The final five couples on Love Island are set to head out on their final dates, but one of the dates might turn out to be quite awkward based on the cliffhanger at the end of the July 26 episode. One of the contestants, Mitchel Taylor, confessed to his friends the night before the final dates that he thought his partner, Ella Barnes, might be “fake.”
The first look at the July 27 episode of Love Island showed that Taylor’s comments quickly spread through the villa, shocking his castmates. The official Twitter account for the show shared a preview of the episode, which began with Zachariah Noble telling Molly Marsh that Taylor had said “some crazy stuff” the day before. “He started saying Ella B. is fake,” Noble added.
The preview then cut to Marsh sharing the information she’d received with Whitney Adebayo, who appeared stunned at the news. Marsh said she was worried about how their date was going and whether Taylor was being honest with Barnes about his doubts, and Adebayo replied that Marsh “came to the right place.” The preview showed that later in the day, Sammy Root told Taylor that people had been talking about his “fake” comment.
“I will have a chat with [Barnes] in a bit,” Taylor assured him. “And just say, ‘I’ll be honest, I [was] tripping last night.” Taylor seemed to be backtracking on his comments about Barnes and told Root that he’d been overthinking her behavior and “picking at things.” Unsurprisingly, gossip is known to spread like wildfire in the Love Island villa, and it looks like Adebayo might beat Taylor to it and tell his partner what he was saying about her.
The first look ended with Adebayo and Barnes heading off to have a chat as Adebayo’s partner Lochan Nowacki appropriately said, “Uh oh.”
The islanders weren’t the only ones reeling over Taylor’s comment that he thought Barnes was “fake.” After the July 26 episode aired, many viewers took to social media to blast him, with one person tweeting, “Everyday Mitch reaches another level of unhinged in this villa and I ask where the producers found him #loveIsland.”
Someone else tweeted, “Mitchel is a CLOWN, what logical process goes through his brain to be TELLING the boys that ‘Ella B is fake’ like as if they WON’T spread that s**t across the villa?? GET HIM OUT.” Several fans commented on the strange timing of Taylor’s comments to his castmates as he told them he thought Barnes was fake right before they were set to vote on the couple they thought was the least compatible.
Barnes and Taylor have managed to avoid elimination so far, but Taylor might have just stamped his and Barnes’ tickets home right before the final thanks to his confession.