Maura Higgins flattened Tommy Fury quicker than any boxer, and gave Molly-Mae a lesson in ‘girl code’/karma. It was hard to decide if any of them deserved our sympathy, or all three on Love Island, by Jim Shelley
Love Island must have left viewers feeling their heads were turning 560 degrees or (lower down) having flutters.
Heart palpitations, that is. What else?
After the incendiary arrival of Maura Higgins on Wednesday, we had settled down to watch karma throw shade at Molly-Mae by giving her a painful, practical, lesson in ‘girl code.’
Drama: Love Island must have left viewers feeling their heads were turning 560 degrees or (lower down) having flutters
We expected to enjoy Maura and Tommy Fury cracking on almost as much as they did.
But after the way Amazonian beauties behaved (towards each other and to her) by the end of Friday night’s episode, we found Molly had become not only quite likeable but the one we were rooting for.
Even more improbably, Tommy was no longer someone most blokes would envy (with Molly-Mae and Maura throwing themselves at him) but just another poor sod they felt sorry for (with both belles determined to prevail over the other, tearing his resistance and loyalties down the middle).
There was something rather poignant watching him being obliging when the women took turns to take his attention (and the rest of him) away from their rival by coming over and insisting ‘can we have I chat?’
Tension: After the incendiary arrival of Maura Higgins on Wednesday, we had settled down to watch karma throw shade at Molly-Mae by giving her a painful, practical, lesson in ‘girl code’
‘Why is my life so difficult?!’ he cried, to himself (!) – as if he’d nothing to do with it. ‘I have never been in this position my whole life. My head’s in bits!’
It would be easy to vilify Maura for the shameless way she targeted the boxer (and Molly), and sure enough that was what mostly happened.
But objectively, Fury didn’t deserve little sympathy.
For ten days, Tommy had been the type of ‘man’s man’ most men wanted to be – combining his easy machismo with enough sensitivity to like ‘Hannah Montana’, or at least say he did.
Now suddenly, he looked weak – putty in Maura’s hands – or, the way he treated Molly-Mae, just cruel.
Romance: We expected to enjoy Maura and Tommy Fury cracking on almost as much as they did
Maura’s arrival – and the impact she had – quickly ensured all the talk in build-up to the 2019 series about ‘the crisis facing reality television’ was a dim and distant memory.
The fairly dull first week also seemed a long time ago.
By the end of it fans were beginning to enjoy the different dynamics of couples like Lucie & Joe, Amber & Michael, Anton & Anton…
Then Maura came strutting up the driveway winking at Elma Pazar, confident in the havoc that would follow.
‘Us coming in shook things up,’ she said later. An understatement if ever there was one.
Love triangle: But after the way Amazonian beauties behaved by the end of Friday night’s episode, we found Molly had become not only quite likeable but the one we were rooting for
The way she fixed her laser-beam sights on boxer Tommy Fury made for such compelling/seductive television it could almost have been scripted.
Molly-Mae saw the danger straight away.
‘She’s a f*****g ring girl!’ she wailed.
Yes, but not for long.
‘It is early days but I know what I want!’ Maura declared. Yes we had noticed.
She spent most of her first day playing hard to get and poker-faced, telling Tommy Fury she had ‘f***y flutters’, asking him if he wanted to ‘get frisky under the covers?’, and drooling over him working out.
‘Tommy’s starting to sweat now which is actually turning me on,’ she panted to Elma.
Impact: Maura’s arrival – and the impact she had – quickly ensured all the talk in build-up to the 2019 series about ‘the crisis facing reality television’ was a dim and distant memory
‘I’m not even joking…the things I would do to that man. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. I can imagine screaming his name!’
Given the way Molly-Mae (understandably) reacted when she first saw Maura, she behaved with surprising magnanimity and even maturity afterwards.
She had even had to witness Maura flirting with Tommy wearing the jacket she had lent her to keep warm.
In fact she was so reasonable that – shockingly – she looked almost naïve.
‘I don’t want you to think you’ve done anything wrong,’ she told Maura.
‘I don’t feel that at all,’ Maura reassured her, somewhat gratuitously. (We sensed that.)
It was as if, seeing Maura pretty much as she had, the penny had dropped.
Molly had been so blatant about making an impression on the men, Yewande had mocked ‘he’s my type, he’s just so tall! Everyone here is tall, so is everyone here your type?’
Flirty: The way she fixed her laser-beam sights on boxer Tommy Fury made for such compelling/seductive television it could almost have been scripted
After five minutes with Danny she declared: ‘I really like him! My head is actually falling off!’ And after ostentatiously letting Tommy give her a boxing lesson she’d cried: ‘just call me Molly Fury!’
She’d summed up here three suitors/victims: ‘Tommy is like ‘I want to f**k you material, Danny like ‘baby daddy material’, and Anton ‘I want to go to a theme park with you material!’’
At first after she’d started to lose Fury to Maura, even when Anton pointed out: ‘you’ve made your bed, lie in it’, we could see the blonde/orange bombshell thinking: ‘OK, but who with?!’
Everyone seems to have forgotten Tommy behaved the same way – declaring that first Lucie, then Molly-Mae, and now Maura was ‘100% my type.’
The first clue what would happen came when Tommy was getting ready for his ‘date’ with Maura and asked Molly-Mae: ‘can you do my eyebrows?’
To her credit, she told him in no uncertain terms to do them himself – or rather to ‘do one.’
She didn’t hold back either as her man and the new girl enjoyed themselves, carping: ‘Why can I hear Tommy laughing like an absolute gimp?!’
Maura said: ‘I’m not even joking…the things I would do to that man. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. I can imagine screaming his name!’
‘I know what I want. I’m genuinely looking for someone,’ Tommy told Maura five minutes after they’d first met.
‘Do you want me?!’ Maura came back, quick as a flash – or a snake.
‘Gift-wrapped!’ he grinned.
In this way at least he was true to his word.
Molly-Mae had to watch him snuggling up to Maura, gazing into her eyes, and taking his turn to lend her his jacket.
Molly finally snapped, effectively recognising what she was up against by telling Tommy he had the power to choose.
‘How is the ball in my court?!’ Tommy protested, suggesting he’d been right to stick to boxing over tennis.
Change: After five minutes with Danny she declared: ‘I really like him! My head is actually falling off!’
He even had the gall to claim Molly-Mae’s complaints about his behaviour with Maura was unfair – on the grounds that Maura had made her ‘intentions’ clearer than Molly had.
An understatement if ever there was one.
He even doubled up on his position by insisting his own conduct had been admirable somehow, pointing out to the lads: ‘I’ve given my heart to that girl for the last six days.’
And they say romance is dead eh – which on Love Island it might be.
The final straw came at bedtime when Tommy, somewhat crushed, removed himself from the whole trauma and drama by settling into his own makeshift bed on the sofa.
Not happy: Molly-Mae had to watch him snuggling up to Maura, gazing into her eyes, and taking his turn to lend her his jacket
He was quickly joined of course by Maura, offering to kiss him.
Tommy – courageously – offered Maura his cheek (not that one) but wasn’t brave enough to speak to Molly, and explain why he wasn’t spending the night with her, let alone try and make her feel OK about it.
‘Weren’t you going to come and tell me?!’ she railed when she (commendably) confronted him about it. ‘I feel this big!’
When she (perhaps surprisingly) gave him one last chance to sleep in their bed, he (perhaps even more surprisingly) he meekly accepted, with Maura silently watching on.
The pathos was unmistakable.
In a way you felt sorry for all three of them.
Tension: Molly finally snapped, effectively recognising what she was up against by telling Tommy he had the power to choose
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