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Summer House<\/a><\/p>\n Ski Ya Later<\/p>\n \n Season 10<\/p>\n Episode 16\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 5 stars<\/p>\n *****\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s the bittersweet end of an era of Summer House. Of all the sad scenes we\u2019ve witnessed since reality television took over the airwaves 26 years ago, none are sadder than Amanda getting the whole house together to hold hands and jump in the pool together at the end of their ski-themed Labor Day party. I can see why they would want to get into the pool; they all must have been sweltering in their sun-dried furs, anoraks, and ski suits, but her insistence that this is the last thing that they do as a house, that it is her one wish, her one bit of tradition as her world falls apart, made me want to weep. It is something about the forced happiness of them standing on the edge of the pool, its waters in the evening light looking green like it was infested, a fetid swamp, a stagnant pool rife with disease, pests, and enough mosquitoes to empty a whole tube of Benadryl cream.<\/p>\n They all jump in, most in their underwear, some in their swimsuits. This is the tenth time for some of them, like Kyle, Amanda, Carl, and Lindsay; the first time for some, like KJ, Dara, Mia, and Bailey; and hopefully the only time for some, like Levi, Ben, and (ugh) Sabrina. It was meant to feel like the ending to something \u2014 to the summer, the season \u2014 but it felt like something different. It felt like trying to grasp at strings of the past, like going back to visit your favorite teacher in high school after you\u2019ve graduated. No. Not like that. Like something else. Like the start of something new you don\u2019t know is coming, like the concert you went to a week before the COVID lockdowns, like the swing dance the day before Pearl Harbor, like dinner out at the Olive Garden with your father three days before he died. It\u2019s a transition, but not from then to now or even from good to bad. It\u2019s transitioning from bad to worse, it\u2019s the anxiety of ignorance, it\u2019s the slow drowning of hope. I have never felt sadder as people splashed, kissed, stripped, and romped around a backyard ruined with Loverboy empties and crushed dreams.<\/p>\n The party wasn\u2019t a total waste. There were some good conversations, which were kicked off with a very real t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate between Kyle and Ciara. He tells her that he\u2019s having a hard time processing what she told him the day before on the beach, suggesting that he and Amanda separate, and says that he\u2019s worried about the future. She tells him directly that his problem is that he doesn\u2019t know how to express his emotions, particularly his anger. \u201cAre you going to lash out and go after your best friend and then say \u2018Fuck you\u2019 to people?\u201d she says. \u201cYou create irreparable damage in the process of this because your words do hold weight and a lot of people get caught in your crossfire, i.e., Carl, of what you\u2019re actually mad about, and it makes it hard to be your friend.\u201d This is why people love Ciara: It\u2019s an astute, direct, and unflinching critique, but said with the kind of love and understanding most of us can only dream about getting when you\u2019re having a conversation about your absolute worst behavior.<\/p>\n Speaking of Carl, Lindsay drags him to the igloo that he and Kyle built the day before to have a chat, and the whole house is sort of peeking in, wondering exactly what is going on with these two and why this whole igloo hasn\u2019t defied physics and erupted into a fireball. Lindsay wants to talk about her interaction with Carl\u2019s mother, Sharon, at the Soft Bar launch party and all the feelings it brought up. She said she hadn\u2019t talked to Sharon since she and Carl partied in Mexico on the weekend that would have been their wedding. An Us Weekly headline flashes onscreen<\/a>, and, of course, Scheana Shay was also there. How does Scheana end up a tertiary party to every single drama that happens in the Bravosphere? Is she the one who leaked the Summer House audio?<\/p>\n What Lindsay is really upset about is how they never autopsied their relationship after it ended, which seems like an unlikely thing for regular people to do. These are not regular people. They\u2019re on a TV show, and there probably should have been some discussion of what went wrong and how to move forward. The show also plays into it when Lindsay says she thought their friendship was greater than TV, that she deserved more from him in the aftermath. Carl apologizes and takes full ownership. Even more, he thanks her for all the summers, all the good times, all the friendship. He thanks her for seeing him through some of the hardest times in his life, including his fight with Kyle the night before. \u201cYou made me a better person, and I am forever grateful for that,\u201d he says. I\u2019m not crying, you\u2019re crying.