“I’m finally flying!” Amaya jokes.
As the group takes in the view, it’s clear this is a special moment for them. Taylor’s arm sits around Clarke’s shoulder, and Nic’s hand stays at Olandria’s back. Initial reservations and hesitant cheers at being so high up eventually fade to laughter. Soon, both Bryan and Nic have their phones out, snapping selfies with Amaya and Olandria, respectively, and taking videos of each other, which they later post to social media.
Outside of the villa and in the world of TikTok Lives and Snapchat stories, they’re documenting their relationships on their terms.
“I think that’s why I’m chronically online, as they say,” Nic says. “Because I get to control what people see all the time now. So I’m able to have my own edit.”
“LOVE ISLAND USA” IS a show that airs in real time almost every day through the season, meaning what viewers see in each episode are events that occurred only a day or two before. The Islanders can’t have all eyes on everybody in the way the audience can, so people at home see things that they don’t. Take, for example, the love story that became Nicolandria: Viewers saw Nic’s secret glances and effusive praise for Olandria in confessionals, clocking their chemistry even before Nic and Olandria did.
“I didn’t know this was going on. That’s why I seemed so oblivious,” Olandria says. “And it was like, ‘She’s so obsessed with that word.’ Like, no, literally, I was. But seeing it from their point of view, I’m like, this makes so much sense.”
At the same time, because cameras are rolling in the villa around the clock, the “Love Island USA” audience is getting the highlights distilled into one or two-hour episodes. In that sense, what did viewers not get to see? And how much does that matter to the cast now?
Olandria tells me that “the world only saw the edited side,” so she has “mixed emotions” about revisiting the episodes.
“But I also want to see why the world has different opinions on different situations,” she adds. “So I kind of need to look at the show from (the viewers’) lens and see what they saw in order to form these crazy strong opinions.”
Of this group from “Love Island USA” Season 7, most say they haven’t watched the whole season back. Only Nic enthusiastically says he’d see it. “I want to livestream it,” he says.
Amaya and Bryan expressed interest in watching “some episodes” in full, specifically the moments that show their relationship blossoming.
“I think they showed us pretty well. They didn’t show us being friends at first. I wish they did show that part,” Bryan says.
“We had a great friendship. He was one of my go-tos to always ask advice from,” Amaya adds.
Olandria, however, says if she participated in Nic’s livestream rewatch, she wouldn’t “have many friendly reactions.”
“What I experienced in the villa is very different from what the world saw, and that’s just unfortunate,” she says. “But it is what it is.”
Toward the end of the show, one challenge shifted the tide of public discourse. Titled the Stand on Business challenge, the episode saw Islanders leave each other anonymous notes, and predictably, not every note was well received. The episode came shortly after the infamous Heart Rate challenge, which sparked a feud between Chelley and fellow Islander Huda Mustafa, after Huda danced on Ace in a way that multiple Islanders felt crossed a line.
Chelley and Huda’s tension came to a head in the Stand on Business challenge, and when Olandria came to Chelley’s defense, both were accused by some audience members of teaming up against Huda and being “mean girls.”
The Islanders are completely unplugged in the villa, so they didn’t get to see the public’s reaction to anything that took place until they left.
“When I first came out, I was letting social media get to me,” Olandria says. “(Nic) was like, ‘OK, put down the phone. No social media, no more.’ He would limit my screen time as far as being online, because I was always in the comments.”
She is watching all the fans’ Nicolandria edits, though.
“I literally go to bed, my phone in my hand, scrolling,” Olandria says. “(Nic) caught me one time —”
“She fell asleep,” Nic continues with a laugh.
“ — with it in my hand, looking at Nicolandria edits,” she adds.
Now that they’ve taped the reunion, Chelley says, “I don’t even care to watch the show anymore.”
“Maybe if I get bored and want to watch something, I’ll finish it. But right now, no, I don’t really care to,” she says. “And it’s so crazy because I came into the villa saying, ‘I can’t wait to watch this back. I want to see everything.’”
As for why her mindset changed?
“Just knowing how I lived it. So when I see a little bit of things that look a little bit different than what I experienced, it’s like, maybe I don’t want to see this anymore,” she adds. “But who knows? My feelings change every day.”
Clarke and Taylor say watching themselves back would feel “weird.” Taylor says he feels his edit missed the “big picture” of his experience, while Clarke says viewers didn’t see her friendship with the other Islanders, noting, “I was cool with everybody there.”
Offering advice for future Islanders, Taylor says: “Watch what you say, because everything can get taken out of context.”
“Live in the moment,” Clarke adds. “Because once you get out, it’s a complete new environment, new world that you’re thrown into. So live in the moment while you’re in the villa, and enjoy every second of it.”
BOTH AMAYA AND BRYAN’S PHONES crashed when they got them back after the show.
“I tried to call my mom, and it just crashed my call,” Bryan says.
Most Islanders ask a friend or family member to oversee their social accounts while in the villa, but Amaya opted not to. When she tried to log into Instagram post-“Love Island USA,” her DMs would “glitch,” she says. (Never fear, she did see Fenty Beauty’s direct message. “We’re currently in communications with them. We love Rihanna. Can’t wait to meet you!” Amaya says.)
