This week sees the beginning of the end in the Love Island villa - and we’ve reached the moment when all the couples remember this is actually a competition.
Loyalties are out of the window, the opportunists will make power plays and the divide between factions will become even more obvious to us watching from our sofas.
After being backed into a corner by Liberty, Jake told her that he is in love with her, which was poor timing but did the relevant job because Liberty fell under his spell again.
Chloe and Faye both called BS on his admission of love and felt it was a strategic cop-out. I agree and we all know Jake knows how to play things for TV.
It’s safe to say Jake has Liberty wrapped firmly around his little finger and anything he does will be overlooked because she is so smitten. So the fakery that we all see is frustrating but they’re a team and their closest bond will be with each other.
But at the same time you never know, Liberty might be over it but just playing the long game to get to the final rather than end things with a week to go. Either way Jake and Libs are going to be in the final four!
Chloe and Toby had a smooth week. I think all of their drama is behind them and you can just see them going from strength to strength.
Toby has become wiser in his Love Island experience and is giving advice that even me, Dr Marcel, would be proud of.
The fact that you’ve seen Toby go from not having a clue about how to handle situations to calming and coaching Jake on how to handle his predicament was amazing.
I think Toby has grown the most during this experience. Chloe has brought out the best in him the second time around and they are a shoo-in.
I think they are 100% finalists. I want them to win but I think they have some stiff competition.
Millie and Liam seem to be one of the public's favourites and there is no denying they have a spark, always showing affection and smiling with each other.
Liam has turned his villain spell around post-Casa Amor and the couple seem to be in a really good place. I did, however, find Millie a little bit snide when it came to the incompatibility vote as she was one of the girls encouraging Faye to blow up, then was one of the girls encouraging Faye to get things back together, then ultimately she was one of the girls who basically said she didn’t believe in her relationship.
So to me, that’s a friend you kinda don’t need. You need a friend who's gonna be real with you not just tell you what you want to hear because they don’t have your best interests at heart.
Evidently from the vote, Millie definitely didn’t have Faye’s best interests in mind at all. In fact I think, strategy had a little part to play. It’s the final week. Loyalties are hard to come by.
Kaz and Tyler are a couple that must be getting their best parts saved for unseen bits (the episode that no one watches), because I haven’t seen anything that makes them more compatible than any of the other couples that got votes.
To me, Tyler has given weird vibes from the start but I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t know if it’s the way he was all in for Kaz then ready to bring Clarisse home moments later or if it’s the somewhat insincerity of his apologies.
But I can't lie, Kyler are probably my least favourite couple. Kaz has gone from being bubbly and friendly to a bit moody and I don’t know why. Maybe she’s internalising the fact she’s forgiven Tyler for mugging her off on TV and it's making her act different.
But today's Kaz is a far cry from the one we knew in the first couple of weeks and for that reason I think it is possible she could be at risk with this week's vote and I’m not sure if they will make it to the final.
Teddy and Faye saw their friendships with the OG couples strained as they received incompatibility votes from Kaz and Tyler, Liberty and Jake and Millie and Liam, which could have seen them dumped from the island.
Jake and Liberty didn’t take offence to being at risk but Faye and Teddy did and by all means they’re right to feel a little bit aggrieved.
They did have a massive blow up, and they worked through things and got back on track but the couples all used that as their excuse for voting them, when in comparison Liam cheated on Millie and Tyler cheated on Kaz, which in my eyes are much bigger bumps in their relationships, but they just brushed it under the carpet easier.
That being said Teddy and Faye are quite opposite, but they have a connection and I think they just felt their “friends” would have shown some loyalty to them in this situation, but it's obvious they’re the couple that everyone says shouldn’t be together behind their back but never to their face.
Liberty saying it wasn’t based on friendships was a lie because she definitely didn’t even think about voting for Tyler and Kaz because of her loyalties to Kaz, so it played a part.
I think Faye is now realising her friendship with Liberty isn’t as deep as she would have thought.
In my year, the show ended with there being two groups - me, Gabby, Camilla and Jamie as one group and Chris, Olivia, Kem and Amber as another. Not saying that there was beef but there was an obvious divide within the villa. So I think some people might be starting to get strategic.
Kaz and Tyler haven’t been in the public's favour recently and could have seen voting for Teddy and Faye to be dumped as an opportunity to get another strong couple out so they had more chance to get to the final.
Teddy was definitely hurt by Tyler’s involvement as I could see there was a brotherhood between them, but I think that's been dashed now and I think you will see Faye and Teddy distance themselves a bit from Jake, Liberty, Kaz and Tyler.
Am I seeing Faye and Teddy reach the final? I hope so but I think potentially it might be out of them and Kaz and Tyler after Aaron and Mary go home tonight.
I quite like Aaron and Mary as a couple but I don’t think they have the power to overthrow one of the OGs at this point.
Mary is the final remanence of Casa Amor, and Aaron was the guy sent in by producers to rock the Chloe and Toby boat who didn’t quite do it. I think they would 100% work on the outside and we’re going to get to see how well that happens when they leave tonight.
Now dramas aside for a moment, whenever the producers get the Islanders to make a mad decision or the drama levels reach a crazy point they always throw in a challenge just to lighten the mood and I couldn’t help but watch in total shock as this year's contestants showed how little talent they had.
Long gone are the days of the RUN KMC. But I think Faye trying to attempt an Olivia Attwood-style roast was just as bad as Teddy’s rapping.
This week's predictions…
Mary and Aaron are going home.
The divide in the villa will continue to grow.
We’re gonna see how the islanders do being parents… I’m going to be judging this very closely as a new dad, and I think Teddy might excel as a father but I’m not sure how Faye’s going to manage as a mum.
We will see who makes the final. I personally think it will be between Kaz and Tyler and Faye and Teddy on who misses out but only time will tell.
Who do you guys think will make the cut?
* Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2
