Reality Recap: Ciara, Lindsay, and the Summer House Reunion

Last night, the second installation of the two-part reunion of Summer House aired, bringing season 8 to a close. Naturally, there was a lot of anticipation, with so much happening this season between the couples on the show – Kyle and Amanda, Ciara and West and of course, Lindsay and Carl – fans were looking forward to seeing the cast members reflect back at their time in the house and work towards some sort of resolution.

Most fans were locked in on Lindsay and Carl for the highly-anticipated conversation about him calling off their engagement. Instead, though, I found myself way more wrapped up in the unexpected upstaging of the discussion surrounding the collapse of Ciara and West’s summer fling. And even more wrapped up in Ciara’s revenge dress, a concept made famous (in the Bravoverse, anyway) by none other than Ariana Madix, who wore a stunning red number to the Vanderpump Rules reunion post-Scandoval.

As I’ve written before, Ciara and West’s romance was a slow and steady build, which mostly had to do with the fact that unlike the very free-spirited and sexually liberal Danielle, Ciara is very guarded and cautious when she is being pursued. We watched on for weeks and weeks as she worked to carve out a space where she was the only woman West was entertaining. She wanted dates, romance and, well, commitment - a very unlikely thing in the world of reality TV, particularly on a show centred around the fleeting days of summer. 

Despite odds not being in their favour, over the course of the season, we saw their admiration for each other grow, resulting in her calling him her boyfriend toward the end of the summer. 

So you can imagine the communal heartbreak when, for the second time on this show, Ciara had her heart broken (by another basic white boy, this time one who literally didn’t even have a job when they started dating). In discussing their demise during the reunion, Ciara insisted West be the one to explain what went wrong – and he described the two of them keeping the relationship going until December, at which point they had a discussion about the status of their relationship. Up until then, Ciara says the pair had spent a lot of time together, saying they were intimate, they stayed at his brother’s place in Chicago, they visited his parents home and they attended a wedding together. So by all measures, these two were in a real relationship, until they weren’t.

When Andy asked whether West bailed on the relationship due to opportunities that he saw coming for himself because of the show, he made it sound as if he got swept up in the fame and attention that he got from being on Summer House. And with the audience being mostly women, he didn’t feel comfortable attending meet and greets and watch parties and being photographed with women while being in a relationship. Again, that’s what he said.

I, along with Ciara and Gabby and just about everyone watching the show, call bullsh-t. Like, big bullshit. Maybe it’s one thing if your partner is not a reality TV star and can’t relate to or understand the lifestyle. But he’s the new one here. Ciara has been doing the meet and greets and the watch parties, she knows it’s part of the job. So I was thrilled to see Amanda and Paige call him out on the fact that it really is his responsibility to enforce boundaries with the audience and fans at events. I was also thrilled when Gabby told him he's using the show as an excuse for being a f-ck boy and the real issue is that he’s non-committal.

Things got really interesting when West brought up his irritation with constantly being referred to as the “newbie guy” next to Ciara in social media posts, acknowledging the slight narcissism behind that. 

“Am I just gonna be some f-cking dude who came on to the show and was Ciara’s puppet the whole time?” West asked the cast.

“That would be a very lucky spot for you,” Paige quipped back.

Throughout the entire reunion, Paige had Ciara’s back, as she has in every single season of this show. And watching her unwavering support for her friend, which included speaking on her behalf when Ciara became overwhelmed with emotion, made me realize how much I thoroughly enjoy watching their friendship. It’s in such sharp contrast to the yelling and screaming I typically tune into reality TV for, but it adds a layer of entertainment value that as a fan, I underestimate the power and allure of.

Seeing Ciara cry over this guy who I once admired, but now liken to a garden gnome, really tugged at my heartstrings. Because there are fan favourites and then there’s Ciara. She is perhaps the most beautiful person in the Bravoverse, inside and out. A nurse and model, a good friend and just an all-round good person, and she gets treated like this. By that.

So why did my heart ache for Ciara and not Lindsay? Why, after months of anticipating the reunion conversation between Lindsay and Carl, was I way more wrapped up in the conversation between West and Ciara? Because I was expecting to be let down by Lindsay. And I was. I wasn’t expecting to be let down by West. 

My hope was that Lindsay would have a mea culpa and prove to the world that she’s not this cold, harsh person that deserved to have the rug pulled from under her. But instead, I watched as she maintained her willful obtuseness, incapable of expanding her horizons to see how other people, namely her fiancé, experience her. She accused Carl of not being communicative enough. But I feel like all we saw this season was Carl having conversations with her about his concerns, his need for more affection from her, and his career aspirations and ideas, each one of which she shot down.

As a woman, I completely understand the importance of being career compatible with your partner. I’ve written about the danger and resentment that exist for couples that aren’t. So when she drove home the importance of having something other than a handshake deal with his best friend over his role in Loverboy, I understood. Even when she expressed concerns over a brick and mortar business, I understood. But something has to give. You cannot spend months slamming him for not having a “real job” when you gave up your real job in public relations to be an influencer that earns almost the same amount as he does in brand deals. Make it make sense! 

By far, her worst offense was the half-assed apology she barely gave him for referring to her sober fiancé (at the time) as Cocaine Carl. It was ery telling to see the entire cast throw their support behind Carl. Even Andy had to break the fourth wall and chime in to set the record straight about her claims that Carl had “called” producers to capture him calling off their engagement on camera. 

It's hard to say whether public opinion on Lindsay has started to sway. Based on what I’ve seen on social media, the audience has been very pro-Carl throughout the duration of this season, but that could just be my algorithm, because I have been riding for Carl since he got sober. Sure, I think there’s a bit more sympathy for her being left at the altar (I mean, not quite being left at the altar, but kind of), because yes, that sucks. But I don’t think it was a case of people not understanding why Carl called the wedding off. 

The main takeaway for everyone, which Andy continuously remarked on, is how much of a relief it was that Carl and Lindsay did not, in fact, get engaged. And while she seems to be on the express train to yet another proposal, my hope is that we get to see how that relationship unfolds next season. And I hope production brings in some fresh meat for Ciara to remind West of just how big of an idiot he was for fumbling her.