It’s the season we’ve all been waiting for. In the summer leading up to Lindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke’s infamous split, fans will finally get an insight into what caused their relationship to crumble.
Episode 1 starts off with a flash forward of Lindsay and Carl fighting. “I want you to be happy,” Lindsay is heard saying. “I’m not happy and I don’t think you’re happy,” Carl responds. “You need that in a relationship. You need to have the power over the other person.”
The camera pans to the two in their $13,000/month NYC apartment in what seems to be the scene where Lindsay is blindsided by Carl’s breakup. “Dad, he told me he wants to call off the wedding and break up,” Lindsay says through her phone. Carl predicts she’ll tell people she’s “blindsided” and he’s correct.
In (somewhat) happier times, two months prior to the breakup, the gang is getting ready to go to the Hamptons. Danielle Olivera is driving with Ciara Miller, Paige DeSorbo, and Gabby Prescod. Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula are with newcomer West Wilson, who looks like a slightly more ginger, mustached version of Kyle.
In a confessional, Lindsay smilingly tells the camera that Carl is not helping her much with the wedding planning. We all know what happens when she smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Carl, God bless him, but he has not been helpful.”
Carl Radke and Lindsay Hubbard skip the Hamptons for The White House
Meanwhile, Carl and Lindsay are getting ready to go to The White House for July 4th. She asks Carl what he thinks of her dress and he couldn’t seem less interested. “I mean who gets invited to The White House? We do! Maybe Ariana [Madix],” Lindsay tells Carl. “Well, she was like, in The White House. We’re Z-list compared to Ariana,” he responds.
“Last summer was probably the least fun summer I’ve had,” Carl shares in his own confessional. “Being in that kind of triangle of drama with Lindsay and Danielle … I didn’t know how to operate sometimes. And Kyle and I were not in a good place.”
“This could be my last summer before I get married,” he says. Unfortunately, it would be his last summer before he did not get married.
Back in the apartment, Carl tells Lindsay, “It’d be cool to be in the Hamptons, but The White House is even cooler.” They share an awkward kiss and Lindsay taps him in the butt like she’s his mom and he’s a toddler.
Mommy and Daddy are fighting
The group is in the Hamptons and Amanda spills to the rest of the women that she’s had it with Kyle. “There’s a reason that I come back to the house every year. And it is to spend time with people other than Kyle,” she says in a confessional. She revealed that she had taken a pregnancy test over the winter and she and Kyle haven’t been good since. “Taking that test really made us start to think about like, what’s next for us? And, we’re not ready.”
Kyle tells the group that new cast member Jesse Solomon will be arriving the next day. The one word he describes Jess is “tall,” which the females go goo-goo over. There’s nothing hotter than a tall guy, apparently, to the Bravo cast. The news makes West immediately feel insecure. “I don’t know if these girls are shallow or not. If it’s a new tall guy, my personality is going to have to be that much taller.” For reference, West is about Kyle’s height.
Ciara and West bond over making dinner together, which is a surprise for everyone because she never does anything remotely related to housework. It might just be she’s trying to get an in with West’s father because she finds it hot that he’s a cattle rancher.
Lindsay’s not even there and she’s already creating drama. Paige makes up a plan of action, which is to be friendly until Lindsay does her Lindsay thing. Danielle and Kyle reflect on the previous summer. “Last year was rough. I lost my best friend, and then my boyfriend,” Danielle says. “So this summer, I just want to have some fun.” Summer should be fun! Sad Danielle, not fun.
Meanwhile, cracks are showing in Kyle and Amanda’s relationship. They’re already bickering like an old married couple despite being married for only a couple of years.
The group does something new and goes to a local carnival. “I know we do really good hanging out with our friends separately. What I want for this summer is for us to actually spend more time together,” Kyle slurs says to Amanda. “We’re like the anti-attached-to-the-hip couple.” She then tells Kyle it’s his fault for working all the time. He shares that he misses her and says, “Do you not miss me?” And Amanda is literally the cringe face emoji.
Jesse Solomon is tall
The next day, the group is throwing a 4th of July party at the house. In order to make up for her lame party last year, Gabby brought a mechanical shark, which is her way of being different and not ordering a bull. Over the phone, Craig tells Paige he’s buying a racehorse, so it seems his pillows are selling well.
Lindsay and Carl call Gabby to provide an update, but no one else is interested. Also, Gabby is either really clueless or really good at stirring the pot. “Let me just say, everyone is having a really good time. It’s crazy because when all seven of us are together, I’m like, who’s missing? It’s like, nobody,” she tells Lindsay and Carl in her Valley girl voice. “Okay, well that’s good,” Lindsay responds.
Dun dun DUN! Jesse arrives and the first thing Paige says to him is, “You’re so tall.” This is going to be the theme for this season. Apparently, he’s so tall that everyone calls him Jesse Solomon, instead of just Jesse. Kind of like Paul Bunyan. Or Andre the Giant. To be fair, when West hugs Jesse Solomon, he comes up to his forehead, which doesn’t exactly make him short. But, when you’re in the “Summer House,” every inch matters. Ciara has officially pivoted from West to tall guy. Austen Kroll, who?
The party starts and paid extras friends come by. The girls interrogate Jesse Solomon, who tells them, “I studied vocal jazz performance in college,” which makes Ciara fall more in love with his height.
Kyle pulls Paige aside to vent about his marriage. “She says things that just, like, shut me down. I don’t feel like, as a team, we’re like really functioning as well as I’d like.” He shared that while they are talking about their future, he added, “Her number one beef with me is I work too much. How can you give me a hard time for working?” Paige validates his feelings but tells the cameras in a confessional that he hasn’t really accepted that Amanda’s personality is different from his.
Paige confides to Amanda that Kyle has vented to her. “He wants to feel like you’re 50-50 in everything and you’re his teammate,” to which Amanda rolls her eyes. “The proof is in the pudding. Last night, he said, ‘I want to hang out with you more.’ And I was like, ‘Let’s go on the Ferris wheel together.’ And then he went on rides with the stuffed animal that he won,” she replies.
It looks like Lindsay and Carl aren’t the only couple that are going to have trouble this season. Summer House Season 8 airs on Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo
