In Week 2 of "Love Island" USA, the Santa Barbara villa was shaken up with four new members, two dumped islanders, a breach of "bro code" and some love triangles and squares.
Several couples that have been together since Day 1 hit turbulent waters, and some didn't survive. Other couples that had already been tested with temptation appeared to grow stronger; one even ventured into 'I love you' territory.
Here’s a recap of what happened in episodes 7 through 12, which aired July 26-31, including which cast members recoupled and which of them were dumped.
Week 1 recap:Islanders 'getting done dirty,' and who got dumped first
Andy creates drama with Mady, Isaiah and Sydney
In Episode 7, we pick up right after Andy Voyen made what Sydney Paight called a “sexy” and “bold” decision to couple up with her instead of Mady McLanahan. Isaiah Campbell, however, doesn’t have words that positive to describe Andy’s actions.
“It’s bro code,” Isaiah tells Andy. “It’s just blatant disrespect.”
Mady is ready to crack on with Isaiah after being publicly rejected by Andy. But Sydney doesn’t like the thought of her former partner cuddling in bed with someone else. (Spoiler: He does just that.)
“I think I realize that I deserve a man, and I think I’ve been settling for boys. I’ve just tolerated that kind of behavior, and I’m done,” Mady says in an in-the-moment interview. “I’m not accepting anything less than I deserve anymore.”
Isaiah later reveals to Sydney that his kiss with Mady was retaliatory.
“I can already tell you that (Mady and I are) not going to go anywhere,” he tells her.
Halfway through the episode, Mady and Sydney are already less enthusiastic about their new couples.
“I just wish I was with Isaiah,” Sydney tells Deb. “I’m trying to give Andy a fair shot, but I can’t help it.”
“I’m being thrown in this, like, square, and I’m just, like, everyone’s second choice in it, you know? And that’s a sucky feeling,” Mady tells Zeta and Deb. “I know whenever he’s kissing me it’s just getting back at (Sydney).”
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A Zeta-Timmy-Bria triangle starts forming
Conflict also starts brewing between Timmy Pandolfi and Zeta Morrison after she asks whether he can see a future for them outside of the Santa Barbara villa.
“I don’t wanna hurt anybody, and I don’t wanna sell any type of dream or anything,” he tells Zeta.
Later, he tells the men: “That’s such a far-gone question” after just one week.
This proves to be fertile ground for other islanders to get in between the Day 1 couple. So naturally, the producers send in the next bombshells: brother-and-sister duo Chazz (a 21-year-old student athlete from Clifton, New Jersey)and Bria Bryant (a 24-year-old personal shopper from Clifton).
“I’ve got the looks, I’ve got the confidence, I’ve got the personality, and the girls are just going to love me,” Chazz says in his intro package. “There is no guy that’s good enoughto be with my sister.”
Bria calls herself “the whole package: I have the brains (and) the beauty.”
And what do you know? Bria is “one of my types for sure,” Timmy says.
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Isaiah says Andy ‘destroyed’ bro code
In Episode 8, Chazz and Mady are sent on a date in which they’re seated maybe a dozen feet away from his sister Bria and Isaiah. At the end, Chazz unintentionally drops the bomb on Isaiah that Andy and Sydney had kissed before the recoupling — which implies that Sydney had some indication that Andy would choose her. (Potential incoming islanders get to watch the show while they’re waiting to join the villa.)
When they return from their dates, Isaiah confronts both Andy and Sydney.
“Bro code was … destroyed, bro,” he tells Andy. “I’ve got no … respect for you, bro.”
Then he pulls Sydney and tells her: “I just don’t deserve this disrespect, bro.”
She reassures Isaiah that she would rather be coupled up with him.
“I tried to get myself to like (Andy), but it wasn’t happening,” she tells him.
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Sereniti juggles Chazz and Tyler
Bria’s entrance in the villa adds fuel to the simmering tension between Timmy and Zeta, which comes to a head when Zeta yells across the villa about him being a liar. She explains to Sereniti that she feels that Timmy lied by omission by not telling her that he is attracted to Bria.
Before long, she is apologizing to Timmy for her behavior and explaining that “my guard was up” after learning that he is attracted to Bria.
Speaking of Sereniti, her and Tyler’s new partnership is looking rocky, despite having their first kiss outside of a challenge.
“Why don’t you make it clear that you like me?” she cries.
Later, Tyler reassures Sereniti that he likes her and will start showing her affection. This only comes after she and Chazz have a conversation in which he reveals that she was the islander that he’d wanted to get to know upon entering the villa.
“I was starting to feel like the ugly duckling in here,” Sereniti tells Chazz.
In an in-the-moment interview, Sereniti says: “Life is a struggle for Sereniti here. I can’t seem to find someone who wants me and strictly me.”
Another islander is dumped from ‘Love Island’
Little do the other islanders know but the bombshells are tasked with picking a partner for their sibling in the next 24 hours. Bria chooses Sereniti for Chazz, and he picks Timmy for his sister.
“I feel like he’s a respectable man, and I feel like he will be somebody who is able to treat a woman right the way that my sister deserves to be treated,” Chazz says of Timmy.
Zeta — who, along with Tyler, is now left single — immediately responds, “Kick rocks. Smart move.”
In Episode 9, the islanders are forced to choose whether Tyler or Zeta is more deserving of staying in the villa. Zeta, who stands before them with tears streaming down her face, earns 100% of the couples' votes.
Goodbye, Tyler.
“I’m dealing with the loss of somebody that I cared about here,” Sereniti says, as if her former partner were dead instead of just sent to a nearby hotel. Chazz swoops in to comfort her as she’s crying on a sofa.
