Is it just us, or has this year's Love Island felt a little bit like save-your-friends-Island? Every time the Islanders have been given an opportunity to dump someone from the villa, it's been a fresh bombshell rather than an OG, and it's starting to feel like they're not quite voting for the right reasons.
In case you missed it, the conversation around favouritism all started when the Islanders were tasked with voting for who they thought was the least compatible couple. After Halle and Tommy, and Mica and Chidi, were picked, the Islanders were then tasked with deciding between themselves who would leave the villa.
Eventually, Halle, a 23-year-old dancer from Cheshire, was dumped from the villa, despite being one of the most recent bombshells to arrive, alongside fellow bombshell Chidi. The Islanders picked Tommy and Mica to stay, with Tommy explaining he wanted to explore his connection with Ellie instead, and Mica being an original Islander.
At the time, Simba was furious about the decision, while Halle also called them out for favouritism, insisting it wasn't her time to go: "It feels really sad because I don’t think I deserved to leave, especially not in the way that I did."
Now, mere days later, a similar situation has happened: After Lorenzo and Ellie were voted the favourite Islanders by the general public, they were given the opportunity to choose one of the least three favourite male and female Islanders to dump.
Choosing between Priya, Tina and Lola, they dumped Tina, while Tommy was chosen over Aidan and Simba.
And look, and some capacity, it makes sense - Lola and Simba are in strong couples, one of which is exclusive (Fitzy and Lola have said I love you!), while the other is as good as. But why was Tina less deserving than Priya? Neither of them were in happy couples, or had found their person in the villa, and both deserved another chance at finding love.
Is it just because they've all spent more time with Priya, because she was there from the beginning? And Tina's the newest Islander? Is the only way to stay to spend the most time with the others and hope they have your back?
And as for Tommy, Lorenzo even admitted if he was locked into his relationship with Yasmin, Aidan would've been a better vote. So why did Tommy have to get the chop?
Viewers on X had similar thoughts. As one put it, "I don’t like this consistent pipeline where people who haven’t gotten a proper chance get dumped because the ogs don’t want to get rid of their friends."
Another added, "OGs never getting dumped and it’s unfair to bombshells" and a third said, "Never enter Love Island as a bombshell or Casa you’re getting dumped before you unpacked your case."
How do we stop this?!