<\/p>\n One of the most honest conversations happens between West and Ben because of Ben\u2019s choker-loving girlfriend, Sabrina, \u201cYou Don\u2019t Even Go Here\u201d Won\u2019t Bother to Learn Your Last Name. West says, \u201cIf Ciara and I are together and Sabrina is there, tell her to try not to make us date each other in the moment. We are so many steps away from that point that I just want to chill for a second.\u201d Exactly! Why is Sabrina all up in the mix like she\u2019s Carl, who was also dying to be in the mix? Why is she telling Ciara about how Ben said he loves her? Why is she acting like she is best friends with these people when she met them three weeks ago? Stop it, Sabrina. She\u2019s like an air freshener that is so strong you can taste it in the back of your throat.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t really about Sabrina, though; it\u2019s about West and Ciara. (Wiara? Cest?) He says that last time he tried to date her casually, it blew up in his face, ruined his life for two years, and left her heartbroken. Then he finally says the thing that we\u2019ve all known was true about West. \u201cI am not trying to portray that I am a boyfriend. That is not what I\u2019m doing,\u201d he says. Finally! There it is. He just wants to be a player, but he says that he can\u2019t do that with Ciara because they\u2019re always so flirty, he loves spending time with her, and he just wants to act on their sexual tension. Then he says, \u201cThe biggest problem, I couldn\u2019t say that two years ago, and I should have. I made a thousand excuses why I didn\u2019t want to be with her, but I couldn\u2019t say I wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s still not there, however, but nothing about this environment is helping. After the party and going out, he\u2019s in the backyard hanging out with Ben and Sabrina, and he and Ciara start making out. Of course Sabrina was there! It continues in his room in front of Jesse Solomon, of all people. West is trying to lure her into his bed, but she knows better and goes to keep Mia warm in their freezing, air-conditioned room. Wiara is behaving like they\u2019re back. In the morning, before everyone leaves, Lindsay gives a little speech and includes them in the couples that got together this summer, and everyone cheers. When West gives a good-bye hug to Mia, who also begrudgingly admits she likes West, she says, \u201cTake care of my girl,\u201d like she\u2019s leaving their engagement party. Obviously, we all know this changed, and not only is he not with Ciara, but he\u2019s trying to be a boyfriend to someone else, the exact role he says he didn\u2019t want to be in. West tells Ben, \u201cThe last thing I want is her fucking heartbroken, you know.\u201d It might be the last thing he wants, but it\u2019s the first thing he gets.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t spend too much time talking about Wiara (Cest?) because we have to talk about Amanda and Ciara. (Amandra? Cianda?) Amanda is hanging out in a makeshift bed with Ciara and Mia, thanking them for being her friends and seeing her through all of the Kyle stuff. Amanda says through her tears, \u201cI fear that I\u2019m not enough for anyone else,\u201d but at the same time tells them that she\u2019s sick of them consoling her.<\/p>\n Ciara also snaps into action. \u201cRespectfully, shut up,\u201d she says. She then gives Amanda a whole pep talk about how, if she wasn\u2019t handling her with kid gloves, she would have already told her to pack up and leave Kyle, and that she would be the one to figure out all the logistics. This is the friend Amanda\u2019s ditching for a man? Please. \u201cBitch, we\u2019re not going to cry about it and not do anything about it,\u201d Ciara says. \u201cYou are in charge of your own life, and you need to stop letting life happen to you. You need to let this motherfucker know that you are serious. If you treat me this way, if you say \u2018Fuck you\u2019 to me, then I\u2019m leaving.\u201d Exactly. Amanda needs to fully snatch herself together and stop lollygagging around like Kleenex\u2019s biggest customer.<\/p>\n Just as this rizz-up is going down, Kyle is looking for Amanda, who has been avoiding him the entire party. Sabrina tells him that she is his woman, and if he wants to talk to her, he should go get her. Again, this is terrible advice. Again, why is Sabrina there? Is she the new Scheana Shay? Please, sweet Catholic Jesus, don\u2019t let her be the new Scheana Shay. Sabrina\u2019s advice is terrible, and Kyle walks over at just the wrong minute, makes it all awkward and only annoys Amanda more. She swerves him and says she only wants to jump in the pool, which we\u2019ve already covered.