Just like that, another series of Love Island UK has come and gone. In its 10th season, the flagship branch of the thriving franchise (which has spurred spinoffs in over two dozen locations) delivered humor, chaos, romance, and gorgeous Majorcan vistas. But from the islanders’ camaraderie and distinctive slang to the unparalleled drama and shocking twists, this season was also a reminder of why Love Island UK is so special and worth the 60-plus-hour investment, a commitment that can sometimes feel like a part-time job. Loaded with unexpected story lines and all-time-great characters, Series 10 culminated with a win for the hilarious Jess and Sammy—equal parts perfectly compatible and wildly turbulent. Beyond their victory, however, there were plenty of other important and entertaining contestants and moments that deserve recognition. Sure, the show invented the fan-voted Grafties this year, but those failed to fully encompass everything that was weird and wonderful about the season. Therefore, we now present our own authoritative, comprehensive end-of-series awards (no cash prize included).
Villa MVP
Winner: Whitney
When you’re watching Love Island, it can sometimes feel like the British public is nothing but fickle and irrational. (I will never understand why the mild-mannered, drama-free Leah got so much hate while the needlessly argumentative and endlessly boring Scott became a fan favorite.) But this season, the public’s love for Whitney was spot-on—she truly was the heart and soul of the villa. The Camden Town native was friends with seemingly all of her fellow islanders and contributed great energy, incredible dance moves, and a season-defining catchphrase (I giggled at every iteration of her “It’s giving …”). And don’t even get me started on “It’s Giving Bad Bitch,” the absolute masterpiece of a rap song she and Ty whipped up for the talent show, which deserves an award all on its own.
But more important, Whitney wasn’t afraid to lay down the law, and she was often one of the few people talking sense while everyone else was too busy enabling one another’s delusions. It was during one-on-one chats with Whitney that Ty realized he loved Ella, Jess realized she probably shouldn’t flirt with bombshell Josh while being exclusive with Sammy, Scott realized he was leading Abi on, and Ella B learned that Mitch thought she was fake. In each of those cases, Whit wasn’t afraid to tell people the truth, even if it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. If every season of Love Island had a Whitney figure, who knows how many poor decisions could have been avoided.
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Craftiest Producer Machination
Winner: The choice to put Ouzy in Casa Amor
After some turbulent early weeks in the villa, Ella and Tyrique finally closed things off and seemed to be in a better place—and then Casa Amor happened. With the house split in two—the girls were sent off to Casa, and the boys were home alone—chaos seemed inevitable. Given Ty’s propensity for flirting with anything with a pulse, it seemed most likely that Ty would get distracted by at least one new bombshell—and possibly up to six—while Ella would foolishly stick by him. However, in a surprising turn of events, the opposite happened: By bringing in Ouzy—whom, as producers undoubtedly knew, Ella had already met and was interested in before the show—the producers found one of the few people who could have turned her head. Beyond his history with Ella, Ouzy was soft-spoken, relaxed, and all in on Ella. In other words, he was Ty’s perfect foil. This contrast heightened Ella’s understandable fears that Ty would find someone new, leading her to break the terms of their exclusive relationship.
The fallout stands as one of the peaks of Series 10 of Love Island UK. Following the post-Casa recoupling—when an optimistic Ty seemed confident that he and Ella had “left in a good place,” only for Ella to strut back into the villa hand in hand with Ouzy—we were treated to about five straight episodes of nonstop bickering between Ella and Ty. It was like the two of them were in different universes: Ella was somehow convinced that she’d done nothing wrong, even claiming, “I’ve not been disloyal to you” (objectively a factual inaccuracy), while Ty oscillated between seeming genuinely hurt and resorting to middle-school levels of pettiness (flirting with Kady, vowing to return to his old player ways, and simply refusing to speak to Ella, at least initially).
While the Ella-Ouzy coupling ultimately did not last long (Ella and Ty rekindled their relationship just days later), it came as a complete surprise and ended up being one of the most interesting story lines in an otherwise uneventful Casa Amor.
Weirdest Date
Winner: Mehdi and Whitney’s tandem-biking adventure
Whitney would probably have chemistry with a brick wall, but even she couldn’t salvage her date with Mehdi (or their relationship, for that matter). A one-on-one date is usually a rare opportunity to spend quality time together away from the villa and progress a romance, but this date was just an awkward mess.
Whitney and Mehdi’s uncoordinated attempt to navigate the tandem bike wasn’t the cute bonding moment producers likely anticipated. It rather seemed to be a manifestation of the couple’s lack of compatibility. It was never quite clear whether the aloof Mehdi was actually into Whitney—at times, he seemed to actively dislike her most defining traits, picking fights over her big personality and direct approach to conflict—and this date did nothing to clarify where he stood.
