Words were had last night.
After Jake’s chat with Liberty on the terrace where she demanded answers for his strange behaviour, he told her that he loved her, leading to much irritation in the Love Island villa and beyond.
But what exactly happened, and why were people so frustrated by it?
While many viewers – and those inside the villa – have pinpointed exactly what the issue is with Jake’s sudden declaration of love, others have questioned why the water engineer received so much backlash for telling his girlfriend how he felt.
What’s more is that even Jake himself seemed confused as to why the girls were questioning his motives, and why some of the boys (Teddy and Toby specifically) urged him to think about why he really told Liberty he loved her.
“You guys do have issues,” said Teddy, after Jake questioned why the girls weren’t happy for Liberty, doing his best to explain why simply saying ‘I love you’ isn’t enough to fix what’s broken.
‘Love bombing’ occurs when a person gives another sudden love and attention to control their behaviour – intentionally or not.
While serious acts of love bombing include active manipulation and feelings of intense discomfort, more subtle forms of love bombing involve telling a person what they want to hear to get out of a situation.
This kind of behaviour in a relationship is common, and is one that many people will have experience of. Telling a person what they want to hear and suddenly showering them with affection may seem like a foolproof way to win someone over, but often it can backfire and can lead the person into a false sense of security that may not have been there in the first place.
Psychologist Deborah Ward says that often, the need for love and attention can overshadow any attempt at seeing a relationship’s issues and trying to fix them.
“Many of us have had so little of what we need in the past that we are starved for it now, so we try to get what we need from a partner by reaching out, hanging on, holding tight and feeling afraid that they might leave us,” she writes for Psychology Today.
“We think we need to hold on to whatever crumbs of love are dropped on us because it’s better than nothing. We feel grateful for it and become willing to accept anything, however meagre.”
In Liberty’s case, the crumbs aren’t meagre, they’re quite large – but given the week that she and Jake had, where they barely spoke and she was feeling insecure, they don’t really make sense.
Chloe and Faye also spoke to Jake directly about what happened last night, explaining why they were concerned that his declaration wasn’t genuine.
Faye said: “All we can do is go on what we’re going on in here, and what we’ve noticed is that you have been distant with her. She has felt a bit insecure and she has felt a bit jealous and Jake, you have done jack sh*t to try and reassure her, all you’ve done is make yourself feel better.”
Chloe went on to address Jake and Liberty’s moment on the terrace directly. “She said ‘this is how I feel, I love you, do you love me?’ and it almost sounds like you’ve gone ‘yeah, I do love you.’ It doesn’t sound genuine.”
Following the conversation, Jake did appear to have more of an awareness as to why his declaration may have been perceived as disingenuous.
He later went and spoke to Liberty about the situation, and although he said he “didn’t care” what anyone else thought, he did seem to take what the girls said on board and the couple did appear to be closer towards the end of the episode.
Liberty and Jake are now one of four couples facing the public vote, meaning that their place in the villa is now in jeopardy.
Voted among their fellow islanders one of the least compatible couples, their fate will be revealed in tonight’s episode, and given the amount of criticism Jake has received over the past few days, the result may be more surprising than we had anticipated.
