The 'Summer House' season 10 reunion. Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo Logo text After the second part of the explosive Summer House reunion, Bravo wasn’t quite ready to reveal what they had planned next for viewers of the hit reality series. But now that the third and final episode of the must-see reunion has aired, the network has some news: Summer House: The Aftermath is coming.
Summer House is airing a bonus episode June 16 at 8 p.m. on Bravo, following Tuesday’s conclusion of the three-part reunion. The reunion taped back on April 23, and the Truly Original production team fired the cameras back up after that marathon taping day, per certain cast member requests, in hopes of providing more answers and clarity among this now-fractured group after Amanda Batula and West Wilson’s surprise relationship was exposed.
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The added episode will feature three separate conversations between castmembers Batula and Lindsay Hubbard; Kyle Cooke and Wilson; and Ciara Miller and Meija Moreno, the latter being Wilson’s ex-girlfriend and the subject of the biggest bombshell to come out of the third part of the reunion when West admitted to his castmembers that Moreno thought they were in an exclusive relationship even though he was not being monogamous, which raised questioned about when his relationship with Batula, which prompted the current Summer House scandal, actually began.
The sitdowns were filmed three weeks after the reunion. Here’s the episode tease from Bravo: “Three weeks after the emotional reunion taping, Lindsay gives Amanda some tough love while Kyle seeks honesty from West. Ciara meets up with Meija in-person.”
The Hollywood Reporter last week had asked Josh Brown, vp of current production for Bravo, if they would consider a check-in episode post-reunion, since the drama around this group has continued to unfold in real time. At that time, Brown said “we would consider anything if we thought it was important storytelling. … We’ll never hesitate to pick up cameras at an important time. I wish we could film 365 days a year! We can’t, but we won’t hesitate to pick up cameras if there’s something important.”
Now he’s ready to share all of the details about how the bonus episode came together, as he dives into the third in a series of chats with THR about the latest and final reunion episode — which brought about answers, and even more questions. “We’re really excited about sharing something that can hopefully take the conversation to different and more illuminating levels,” he says of next week’s bonus hour. “I think it’s too simplistic to say ‘closure’ … but I think viewers will find it pretty fascinating.”
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You had a great poker face when I asked you last week about the possibility of a bonus episode of Summer House.
(Laughs.) You know what? This was something that came up very recently. Something unexpected that came together at the last minute. We were not planning for this long term. That spontaneity the viewer might feel, we feel that way, too.
Everything that’s been shot since the reunion [that will air on the bonus episode] has been something that a castmember or two has asked for. They asked for cameras, because they felt they had something important to share with the viewers and with each other. So we’re reacting to their wishes. We didn’t know exactly where we were going to use the material or how. It only became evident in the past few days how we were going to use it, so it’s come together, really, at the last second.
So this bonus episode, Summer House: The Aftermath, consists of three conversations: One between Amanda and Lindsay, another with Kyle and West (which we had heard about), and then a third with Ciara and Meija?
Yes, that’s exactly it. It was actually Andy [Cohen] who inspired us to go for it.
What did he say?
Andy comes from news, as he’s often talked about, and I think he feels these are really important conversations in the context of the series. Sometimes when you cut things too short, you can’t get to the deeper levels. I think viewers will see in watching this bonus episode that we’re able to get to some deeper levels by allowing the conversations to play at longer lengths.
When did you film each of these conversations? (Reminder: The reunion filmed on April 23.)
These conversations were filmed [three] weeks after we filmed the reunion. It depended on the scene. It wasn’t immediately after, it was a few weeks later, so closer to when we’re talking now.
The reunion concluded tonight with Lindsay saying she feels like she still has a ton of questions. There were answers from West and Amanda, but they raised more questions. Is this bonus episode a response to that feeling?
I think it’s going to feel that way to viewers, because it does directly speak to those questions Lindsay raised. But we didn’t see it that way when we were picking up cameras. We were responding to these different cast member requests to see if we could follow something real that’s going on. If Lindsay and Amanda are talking and trying to hash things out, we want to be there. We don’t want that to be off camera. The same with Kyle and West, and Ciara and Meija talking through what’s going on since the reunion. We were just thinking that we wanted it to be on camera rather than off camera.
Was this a request from one cast member in each of these conversations, or the pair getting together saying, “We want to discuss this? Can you film?”
It depends on the conversation, and which one you’re talking about. But overall, both cast members in each scene — and obviously, Meija as well — knew these would be filmed scenes.
How do those conversations play out? Are the producers leading the conversation? What’s the format?
These are just conversations people would have in real life. They happen in different people’s apartments — someone coming over to someone else’s place, and talking in the same way that would happen with anybody in New York City. There’s no producer involvement. The cast members were talking to each other.
Are you able to tease a theme or topic of discussion with each of these conversations, or what, if anything, gets answered or clarified?
The reunion really captured a moment in time both for West and Amanda, and for the cast and their friends’ reaction to their relationship. I think you’ll see in this extra episode how things have evolved even in the few short weeks since then.
Do you feel like they reach closure, at least in the scenarios with Lindsay and Amanda, or Kyle and West? Do they get to a new place?
Those two conversations definitely get to a new place. I think it’s too simplistic to say “closure.” These are issues that are going to take a lot of time to work through, if they ever get worked through. I don’t really know where it’s going to go in the future, but it definitely got to very interesting new levels of understanding where the other person is coming from. I think viewers will find it pretty fascinating.