Bria and Zeta battle for Timmy’s heart
Unfortunately for Zeta, the house’s night-vision cameras show that Timmy and Bria share a kiss in bed as Zeta stews in her dissatisfaction over her former partner being pulled into another couple.
Bria asks Zeta to chat the day after the coupling to find out what is up with the animosity toward her.
Zeta responds that she doesn’t believe Bria is a “girl’s girl” like she claims to be, and the relationship between the two further sours.
“I feel like she’s just trying to psych me out, like, get in my head, and it’s just pissing me off,” Bria tells Chazz.
Meanwhile, Andy tries rebuilding his relationship with Mandy after he and Sydney called it quits the previous day. She responds that she’s open to giving him a second chance, but “I’ll definitely need to see actions.”
Bombshells Bryce and Jeff enter the villa
Courtney and Felipe’s relationship isn’t looking as encouraging; she tells Felipe that she didn’t appreciate his reaction to Chazz choosing Timmy for Bria’s couple (which was: “It’s all part of the game.”)
“It just made me question your intentions with me here,” Courtney tells Felipe, who reassures her that he’s happy with her.
As soon as someone starts questioning their relationship, of course, it’s time for bombshells to come in.
“Italian stallion” Bryce Fins, a 29-year-old financial manager from the Channel Islands in California, and Jeff Christian Jr., a 25-year-old athlete from Cincinnati, come in to split up some couples.
“I wanna find my one and only. The guys in the villa should be intimidated by me because I’m coming in to take to their girl,” Jeff says.
When asked about his type in Episode 10, Bryce keeps his cards close to his chest: “I go off of energy. I don’t really have a type,” he tells the women.
Zeta butts in with an important question, asking whether he’s dated Black women before. (He has, he says.)
Sereniti keeps it 'cute and holy'; Timmy finds himself ‘in a pickle’
The islanders, old and new, get to know each other with a game of truth or dare. The most shocking moment is when Jesse reveals which woman, other than Deb, he finds most attractive by kissing her.
Turns out, that’s Sereniti.
In an interview, she reveals that though she enjoyed it, she kept it “really classy and cute because, you know, we remember (that) my dad’s a bishop. We keep it cute and holy.”
The next shocking development takes place after Timmy tells Bria that he will give her a fair chance by putting his relationship with Zeta on pause. That same evening, he’s seen in a covert area of the villa telling Zeta that “those other girls ain’t you. I was looking at you all night.”
Afterward, he and Bria share another kiss in bed.
The next morning, Timmy fesses up to Isaiah about doing a “DNA exchange” with Zeta the previous night. In an interview, he realizes that he’s “in a pickle” — but “I love pickles,” he says.
Deb and Courtney doubt their couples
Courtney and Deb also seem unsure about their couples. Deb feels like Jesse isn’t making any moves on her, and Courtney believes that Bryce “really puts in effort to get to know me on a deeper level, and I feel like Felipe just doesn’t really do that.”
To make matters worse, Jesse chooses to kiss Sereniti again during the G Force challenge, which involves the men making out with their woman of choice on a stationary motorcycle.
“I’m just, like, so … embarrassed,” Deb tells the women, adding that she feels like Jesse is just telling her what she wants to hear.
“It was big disrespectful,” Zeta says.
Jesse’s explanation for not showing affection towardDeb, ultimately, is, “I’m not good, you know, with PDA. I do struggle with that.”
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A recoupling ends with a Day 1 islander being dumped
This explanation is good enough for Deb, apparently, because she decides to recouple with Jesse “though I haven’t felt like a priority.”
Here are the couples that formed in Episode 12:
- Sydney and Isaiah.
- Sereniti and Chazz.
- Deb and Jesse.
- Zeta and Jeff.
- Bria and Timmy.
- Mady and Andy.
- Courtney and Bryce.
Zeta and Timmy part ways (kind of)
Though Zeta has the chance to pair up with Timmy again (her turn is before Bria’s) she takes a chance on Jeff because she believes that “I need to put myself first at all times, and that’s what I’m choosing to do.”
Unfortunately, Courtney choosing Bryce means that her partner since Day 1, Felipe, is ejected from the show. Her explanation is that her attraction to Bryce goes beyond the physical, and he’s “super emotionally intelligent.”
Zeta’s choice, it turns out, was due to not wanting to pair off with Timmy only to see him continue to flirt with Bria. Jeff agrees that “I’m better than him for you.” Regarding Zeta’s decision, Timmy tells Bria that it “helps a lot with how I progress with you.”
A relationship with Zeta is “not something I’m looking at anymore,” he tells her.
Courtney, however, is still rooting for Day 1 couple Zeta and Timmy.
“Their story just isn’t over yet, and Timmy’s just not the same without Zeta,” she says in an interview.
Zeta seems agree, saying in an interview that “hopefully the connection that we have is strong enough to come back together.”
This islander said ‘I love you’
The islanders are given a breakfast date, and it goes better for some (Sydney and Isaiah) than others (Jeff and Zeta).
“You’re so … funny. I love you,” Isaiah tells Sydney over their breakfast.
“I literally think I can leave with him right now,” Sydney tells Deb later.
Though Jeff believes that Zeta “is a goddess,” she can’t help but be sad over losing Timmy.
What time does'Love Island' USA come on?
New episodes of "Love Island" USA Season 4 stream starting at 6 p.m. MST (9 p.m. Eastern Time) Tuesdays-Sundays on Peacock. Saturday episodes are recaps.
Reach Entertainment Reporter KiMi Robinsonat kimi.robinson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobinand Instagram @ReporterKiMi.
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