Love Island has well and truly become the Ron and Lana show this week, with the on and off couple now in their third love triangle of the series. After a dramatic recoupling saw Lana choose new bombshell Casey over her former beau, the fallout has been all anyone can talk about.
ICYMI, Ron pushed Lana to the edge last week after exploring a connection with Ellie, only to come back to Lana when she made it clear she wouldn’t be second best. Despite promising he was putting his all into her, he did the exact same with Samie and ultimately forced Lana to explore connections with other people.
Enter Casey, Lana’s knight in shining armour, who proceeded to show genuine interest in her outside of the ego-battle Ron seems to be enjoying. Despite their spark, few expected Lana to actually pick Casey in the recoupling knowing she would prefer to be with Ron. But in a rare case of bad bitchery when it comes to head-swivelling men, Lana actually shocked us all and started a new relationship with Casey.
Ron’s response? Gaslighting and manipulation. In a conversation viewers found difficult to watch, Ron told Lana that he couldn’t understand her decision – which she describes as necessary to give Casey more time to get to know her and teach Ron that he can’t expect things to go back to normal just because he’s decided he wants her again.
‘I feel like him being here four days has superseded how we’ve felt over the last few weeks,’ Ron replied. ‘If we were to couple up, I would never have expected it to go back to the way it was because I don’t deserve that straight away. I feel like that recoupling was our chance to get things back and now that’s Casey’s opportunity to grow even stronger and me to fade away. You obviously made a decision on what’s going to make you happier and that’s fine, but I do think you’ve made a mistake and we’d be better.
‘I’m surprised you didn’t [take it more seriously],’ he continued. ‘We know every time we’re not in a couple together it’s caused us to distance further and further. For me, I don’t regret getting to know people, obviously I was hoping it would make you realise that what we had was a lot stronger the same way it did for me. I still want to be with you because I still really care for you, my feelings for you aren’t disappearing but I do think you fucked up. And part of me thinks you know that too.’
Ron was, essentially, rewriting history. The pair haven’t been in a couple since the first week, only growing closer despite that and actually, only distancing when Ron chose to date other people and left Lana crying. It felt vaguely threatening then, to suggest her choosing Casey would cause them to distance, rather than showing that he will fight for her – which is what Ron is saying to the other Islanders, and in the beach hut.
But beyond all of that, to tell Lana that she’s the one whose ‘fucked up’ by choosing a man who has only showed her sincere affection over a man who’s routinely upset her is manipulation 101 – all intended to put doubt in her mind, so she’ll run back to him rather than giving Casey a real chance.
Casey is the real loser then, according to viewers at least, put in the middle of a couple who it’s plain to see will end up together and never given a real opportunity with Lana thanks to Ron’s selfish whims – much of which appear to be more about pride than genuine feelings. But we must remember that Lana is the victim here too, despite what the public might think. Since the aforementioned conversation with Ron, Lana has admitted to the girls she’s worried she made her decision too quickly and wants him back.
Naturally, it’s frustrating to watch Ron’s manipulation work on Lana – but we must remember one crucial thing: manipulation only works because you don’t know you’re being manipulated. Sure, we all wish we could go in there and shake Lana, or at least have one of the girls wake her up to the obvious game-playing that’s going on. But no matter how annoying it is to watch, Lana is the one falling foul to Ron’s gaslighting, and at the same time being told by her friends that they can’t believe she didn’t choose him.
There’s no wonder she’s questioning herself - she’s in an intense situation being forced to make decisions without all the relevant context that we can see when viewing what Ron says and does behind her back.
Ultimately, it’s not Lana’s fault she’s falling for Ron’s games – wanting better for her doesn’t mean we have to turn on her.