Why Was the 'Love Island USA' Reunion So Boring?

A great season of reality TV gets a snooze of a conclusion.

I touched the face of God on the afternoon of July 18. I was horizontal on my sofa, glasses on, doing a manuka honey mask, and in the middle of my Love Island USA binge. Three women were up for elimination from the villa; would JaNa be sent home from Fiji, or Andrea, or Nicole? Someone’s fate was in the hands of four women and some press-on nails. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand but JaNa was marked safe. Nicole was, too. Andrea was sent home, and the Love Island USA men damn near collapsed in concert. Fiji was about to have a January 6.

@lovemenotislandersI didn't agree with their decision #dumped #loveisland #andreaandrob #foryou

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

But on Monday night, when the season’s participants gathered again for a reunion, a season of delirium-inducing drama amounted to so little. Most of the season’s drama centered on the braintrust of the PPG women (the friendship between JaNa Craig, Leah Kateb, and Serena Page), fan-favorite snake wrangler Rob, and the “fuuuuck, Aaron” crying fits between Aaron and Kaylor. A lot went down in the villa, but in a conversation moderated by host Ariana Maddix there seemed to be so little to adjudicate.

The first problem was that there were about a dozen extra people. Do the early-departed islanders and bombshells who only got a single episode of screen time really need to say their piece here? The most minor player to make an appearance should’ve been Andrea, who was finally told about herself. 

Is the reunion a time to only discuss what went down in the villa, or are the dozens of post-show interviews, both on the podcast circuit and on the Love Island-aftershow Aftersun, fair game? There wasn’t a clear delineation.