I sacrificed myself and watched the Summer House reunion, so you don’t have to.

We are living in unprecedented times… by which we mean the height of Scandoval 2.0, aka the Amanda and West betrayal. In case you missed it, Amanda and West have been hooking up, despite Amanda being best friends with his ex Ciara (who he also tried it on with in the latest season) and Amanda having just separated from fellow cast member Kyle. Yikes.

We knew the Summer House reunion was going to be good, not just because of all the tea, but because of host Andy Cohen’s overdramatic selfie video, calling it “one of the most intense we’ve ever shot” in the network’s history. The raw, emotionally drained declaration (not to mention a few subsequent audio leaks) confirmed something big was coming.

From the minute the Summer House cast crept onstage, we knew it was about to blow up. Forget The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, forget Below Deck, forget that Vanderpump Rules reunion, this was going to be TV history. We weren’t wrong.

Part 1 aired on Bravo on May 26, with Part 2 to follow on June 2 and Part 3 on June 9 (they’re really milking this).

Here’s the highlight reel of the Summer House Reunion, Part 1.

Say My Name, Say My Name

Ciara was taking no prisoners — that much was clear from the first moment. She wore an Ariana Madix-level revenge dress and had clearly prepared for this.

Amanda was visibly nervous backstage while West, with whom she was sharing a dressing room, said he felt “good. Actually, I feel… zen.” Amanda took the PR-approved approach of immediately explaining her intentions to “own up to what I’ve done and apologize, especially to Ciara and Kyle.”

To which Ciara quite literally hissed, “I’m glad you can say our name this time,” clearly referencing the impersonal Instagram statement. Gulp.

Receipts were pulled

Just in case anyone was in the dark about the level of betrayal committed, Ciara was ready to set the record straight. She whipped out her phone to read Amanda’s allegedly deceitful texts from the weeks leading up to the Instagram statement, in which she insisted nothing was going on.

Ciara said that on 17 January, she invited Amanda for drinks with her and Mia. When Amanda didn’t respond, she later saw her location showed she was at West’s…

On 5 March, Amanda supposedly wrote, “I can’t believe I’m even having to text you this right now but West and I are very much just friends.”

And just like that, we finally got the timeline. The receipts cornered West and Amanda into laying out their version of events: West admitted he “made the first move,” kissing Amanda at the end of February, then sleeping with her after sending their mutual statement — a decision they made because “there were so many layers,” according to West. They both insist nothing happened before Amanda and Kyle had officially separated. The deed allegedly took place after the group had gone out for brunch with Kyle, as well as castmates Jesse Solomon and Ben Waddell, at the end of February.

“When we were out,” West recalled, “I kind of looked at Amanda, and I was like, ‘Am I fucking crazy or is there a little something going on here?’”

Amanda’s biggest defense was that she didn’t choose a relationship with West; it chose her. Return it then??? Return to sender, girl.

As Ciara and Mia suggested, the moment she began to develop feelings for West, Amanda’s conscience should have kicked in and she should have removed herself from the situation. It’s what a good friend would have done.

That’s the fundamental disconnect at the heart of this scandal, but during the reunion, Amanda couldn’t seem to grasp that logic. “I’m not allowed to pursue something that I feel strongly about?” she asked, before immediately getting shut down by her housemates, and then shutting down for the rest of the episode.

The hardest part was how West didn’t even defend her.

Was West dating someone else?

Around the same time as his dalliances with Amanda, West had also been dating Meija Moreno, the woman who styled his tie on an episode of Watch What Happens Live and, according to Lindsay Hubbard, believed she was exclusive with West. I don’t know why we got that tie detail in general, but I’m here for it.

However, West denied at the reunion that he and Meija were ever official. “Not a girlfriend, but I was seeing someone,” he told his castmates, adding that the two weren’t exclusive.

Amanda, looking slightly embarrassed, revealed she knew about the relationship but still pursued her feelings for West.

“I think you’re the most fraudulent person here,” Ciara told West. “You live a different life on camera than off-camera.”

Then she turned on Amanda: “There are a million guys in New York City, and you chose the one guy. You’re a snake in the grass. You move silent and you’re fucking deadly.”

Bailey called out Ben

Okay, the Amanda–West drama took up over half of Part 1, but then there was time for more. After some fluff, Andy took the lead once more and brought up Bailey’s poorly timed joke about Ben Waddell wanting to sleep with Amanda. Not the biggest deal, right? WRONG.

This seemingly minor joke somehow became the night’s second battlefield. Bailey, clearly prepared for battle, didn’t hesitate to fire back. She defended the joke, questioned Ben’s timeline with his fiancée, Sabrina, and pointed out the stark difference in how he polices women versus men in the house. “You like to reprimand women,” she said.

Ben then tried to compare the situation to Carl screaming at Kyle during the finale. Bailey was not having it and retorted, “He wasn’t yelling at me, you jackass.”

I think the women own this reunion.

KJ opens up

Let’s turn to something different. New cast member KJ Dillard began the season being open about his introverted nature and history of mental health struggles. He seemed to navigate them well throughout the summer — even beginning a new relationship with Dara Levitan — but things later took a difficult turn once filming ended.

In the fall of 2025, he was hospitalized after experiencing thoughts of self-harm, and was later diagnosed with BPD (borderline personality disorder). He spent the following months in recovery, focusing on his well-being. It was also revealed that Mia and Ciara visited him every day while he was in hospital.

“I’m grateful that I’m here alive because I could have not been,” he said. “I’m thankful for the support of my friends. Like, everyone here has somehow shown their support in their own way, so I appreciate that… I’m very thankful that the audience is embracing that, because it’s my truth.” He added, “I’m not gonna not be honest about what I’m going through, especially if it can help others.”

Honestly, the most moving moment of the entire episode.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.

Back to Amanda and West, of course

West stayed fairly quiet for the rest of the reunion until he was forced to address his unexpected makeout session with Ciara and their seemingly renewed interest in each other in season 10. Unsurprisingly, he struggled to articulate exactly what happened.

He downplayed their rekindled romance, saying, “I fell short in those moments. There were numerous times where I tried to make steps to not allow us to get to a romantic place or a physical place and keep it as friends.”

Lindsay then took the lead and said, “You’re good at pulling girls. Do whatever you need to do to climb the ladder, to clout chase, to get wherever you fucking need to go, and then boom: they don’t work for you, they don’t serve what you need to be served, and you drop them.” Mic drop.

A closing burn

Honestly, nothing said in this entire reunion episode can compare to Ciara’s final blow. With acid in her tone, she remarked, “I honestly think the best woman for West is someone who is not going to check him on anything — and that’s totally Amanda. She’s very mute, she’s going to be that very weak figure that he needs, and he can always be the star in the relationship. So I actually think maybe it could work.”

Gasping at that one, and desperate for Part 2 to see what comes next. Even Kyle felt she’d gone a step too far, saying, “You have every right to feel the way you feel, but even that was hard for me to hear.”

There’s a feeling that might just push someone into Amanda’s defense, maybe even her ex Kyle… stay tuned.

See you next time for Part 2, released on June 2.