‘Love Island USA’ Season 8: OC bombshell gets dumped from Villa ahead of Casa Amor

While this week didn’t see any dates or new bombshells enter the Villa on “Love Island USA,” it still had some eventful moments. America’s votes for the favorite couple were revealed, leading to the dumping of another two Islanders.

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And although the Islanders might have gotten to dress up as princes and princesses in a challenge, life is not a fairytale in the Villa. The start of Casa Amor turned everything the Islanders thought about their couples on their head as the Villa girls watched their guys meet six new girls while partaking in the Heart Rate Challenge.

Here’s a look back at some of the major moments that happened during episodes 12-17 of season 8.

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We pick up where we left off, the Hideaway. After spending some one-on-one time alone together, Zach asks Kayda as they’re making the bed together, “Real talk, would you kill me if I explored a bombshell?” Kayda responds, “Yeah,” leading Zach to joke, “Too soon?”

Additionally, Kenzie and Corbin are attempting to give their new couples a try, but keep being drawn back to one another. The two share some alone time together on the dock, which Caleb thinks he spots the two kissing, leading to a game of telephone and Melanie deciding to sleep outside in Soul Ties again. Kenzie clears up the rumor and says that she and Corbin didn’t kiss and that she would be honest with Caleb if that changes — spoiler alert: she goes back on that decision and shares a kiss with Corbin alone in the bedroom, and the two decide to keep it a secret.

The next morning, Kayda and Zach returned to the Villa after their night in the Hideaway. As is “Love Island USA” tradition, Kayda went with the girls and Zach, the guys, to debrief about the night. While in years past the contestants stuck to innuendos to describe the night, Kayda opted to be a little less vague and get straight to the point.

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Later that evening, Sincere and Melanie have a chat in the Speakeasy. Sincere reveals that despite being coupled up with Sol because of America’s vote, he didn’t want to close the door on Melanie. He wanted to give respect to her new couple with Corbin, but the two reveal they still have feelings for each other.

Separately, Sol is chatting with Jen and Kenzie, where Jen warns Sol that Sincere switched up on Melanie fast and that she’s worried the same could happen to her. Sol combats this by sharing Sincere has vocalized reassurance to her, telling her he’s happy with her and that she’s the only one he wants to pursue.

The next day proves to be a rainy day in Fiji, meaning no poolside chats and a unique recoupling. The guys pick the girls or vice versa; the recoupling will need to be a mutual decision through love letters. The catch? The Islanders don’t know who has written to them, meaning if they don’t receive a letter from the person they wrote to, they could be single and vulnerable.

Ariana Madix returns for the recoupling, and the Islanders’ decisions more or less land where viewers would expect: KC with Aniya, Trinity and Bryce, Kayda and Zach. Where things become a little unexpected is with the two connected love triangles — Kenzie, Caleb and Corbin, as well as Sincere, Sol and Melanie. Ultimately, Kenzie and Corbin, as well as Sincere and Melanie, decide to return to their original couples pre-America’s vote. This leaves Sol and Caleb single until Ariana announces they’re a new couple.

Kenzie and Caleb chat that night about their split. Kenzie tells him that when the decision came down to it, she needed to go with her strongest connection, which was Corbin. She tells Caleb that he’s the cutest cowboy to come into the villa, which he points out he’s also the only cowboy to come into the villa.

Sol and Sincere have a conversation the next day about Sincere’s decision to recouple with Melanie. Sol feels she was misled based on what Sincere was, or more so wasn’t, telling her. “If she was always in the back of your mind, you should have said that to me,” said Sol after Sincere confirms he should’ve been more honest with her.

Later that evening, Ariana returns to reveal that America has been voting for their favorite couples. In no particular order, the top four couples are Trinity and Bryce, Aniya and KC, Kayda and Zach, and Melanie and Sincere. This leaves Kenzie, Corbin, Jen, Gabriel, Sol, and Caleb all vulnerable.

