SUMMER HOUSE S10 E15
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5 stars for a Dinner Party worse than Jan Levinson & Michael Scott's
“Dinner Party” is the height of iconic scripted comedy, so I’ll take any excuse to revisit the OFFICE episode. The fan favorite moment within it is often “That One Night” by Jan’s assistant, Hunter, but snip-snap-snip-snap-snip and “not even close” are the bits that have gone triple platinum in my household.
Dinner parties, on screen, and in real life, are always pedestrian theatre. There’s something so inherently performative about engaging your friends in such a formal manner in the same space where you get wine drunk and couch rot to old episodes of HOUSEWIVES.
What will always make a show like SUMMER HOUSE special is that the insults slung and hands thrown are those of real people, performing their real spectrum of emotions from fury to laughter, within a complex social structure that we then get to voyeur from home. It’s a drunken play within a play, and truly, to every player involved, I must say, brava.
SUMMER HOUSE S10 E15
Rated C for Cortisol-inducing
Genre: Action Thriller
Starring: Kyle Cooke’s tears, Carl’s dog tags, and Amanda’s smug smirk
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5 stars
Act 1: Set It Off
“Carl, fuck off, you fucking 6’5” motherfucker” sounds like something Bruce Willis would yell at a foreign adversary in DIE HARD. And in turn, Carl is generously playing the villain, baby, with a relentless mission to end his friend as soon as he assumes Kyle’s violent drink toss at the house was aimed at him. This isn’t Cocaine Carl, this is Dog Tag Carl. While his justified anger is inaccurately placed, it’s refreshing to see the softness harden for a second.
Ultimately, I’m glad the bros didn’t declass the show by physically coming to blows, but I do have to wonder how long it would take Carl’s 77 inches to put Kyle’s Energizer-bunny scrapping to bed. Alas, we’ll never know, because the OG alphas are separated before anything grows dicier at this disastrous dinner.
Amanda’s attempt to calm Kyle down: “Take a breath. No one’s attacking you.”
What a curious thing to say after her husband was interrogated by half the table in defense of her, literally on camera. Naturally, the entire fandom is focused on what happens next: West runs to Amanda’s side, thinking that he looks like her personal Liam Neeson, but in actuality, striking a closer resemblance to Raven Baxter getting a vision.
Then, West transforms from Buckingham Palace guard-for-show to lover, grabbing onto Amanda’s chest and whispering into her ear — words I pray were revealed at the reunion, but doubt made the cut. What piqued my attention almost as much was Lindsay’s reversal into fiancée mode at the first sign of trouble for Carl.
Amanda eventually gives up on trying to guide Kyle out of a headspace where calling Carl Vagisil makes sense. “Oh, I forgot Carl’s 6’5” and more fragile than a fucking China doll,” is objectively as t-shirt worthy as “Carl’s a mess.” Like, a 6’5” China doll is what my tchatki collection is missing, actually.
Her departure leaves Kyle alone with Ben (there to help) and West (there to scold). Kyle’s face drops from aggression to defeat as West takes the pause in Kyle’s unhinged rant to inform Kyle that he’s actually mad at Lindsay and not his wife. But Kyle is mad at Amanda, and that is why he’s acting like this, even if it took Lindsay to unleash his fury. If West were asking questions instead of trying to school someone who’s actually attempting a monogamous relationship, he might have caught that.
In the kitchen, the girls rally around Amanda, who swears she’s fine. That isn’t all that hard to believe, considering her facial expressions were less concerned than those of probably many fans watching at home during the explosion. Lindsay tells the group she feels bad for setting this whole thing off, but Amanda counters that man needs to be able to have a conversation. Sure, he does…with his wife. But it’s probably not a fair expectation of Kyle, at the height of their marital issues, to be game for group criticism when he already has their therapist doing that.
In a separate room, Carl comes back to earth and is able to articulate the larger nature of his issue. Not only has Kyle left him hanging with Soft Bar, but that chasm has stopped Carl from stepping in sooner on what he clearly sees as Kyle’s life “crumbling.” Fair enough, what better sign of a midlife crisis than picking up DJing at college bars?
So much happens in these first ten minutes, there’s not even time to unpack that Ciara is actively talking to West in baby lingo before she, Jesse, and West celebrate being “soooo back” to their old times as a bestie trio (that lasted, IDK, two to three weeks in 2023 before West and Ciara became romantic).
We must focus on Kyle, who is now also coming back to earth and articulating his emotions, which he wishes he could but won’t control, to Lindsay and Ben. Kyle was already feeling fragile about his marriage because his wife’s best friend clued him in that he was headed for separation, so Lindsay’s words sent off alarm bells in his head that exploded out of his eyes that Amanda was more gone than he knew. Seven years (!!!!) of no sex was also probably a hint.
Act 2: Dude, Don’t Dent My Car
Amanda was fine for everyone else, but after West finds her for an embrace in the foyer, she lets the tears fall. She (like the entire Bravo audience) didn’t miss his chair-moving grand gesture and loves him for it — this use of L word doesn’t scare him. He confirms his affection with two totally normal cheek kisses.
Then, Kyle does something that confirms he will always make him a grade A reality star: he immediately pulls Carl to squash their beef. Carl confesses was mad he couldn’t be there to support Kyle, but letting “his own shit” color his reaction unintentionally made things worse.
Kyle apologizes for his part but also tries to explain his overreaction. “I’m taking bullets, and Amanda was eating it up. Imagine feeling like your wife, your partner — I can’t even remember the last time she’s stood up for me.” It’s clear at this point that the cast thought too highly of Amanda to trust Kyle’s read on her intent.
