Love Island USA Season 8 Finale (Ep.35) Instant Reaction

Instant reaction to the season finale of Love Island USA Season 8. 

Don't forget to Subscribe, Like, Share, and Comment!

Follow us on Instagram for updates: https://www.instagram.com/downoncemorepod

Links to audio versions, YouTube, & all social accounts: https://linktr.ee/downoncemorepod

#loveisland #tv #streaming #reaction #downoncemorepod

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, everyone, it is time to talk the season eight finale of Love Island USA. I have to say, I got very nervous a couple times during this episode that this would be the last episode of Love Island I would ever be able to watch. And while we got close, we didn't get there. I'm gonna give you my instant reaction thoughts. It's not gonna be a full recap. I'm gonna talk about the ending, and then I'm gonna jump back and go through my thoughts from the beginning of the episode. I have to say, thank God Trinity and Bryce won. There were early leaks coming out online that was thanks to AI overview, which this is just another example of why you don't trust AI. They said Anaya and Carl won, which Anaya and Carl were my second favorite couple in the final four, so I wouldn't have been as mad, but I feel like it's just ridiculous if you didn't vote for Trinity and Bryce just because of where they've gone and how the season has been for them. Uh I thought it was awesome where they showed the clips of everyone's like snippets of their journey that they showed Bryce and the kind of longing and the emotion that he was having in Casa because I thought that was very sweet and kind of like he even told Ariana, that was where it first kind of clicked to him, and he knew it was like love. And he was even describing it to I think it was sincere, where he's like, That's love, bro, if you get through all this. Um when I said the bro, that made him seem more like douchey than I feel like he actually is. But I I will say also during that where they're showing the clips, you could kind of tell when Melanie saw that like her yelling at Sincere, that that seemed to kind of bring her a little bit back to reality from where she'd been the past couple days. Because then when Sincere was talking and to Ariana about she was saying, like, what would you say to yourself? And he was talking about just knowing how he's changed and feeling inside him, all the growth he's made, and that he's a better person. And they showed everyone else's faces. Maybe it wasn't during that time, but Melanie's definitely was, and she was just kind of looking down and looking a little bit distraught, I felt like. If she wants to take other chances, that's on her. She has to stay true to her heart. And then I don't know. I feel like it was the snake oil salesman and sincere. And maybe I'm being too hard on him, maybe I'm being an asshole, and he really has changed. I just I actions speak louder than the words, and we've just seen it time and time again. I just didn't buy any of it. And he tries to say stuff like, Yeah, over the past few weeks I've been like so much better and grown so much. It's like, bro, you were fucking up uh like less than a week ago, so I don't I don't know. I struggle finding it, and he was just so oblivious. And after Family Day, the conversations that I had with both Melanie and Bryce, like being like, Well, I didn't think that was anything bad, should it be? And he was almost acting annoyed with Melanie when he talked to Bryce. I don't know. I just am not team sincere, I will never be team sincere. I do think some of the companies are going a little hard with saying Melanie will get you all this free stuff, you leave that man. They're doing it for Kata now, too. I feel like that's a bit unnecessary. The first time I saw it made me laugh, but then when I saw like 40 more posts about it, it seemed like they're a little bit like taking advantage of the situation, which I get, that's what happens, but I don't know. But I was so glad. Like when they announced that fourth was Kata and Zach and not Melanie and Sincere, that's when I got nervous about the finale. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Because I was seeing people post online about, well, we need to vote for Melanie and Sincere, because then imagine if she wins and then she decides to just keep all the money. Which, if you voted with that logic, that's why this was a big fuck you to you, because they didn't even give that option this time, which I've been lobbying for. Like, it's a hundred thousand dollars. All these islanders get such massive brand deals and sponsorships coming out of the villa. None of them is going to take the villain move and decide to keep it all themselves instead of split it with the other person. Now, if a woman did it, like if Melanie would have done it, no one would have thought she was a villain. Like, I will say that. I think everyone would have been behind her 100% on that. But I don't think anyone's going to do that in that situation because they haven't heard all the outside noise. Granted, Melanie heard it from her family and Sincere's family, the people like Melanie's family, that's the people who know her best, and they were trying to caution it, but that didn't wake anything up, so she's not gonna choose to randomly do it on her own. I do think, like I said in last night's instant reaction, I think