Last week, viewers including Susanna Reid were left wondering, is it Love Island or Gemma Owen Island? The daughter of the former England footballer seemed to be at the centre of every story – every story, that is, until the hurricane that is Ekin-Su whirled into the villa and grabbed the series by the scruff of the neck. In the latest episode, the Turkish actor reaches her reality TV crescendo by crawling onto the villa balcony for a clandestine kiss with new boy Jay.
The moment injects the show with some much-needed drama after an ambling first two weeks. Sadly, after the balcony scene, the episode falls back into the same pattern, with lots of snoozy chatter between couples.
In one of those talks, Gemma finally tells Luca to cool things down. The fishmonger from Brighton has been on Gemma like a limpet since the dressage rider showed him a scrap of interest. “What initially attracted me to you is that you didn’t give a s***,” Gemma explains. “I don’t want to feel that’s us two married off now and that’s it.” The comment allows Luca to deliver the most cutting line of the series so far. “Why are we married off?” he asks. “Because two new boys came in and no one’s giving you attention?”
Fortunately, a delighted Gemma is just happy he didn’t bring her juice that morning, seeing it as a sign he’s taking her hints to give her space. A genuinely perplexed Luca responds, “I just forgot.”
Elsewhere in the episode, poor Remi can’t catch a break. His chat with Indiyah is swiftly interrupted by the always-dancing Ikenna and then Dami comes and stands so awkwardly beside him and Amber that he’s forced to leave. If it’s any conciliation to the Manchester-based model, both couples seem to be fizzling fast. It makes for desperately slow viewing as the pairs skirt around the elephant in the room that, actually, they just don’t really like each other very much.
This would have been a two-star review, had it not been for the ever-blockbuster Ekin-Su’s return for another balcony romp with Jay. For all Ekin-Su’s chat about Gemma being her younger sister, it ends up being the 19-year-old who delivers sage advice to her elder about breaking the news to Davide sooner rather than later. Of course, her advice is ignored and I couldn’t help but cringe as Jay denies being with the Essex actor under questioning from the boys. It finally all blows up in Ekin-Su’s face – Davide becomes so cross that he’s forced to break into his native tongue for the first time in the series to say “fanculo” – I’ll let you Google that one.
“You are a liar and an actress,” Davide shouts in tomorrow night’s episode preview, the Italian’s hands gesticulating in overdrive. It’s definitely enough to bring me back for more.
