Catching Up with the Islanders: A review of the mediocre “Love Island USA” reunion episode

Frantically refreshing the Peacock streaming app every minute, I waited anxiously alongside the rest of America for the new Love Island USA reunion episode to air on Aug.19 at 8 p.m.  

Love Island USA was the most popular show of the 2024 summer according to Variety with over 1.1 billion minutes watched of the season and the number one streamed show on all platforms. 

This season took place in Fiji where islanders went into the villa looking for love and meaningful connections. While some made it out of the villa in relationships, others got clowned on social media for ugly crying on reality TV. After the reunion was announced at the end of the season, I marked my calendar in anticipation.

Filming took place in New York City where all season six contestants reunited for a night filled with season highlights like the iconic Andrea Carmona “back seat” elimination and good laughs like when JaNa Craig pulled out actual receipts when it came to exposing the drama.

While the reunion episode fell flat and didn’t live up to my high expectations, getting to reconnect with the islanders, even if it was through a screen, made me feel like I was watching the series for the first time this summer again.  

As the episode started and season winners Kordell Beckham and Serena Page entered the set, I immediately was taken back to this summer when I would watch Love Island every night at 8 pm, obsessing and analyzing their relationship. When JaNa and my favorite islander, Leah Kateb, arrived, she embodied the saying “life of the party” as she kept the reunion interesting with her sarcastic commentary and funny reactions.

The two talked about moving in together, making their relationship official and the troubles they’ve faced in the real world. While Serena and Kordell haven’t faced many real-world struggles — no shocker there — fourth place winners Kendall Washington and Nicole Jacky are on the verge of breaking up after lies surfaced post-villa. My gut feeling that they wouldn’t last long in the outside world was correct. By the end of the show they did indeed break up. 

While the islanders sat in tension over Nicole about Kendall’s messy and drama-filled love story, the episode steered to islanders Andrea and Rob Rausch once they left the villa. They definitely weren’t my favorite duo, making this part of the reunion a hard watch.

As Andrea’s exit from the island this season was one of the most dramatic ones to exist, they finally aired the uncut footage of how the vote and conversation actually went. And boy was I happy when all the rumors about Leah trying to get Andrea out were revealed as lies. 

After more tears and arguments stirred among the cast members, there would be a commercial break after every inconvenience during the reunion. As the islanders left the stage and headed straight to the dressing room, dozens of Pizza Hut boxes were displayed as the islanders indulged in them. The whole reunion started to feel like an hour and a half Pizza Hut advertisement.

As apologies were said, couples continued to fight and Pizza Hut was shoved in front of my face, the reunion episode was just mediocre. I was waiting for more tea to be spilled and more uncut footage to be revealed. It is reality TV after all.