Love Island Games: why Ray shouldn’t be upset with Imani

Although it’s only been two weeks since Love Island Games premiered, I’ve already declared the series better than Love Island. While I have a list of reasons backing up my opinion on the matter, it all boils down to great casting and Love Island Games really leaning into its premise.

Now, I’m about to make another opinion public: Ray should not be upset with Imani after the latest recoupling shown in the November 13 episode. Before I rattle off why, I want to acknowledge that I can understand Ray feeling bothered after the UK bombshell Mike essentially stole Imani from him.

Mike’s decision marks the second time this season that someone entered the villa and chose to pair with Imani, leaving Ray in the cold. Viewers will recall that during week one of the series, Johnny walked on the show and took Imani from Ray. If I were Ray, I don’t think I would be thrilled to lose the woman whom I professed to have a crush on from day one of the competition twice.

Furthermore, Ray has been very consistent about only having feelings for Imani and hasn’t allowed his attention to be captured by any of the other ladies in the competition. From his vantage point, he’s pouring all of his attention into Imani, but other guys are paying attention to her as well and she’s receptive to their advances.

With all that said though, Ray shouldn’t be upset with Imani after this latest recoupling and I hope he comes to that realization sooner rather than later if he survives the dumping on November 14.

Ariana Madix, Imani Wheeler and Ray Gantt standing next to each other in Love Island Games

Let’s talk about the idea of Imani being “open” and “not closed off.” While conversing with the other ladies in the aftermath of Mike choosing to couple up with her and Ray giving her the cold shoulder, she mentioned she and Ray never had a discussion about closing off to other islanders. Meaning she was free to explore connections with other people, as was he. He just hasn’t taken advantage of that opportunity.

Along those same lines, if Ray didn’t have the desire to explore connections with other women on the island and wanted to gauge if Imani felt their bond was strong enough to commit to being “closed off,” then Ray should have had that conversation with her. Since he didn’t, I can’t help but wonder if Ray is largely feeling regret knowing he should have expressed this very sentiment earlier. Given how much she’s said she likes Ray, she may have largely rejected Mike’s previous advances instead of feeding into his energy.

Additionally, Ray can’t fault Imani for drawing the attention of other men. Nearly all of the islanders have said she’s attractive and her personality is rather radiant on TV.

I sincerely hope Ray and Imani try to fix things. I think the duo made a good pairing and could actually win the competition. Plus, I believe if Ray would stop giving Imani the passive-aggressive treatment and express how he truly just wants to date only her instead of the current and future Love Island Games islanders, she’d probably understand. She may even be on the same page.

Should Ray be upset with Imani? No. Should he talk to her and attempt to work things out with her? Yes. Will he have time to do or will he be eliminated first? That, I don’t know.

Make sure you tune into Love Island Games now streaming on Peacock.