‘Love Island USA’ Season 8: Orange County bombshell enters the villa

The Islanders have survived another week in the villa, but not without a few relationship tests and messy challenges, and we mean messy. From climbing on a massive bed covered in paint to find their couple, to getting pies to the face and taking a bath in slime, these “Love Island USA” contestants went through it this week. And that’s before you even factor in all of the love triangles.

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Here’s a look back at some of the major moments that happened during episodes 6-11.

During the first challenge post-recoupling, host Ariana Madix had the female Islanders prove if they could find their connection with their eyes closed. With everyone dressed in all white, the girls, one by one, climbed onto a massive bed where the guys were each sitting and handcuffed to the headboard. Each girl was blindfolded and had a different color of paint that they dipped their hands in to leave their mark on the guys. Once they found their partner, they were able to handcuff themselves to their guy to complete the challenge.

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Some girls, like Trinity and Aniya, were able to find their guy quickly, with minimal kissing involved. Other girls like Melanie had a little more fun with the challenge and gimmick, kissing back and forth between her partner, Sincere, and another Islander, Corbin. Unknown to the women was that there were two bombshells also participating in the challenge: Jen from Melbourne, Florida, and Sol from Orange, California.

When the women opened their eyes, they were confused about where the red paint on the men came from, as it was none of the current Islanders’ paint colors. That’s when Sol and Jen made their grand reveal. While the girls were annoyed at first, that feeling didn’t last too long as another bombshell walked down the stairs, Caleb from Ashbury, North Carolina.

So far, what we know about the latest Southern California contestant to come onto “Love Island USA” is that while she’s from Orange County, she now lives in Los Angeles, where she’s a waitress and works at the front desk at a gym. Additionally, the 24-year-old bombshell is a Scorpio.

Jen also revealed that while she’s from Florida, she moved to Los Angeles, where she’s a model. Bryce shares with the guys, as well as his couple Trinity, that he and Jen know each other, having previously worked together on modeling gigs.

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During the week, new connections between the Islanders and bombshells emerged. Sincere and Sol got to know each other early on, which caused some friction between Melanie and Sincere. The two have had a hot and cold relationship since pairing up on day one.

Next, Kenzie finally got the Southern cowboy she’d been asking for in Caleb. But while viewers thought this pair would be an easy connection, it seems that Kenzie had grown quite fond of her current couple with Corbin. Jen also made an effort to get to know Gabriel, and the two bonded over their love of Miami.

Additionally, Bryce gave it one last shot to get to know Kayda, who made it clear she only saw a friendship between them. This caused some awkwardness between Bryce and his bestie Zach, who’s been coupled up with Kayda since episode 2, as well as his current couple, Trinity. Trinity had been communicating with Bryce that she was happy with where things were going, but Bryce still wasn’t sure that she was all in and wanted to make sure he was still exploring other options.

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As Melanie began to see the writing on the wall with Sincere and Sol, she made an effort to get to know Corbin, which again caused some tension between her and Kenzie, who had gotten close since entering the villa on the first night.

This week also saw America’s first vote. Similar to last year, viewers were tasked with coupling up each of the new bombshells with an Islander.

Fans were so eager to cast their votes on June 9 that the demand ended up crashing the “Love Island USA” app. The Hollywood Reporter shared that app users were up nearly 350% and that the amount of fans trying to cast their vote during the two and a half hour window exceeded season 7’s finale vote, the all-time high for the season, by over a million. Because of this, the voting period was extended to the next day, and the results from the first vote of the season were pushed from Thursday night’s episode to Friday night.

During the second challenge of the week, the Islanders were introduced to Ciara Miller and Tefi Pessoa, the new hosts of the weekly “Love Island USA” talk show “Aftersun.” Kayda was the most excited to find this out as she revealed she’s a big fan of the Bravo reality TV series “Summer House,” on which Ciara stars.

