In the early days of this season of Love Island, Gemma Owen had a hard time. Her dead pan facial expressions quickly had viewers calling her ‘boring’ and ‘entitled’ while her fellow Islander Paige Thorne declared in front of the whole villa that she had a ‘resting bitch face’.
This perceived frostiness continued after Gemma coupled up with Luca Bish. While the fisherman clung to her, whispering sweet nothings like ‘what’s your favourite type of bread’ in her ear as she went to sleep, Gemma remained seemingly aloof and unbothered—occasionally breaking into a beaming smile but mostly letting her poker face prevail.
‘Gemma always looks like she’s in pain when Luca touches or kisses her. Free Gemma,’ campaigned one fan on Twitter. ‘Gemma definitely doesn’t like Luca at all,’ accused another.
Yet, over the last week in Casa Amor, we’ve seen Gemma’s affectionate side start to creep out. She slept every night in Luca’s hoody, had his signet ring welded onto her finger and couldn’t wait to reunite. Perhaps, it isn’t that Gemma doesn’t like Luca but simply that she’s taken more time to let her guard down.
And who might be the cause of Gemma’s well-learned self-protection tactics? Bets are on the villa’s main villain: Jacques O’Neill. A red flag personified, whenever Jacques gaslights, manipulates or controls Paige, Gemma’s ‘take no sh*t’ attitude instantly jumps out—it makes you wonder what he put her through at 16 for her to be so vigilant and pragmatic now.
‘You don’t look like the mug,’ Gemma told Paige as she (correctly) panicked about what Jacques was doing with other girls in the main villa during Casa Amor. ‘If he is that easily led, if you go away for a few days and he’s not f*cking strong enough in his own mind to keep his d*ck in his f*cking pants then he can f*ck off anyway.’
Just watching Jacques’ behaviour over the past week has been enough to put most of the nation off of men for life. The recovery after the emotional tornado of actually dating him must be severe. Yet, with unforeseen levels of maturity, Gemma has kept entirely quiet about his behaviour during their relationship: ‘If you don’t have anything to say you can f*ck off,’ she replied when he attempted to open up old wounds and argue.
As anyone with an avoidant attachment style knows, the best way to protect yourself is to act like you don’t care—whether you do or not. Gemma likes Luca (frankly she’s too hot to settle). But she needs more than a minute to show her emotions. And maybe we shouldn’t expect everyone to be a PDA person on national TV...As everyone loves to keep pointing out, her dad is watching this.