Then Ariana reveals to the Islanders that the safe couples will be picking one boy and one girl to be dumped from the Island. The guys are responsible for picking a girl and pick Sol, while the girls who are responsible for picking a guy pick Gabriel.

Sol reminds the Islanders to be open to new connections, as this is Love Island, not Couples Island.

The decision on who got dumped also creates some tension between the Islanders about what went into making their decision. Zach questions if the girls felt they should keep Caleb, if that meant they would be pulling him for chats in the coming days. The boys also threaten not to make breakfast for the girls, a big no-no, as a core reason behind that tradition is that the girls take longer to get ready in the morning and don’t typically have time to make breakfast.

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Later that day, the Islanders get the fairytale treatment as they dress as princes and princesses for a challenge. The biggest moment to come out of the challenge is that, at the end, the guys get to pick one girl to have a steamy makeout session with. All of the guys pick their couple, but Caleb decides to pick Kayda rather than Jen, who is also single.

This leads to some trouble in paradise for Zach and Kayda, only made more complicated by Caleb pulling Kayda for a chat. In fact, a few of the couples are going into the new week on bumpy grounds, including KC and Aniya, who aren’t seeing eye to eye about KC wanting to keep Sol so he could have more chats with her in the villa. Kenzie and Corbin also aren’t seeing eye to eye when it comes to affection.

On “Aftersun,” Sol shares with Gabriel on the car ride to the hotel that she had tried to talk to KC a few times, but she felt their chats kept being interrupted by Aniya.

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One of the first things Gabe did when he got his phone back was go to Bea’s Instagram. There, he saw her livestream talking about some of the recent episodes of “Love Island USA” and her reaction to Jen and Gabe’s connection in the Villa. Gabriel also shares that he got a scholarship to study computer science in the States and hadn’t spoken English until he moved here.

Back in the Villa, the Islanders get a text that tonight’s the night for the Heart Rate Challenge. A favorite amongst the Islanders, they put on some fun costumes and perform their best “Magic Mike” moves, if you will, for the opposite gender. At the end its revealed whose heart rate went up the most from which Islander.

Only plot twist: as the boys are getting ready, they get a text that it’s time to leave the Villa and head to Casa Amor. Casa Amor is the midseason shake-up where the current Islanders are split; one group stays in the Villa while the other heads to a new location. There, each group is introduced to a group of new Islanders.

When the boys head to Casa Amor, they find out they’re partaking in the Heart Rate Challenge with six new Islanders: Alannah, Amora, Jaiden, Parmida, Sydney, and Tierra. Three of these girls also have Southern California ties; Jaiden is from Newbury Park, Tierra was born and raised in Los Angeles and is currently living in Inglewood and Alannah is a University of California film school student.

But that’s not the only twist of the night. When the Villa girls head to the firepit, they find a giant box in front of them. When the gift unwraps itself its a TV showing the guys and a sign welcoming them to Casa Amor. Yes, that’s right, unknown to the guys, the girls in the Villa are watching a livestream of the guys partaking in the Heart Rate Challenge with another group of girls.

This concept is something the original “Love Island” series in the UK has played with over the last few years; only the girls back home are watching their guys go on dates, not partaking in such a high-stakes game.

If the goal of the producers was to shake things up for the halfway point of the season, they definitely did. After watching their guys behave and the comments made, such as Corbin saying he was already ready to bring one of the girls back home and Zach sharing that this challenge changed his game plan, the girls are approaching the Casa experience with a different mentality than they might have otherwise had.

The girls back in the Villa make grilled cheeses for each other and vocalize their disdain for Casa Amor, which the new girls can hear from their Villa. The episode also ends with a tease for the week ahead; not only are the next four episodes all Casa Amor, but the Villa girls have a big surprise for them in store come Monday night’s episode.

While the guys might have six new girls to test their connections, the Villa girls will have twice as many guys ready to meet them. That’s right, 12 new guys are entering the Villa. And the question on everyone’s mind — are there enough beds?

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

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