they'll keep it together until the reunion, and then that'll be about it. Um, but I was so glad and happy when Trendy and Bryce won, especially after saying I love you to each other for the first time this episode. I thought that was super sweet and I loved to see it. And so I was glad that finally America got a vote right. I think this was maybe the first one that I have agreed with or been a fan of the voting. Otherwise, it's kind of pissed me off all season. Because I think there's so many people I wish you would just respect the integrity. There's people that are like, I voted on 20 phones. Like, no, just one person, one vote. That's all you gotta do. And don't try to go strategic with it. Vote for what the prompt is, and that's what I think you should do. I'm gonna go back to the beginning now. So that was my thoughts of the finale. Loved, love, love, love the winners. Some of the lead up to it was weird when they were showing the clips from all their family saying how proud they were uh leading up to the announcement. I thought that was really sweet. We got to see Zach's mom and dad, Kata's friends. I was wondering who they were gonna do for Melanie and Sincere. They did Sincere's mom, who said she was so proud of him and how he's been in there. I that blew my mind a little bit. And then Melanie was her dad. So it was the people that hadn't come to see him on family day, like remaining family members. And so they all like Carl seeing his dad, Naya seeing her dad, they both were like excited and borderline tearing up about that. So that was really cool to see. And then we got like five minutes of random celebrities talking about it. We had Lizzo, we had Demi Lovato, and some people that made me feel old. Like, I don't know who Somber is, I know who Drewski is, uh Casha, Jordan Sparks, Sierra. I don't know who Alex Warren is, but the celebrities they got a kick of it out of it, and I feel like that would be exciting as an islander, but I'm like, what are we doing here? A little bit, a little bit, just saying. Um, it's weird how they've been more and more bringing different celebrities into it, like with Megan the Stallion and things like that. But hey, do what you gotta do. I'm gonna jump back to the beginning, like I said, I was going to, because when this started and they decided to start with Melanie and Sincere's date, I said out loud to my wife, I'm gonna go bold strategy to start out with Melanie and Sincere's date to ensure that I start the episode fucking pissed off and checked out, which is fair because you have Melanie, and she was saying, she's like, I don't know what we're gonna do, but it's gonna be a good time. I always have a great time with Sincere. Do you? Do you, Melanie? Do you always have a great time with Sincere? Because I seem to recall the past few weeks you're fighting with them 90% of the time. But hey, hey, and like it, you know what Sincere reminds me of? If you've seen the movie This Is 40, and Megan Fox's character is a thief, but there's one of the characters who works in the store with Leslie Man, and she's talking about Megan Fox characters, and she's like, Everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie, and everything that goes in is a dick. Now, the last part doesn't apply to sincere, but I do feel like almost everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. And am I being harsh? Maybe, maybe, but that's from what I have observed this season, and with all the cliches, how he speaks with the buzzwords, it just that doesn't seem sincere to me. Where you're trying to just say, Oh, this is the magic thing that whatever it noys me, annoys me. I will say the only positive to me starting out with their date was Ian's voiceover. Ian Sterling keeps being one of the best parts of the series with him just roasting Sincere. It's they put out the Ian Sterling's 10 best moments, and you say which one yours is on social media, and they did have the one dig he made about Sincere had to couple up with uh Villa Islanders. He couldn't couple up with the cleaning lady or the pool lady. That was a good one, but his roast tonight about everything they'd gone through was fantastic. I loved it. Uh, I have to imagine Melanie's family, well, her mom and sister at least, were just seething watching that date and sincere massage and smack her ass. And then they were I'm so confused why when they made pizzas, they both only put black olives and green peppers on it. Was that the only options? Are they both vegetarian? Which maybe, I don't know. But it was weird to me that those were the two toppings that they went with. I I was watching that entire date with like my jaw clenched and like gritting my teeth. I was hate watching it. I was hate watching that entire date, but they seem to be having a great time together, so good for them. Um, we got Zach and Kata's date next. Uh, Zach told Kata on the date that wherever she was, that's where he wanted to be. He sees himself in the States more. I thought that was very sweet. They did Kata dirty though with that kind of speedboat ride. It looked like they had a ton of fun, but man, it fucked up her extensions and her hair looked rough from then on. But then they got to Anaya and Carl State, and this is where I was like, oh shit, maybe the leaks were true because they had one of the most romantic, over-the-top fairy tale ass dates I've ever seen in this