous, she
looks like a freaking Disneycharacter.
And they came from similarbackgrounds.
So there was a lot of connectionthere.
How would you rate this show?
10 outta 10?
Five?
Yeah.
If there's nothing else on tv,I'll watch it but I'm not gonna
(40:12):
go out of my way to continue.
Because the show itself was toomuch, it was too confusing.
I was too disgusted by all ofthe spit swapping.
You there is a tasteful amountand this one just pushed it too
far.
It was just like, really?
This is so unnecessary.
It wasn't sexy, it wasn't cuteanymore.
It was just kind of gross.
There's an element there.
(40:32):
Like you kind of find thebalance.
You knew every time they weregonna do a challenge, that's all
it was gonna be, was a make outsession.
What's interesting about thisshow is there was a, a sense of
over sexualized engagement.
Which like you said at thebeginning, right?
Like that's not what love isabout.
So they need to change the title'cause it's not Love Island.
(40:53):
That's what they should call it.
Exploration island.
If you like to explore swappingspit with 20 different people.
Please tell me that you guyshave a frigging Listerine
person, a dedicated Listerineperson.
It took 10 years of watching it,so I don't know how long they
recorded it.
I started the show when I was,27.
I was 32 when I started.
(41:13):
I'm now 46.
What does that tell you?
Come on.
I'm gonna be real.
I didn't really like this show.
I didn't love it.
I think people love it becauseit gives them an outlet for
whatever they might be missingin their personal lives in terms
of like what they're comfortableexploring for themselves and
things.
But for me it was like, I feltso bad for the people in the
(41:33):
show.
I was like, this is not normal.
And I didn't like how many bugswere on the show.
I mean there were some partsthat that were like interesting.
I will say that, you know, orwhen they started stirring up
stuff, it was like, oh, okay,we're gonna see some people
react.
And when you're reacting thereare parts of you that you are
not showing that start to comeout.
(41:55):
They're true colors.
I don't disagree with theirthoughts on Jeremiah and like
voting him out.
I think he should have beenvoted out a long time ago.
I was surprised that like Hudaus stayed and had more
opportunities.
I mean, yeah, girl's trying tofigure herself out.
I was just like, isn't that whatthey're supposed to be here to
(42:17):
do?
Isn't this the point of theshow?
To figure it out.
What I found fascinating was thetribe mentality that was playing
out.
You're either in or you're outand we have to accept you and
you have to follow these rules.
Who do you like least?
The way that they wererepresented on the show, who I
liked least would be austin.
(42:39):
He wasn't really showing toomuch of who he really was.
Something about him, I couldn'tfigure it out.
I just didn't like him.
He was a arc.
He wasn't even 27, he was like43, with his like.
700 body count?
Something the insane.
Barney Stinson style.
He was definitely in it for themoney.
That's what I felt.
(43:00):
I felt like he's in it for themoney.
He was intentional because healways flirted with the host,
and she would come in.
Oh yeah, yeah.
He would always make a littlecomment.
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, Hmm, you'regross.
Well, when you're 43, yeah, thatmakes sense.
I'm a pool boy, like you're apool man.
You're a male escort onCraigslist.
That's how he got that numberFacebook Marketplace.
(43:21):
How about you?
The person I liked the least wasJeremiah.
I knew you were gonna say that.
He just gave me, disingenuine,dishonest vibes.
I thought somebody like that canbe very predatorial.
So of course he's gonna go forthe one that is the most
(43:43):
insecure, who is like showingher emotions on her sleeve'cause
she can be manipulated moreeasily and controlled more
easily.
And goldmine, she's a mom inanother touch point that I can
control and manipulate.
He just felt very predatorial tome and I did not like that.
I wasn't buying anything he wasselling, you know?
I also didn't like Sierra on thegirl side, I didn't think she
(44:07):
was genuine either.
I do think she liked Nick andshe was really like trying to
figure that out'cause I thinkher intention was to come on
here and play a role forvisibility and there's a part
where you can see when they'rein like Casa Amor, where she's
like upset and she's likestruggling a little bit and
(44:27):
she's like mad at herself forit.
I do think she actually startedto like him.
And now she was like tornbetween am I still playing the
role or should I just kind oftry to be myself now?
But when she started doing themean girl stuff with Shelly, I
was like, yep.
Called it Nope.
What about Taylor?
Hot takes on Taylor.
This is where the doublestandard comes in again, she was
(44:49):
totally okay with keeping Tayloron the sideline while she was
exploring Jaylen and Taylor wasjust there watching.
I forgot about Jaylen, he was ablip in my mind.
And then, when Taylor actuallyhad interest in the other person
and I can see why he picked her,because I think he felt one, the
(45:10):
connection to that she was moreinto him.
I like Taylor and I liked Clark.
She was consistent the wholetime.
What you got was what you got.
