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Aug 26, 2023

'Love Island USA' Teases First

The wild moments just don’t stop on Love Island USA Season 5. After giving us a #RedWedding, an awkward snake handler, and the summer icon known as Bergie, Peacock’s prolific reality dating show is

The wild moments just don’t stop on Love Island USA Season 5. After giving us a #RedWedding, an awkward snake handler, and the summer icon known as Bergie, Peacock’s prolific reality dating show is finally giving viewers something truly groundbreaking: a potential same-sex coupling! You read that right. Love Island USA, a paragon of heterosexual tomfoolery, is finally giving us a burgeoning queer romance. It only took five seasons! And in true Love Island USA fashion, this blossoming bisexual storyline is wild.

The Islanders involved are Kassy Castillo and Johnnie Garcia — and for those of you out there who are reading this because you saw gay stuff in the headline but don’t watch Love Island USA, Johnnie is a woman. This is, quite frankly, a shocking turn of events, especially for anyone who missed Sunday night’s installment in the near-nightly reality soap opera. Why? Because prior to the weekend, Kassy and Johnnie were primarily involved in a broken love triangle with two-timer Leonardo.

Leo and Kassy were together prior to the show’s weeklong Casa Amor experiment, wherein the men and women are split up and sent to separate villas to face temptation from new hotties. But during Casa Amor, Leo hooked up with Johnnie — and I mean hooked up as in “had sex in a room where a dozen other people were sleeping.” Upon returning to the villa, Kassy dumped Leo, Leo dumped Johnnie, and Leo has been spending all of his time desperately trying to win Kassy back. Meanwhile, something was apparently unfolding between Kassy and Johnnie!

In Sunday night’s episode, the two of them had a flirtatious giggle fit while laying on top of each other in one of the villa’s many cabanas. There was much leg squeezing from Kassy, lots of looking and laughing. When Islander Carmen asked why Kassy and Johnnie were so giggly and acting so sus, Kassy said, “I literally was just getting turned on by Johnnie. That was it.”

Turns out, surprise — Johnnie has actually had eyes for Kassy for a while! She reveals this in a confessional. Kassy, now very much feeling the vibes, pulls Johnnie into Soul Ties — which is the name for the quasi-secluded outdoor bed wherein Islanders take other Islanders to do quasi-private things. This floored Johnnie since it was Kassy doing the initiating. The two then had a long conversation about feelings and attraction; Kassy has been attracted to Johnnie but has actually never dated a girl before. But she’s definitely game to try — and try they do!

Both of them later admit: the kiss was correct.

But what makes this story really sweet is how the other girls react when Kassy and Johnnie individually tell them about this surprise hook-up. Taylor and Imani are giddy about it, and Carmen’s jaw drops.

Listen: Kassy has been through the wringer with Leo. We want her to be happy, and this Johnnie moment is exciting! That’s why Carmen’s face when Kassy brings up Leo again says it all:

Carmen is all of us. Don’t, Kassy! The poem Leo wrote for you was not good. Just a general note: if it starts with “roses are red, violets are blue,” it is not a good poem!

If Johnnie and Kassy actually do couple up, they will be the first same-sex coupling in Love Island USA history — and they’ll completely upend what’s otherwise a pretty routine formula. How will a same-sex pair affect other choices? Hopefully, we’ll find out soon! And hopefully, this will inspire a couple of the guys to take a trip to Soul Ties, too…

New episodes of Love Island USA premiere on Peacock on Thursday through Tuesday nights.