show. There were flowers everywhere, there were chandeliers hanging from the trees, there were a bunch of books hanging from the trees, and then they had their actual fairy tale storybook that was like animated, and then they had on the screen certain words and like smoke effect coming up, and that's not like a piece of cake, Daddy, that takes time, so they put so much effort into Anaya and Carl's more than anyone else's, and so I'm like, damn, they might be winning it, and it was very sweet, they had a good conversation. I do like Anaya and Carl together. I do think they will probably last at least a little bit outside the villa, and so I was like, man, they are going to win this. It was right. I did like when they cut back to the villa and everyone was just chilling after their dates, wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts. I'm like, that's the most relatable these islanders have been, because usually they're all dressed up nice at night, and now they're like, nope, we don't have anything to do, we don't need to put on airs. I'm gonna be comfortable and fuck you. And Bryce and Trinity's date, I also thought was really sweet. The nighttime dates always get a little bit more zhuzh to them, I feel like, and you can tell which ones they invested in most, and I guess those were gonna be the final two couples because Bryce, well, he said he loved Trinity on the date, and then the dancers came out with fire and they were screaming. That would have scared the shit out of me. But it was so cool to see the fire breathing, the fire spinning. There's a name for that that I don't know. They watched it. Bryce and Trinity were having a great time. They had both said they loved each other, they were so excited and giddy to tell everyone else. I really like that. I thought that was great. The only other note that I really have is someone on the production team this season just has to have a major foot fetish where we got the challenge where they had to suck toes. Then we had the one with Casa versus Villa where there was one about sucking toes as well. And then this one when the girls all went to the spa to get pampered ahead of time, they just showed so many random close-ups of them getting their feet cleaned and foot done during the pedicure that I'm like, I you could just focus on them talking. We know they're getting pedicures. I don't need to see their toes to know they're getting pedicures, but I don't know. I don't know. They announced the reunion is gonna air on August 31st, so that will be coming out. I'll probably hop on here and do an instant reaction video to that just to put a button on the season. Is that the saying? Put a cap on it. I don't know. It's been a long day. I've had this whole weekend maybe three hours to chill. After this, I have to edit it, then go watch House of the Dragon, record and edit, and post my instant reaction to that. I made myself a cup of coffee, even though it's 10:30 at night, because I am on the struggle bus already. So thank you for those of you who have been tuning into these night after night. I really appreciate it. Those of you have been engaging, interacting, those of you who have subscribed to the podcast, checked out other content that I've put out. Uh it's gonna be weird not doing one of these every night, but I'm so excited to have my nights back. So I'm looking forward to that. If you're like, man, I've gotten used to hearing this motherfucker's voice every night, subscribe to the podcast. I still release things every Wednesday. A new episode drops. I am on every episode. I try to bring in guests when I can to do stuff a little bit unique. This week I am talking about a little bit of an obscure musical that isn't a household name that you can watch on Broadway HD. It's called Title of Show. I did a Matt's Coffee Corner this past weekend. Well, it posted today that was making some Lost Boys musical specialty roast coffee and had a lot of fun with that. But that's on short form content platforms like TikTok, Instagram reels, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts, all that fun stuff. So check that out. There's still lots of ways to connect. I love hearing from you all. Feel free to shoot me a DM on Instagram, drop a comment on the video. What was your overall feeling of this season? Overall, mine? Pretty negative. If there would have been anyone besides Trinity and Bryce winning, I would have said that I was done with Love Island and this would be the series finale of Down on the Island, but which we all know wouldn't have happened next summer when the new season started, I would be on here talking about it again, at least to start with. But I'm also not good at quitting things, even if I know it's bad for me, and I should. So even if I was not enjoying the season, I probably would have still kept going and doing these every night. After the first week, I was like, this is exhausting. I'm gonna just do one-minute reviews on TikTok. Didn't do that, still kept doing this. So we made it 35 episodes this season. I didn't do a single after sun or watch a single second of After Sun, but appreciate all of you who have been here once again. Maybe we'll see you next time on the regular podcast. But this has been a Down on the Island presentation of Down Once More. I've been your host, Matt. Thanks for tuning in this season. Don't forget to go down once more. Later.