The sixth season of the hit dating reality series Love Island is officially underway, and we're already dealing with our fair share of shakeups. Not only is the season hosted by a brand new person, but the show is currently taking place in South Africa instead of our usual site in the beautiful Mediterranean. Welcome one, welcome all to Love Island, winter edition.
In case you've been living under a rock for the past five years (or have been watching The Bachelor instead, which...fair), here's how the show works. Ten sexy singles are flown out to a faraway island and couple up amongst themselves, and the pairings are tested by the arrival of new, very eager Islanders every week.
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The first batch of this season's Islanders arrived in Cape Town in early January, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that this group may be the most diverse the show has ever been off-jump. We've got a real mixed bag here. There is a police officer, a beauty consultant, a democratic services officer, and even a barista. Even more importantly, this season's starting lineup is composed of more than one person of color. It shouldn't be so shocking (it's 2020, for pete's sake), but for Love Island, a show that has been plagued with rightful criticism about its overwhelmingly white cast since its series premiere in 2015, that is a huge deal.
Oh, and twins — we've also got twins this season!
Eve and Jessica Gale may have entered the house a few hours after the original cast, but their late arrival certainly shook up the new dynamic. The blond babes breezed into the villa with champagne in hand à la The Bachelor, deadset on breaking up the shaky couples. In addition to being nervous about the looming re-coupling, the Islanders were stunned to discover that the new additions were virtually impossible to tell apart.
The champagne-loving sisters aren't the first twins to ever appear on the show. Season 1 of Love Island gifted us with Italian stallions, John and Tony Alberti — though they didn't last very long in the villa. Like the brothers Alberti, the Gale twins are identical, which means we will likely have a hell of a time trying to figure out who's who during their stay.
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Thankfully, Eve (or was it Jess?) provided us with a helpful way to distinguish between the sisters: their eye color. Per the twins, Jess has one blue eye and one green eye, whereas both of Eve's eyes are blue. If the Love Island cameras ever get close enough to their faces for us to see their eyes, that should be an easy way to tell who's who.
The Gale twins also appear to have different personalities, with Eve being the more aggressive and dominant sister. Her alpha energy jumped out early on when the twins discussed (read: bickered over) their shared interest in Callum Jones right after they swore that they would never fight over a man. Eve immediately shot down her sister's desire to pair up with Jones. After the spat between the siblings, Eve is currently partnered up with the good-natured scaffolder, and Jess is snuggled up with certified peng ting Mike Boateng, the police officer from London.
As the Islanders say, it's early days — we could see the sisters' distinctive characters and vibes emerge very soon. But would it be too much to ask the production team to provide them with name tags in the meantime?