“It's definitely different because I don’t think the goal necessarily is to find love. It's more to shape the minds of the people who go (to the retreat)," advertising creative junior Alex Simonelli said.

This season follows the same rules: a group of singles are sent to an island for what they think is the summer of a lifetime and are subsequently told that it is actually a secret celibacy retreat where they will learn to grow deeper connections by looking inward and not canoodling in the cabanas. All of this is policed by a robot named Lana who follows all of the rule breaks throughout their time and subtracts money from a prize pot for every sexual act.

“It’s literally a little robot telling you not to have sex … I’m not going to listen to a little tiny lava lamp looking thing. I think it’s amazing,” English sophomore Kattiah Richardson said.

While this has always created a wild show due to its risqué premise, this season was more dramatic, starting with a chastity belt break nine minutes into the sex ban. This season definitely had the most salacious of Lana's guests.

Throughout the show, there are a lot more partner switches than in the other seasons. Most of the time people pair up in the beginning and stick to pining after that person for the rest of the retreat. However, in this season, most of the guests are very content with getting attention from everyone, making things even messier.

The stand out couple of the season is usually the front-runner and protagonists in most seasons. Meanwhile, Holly and Nathan made me want to claw my eyes out. They were consistently breaking rules, mostly from the motivation of Nathan, all the while he is going on dates with other women until Holly fights for his attention enough that he love bombs her in the end. I think their biggest offense was trying to find loopholes by kissing through a pair of shorts and still costing the group money. Sources say they are not even officially together anymore after draining the group's bank account.

Truth, who ironically was the biggest liar in the group, was overall my least favorite single who continuously gaslit two women into being into him and thinking they would both be in a relationship with him. He was the quintessential male manipulator and Lana booted him off the island thankfully.

My two favorite islanders were Patrick and Georgia for very different reasons. Patrick never did anything problematic except serenade Georgia with a very terrible song. The rest of the time he stayed single, meditated and just seemed to make very weird commentary about everyone else. I think we see each other on a different level. Georgia just grew a lot throughout, and in my opinion, should have won. She got over her fear of telling people her real feelings and staying superficial, and I think she deserves more recognition for that.

The thing about this show is that it's supposed to be all about deeper connections, but I feel like when the show is pedaling a romantic date to me, it feels forced and fake. Maybe I have been going out on the wrong first dates, all of the conversations these so-called couples have are very surface level and don't tell me much about how they will survive as a couple in the long run. There are no childhood stories shared, no most embarrassing moments, or even a mom's name mentioned. If I have to hear one more contestant comment on someone's eyes, I will throw up.

The show also feels very padded for run time with overdramatic pauses before a reveal of a rule break or something else earth-shattering happens. I almost felt like they reused shots of people reacting to the tension in the room, and that's why it feels like three minutes to get some context to any story.

The most dramatic part of the show by far was the draining of their bank account to zero dollars with how many rule breaks happened this season. However it occurred to me: what's the incentive of the money for them? They came here thinking their experience would be sex and love, not money, so who cares if they lose it by kissing the person they're interested in? Maybe I'm the only one who follows this line of logic.

Whatever the logic — or lack thereof — this show holds, people hold it as one of their favorite guilty pleasures for a reason, especially for people looking for something light.

“I think they’re going for more comedy which does attract more of a different audience and I think that’s another thing that sets it aside from other reality TV shows,” journalism sophomore Sophia Miller said.

Miller also commented that compared to the Bachelor and other dating shows, it seems more unapologetic and genuine.

For Richardson, the show not only holds a special place in entertainment, but also in our jargon about the reality of relationships in the digital, cynical and hookup-heavy age, creating conversations in her own relationship with her partner.

“We had a very, very long conversation … of like hookup culture and virginity, and all these other subtopics … I feel like it could bring out a really good conversation or it's just a funny show,” Richardson said.