The influx of opportunities is overwhelming, the cast agrees.
“I was nervous the first week. I was like, ‘OK, do I have to answer all these emails?’” Chelley recalls.
She says after leaving the show, she reached out to people who’ve been through the reality TV experience before, and she leaned on their advice: “Speak to everyone.”
“You don’t know which way to go, who to talk to, what you should do. You want to make sure you’re being careful,” Chelley says.
From there, she says she decides what opportunities to take based on “vibes.”
“It might sound crazy, but I always went with my gut feeling every time, and it’s never steered me wrong,” she says.
Nic says he chooses based on his “moral compass,” aligning the brands with his own values. Specifically, as a registered nurse, he’s interested in the health and wellness space. He adds that his dream opportunity would be shooting an “intimate” couples ad with Olandria, like for Calvin Klein or Skims.
Taylor’s goal is to finish veterinary school, continue rodeoing and “trying to do this influencer life,” he says.
“I want to go back home, do some giveaways, some drives, some horse camps, some rodeo camps. Give away free haircuts, stuff like that for my community,” he adds.
Clarke, meanwhile, is still deciding. “There’s a lot of things I want to do. I feel like I can’t do everything, but it’s just figuring out what I want to start with,” she says.
The group is mixed on whether more reality TV is in their sights. Asked if another show interests her, Olandria says, “I just came from reality TV. It’s a lot.” After all, she says she was asked to be on “Love Island USA” twice before she could finally go. She first declined because she had just started her elevator sales job and didn’t want to risk her career. The next time around, she was in Thailand.
“This year, I was like, I kind of want a different career for myself. The elevator industry is cool and all, but I see myself going out of this pretty quickly. So I just took a chance. And I’m so happy I did. Now look at me,” Olandria says.
“On top of the world,” adds Nic. As for him, he says he’d want to star in another reality show, something like “The Simple Life.”
While Amaya says she doesn’t see herself doing another reality show, Bryan and Chelley say they’d love to compete on “Dancing with the Stars.” (Chelley’s dream partner? Ace.)
“I like to always describe myself as a multi-faceted person, where there’s not one passion of mine,” Chelley says. “So in the future, people will be seeing me in many different realms, whether it’s TV shows, movies, hosting, events … modeling campaigns. So I’m like, I can’t tell you exactly what’s next, but I know it’s all exciting, and I cannot wait to share.”
EACH COUPLE SAYS THEY haven’t been physically separated for long. Chelley estimates she’s spent only six days apart from Ace since leaving the villa. Clarke and Taylor have set up something of a home base in Oklahoma, while Amaya and Bryan have the benefit of both being from the Northeast. Nic and Olandria say they “don’t really spend that much time apart.”
Going forward, “our schedules are so busy, we’ll have to just align it with whatever we’ve got going on,” Olandria says.
“We should make a joint calendar now that we’re on that,” Nic responds.
But their friendships are a different story. Instead of spending every day together in the villa, now the group stays in touch like most long-distance pals: via phone calls and FaceTimes.
“Olandria, that’s my girl,” Chelley says. “It sucks because she lives far, I live far, we’re both super busy. … It’s like, damn, I wish I could see you every day again.”
The reunion, which was taped in New York City on Aug. 12, gave them that opportunity.
“It was bittersweet, because that’s probably the last time we’ll all be in the same room,” Bryan says. “But it’s sweet that we get to close that chapter and start something new.”
The reunion taping, which was co-hosted by Andy Cohen and “Love Island USA” host Ariana Madix, ran for hours.
“‘Love Island’ reunions are no joke. We are on dinner break. It is 9:45. We’re going back in there soon,” Cohen said in a video shared to his Instagram story the day of the taping. He confirmed in a follow-up post that they wrapped at 11 p.m.
Asked to describe the reunion in one word, Chelley calls the experience a “roller coaster.” During a separate conversation, Taylor chooses the same word. (“I knew she was my bestie for a reason,” he says.)
The cast remains tightlipped on details about the reunion. Cohen, however, confirmed on the Aug. 12 episode of “Watch What Happens Live” that an extended version of the Hearts on Fire challenge will air, likely adding context to the situation between Chelley, Olandria and Huda.
The reunion was part of why Olandria says she didn’t watch the show in advance. Because she knows firsthand that certain moments are edited, “I don’t want to take anything out of context and bring it to the reunion, like, ‘Why did you say this?’” she says.
Instead, she says she focused on what her fellow Islanders said in interviews outside of the villa. But as for Nic? “I couldn’t really be bothered,” he says. “Focused on what I have here.”
Chelley says she went into the reunion with excitement and no expectations.
“It was just more so, like, ‘Wow, I want to see everybody. I want to have those conversations we’ve probably been holding on to. I want to check up on everyone and see how they’re doing,’” she says.
She does say she left the taping with “clarity.”
“I left (with) a clear mind, with wanting to let go of the past and just move forward,” she adds. “That was a moment to bring us all together, release, celebrate — and go forward from there.”
“Love Island USA” streams on Peacock, which shares TODAY’s parent company, NBCUniversal.
