Kayda and Zach hopped on a speed boat, cruised up to a quaint riverside tablescape surrounded by flowers with champagne, and sat down to eat… sandwiches. That’s it. As expected, fans clocked it immediately, and viewers have no shortage of comments to make about the quality of everything. One person said the bread looked stale enough to bounce and more than a few noted how Zach had to “shake his head back and forth like a dog because the bread was so stale and dry. On a show where final dates are usually proposal level, a stale deli sandwich by a riverbank is not whatever flex the producers think it is.
Everyone else got a whole vibe.
The contrast between their date and everyone else’s is honestly unhinged. Melanie and Sincere, who placed third mind you, got a beach hut over the water, a massage, and made a pizza from scratch together. Aniya and Carl, who took second, were met with a gorgeous candlelit diner encircled by a ridiculous amount of flowers, chandeliers, and a personalized storybook of their relationship. The season 8 winners, Trinity and Bryce, were treated to a romantic dinner that ended off with a literal fire dancer performance. But hey, at least Zach and Kayda got a fold-out table and cold cuts. Two of the most ruthless comments were someone saying they had “Subway by the swamp” and another summing it up as “the situationship budget!”
The date budgets were basically spoilers.
Now here’s the part that’s really interesting, because fans go to work immediately. Tons of people noticed how Love Island USA tends to give the most extravagant final dates to the couples finishing in the top two. Which means the fancier the date is, the closer you are to winning. One fan called Carl and Aniya’s storybook “second place coded,” mentioning how the show has given second place winners really cool gifts for the past two seasons, which seems almost like a consolation prize for not winning but still getting close. And this whole thing tracks too well to be a coincidence when you connect that the fire dancers were for first place couple and the dry sandwiches were for the fourth place couple. Either Zach and Kayda were legit unlucky, or more likely, production accidentally spoiled its own finale through the catering budget. Regardless though, this is one fans will never forget.
The real tea
It looks like Love Island USA lets the food do the talking when the show doesn’t want to, whether it’s the french fries talk the cast members use to discuss their spicy nights or the breakfast making that shows who’s actually trying. Yet again, that same energy showed up on the finale instead of staying in the villa kitchen, and this time it was a little louder. If you’re already planning for next season’s watch party, how bout skipping the sad sandwich tray. Show your friends, and yourself, some more love than production showed Zach and Kayda.