So that’s it, then, Love Island 2021 is all over. The winners have been announced, and — despite the fact that the majority of Twitter seems not to agree with the result — the islanders have hung up their crocs for another year.
Regardless of the result, though, in a season where no clear victors emerged in terms of romantic love, two people deserved the win more than anyone else: Kaz Kamwi and Liberty Poole. The fact that the show’s strict rules didn’t allow for this to be recognised by the public notwithstanding… never has a love story on the island been as pure, as supportive, as strong, as stable and as deeply loving as theirs. In a world in which women are so often pitted against each other on screen as rivals — particularly when there is a male love interest around — it was refreshing to see two women who both grew together and helped each other to grow.
From the very beginning the two women shared a unique bond, quickly telling everyone proudly that they were best friends. The season hasn’t been kind to either contestant, with Kaz facing repeated challenges at the beginning after Toby Aromolaran chose Chloe Burrows, and Tyler Cruickshank’s eyes wandered in Casa Amor, and more latterly for Liberty, who left the villa early last Friday after breaking things off with Jake Cornish. In an emotional conversation between the women, as Liberty explained her reasons for dumping Jake, Kaz said “I’ve found love in you,’ which might have been one of the most tear-jerking moments of the entire season. “I found love in you!” Liberty responded.
Their devotion to each other was evident in many consistent and small gestures such as on Liberty’s first night alone, when Kaz picked up her bedding and went and slept with Liberty outside, so she wasn’t alone. And even in the fact that Liberty held back on initiating the break-up conversation with Jake until Kaz was out on a date with Tyler, so that her friend could fully enjoy her date without worrying about what was going on back at the villa.
Their friendship was a breath of fresh air, to be honest, and a much more relatable ballad of female friendship than anything we’ve seen so far in previous seasons of the show. It was a reminder for all the women watching at home of just how deep, loving, supportive and trustworthy the connections we forge with one another can be. In the midst of romantic drama, it was their union that proved the unshakeable bond that women can have with one another, to lift each other up and continue fighting for each other’s best interests among any level of chaos. It was certainly one of the most accurate depictions of what I know to be the experience of platonic female love to be; tender, compassionate, strong and energetic.
Everything they built together as friends stood in stark comparison to the romantic unions forged on the show, none of which proved as enduring over the course of the show’s eight-week run than the friendship Kaz and Liberty had built. It was a reminder for me and all the women I know that though romantic relationships may come and go, but those friendships that build you up, that sustain you and bring out the best in you — they are forever.
As a society, we often privilege romantic love above all other kinds. But show me a bond more pure, more intuitive or more robust than that of two women who have chosen to be the other’s BFF. You can’t. It doesn’t exist.
And so while Liam Reardon and Mille Court were the two that split the £50k prize money in the end, it is clear that Liberty and Kaz are the real winners of this year’s show. I cannot wait to see what they get up to on the outside of the villa.