Every Episode* Of Winter Love Island In One Sentence

The first of two seasons of Love Island this year, Winter Love Island 2023, is well underway, and the drama keeps on coming. There’s a lot of content, twists, recouplings, and fallouts to take in, especially if you haven’t been keeping up with the antics of this year’s crop of hot singles as much as you’d have liked to. Because, let’s be honest. It happens. Since Day 1, much drama has unfolded with new faces entering the villa as quickly as other Islanders have been dumped. And even fans that have painstakingly watched every episode and live-tweeted their reactions may have already forgotten what happened during the first week. (Though, if you haven’t already, I’d suggest checking in with Jason Okundaye’s brilliant Love Island column, ever Monday.) But for those who want to catch up on Winter Love Island from the beginning without hours of streaming, I’ve compiled the main aspects of every episode into one succinct sentence. While it may not cover every recoupling, kiss, argument, and head-turn, you will get a gist of the most important elements of each episode. Here we go...

Day 1 (Jan. 16)

The 2023 OGs made their debut and Kai Fagan caused a heap of drama after being chosen by Anna-May Robey, stolen by Olivia Hawkins, and then opting for Tanyel Revan.

Day 2 (Jan. 17)

Having entered the villa the night before as 2023’s first bombshell – as voted for by the public – Tom Clare stole Olivia from Will Young (not that Will Young), leaving him single and vulnerable.

Day 3 (Jan. 18)

Will’s advances are shot down by Lana Jenkins, Ron Hall’s in a “sticky situation” after bombshell Zara Deniz Lackenby-Brown took him on a date, and to top it all off, Tanya Manhenga admitted to her head potentially being turned by bombshell David Salako despite having gotten close with Shaq.

Day 4 (Jan. 19)

A rather innocent game of beer pong brought huge drama when Zara named Olivia as “the islander who was most two-faced” and Haris and Shaq got into a bit of a fight.

Day 5 (Jan. 20)

The first recoupling of the season was a real doozy, with the love triangle between Shaq Muhammad, Tanya, and David being brought to a close when Tanya chose to stay with Shaq, making David the first islander dumped from the 2023 villa.

Day 7 (Jan. 22)

Aussie bombshells Jess Wynter and Aaron Waters arrived in the villa while drama escalates between Zara and Olivia, both of whom are grafting after Tom.

Day 8 (Jan. 23)

Zara and Olivia’s tension builds, leading viewers to question whether they have previous history. (Full disclosure, it seems like they did).

Day 9 (Jan. 24)

In the Space Raunch challenge, where the girls are dressed in NASA gear, Will finally gets kissed by Jessie, while Olivia swerved Tom in favour of Haris.

Day 10 (Jan. 25)

Zara finally revealed to Lana that she and Olivia had “history”, and the latest bombshells, Spencer Wilks and Ellie Spence, arrived during the night’s recoupling.

Day 11 (Jan. 26)

The new bombshells get first pick during recoupling, which resulted in Ellie picking Ron (much to Lana’s dismay) and Spencer choosing Olivia.

Day 12 (Jan. 27)

The drama between Zara and Olivia continued during the Game of Dates when Olivia picked Tom as one of the islanders that were most attracted to her, while Zara chose Olivia to be the least trustworthy person.

Day 14 (Jan. 29)

Tom and Zara agree to part ways, just in time for new bombshell Samie Eilish to enter the villa, but not before sneaking up onto the terrace to secretly kiss Ellie, first.

Day 15 (Jan. 30)

The kiss between Tom and Ellie didn’t stay secret for long, with a game of Chinese whispers from Ellie to Will to Jess, Shaq and Tanya culminating in Tanya telling Zara, who relayed the information to Olivia.

Day 16 (Jan. 31)

Olivia called Tom out for “playing a game” with her, Zara and Ellie, while Ron and Lara hit a rough patch after he decided to get to know Samie despite telling Lana that he wanted to focus on their connection. Kai is eyeing up Samie over Tanyel, too.