You know, like if she was mycoworker, I'd love to hang out
with her at work.
Yeah.
She was pretty chill.
What I saw with Taylor and Clarkwas that Taylor was so giddy
(45:32):
about Clark from the get.
He had those butterflies withClark.
You know, that he did not havewith Olandria.
And so to, for me to be like asa onlooker, like, yeah, but you
should be with her because she'sbetter.
As a person.
That's my own personal opinion.
I would never want somebody todo that to me'cause it's about
how you feel when you're makinga decision about who you wanna
(45:53):
end up with, so, you know, I waspretty disappointed that America
voted them off.
This is the name of the game.
He's there to try to find aconnection and if he realized
right away that like, actuallythis is a stronger connection
for me.
And so he went for it and thenhe got hate for it.
I think the part that he gothate for was that he still kept
the option open with Olandriabut only because he didn't wanna
(46:16):
hurt her feelings.
And because I do think he likedher, I think he respected her
and he didn't wanna hurt her.
And he didn't wanna be the badguy.
The way he kissed her, I waslike, he doesn't like her that
much.
He's trying to, he likes her asa person, but he doesn't have
that physical connection.
And remember what we talkedabout, love is not blind.
It is not blind.
And there has to be some kind ofphysical chemistry.
Its multi-layered..
Yeah.
And he did have that with theother girl.
(46:38):
Especially and kept Austin onwhat the, you kept Austin over
them.
I dunno how Austin made itthrough.
Like honestly, like if theywould've cut and he would've
just been cleaning the pool formost of the season, it would, I
would've been like, yeah, thatmakes sense.
That would've been really funnyactually.
Missed opportunity producers.
(46:58):
You wanna hire us by the way?
What about the, what about thecommentary guy?
I loved him.
He was my favorite part of theshow.
So here's my take you don't needthat many after sun episodes?
Maybe just one after sun episodein the center in the middle,
catch everybody up.
Move on.
Tone down the makeout sessions.
Just make it more classy.
Yeah, just tone it down a littlebit.
I'm just watching a Carl's Jr adlike where the girls are like
(47:21):
rubbing the burgers and stuffand they're like shooting water
hoses at them that's what itfelt like during all those make
out sessions.
When they would do the slow mos,please don't.
What happened to like mystery.
They had a full on sex room inthere.
Yeah, the hideaway, which theydidn't showcase until the end.
The couple, the two couples thatwent in there with the
(47:42):
bombshells.
Oh yeah, yeah.
They just like spanked eachother and fell asleep.
I'm so curious how many peopleactually go on the like Love
island or other relatable showsand really think that they're
gonna find love.
I can see it more for love isblind.
And that's why they're open tohigher age ranges.
(48:03):
Because I think when you go onit you have this doubt, but
you're also like, maybe, maybe Ican find them here.
I think for Love Island it, ifyou're going in it because you
really wanna be open to the ideaof maybe finding your soulmate
there.
That's like thinking you'regonna find your dream boat up in
(48:24):
the club.
He's gonna be grinding onanother girl from a distance,
we're gonna make eye contact.
Exactly.
He's gonna walk over and belike, you know what?
I saw you and I was like, you'remy boo.
It's very reminiscent of clubculture.
Oh, that's an interesting takeactually because you saying it's
very reminiscent of clubculture.
These shows are.
Usually looking for like ahookup or someone maybe you
could go out with, you weren'treally looking for like, oh, I'm
(48:45):
gonna find my true love.
Club culture, like for me, Iwould be like, I just wanna go
dance and then maybe just havesomebody that takes me out on
dates.
Some sort of connection,interest.
Someone that shows you likeinterest.
But not like, oh, I'm gonna getdressed up in my holiest clothes
and go find my future husband.
I mean, some people thought likethat, but not for the majority.
It was like, we're just gonna gohave a good time and meet
(49:06):
people.
Hopefully we meet some coolpeople that maybe wanna hang out
with again.
Oh, that's so interesting thatyou're saying this'cause now I'm
like, I see what the producersdid.
They picked, who they wouldconsider the hottest people in
the club.
They put them in a villa.
You're in this unusualenvironment.
The hottest people in the clubcrammed all together.
Yeah.
To see what happens.
(49:27):
So let's just call it what itis, it's a fun little social
experiment where they are tryingtheir best to make everyone have
anxiety.
Love Island might look like justanother dating show, but it's
also a low key sociologyexperiment, maybe with some
better outfits.
From performative kissing tofriendship politics this season
(49:49):
reminded us that being seen,supported, and respected matters
more than a spark or a kisscount.
So next time someone tries torush your heart or ice you out
in the name of loyalty.
Ask yourself, is this real or isthis just reality TV in
disguise?
Thanks for tuning in.
Keep your heart open and yourred flag radar sharp.
(50:12):
And remember, some of y'all aremoving like you're in a villa
and it's showing.
You know who you are.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
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