It was the Bravo Super Bowl.
The launch of the Summer House reunion episodes was a seismic event for reality TV fans, with countdowns to Tuesday night’s premiere, watch parties at bars that typically reserve such an honor for sports finals, and even a movie theater screening.
I was mildly invested in the “Scandoval” era, which is probably the last time there was this much excitement for the come-to-Jesus controversy accountability session that is a Bravo reunion. But the anticipation for this, which is to say, the salivation for a verbal sofa execution of two of the show’s cast members has been, to borrow a favorite phrase from a Summer House fan favorite, even more “activated.” And, wow, did the episode not disappoint.
The Summer House cast didn’t just show up to dig scandal-ridden stars Amanda Batula and West Wilson’s graves. They transmogrified into construction-grade excavators and had the pair six feet under within six minutes.
The hype, if you’re unfamiliar, is because in the time between shooting of the season wrapped and the reunion was filmed, it came to light that Amanda and West were sleeping together and in a relationship.
During the season of Summer House that was airing at the time, Amanda was struggling in her marriage to castmate Kyle Cooke and ultimately decided to separate from him. Her best friend in the house, Ciara Miller, was her biggest supporter and constant shoulder to cry on during this process. Ciara was also navigating the rekindling of her relationship with her ex, West, who is also one of Kyle’s best friends.
So it was a blow to everyone when it came out that Amanda and West had been secretly hooking up, betraying their best friends, and lying to everyone about it. Hence, the reunion fireworks.
I’m an avid reality TV fan—aka an addicted obsessive—and I cannot remember a time when two people on a show so immediately and extremely became villains. Every other conversation I’ve had in the last two months has been with people needing to download their opinion on what happened with Amanda and West. So to hear them try to explain themselves on the reunion was going to be one helluva juicy episode of television.
Especially since, as we learned while watching, the cast arrived locked and loaded, ready to go scorched earth with their flame throwers from the start.
Hilariously—and very entertainingly—the reunion itself didn’t start until about 13 minutes into the episode. Instead, we were given footage of the cast reacting to Amanda and West’s public statement that they were dating, with Kyle and Lindsay Hubbard on camera conferencing in castmates Mia Calabrese, Jesse Solomon, and Carl Radke to unpack it and start trying to establish a timeline for when the saucy relationship started, like a Bravo troop of Harriet the Spies.
Before they were actually seated on the couches with moderator Andy Cohen, the cast, in backstage dressing room footage hilariously and, sometimes, emotionally addressed what could be seen as the fourth-wall-breaking rumors and gossip that have swirled around the scandal: the embarrassing, seemingly AI-generated language of the Amanda and West statement; West’s dick-pic getting leaked; and even the viral photoshops of Kyle in Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix’s “revenge dress.”
But once the reunion started, it was a pile-on against Amanda and West that, whether or not anyone thought it was deserved, was almost startling in its aggression...
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