Zara understood the bombshell assignment through and through (Picture: ITV)
After Zara Lackenby-Brown branded former beau Tom Clare ‘community penis,’ I believed another star was going to be added to the Love Island hall of fame.
However, her premature exit from the show last night has seen my interest in this season revert back to zero.
From the moment she strutted into the villa, I wasn’t sure what to make of the 25-year-old model. Decent chat, stunning face, incredible figure… you know, the usual descriptions associated with bombshells at first glance.
But as the series progressed (I’m using that word hella loosely right now) it was evident that Maura Higgins’ sass mixed with Anna Vakili’s gun finger pizazz was strong in Zara.
Whatever thoughts you have about her, it can’t be denied that she carried the unpredictable, (albeit slightly plodding) series so far. Don’t get me wrong, we have farmer Will Young radiating pure sunshine at every given opportunity, while Tanya Manhenga and Shaq Muhammed are happily flying the #couplegoals flag… but Zara’s no nonsense demeanour has provided the spice we’ve been desperately craving.
Olivia and Zara had an ‘interesting’ relationship in the villa (Picture: ITV)
Zara turned a lot of heads once she arrived in the villa, but expressed interest in footballer Tom Clare (Picture: ITV)
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I’m not going to lie, despite it being quality TV for a hot minute, I was also begging show producers to put a pin in the Olivia Hawkins and Zara feud saga, because in my opinion, there is nothing worse than seeing two women displaying ‘The Boy Is Mine’ behaviour.
But after seeing Lana Jenkins and Olivia constantly shedding tears over Ron Hall and Tom respectively, watching Zara express how she feels and putting certain people in their place had me snapping my fingers in appreciation.
This is just one of the reasons why her absence has left myself and many others rattled. Her ability to simply say it how it is trumps the majority of contestants (Tanyel Revan excluded) trying and failing to unleash that same boss babe mentality.
In this past week especially I’ve felt bad for the 25-year-old, as it seemed apparent that she didn’t have any strong connections with the girls and guys in the villa.
Contestant Tanyel highlighted the lack of girl unity in an earlier episode, and as someone who has watched the series since the beginning, she’s hit the nail on the head.
Before anyone hits me with the ‘it’s called Love Island not friend Island’ rhetoric, the girl power force has taken a back seat this year, which serves as a massive contrast to the strong bonds displayed by Liberty Poole and Kaz Kamwi (season seven) and Amber Gill and Anna Vakili (season five).
People compared Zara’s energy to season 5 bombshell Maura Higgins (Picture: ITV/REX)
During last Friday’s [January 27] instalment, Tom shared that he liked Olivia’s face, Lana’s personality and Zara’s body (despite being in a romantic couple with her) and Will was the only person who came to her defence while many were quick to paint her as ‘dramatic.’
In Zara’s case, her tenacity when dealing with criticism is why fans like me loved her. She’s not ‘aggressive’ or ‘angry’ – like so many Black women on the show are unfairly labelled (case in point, season five’s Yewande Biala’s outburst after feeling like Danny Williams was selling her a dream while he was flirting with bombshell Arabella Chi behind the scenes) – rather, she’s assertive and strong.
Take the recent game of truth or dare that the islanders played, when Australian bombshell Aaron Waters singled her out as the most likely to talk about everyone behind their backs, she didn’t make a big song and dance about it.
She simply sat back while she probably repeatedly thought ‘it’s just a game,’ then later explained that she felt dismissed by the person who she thought had her back, Tom.
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Zara’s family recently addressed the bullying storm that erupted from that episode, which subsequently resulted in nearly 200 Ofcom complaints in her defence, and claimed that she is a strong woman who ‘knows what she’s doing.’
We all know Love Island is nothing without viewers expressing their opinion under the titular hashtag, and Zara’s treatment in the villa didn’t go unnoticed by attentive fans.
‘The way the villa is gaslighting Zara is the same way they gaslighted Ekin-su last year,’ one person tweeted.
‘Ngl that wasn’t entertaining that was just cruel. Zara deserves better,’ another added.
Zara’s strength in the face of adversity is why she was the best thing to happen to this villa all season. This is because, despite the unfair treatment from her co-stars, she still proved to be one of the few realest contestants.
During one of her final Love Island scenes, Zara’s inner south London came out strong after calling out Tom’s behaviour following his terrace tryst with Ellie Spence – much to his annoyance, but this ultimately led to her early exit in last night’s episode.
While the Twittersphere believe the Love Island producers might be keeping hold of the 25-year-old for a surprise Casa Amor twist, Zara explained that she felt like it was time for her villa journey to end.
That being said, the current series has deviated from the regular traditions we’re used to seeing year after year, so if Zara was to make a grand entrance with a fresh batch of bombshells by her side, I wouldn’t be mad at it!
Just like seasons six and seven, this series of Love Island has reached the boring borderline for me, but that changed once Zara made her catwalk-esque entrance.
Now that she’s departed, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with Lana wiping her tears because Ron’s put his foot in his mouth (again) or the underwhelming ‘will they won’t they’ narrative surrounding Olivia and Tom.
Season nine hasn’t kept me on the edge of my seat as of yet, but I can honestly say that I’ll be watching future episodes with some serious side-eye now that Zara’s gone.
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Hopefully Casa Amor will serve as the show’s saving grace!
Despite being dealt a bad hand, Zara understood the bombshell assignment, and turned plenty of heads in the process and I believe she was robbed of the full Love Island experience.
But at least she left the villa the same way she entered, strutting and smiling!
That’s how you do it!
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
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