The Rita Ora Memorial Award for Self-Love
Winner: Zachariah
Throughout much of the season, Zach came off pretty dry and mellow, but occasionally, we got glimpses of his true, goofy self. On one such occasion, soon after Casa Amor, he was in bed talking to Mitch when he observed that “that Ouzy guy is definitely a specimen to look at.” Mitch agreed, and Zach paused to think for a moment before stating, completely matter-of-factly and with his signature deadpan look, “I’d still say I’m the pengest here, though.” The moment was so random, with absolutely zero context surrounding it, but nevertheless beautiful—it’s always nice to see personality from people who aren’t usually included in the edit. Love Island can, at times, be a grueling watch, with new episodes daily for weeks on end, but an advantage of having all that airtime to fill is that little gems like this one get to see the light of day. It’s a separate conversation on whether Zach’s assessment of the pengness of his fellow islanders was accurate; regardless, his proclamation was an unexpected reminder that we should all be our own biggest cheerleaders.
Plot Twist So Shocking It Cured My Love Island Brain Rot
Winner: Molly’s surprise dumping
Ten seasons into Love Island, it feels like we’ve seen it all—blowout fights, devastating breakups, physical altercations, knotty love triangles, surprising votes and eliminations—but somehow, the show still managed to find a way to shock viewers. During a recoupling on her first evening, bombshell Kady chose to couple up with Zach, which wasn’t surprising in and of itself—Kady had no choice but to break up a couple, even on the heels of a great date Molly and Zach had just the previous day. But immediately after Kady made her decision, and in a completely unprecedented and truly stunning moment, Molly received a text informing her that she was now being dumped from the island. We’ve seen this scenario over and over again, but in every previous instance, the odd person out has been allowed to stay on the island and fight their way back into a couple. This time was different. The gasps and looks of utter, jaw-dropping shock from each islander, including Molly herself, were likely mirrored by those of the viewers at home. It was one of the most memorable events of the whole season, and possibly of the show’s entire run, as it epitomized Love Island’s unparalleled ability to buck the formula and remain fresh and exciting year after year.
The Dakota Johnson–Ellen DeGeneres Award for Hardest-to-Watch Moment
Winner: Movie night
Movie night has become a tradition over the past three seasons, exposing discrepancies between the islanders’ actual behavior and the narratives they have been feeding their partners. Like the best of reality TV, this season was chock-full of lies, gaslighting, and convenient omissions, and movie night brought those mistruths to light. But this year’s movie night was more uncomfortable than that of any previous season because of the islanders’ no-holds-barred approach. Every movie aired resulted in an immediate shouting match, and virtually no couple left unscathed. But beyond the expected—albeit more intense than usual—arguments among the couples exposed in the videos, movie night was exceptionally hostile due to the random, unrelated conflicts that broke out. After Catherine’s movie, Scott—who by that point was no longer coupled up with her—was critical of Catherine’s quick transition to dating Elom. Leah jumped to her defense, leading Scott to deliver an absolutely scathing burn: “You haven’t fucking spoke for about four weeks.” You know it’s bad when the least problematic girl in the villa is getting roped into not one, but two fights, and Leah’s plight was indicative of just how high tensions were running that night—and just how unafraid of an argument every single islander in Series 10 was.
Most Interesting/Terrifying Contestant to Have Ever Lived (M.I.T.C.H.E.L.)
Winner: Mitchel
Mitch is every reality TV producer’s dream. He resists all definition: He’s both a volatile villain and a goofy guy you can’t help rooting for; simultaneously a perpetrator of hurt feelings and a victim of mistreatment; an instigator of conflict and a happy-go-lucky golden retriever; and a calculating player and a bumbling fool who can’t help but fall for every girl he talks to. Here, in no particular order, is an inexhaustive list of the most outlandish things Mitch did in two months on Love Island:
- Attributing his interest in Jess to watching her do a rainbow kick during a soccer challenge: Rather than just casually getting to know different girls, Mitch convinced himself (and everyone around him) that he was head over heels obsessed with every slightly available girl. Early in the season, that slightly available girl was Jess, whom he’d already been friends with for multiple weeks. He sat her down after the “She’s a Keeper” challenge, where Jess had won a date with bombshell Scott, to tell her that watching her soccer skills had made him realize he was interested in her as more than a friend. It was a bizarre impetus for a short-lived couple, and it revealed the extent of Mitch’s desperation as he grasped at straws to justify the sudden onset of what he claimed to be extraordinarily intense feelings.
- Claiming he recoupled with Molly for Zach’s sake, when really, he just wanted to keep talking to her himself: A fundamental aspect of Mitch’s personality was being a compulsive liar and, crucially, thinking he was being slick about it. He’s the only person I’ve ever seen literally reenact the “playing both sides” meme from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Molly had just informed Mitch that she was pursuing things with Zach instead of him, only for Zach to get picked by bombshell Charlotte in the recoupling. Ever the gallant gentleman, Mitch took one for the team and chose Molly, assuring Zach and the other guys that he “didn’t save Molly, [he] saved Zach’s Molly.” But, as movie night later exposed, Mitch privately approached Molly, inviting her to “get to know [him] under the radar for a bit.” What’s so distinctly Mitch about this is that he never posed enough of a threat for this revelation to even faze Zach, Molly, or any of the other islanders—it was just silly old Mitch up to his usual silly old antics.