<\/p>\n The next morning, everyone packs up and says good-bye to the summer. The gang is all in front of the house, and you can feel the pall of the overcast sky, feel the drizzle on the windshields as everyone hugs as if they know something is about to rupture. We know what the rupture is, and it\u2019s not Kyle and Amanda breaking up; it\u2019s the betrayal that will happen after. In the final moments of the episode before it trundles over to In the City, we get a tacked-on bit of filming from April when Amanda returns to the apartment she shared with Kyle. He says, watching the season back, it seemed like she gave up a long time ago. \u201cI was done to an extent, but I was tired and had nothing left in me to fight, but I was still trying to give it everything I had,\u201d she says. Kyle accuses her of being \u201cthoughtless and reckless\u201d and having an emotional affair with West. She tells him that there is a video of him making out with a woman when they were married. But this doesn\u2019t really move us forward. This is just a sop until we can get to the reunion next week, a little amuse-bouche to keep our bouches agog while we wait for our full helping in seven days. (And, yes, Daddy Moneybags Vulture III threw a bunch of cash at me to make sure the reunions will be recapped. He\u2019s ready to sound off in the comments himself.)<\/p>\n This final chat wasn\u2019t nearly as devastating as the one on the front steps of the titular house. Sixteen years ago, we watched Tamra Barney ask her husband, Simon, for a divorce in the back of a limo. No, not ask, demand. It was all hatred and bile, barely contained rage, and it was fascinating to watch. This is also fascinating, but very different and tremendously sad. Kyle says that his behavior that weekend gave Amanda every excuse she needed to leave, and he\u2019s right; that\u2019s exactly what she says when they sit down. She says this is not how she wants forever to look. She says after this weekend, she\u2019s moving into a hotel, and she wants to see what the next chapter looks like for them. Kyle says he\u2019s going to be sick to his stomach, he\u2019s afraid of what his life will look like without her, he\u2019s afraid of everything falling apart, as if it hasn\u2019t already and he\u2019s not currently wading through the pieces.<\/p>\n Amanda goes through everything they\u2019ve experienced in the past decade, and we get a flashback to her, fresh-faced with the stupid bun right on the top of her head. It\u2019s been great, with their engagement, fake wedding, real wedding, friends, parties, and countless costumes that are keeping at least one Amazon warehouse in business. But it\u2019s also been terrible with the fights, cheating rumors, infidelity, 18-page email, whatever was going on with Hannah that one season that she seems to have recovered from, all of those terrible dudes that were so boring they only lasted one season, and Danielle. (I kid. I love Danielle.) But that\u2019s a life, isn\u2019t it? That\u2019s a relationship. \u201cBlack sable one day, the next it goes into hock<\/a>,\u201d and you\u2019re still here. But there is a verge, a cliff, an inevitable breaking off where it\u2019s better to have those ups and downs alone, when they\u2019re not as hard, not as erratic as with someone else. They\u2019re at that abyss now; they\u2019ve been staring into it for months.<\/p>\n They have one long hug and one kiss in front of the house before Kyle puts Amanda into an Uber. (A big one, so you know production is paying.) He still has to pack his belongings and his emotions. He tries to reenter the house, but the door, as always, is stuck. \u201cOne day, I\u2019m going to get some WD-40 on that thing,\u201d Kyle mumbles. No, Kyle. Not one day. Now. Do it now. Get into this summer\u2019s BMW and drive to the nearest hardware store and fix that door. Tomorrow never happens. It\u2019s a broken promise. If we\u2019ve learned one thing this episode, it\u2019s to do it. Do it now. Have that conversation with your ex to set it all straight. Admit that maybe you don\u2019t want the relationship that everyone wants for you. Apologize to your wife, tell her you love her, quit your job, become a DJ, get into therapy, console your friends, start a swim line even if you see it fail, have a kid, meet a boy, tell Levi to talk more. Taking action is hard, but it\u2019s all we have.<\/p>\n The problems come when you stop moving, when you stagnate, just like that pool water. The problems come when you keep living in your body the way that it has always lived. It\u2019s easy, because it just happens, like when the bacon, egg, and cheese arrive to soak up the hangover. But someone ordered those. (It was Carl.) Someone has to do it. We all have to do it. Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it, as the sneaker conglomerate says. Everything else is just tears on the bed, tattering friendships, promises ruined. Everything else is just the echo of packing in an empty foyer, everyone gone, the bodies of your youth floating in the pool unattended, and the door, as it always was, is still broken.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Housewives Institute Bulletin<\/p>\n Dame Brian Moylan breaks down all the gossip and drama, on- and off-screen, for dedicated students of the Reality Television Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
\n Photo: Bravo\n <\/p>\n