The already top-tier 10th season of Bravo’s “Summer House” became a zeitgeist sensation this spring when a scandalous romance between two of its cast members — West Wilson and Amanda Batula — brought unprecedented attention to the show, leading to record ratings. Wilson and Batula, in a word-salad-y joint statement to Instagram on March 31, confirmed the rampant online speculation about their relationship, and said that they were attempting to “navigate” an unexpected “connection” that had arisen between them.
There were about a billion reasons that this announcement shocked the Bravosphere, but at the three-part “Summer House” reunion – taped on April 23, with a rollout that began on May 26 — Batula and Wilson appeared glassy-eyed and largely unforthcoming about their hookup’s timeline. Answering questions from host Andy Cohen — as well as Kyle Cooke (Batula’s estranged husband), Ciara Miller (Wilson’s ex), an activated Lindsay Hubbard, Carl Radke, Jesse Solomon, and new cast members Mia Calabrese, KJ Dillard and Bailey Taylor — the new couple seemed alternately contrite, petulant, defensive and aggressive, all while barely emoting. By the end of the reunion, Hubbard declared that she hadn’t learned anything about anything, with Cohen then making a joke that perhaps they should start over.
Courtesy of Bravo
Enter “Summer House: The Aftermath,” Season 10’s bonus episode, which was kept secret until it was announced at the end of Part 3 of the reunion last week. “The Aftermath” is composed of three long conversations filmed during May, between Hubbard and Batula, Cooke and Wilson and Miller and Wilson’s ex-girlfriend Meija Moreno, sitting down in pairs to discuss the fallout in their friend group. If Bravo shows are usually edited within an inch of their lives, “The Aftermath” feels intimate: almost experimental.
In an interview this week, Noah Samton — the SVP of current production for Bravo and Peacock unscripted, who oversees “Summer House” — broke down how “Summer House: The Aftermath” came to be. News of the ouster of West Wilson, who’s been dumped from the show, happened after the interview, but when asked about Wilson’s and Batula’s futures on “Summer House,” Samton spoke generally about what the guiding ethos for casting Season 11 will be, when it begins filming in the Hamptons in July.
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