‘Love Island USA’s’ Najah Dumped by Keenan — But She Deserved Better

Love Island USA Season 5 wrapped up its weeklong Casa Amor event with a shakeup of seismic proportions. In the epic post-Casa re-coupling ceremony, seven bombshell VIPs were dumped from the game, but my heart is breaking for just one: Najah Fleary.

Najah entered the Love Island villa as a VIP, one of a dozen newcomers as part of the season’s regular Casa Amor trial period. With the men and women separated at different villas, Najah and the other new VIP ladies were tasked with seeing if they found any sparks with any of the OG men — whether or not they were already closed off in a relationship. Najah hit it off with Keenan, who is — or was — part of the season’s longest-lasting couple with Kay Kay. Even though Keenan entered the Casa Amor experiment fully intending to close things off with Kay Kay and go exclusive, he couldn’t not flirt with Najah. And Najah, looking for “her person” like everyone else on this show, couldn’t not hit on Keenan.

Okay — yes, sure, Najah was what is traditionally considered to be the “other woman” in Kay Kay and Keenan’s traditional (at least what passes for traditional on Love Island) relationship. Make no mistake: I am #TeamKayKay forever — but that doesn’t mean that I can’t also be bummed about how majorly screwed over Najah was when she was blindsided by Keenan’s rejection!

Here’s the thing: Keenan sucks. All of Kay Kay’s revelations about Keenan, while separated from him during the last day of the experiment, are correct. He is emotionally manipulative under the guise of being super moral, and he definitely projects his own insecurities onto her. As Hannah and the other lady Islanders keep reminding Kay Kay, she ain’t the problem. She is Kay Kay and she is a badass woman. I can’t wait to see what single Kay Kay does in the villa!

But then there’s Najah, who got all of the stress of a relationship with Keenan and precisely none of the benefits! She spent all of Casa Amor just trying to get to know the guy, with him sending her the most mixed of messages. He wants to get to know her, he takes her to Soul Ties (the secluded lounge area that might as well have magical love potion powers), he says she lit something inside him, he sleeps in the same bed as her, he literally shows off his erection right in front of her face (!) — but he also erected a pillow barrier between them, went on and on about another woman, and essentially swatted her hand away every time she tried to touch him. He played morally superior to Najah while also pursuing a relationship with her. And then there’s whatever went down in their bed on the final night of Casa Amor, a night that seemed way more hands-on.

This is why last night sucked for Najah. She was led on by Keenan all week only to have him “valiantly” decide to stay coupled with Kay Kay, as if he was making a moral move. Reminder: Kay Kay spent her entire week sleeping outside so as to not have to share a bed with one of the VIP men. Kay Kay, having seen video of him canoodling with Najah in their bed, came back into the villa with a vengeance, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, reading Keenan to filth and declaring herself single.

And then there’s Najah, dumped, heading home after getting the runaround from one of the season’s most frustrating men. Whether or not Keenan is more frustrating than Leo… is a debate to be had another day.

But hey — considering her other option was staying in the villa as Keenan’s new partner, maybe Najah actually won.

New episodes of Love Island are added to Peacock on Thursdays through Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.