We spoke about Meija last week, and how you wouldn’t invite a non-castmember to the reunion. Were you hesitant about including her in this bonus episode? Was it something Ciara wanted? How did that come about?
If someone is willing to film with us, we would never hesitate to have them in a conversation, because this is a real-life conversation they would be having on camera or off. Ciara wanted to have a conversation with Meija — as you saw from the reunion, they have been talking and getting closer, and we wanted to get a window into that because we think that is really interesting. There’s some sisterhood there that I think viewers will find very interesting.
That was the biggest bombshell to come out of Part 3 — to hear West admit that Meija did think they were in an exclusive relationship even though he wasn’t exclusive, and it raised questions about not only when West and Amanda got together, but also how West will treat Amanda moving forward. As producers, did you feel like that was a smoking gun moment; the vibe shifted, and the cast started sympathizing more with Amanda.
I don’t know if it felt like a smoking gun. I think it was just the ultimate example of what some of the cast are finding to be a pattern. It was a very clear example, rather than speaking about a theoretical person who we don’t know who’s off camera; where we don’t know their name or what they look like. Here, we were able to see someone and really get a sense of them. I think that’s what felt maybe a little different to the viewer.
We saw Andy asking West if he was on Beta blockers because he was so non-reactive; he looked shell-shocked. It seemed like he knew he wasn’t going to come out of this looking great. Was that filmed towards the end of your day?
What the viewers see on the reunion, all three parts, is pretty much trimmed down from the full day. The order isn’t switched around. It was very clear how the arc of the day was going, so it was just a question of trying to get it to the three hours that we had available for this reunion. So if something was seen at the end, it really did happen at the end of the day.
I think people will be surprised to see that Amanda and West are still going strong with their relationship after how the reunion ended. The cast confronted Amanda about risking it all for West, given his patterns and behavior. Are you expecting viewers to be surprised Amanda and West are still together now?
Yeah. This was really shocking news to everyone — to their fellow cast members, to production, to the network, and to viewers. Everybody was surprised by this. No one believed it was true when we first heard about it. So I think it takes some getting used to, and it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen. We’re just following what we see on social media. We don’t really have a window more than that into what’s going on currently.
Andy told Amanda that it seems like what she is missing is the Ciara betrayal aspect; she didn’t seem to be taking authentic accountability. Do you think that when she watches it back or sees the response, she’ll feel differently? Did she show up differently to her conversation with Lindsay?
I think everyone was in such unknown territory at the reunion. There was an amount of shock on everyone’s behalf, all cast members, as to what it would be like. And to how their fellow cast members would react to what they say. We were in total unknown territory on this reunion, and you can really see that in the cast members’ reactions and in their expressions.
The reunion is a certain format, and then going to someone’s apartment to have a conversation is a very different situation. I think you’ll see a different side to all five of the cast members who you see in the extra episode, which will be illuminating in different ways, and then the viewer can make their own decisions about how they feel about everything.
When you hear what the rest of the cast had to say — even Jesse, Kyle and Carl Radke speaking about how West has fractured this group — does West’s conversation with Kyle feel like a needed step towards getting this cast back together for season 11? After you walked off that reunion stage, did you feel like it was going to be hard to get them all together in a house again?
I think it’s going to be very tough to get the full cast back together. I don’t think we’re thinking about that, actually. I think the cast is more thinking about, “How do I navigate through this friend group tomorrow, next year, in the next five years?” If someone were to not come back on the show, what happens if they run into each other at a party? How are they going to react? They all live in New York City. They’re not showing up to a house in the Hamptons. They all live near each other, for the most part. So, how is that going to go in real life? I think they’re trying to figure that aspect of it out.
Are you still on track to have the season 11 cast lined up by end of June, and filming in early July?
Yes. We still have weeks until the end of June. So that’s a lot of time for us.
Are you in those conversations now with the cast about returning?
Yes, we are we are in discussions about the casting.
If someone like Ciara or Amanda or West didn’t come back, do you feel like Summer House would look a lot different? Would you think of it as a reboot, or more as the show evolving?
We do not feel like this is a reboot situation at all. We feel like this is evolving. It’s interesting that we’re not talking about this past season where we had five new cast members on. We didn’t feel like that was a reboot, either. We felt that was evolving. It really comes down to what the show is, which is obviously about a summer share in the Hamptons, and in real life, every summer, there might be a core group but the group does evolve in real life share houses. So these things evolve. We can’t say exactly how many people are returning or exactly how many new cast members are joining, but there’s always new people to freshen the dynamic and we were planning for that before any of this scandal hit.
We talked about how after Part 3, viewers will have their own opinions about if West and Amanda are in love. I think Lindsay summed it up well: I don’t think they went into that day prepared to answer all these questions and maybe that’s because they don’t have the answers themselves.
Yeah, I mean, the way the relationship came about was clearly complicated. I haven’t spoken with either of them about their relationship, but my guess is that they’re probably trying to figure it out in some way. And that’s natural if something is born in such a complicated manner.
There was an emotional moment at the end when Kyle and Amanda cried and hugged each other. How did you react seeing that moment?
We found it very emotional. Those two have been through a lot together, a lot of ups and a lot of downs across a decade. So even if the marriage isn’t working out, there’s a friendship there and an understanding. I know they each really care about each other in some way, absolutely.
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The Summer House reunion Part 3 streams uncensored next day on Peacock. Summer House: The Aftermath airs Tuesday, June 16 at 8pm on Bravo, streaming next day on Peacock and followed by a new episode of spinoff series In the City.
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