Day 17 (Feb. 1)

Tom picked Ellie during the recoupling, meaning Zara was dumped from the villa, promting the entrance of two new bombshells: Jordan Odofin and Casey O’Gorman.

Day 18 (Feb. 2)

Kai wanted to get to know Olivia more, and Ron set things right with Lana, all while a kissing competition caused a row between Shaq and Tanya after she won the top title of best kisser.

Day 19 (Feb. 3)

Kai and Olivia kiss for the first time (which came out of nowhere), and Spencer, Aaron, and Kai are voted as the least popular boys in the villa by the public.

Day 21 (Feb. 5)

With the decision of who to boot from the villa, the girls settle on dumping Spencer and Aaron. Later that day, in a surprise recoupling, Lana goes with her gut and couples up with Casey, instead of Ron.

Day 22 (Feb. 6)

Tanya and Shaq become the first exclusive couple of 2023, while drama between Samie and Olivia unfolded during the “Ladiators” game when Samie allegedly “splashed” Olivia.

Day 23 (Feb. 7)

The tables have turned for Lana, who wants to be with Ron despite picking Casey. Later that evening, the latest bombshell Claudia Fogarty makes a spectacular entrance during the Heart Race challenge.

Day 24 (Feb. 8)

Casey recognised Claudia from Instagram, put two and two together and realised that she’s the daughter of motocross racer and I’m A Celeb winner Carl Fogarty.

Day 25 (Feb. 9)

Despite Tom telling Samie that he had his eyes on Claudia, he remained with Samie during the recoupling in which Tanyel was dumped – and despite settling their differences, Shaq got into yet another argument with Ron after he didn’t help with the washing up.

Day 26 (Feb. 10)

Tanya disagreed with how Shaq interacted with Ron the night before, to the point that she compared him to an ex-boyfriend – later that evening, another dumping ensued via public vote, and Ellie and Jordan left the island.

Day 28 (Feb. 12)

Shaq and Tanya still had issues, but it finally resolved itself all before the girls received a text revealing that they were headed to Casa Amor.

Day 29 (Feb. 13)

During their time among the new boys, Tanya revealed that she hasn’t actually committed herself to Shaq while in the main villa, Will became interested in Layla, who called his relationship with Jess was fake.

Day 30 (Feb. 14)

After kissing Layla outside a challenge, Will is crippled by guilt.

Day 31 (Feb. 15)

As predicted, Casa Amor brought the drama tenfold with Tanya grafting Martin, Casey cracking on with Sanam and Cynthia, and Will deeply regreting his behaviour with Layla.

Day 32 (Feb. 16)

The girls return from Casa Amor, Tanya shocked Shaq (and the rest of the islanders) when she returned with Martin – Kai and Olivia decided to recouple, while Ron and Lana stayed together, as did Tom and Samie… before Lydia revealed they kissed and cuddled.

Day 33 (Feb. 17)

Catching up after Casa Amor, the tensions were still high between Shaq and Tanya after she decided to couple up with Martin, while Tom tried to apologise to Sami for what he did while she was away.

Day 35 (Feb. 19)

Will tries to make amends with Jess by listing the reasons he’s in love with her, while Tom attempts to get on Sami’s good side by writing her a poem.

Day 36 (Feb. 20)

Tanya and Shaq share a secret kiss, and the next day she publicly ended things with Martin following a surprise performance by Jax Jones and Calum Scott.

Day 37 (Feb. 21)

Martin was not happy about being publicly dumped the previous night, telling Tanya: “When I was speaking to you, you never told me you were a liar.”

Day 38 (Feb. 22)

Movie night was as dramatic as always, showcasing everything that went down during Casa Amor including Tanya’s antics with Martin and Casey’s behaviour – Claudia was fuming, and Shaq’s rekindled romance quickly hit the rocks while Martin soaked in the drama Deji-style.