But alone, Kyle continues to clock game. It doesn’t bother Amanda when Kyle leaves; in fact, at this point, it’s clearly her preference (when it’s not convenient to use the universal standard that a husband should spend time with his wife as a missed mark). To be fair, it seems like Amanda’s detachment is a clear defense mechanism from all the nights when she stayed up spiraling over his debauchery. If only she could communicate that and decide if she wants to work through it.
Upstairs in bed with Ciara, Amanda doesn’t debunk Kyle’s insistence she doesn’t want the life with him she claims to, but rather focuses on Kyle’s cussing being the worst part of the live relationship post-mortem. How far Kyle will go — not how far apart they are — is what concerns Amanda. She thinks her not saying anything in the moment should’ve freed her from Kyle’s wrath, when her silence is exactly what set Kyle over the edge in the first place. It’s a classic Kymanda display of diametrical opposition.
By the end of the night, Carl and Kyle are back together, like two brothers riding off in a dent-free car into the sunset, while Kyle and Amanda are extremely far from it. Is it safe to conclude that these men’s love ran deeper? For whatever reason, Jesse makes the brilliant nudge for Kyle to go approach Amanda…tonight…with his neon HAVE A DAY shirt on and a Loverboy in hand. This should go well!
Act 3: Alone
In bed with Mia joining them, Amanda feels bad for being a “sad girl victim,” but is thankful her friends are there for her. Ciara is happy to return the favor because Amanda was there for her tears over West (before she would eventually become the cause of fresh ones).
Kyle enters (an offensively dirty room in true Bed Bug fashion), where he makes an ill attempt to pour his heart out to Amanda with Ciara and Mia there. For someone whose judgment is clearly clouded by emotions (and malt liquor), Kyle does a decent job of using “I feel” statements instead of casting blame. He’s worn down about feeling like he’s single when he has a wife, and not inspired to carry a team where he feels like he’s the only member.
Almost as if to intentionally reaffirm that insecurity, Amanda points out she’s tired too, from the comfort of bed with her friends, instead of getting up to have that conversation with her husband. When Kyle scampers off to stop, well, bothering her, Amanda reveals that her coldness was punishment for his failure to say the necessary words “I’m sorry.”
While Amanda is suggesting there’s no way Carl actually forgave Kyle that quickly, Kyle is finally facing the feelings that pushed him to erupt. “Sometimes I think she purposefully fucking roots for anybody against me. I don’t think fucking she wants a single fucking thing to do with me. And I think she’s too fucking scared to get out of it, because she can’t do anything herself. That’s what I’m starting to think. She can’t fucking do this anymore, man.”
Kyle has chastised Amanda’s purported laziness before, but the resentment is palpable in his eyes as he does the work, here, of breaking up with himself for her. Following said one-sided breakup, a more emotionally mature man would take a night off. But if Kyle Cooke is going to do one thing, damn it, it’s have fun. Maybe he’d stay home to fight with Amanda Not Fun — but in this vulnerable state, it’s unsurprising he’d rather cry in the club until 1:35 AM than spend this night alone. It’s childish, but it’s human, too.
Act 4: Avalanche
Back from the bar, Jesse, West, and Kyle debrief in the kitchen. I’ve written it before, I’ll write it again. Kyle’s woman’s intuition was screaming to him when he joked about Jesse wanting to sleep with his wife — his radar was just picking up on the wrong Disgusting Brother.
In the morning, it’s evident that Kyle and Amanda’s relationship is genuinely just soooo much of Kyle speaking to himself. And giving Kyle the floor is a dangerous thing to do, for the safety of the general public and also for the safety of Kyle’s image and relationships. Not to be too into my tin hat bag, but does it seem possible Amanda may have learned to employ that very tactic the previous evening? Is that what West whispered to continue to do in her ear? This emotional standoff is actually ridiculous.
Chaos be damned, it’s time to set up Ciara’s Apres Ski party. Sabrina arrives in her trademark witch’s garb, which she will later trade for a white version of the same aesthetic. This is not an insult as much as a friendly acknowledgement of Sabrina’s commitment to The Craft. After fishing garland out of her perfect posterior, Mia makes plans to spend the holidays in the city with KJ. It’s nice to see bonds from the summer we know haven’t since been decimated.
Never one to let anything weird slide, Lindsay flags to Jesse and West in their room how flagrant it was that Ciara labeled West the person she loves the most at the table when Mia and Amanda were right there. I do think Hubbhouse probably could consult the internet on how others find ease in disliking Mr. Conrad, if she’s still currently confused on that point, though.
Dara (who West must share has the hottest outfit in the house because he has the impulse control of a 13-year-old middle schooler) tries to advocate for Baby C to Amanda. She wants to know if West could see it going somewhere further. His blank stare is an instant indication that a leopard (or rather a man who unironically wears leopard print) doesn’t change his spots. Any whispering of commitment creeping in has the tip of his statement trucker hat out the door.
Across the slopes, Jesse has a similar conversation with Ciara, but with much more consciousness of what went wrong the first time. Isn’t all this flirting going to confuse her again? Ciara admits as much in confessional, that she knows she’s risking the whiplash of West’s undisciplined attention span. But he’s kinda fine, so she’s kinda okay with it for now. Oh, Baby C. We know how this story ends.
Best SUMMER HOUSE Performance Of The Week:
Kyle Cooke ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
He gave his therapist and us good material.
Outstanding SUMMER HOUSE Flop Of The Week:
Ciara ⭐⭐.5/5
Please stop giving his baby names!!!!