Female Friendships Are Carrying Love Island This Season
Romance is dead, but girlhood is more alive than ever.
A favorite catchphrase among Love Island cast members goes, “This isn’t Friendship Island.” Season after season, this works as a call to arms (or kisses?) in the villa. It’s a constant reminder to put romance first. Sometimes, that means exploring every connection, even those that might put your friendships in jeopardy. Other times, it’s used to protect coupled-up cast members, and nudge each other to vote off the stragglers.
Throughout Love Island USA Season 8, however, these words don’t hold their usual weight — and it’s not just because they haven’t been immortalized as a neon sign. Instead, the friendships on the show are putting the romances (besides Brinity, obviously) to shame.
In early episodes, it seemed like Season 8 would be one of the series’ most romantic, as the islanders stayed consistently loyal to their couples even when new bombshells came in. (As Sol Dean put it, the experience felt like “Couples Island.”) But when Casa Amor kicked off, those relationships were suddenly upended — shifting the focal point to the women supporting each other.
Their bond was formed in Episode 17, as they gathered together to watch the men misbehave during the heart rate challenge. Later that night, it was cemented over cheese toasties. As the women navigated a myriad of betrayals from their partners (conveniently shown to them via postcard), it was their friendship with each other that kept them going.
The season’s most iconic image occurred during the return from Casa Amor, when KC Chandler walked into the villa with Titi Davis, leaving Aniya Harvey standing by herself. A closer look reveals she wasn’t truly alone: Trinity Tatum, Kayda Bosse, and Melanie Moreno were all holding her hands. When the ensuing confrontation resulted in tears for Aniya, it was Melanie who pulled her aside so she could cry in private. Melanie then delivered the ultimate pep talk with bangers like, “Why the f*ck do you wanna be with a man you gotta build up? You playin’ Build-A-Bear with that b*tch” and “Even if we don’t find love, we found each other.”
Melanie and Aniya aren’t the only ones on Friendship Island. Season 8’s women stay rooting for each other, even when it means holding each other accountable. In Episode 25, Jen Terry confronted Kenzie Annis about kissing Gal Tshnieder despite also pursuing a connection with Dylan Wrona. Jen told the splits queen point-blank: “If this was not Love Island, I would not be your friend.” Harsh? Sure, but it’s that type of direct communication that makes real friendships work — and it forced Kenzie to do some self-reflecting. Not to mention, Jen’s reaction to the kiss seems to hit Kenzie much harder than Dylan’s tears.
As the episode progressed, the women geared up for Movie Night and agreed to have each other’s backs. For the most part, they made good on that promise, working as a team to defend one another. During a compilation of Sincere Rhea’s “half-truths,” Melanie asked Aniya to hold her hand.
Season 8 is far from over, and there’s plenty of time for Love Island to live up to the name and lean into the romance. As it stands now, however, the platonic relationships — plus Brinity and Carniya — are pretty much the only ones worth rooting for. If only fans could vote for Aniya and Melanie to split the $100,000 prize.