During the challenge, the Islanders were split into two teams, guys vs girls. Each team was given either a sweet or a naughty question, and they had to pick the Islander from the opposing team who identified with it the most. For sweet questions, one Islander from the team would give the person they selected a kiss. For naughty questions? A pie in the face.

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While these challenges are chaotic, they also do their job in pushing new connections and creating conflict among the Islanders. For instance, Gabriel wasn’t a fan of the fact that Beatriz and Caleb shared a few kisses. But on the naughty side, Sol got piedtalk show a lot. While only two pies were shown, based on what the Islanders said in the episode and Sol’s reaction to the final pie, viewers began to speculate online that not all of the questions the Islanders were asked during the challenge were shown.

We might be getting some more info on what happened during the pie challenge.Aftersun hosts Ciara & Tefi shared during the first episode of the talkshow that they’re paying attention to what fans are talking about online & want to see discussed on the show.

— Carolyn Burt (@carolynburt.com) 2026-06-14T17:01:58.871Z

Later that night, America’s vote was revealed, and with it, three new couples were announced: Caleb and Kenzie, Jen and Gabriel, and Sol and Sincere. However, unknown to the voters – well, we could’ve guessed, but we didn’t know for sure – and the Islanders, was that the three Islanders that were removed from their couples; Corbin, Beatriz and Melanie, were not only single and vulnerable, but somebody was getting dumped.

However, different from last year’s vote, which had the other Islanders vote for which Islanders they thought should be dumped, the decision came down to who Corbin wanted to couple up with.

Unsurprisingly to viewers, he selected Melanie, leaving Beatriz to pack her bags and leave the villa.

Saturday night’s episode saw the new and improved “Aftersun.” In the past, viewers have noted that they’ve often skipped the weekly debrief episode as it felt overproduced. However, this year’s new hosts, Ciara and Tefi, have made it a must-watch episode because of their candidness. Another new format change is that the dumped Islanders are filmed when they get their phone back, seeing texts from loved ones as well as finding out what viewers have been saying online.

For Sean, this meant seeing the moment he found out the mayor of the city he’s been a police officer in had spoken his disapproval of Sean going on “Love Island USA.” We also found out that during a FaceTime with Sean’s mom, she felt that he and Aniya had a connection. Sean was also vocal about his interest in Aniya when he was interviewed by Ciara and Tefi later in the episode.

Beatriz found out from one of her close friends that viewers had been speculating about her sexuality, which she noted often happens with female athletes. Additionally, she found out that her friend was not a friend of Gabriel, which surprised Beatriz, who felt he was likely misunderstood by what was shown, as the two had formed a strong connection during their time in the villa. Beatriz also shared during her interview with Ciara and Tefi that she plans to continue to compete in Track & Field, so who knows, we might see her in the Paralympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

Finally, Sunday night’s episode saw the new couples face off in a soccer-themed challenge, or football if you’re UK-based “Love Island USA” narrator Iain Stirling. The relay-race-like challenge had each couple score a goal, eat some hot dogs (producer’s, if you’re reading this, the consensus from viewers is please no more food challenges), slime another contestant and clean up in the shower, with a passionate makeout, of course, because after all this is “Love Island USA.”

Other things we learned during Sunday’s episode: Kenzie gave Melanie the go-ahead to pursue her connection with Corbin, Sincere doesn’t know how to make scrambled eggs and America is voting again later this week.

The episode ended with a text: one couple of the Islanders choosing would get to spend the night alone together in the Hideaway. Almost unanimously and instantaneously, the Islanders agreed the first couple to get time away would be Zach and Kayda.

Hopefully, this coming week sees some dates outside of the villa.

“Love Island USA” also announced that Casa Amor will be taking place beginning on Monday, June 22, and viewers will have the opportunity to watch the episode in select movie theaters across the country.

New episodes of “Love Island USA” air at 6 p.m. PT every day but Wednesday on Peacock.

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