- Performing the world’s most uncomfortable roast at the talent show: Mitch’s painfully awkward, profoundly unfunny roast during the talent show rivals only Michael Scott’s roast in The Office. Expectations weren’t too high—Molly had Hula-Hooped for her performance, while Abi had donned a clown costume and made balloon animals that left much to be desired. But Mitch, ever the overachiever, decided to perform a roast, which quickly deteriorated into him just offering his unfiltered thoughts on his fellow islanders with very few actual jokes. The result was dead silence. At one point, after Ty let out a forced chuckle, Mitch exclaimed, “That were a fake laugh, bro!” It’s almost like the call was coming from inside the house!
- Acting as an unsolicited go-between for Kady and Zach: For someone who waxed poetic about how much he loved his best friend Zach, Mitch sure did backstab him a lot. This time, during Zach and Kady’s brief coupling, Mitch approached Kady to share that Zach had said their banter was dry. This intel came as a surprise to Kady, who had no reason to believe Zach was anything but happy with their conversations, and she was probably even more surprised when Mitch followed it up with a hard sell: “If things aren’t going right with Zach, you just need to grovel back to me.” Zach obviously should’ve known better than to confide in Mitch; desperation and an utter lack of self-awareness make for a deadly combination. During movie night, this two-facedness was revealed, and absolutely no one batted an eye, instead just doubling over in laughter. Catherine put it best: “Mitch gets away with murder.”
The Inaugural Tyrique Hyde Award for Growth and Improvement
Winner: Tyrique, in a landslide
Tyrique entered the villa as a self-avowed player who’d never had real feelings for a woman, let alone been in a relationship. Even when he started talking to Ella, he couldn’t help but complain constantly, sometimes directly to her face, that he “missed the game.” But by the end of the season, Ty had shed his aversion to commitment, put his ego aside to forgive Ella after her stint with Ouzy, faced his fears and told Ella he loved her, and even made her his girlfriend. Of course, shades of the old Ty never fully disappeared: Although he was better about staying out of trouble, that didn’t stop him from instigating chaos, like when he egged on Sammy and Montel to kiss Casa girls, urging them to treat the week like a “lads’ holiday” so he could live vicariously through them. But high jinks aside, Ty greatly improved in his approach to conflict and his willingness to open up and commit, making him a real (and rare) Love Island success story.
The Lovers’ Quarrel That Nobody Wanted and That Went On for Way Too Long
Winner: The Mitch–Abi–Ella B–Scott love triangle (rectangle?)
By the end of the season, much of the drama seemed to have settled: Whitney was coupled up with the chillest islander ever, Lochan; Sammy and Jess, Tyrique and Ella, and Molly and Zach, who’d all hit turbulence throughout the season, had (for the most part) gotten past the major hurdles in their relationships; and no more bombshells were entering the villa. Since happy couples don’t make for good TV, the producers had to spice things up, and they enlisted Mitch, Scott, and newer bombshells Abi and Ella B to do so. But the issue was that each of them was either too unlikable or too problematic to root for, so what should have been a compelling story line instead fell flat and took up too much airtime. (The producers’ overinvestment in this conflict probably also explains why zero new bombshells came into the villa after Episode 39—giving Mitch, Scott, Abi, or Ella B a new person to pay attention to would’ve caused their drama to fizzle out.) Mitch had been so desperate throughout the season and came on so strong to every girl he talked to that it was hard to believe he genuinely cared about Abi or Ella B, let alone that he was supposedly conflicted because he was so enamored of both of them. Meanwhile, despite getting mugged off by Mitch, Abi—as Whitney pointed out—had no leg to stand on, given that she had pursued Scott in the same way Mitch was talking to Ella B, and when she eventually went back to Scott, the relationship felt so forced that it never had a chance. Scott clearly didn’t like Abi, and it was tough to watch both of them try so blatantly to make it work just so they could stay in the villa longer. Ella B was really just collateral in all of this, but she also wasn’t an interesting enough character on her own. I would have much rather spent all that time listening to more hits from Ty and Whit’s discography or watching Mitch plot his next escapade or literally just watching grass grow.
Best Finesser of a Vacation
Winner: Amber
There are two ways to look at 19-year-old Amber’s time in the villa. You might think she got shafted by Sammy, had awful luck with the bombshells, had no meaningful relationships, and therefore had an unsuccessful stint on the show. Or, you might realize that she actually had the ideal Love Island experience. She came in during Casa, so she didn’t have to worry about the stress of breaking up couples like other bombshells did. And whether her lack of lasting relationships was by choice, the result was that she managed to dodge all possible drama. She was in the villa for around a month: long enough to get a good tan and forge some solid friendships, but not so long to go stir-crazy. In other words, Amber finessed a monthlong vacation in Mediterranean paradise, kissed a few hot boys, and came home unscathed and recharged for … her sophomore year of college. I have no choice but to applaud her scheme.