The seventh season of “Love Island U.S.A.” slammed past previous viewership highs, thanks in part to a cast that kept the drama coming (remember the infamous heart rate challenge?).
After nearly 40 hours of television Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales came out of the six-week run as the winning couple. Monday’s reunion episode wrapped up all the loose ends of the season and filled in the blanks around the tensions that arose during filming and after.
Andy Cohen, reality TV’s reunion king, joined host Ariana Madix for the episode, which was filmed two weeks before airing. Things have already changed in the meantime: Two of the couples who made it the show’s finale are rumored to have broken up. Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales, who won first place, unfollowed each other on Instagram, as did the season’s fourth place couple, Iris Kendall and Jose “Pepe” Garcia-Gonzalez.
Here are the five biggest takeaways from the reunion.
Three of the final four couples were (sorta, maybe) still dating.
The final four final couples of the show confirmed their relationship status — at least at the moment of taping. Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales said they were still going strong, though Cohen asked about a widely viewed TikTok video, since deleted, of Espinal getting touchy with women in a club.
Fans had accused Arenales of cheating but on Monday night he clarified that it was “a lapse in judgment” for him to be “pouring shots around.” Espinal said “we definitely spoke about it and I’m not a woman who would be with someone who doesn’t respect me.”
Nicolandria, the second place couple of Nic Vansteenberghe and Olandria Carthen, said they didn’t have an official label on their relationship and were instead moving forward at a pace they feel comfortable with. Vansteenberghe noted that he hadn’t spoke to Cierra Ortega since she was removed from the villa for resurfaced video of her using a racial slur and that he doesn’t plan to.
Chris Seeley and Huda Mustafa broke up during the season finale and the pair were visibly distant. Seeley said that he didn’t think a friendship was possible and when asked if she was dating anyone, Mustafa’s response (“it’s Netflix, I’m not supposed to talk about it,”) allowed Cohen to score the line of the night: “Tell Netflix this was the number one streaming show of the summer.”
Mustafa has been spotted on red carpets and in paparazzi photos with Louis Russell, who is on the current season of Netflix’s “Perfect Match.”
Kendall and Garcia shared that they were dating exclusively, though their definitions of “in a relationship” differed: Kendall said she wanted to be asked to be his girlfriend, whereas Garcia felt it wasn’t necessary.
Jeremiah needed a definition of ‘love bombing.’
Huda Mustafa and Jeremiah Brown’s volatile relationship was the main topic of conversation in and out of the villa during the beginning of the season — mostly spawning concern over their zealous early affection and explosive jealousy.
At the reunion, Brown addressed criticism that he “love bombed” Mustafa by showering her with attention in an attempt to manipulate her. Brown denied that it had been his intention, while Mustafa said that a person can love bomb without knowing, which is what she said she experienced.
Ace Greene, who had been critical of Brown while in the villa, said of their relationship, “when I hear comments about getting the money, when I hear comments about followers outside of the villa, I don’t feel this is a genuine connection.”
Other male cast members disagreed. Taylor Williams said he thought that Brown was there to find love like the rest of them.
“I don’t think Jeremiah was love bombing, I think you can like someone too much and move not the correct way,” Austin Shepard said.
Ace Greene shared his biggest regret as a ring leader.
Brown and Greene’s open animosity in the villa split viewers between their respective squads.
Some speculated that Greene steered Taylor Williams and Nic Vansteenberghe to go against people that he didn’t like, including Brown and Austin Shepard.
When Cohen asked Greene at the reunion if he could understand why he was thought of as a ring leader, Greene responded that he was simply a vocal personality.
But Greene owned that he regretted sending Brown home, and instead wished he had ousted Shepard.
Last month, after the end of the season, Greene posted video of him rapping about his experience on the show, “so I’m the ringleader, huh? OK, yeah, I’ll be that. It’s Mr. President of the Program, now I’m locked in.”
The islanders called out Hurricane Huda.
After a montage of Huda Mustafa’s most explosive moments — and there were many — played, she said: “I’ve done so much self reflection and so much work that I can look back on these moments and laugh. Now I would handle things so differently,” to which Cohen responded: “So you did a month of self reflection and you’re a better person now?”
Mustafa said that after seeing clips back from the show, there were moments she felt bullied, though she did regret the “cursing” and “the name calling.”
Olandria Carthen said that when she left the villa she received racist messages on social media from Mustafa’s fans and asked Mustafa to address them (she didn’t). Carthen eventually unfollowed her.
Carthen cried saying that she wished Mustafa had prioritized calling off the fans, adding that she received a meme with her face photoshopped onto a photo of George Floyd. Mustafa responded that she experienced racism as well.
Mustafa sparked a big point of contention during the season over her interaction with Ace Greene during the “heart rate challenge” where islanders danced on each other in an effort to get their blood racing.
Mustafa’s salacious dance with Greene, who is in a relationship with Chelley Bissainthe, crossed a line. At the reunion, Madix and Cohen played an extended clip so that fans could judge for themselves.
After watching, Mustafa said that she felt she “took things a step too far” and apologized if anyone was uncomfortable, but noted she had received consent. Bissainthe replied that the offense wasn’t about consent, it was about “sisterhood.”
An angry yell? Nope, just a Selena Gomez song.
The day that Cierra Ortega left the villa, a video spread on TikTok showing one of Carthen’s confessionals where someone could be heard yelling the background. Viewers theorized that it was Ortega responding to producers telling her to leave the villa.
On the reunion, that theory was debunked.
What we actually heard in the background was Mustafa and Kendall dancing in the bathroom and loudly singing the lyrics to Selena Gomez’s “Who Says.”
Shivani Gonzalez is a news assistant at The Times who writes a weekly TV column and contributes to a variety of sections.
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