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The moment fans have eagerly anticipated has arrived: the filming of the Summer House Season 10 reunion. Hot on the heels of publicly revealing their surprise relationship, Amanda Batula and West Wilson are set to confront their fellow cast members. The reunion promises to rival the explosive Bravo showdowns, akin to when Ariana Madix faced her former partner Tom Sandoval and his then-lover Rachel “Raquel” Leviss during the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 reunion.
Bravo has already teased fans with a sneak peek of the reunion seating plan via social media. Batula and Wilson will be seated side by side to moderator Andy Cohen’s left, with Ciara Miller—Wilson’s former flame—and Kyle Cooke—Batula’s estranged spouse—placed directly opposite them.
Even Tom Schwartz from The Valley, who visited DECIDER’s studio earlier today, expressed his curiosity about the outcome with his Bravo colleagues. “Good luck with that reunion today, guys,” he remarked, acknowledging his own experience weathering a reality TV scandal.
Before “Scamanda” grabbed headlines, the “Scandoval” saga was one of Bravo’s most notorious betrayals. In March 2023, Madix uncovered that Sandoval, her partner of nearly a decade, was engaged in a lengthy affair with Leviss, a close mutual friend and the former fiancée of James Kennedy. Given Schwartz’s close ties to Sandoval, he faced scrutiny over his knowledge of the affair’s timeline and whether he had a role in concealing it. The fallout was so severe that Bravo opted for a fresh cast in Vanderpump Rules Season 12, leaving the original group fractured.
During the turmoil, Schwartz visited his Summer House pals in the Hamptons while they filmed their ninth season. Reflecting on his own fractured friendships, he advised Paige DeSorbo and Miller to “appreciate” their bond, reminiscing about the “happy family” he once had in LA that now “can’t stand each other.” DeSorbo reassured him with a vow to always cherish her castmates, joking, “As long as Amanda stays faithful to Kyle, we can tackle anything.”
Wilson has come out and promised that both he and Batula were single when their friendship turned into a romance. However, the flirty interactions that are currently playing out between them in Season 10 of Summer House has some fans (and their co-star Mia Calabrese) wondering if things started earlier than they have led on. If it does come out at the reunion that Wilson and Batula’s fling started last summer, then that would mean that she was still married to Cooke.
“It didn’t feel prophetic at the moment,” Schwartz said of his 2024 pep talk with the ladies, which came more than a year before the scandal broke. “I’m definitely not clairvoyant or anything, but I just know how easily it can all fall apart. They had the same but different lightning in a bottle that we had with VPR. Like, authentic, long-standing friendships, lots of love, heartbreak, marriages, divorces, scandals. I wish it wasn’t as prophetic as me and Paige thought it would be in that moment.”
Schwartz, who often lands himself in trouble by playing the devil’s advocate, went on to say that he “feels kind of bad” for Wilson and Batula, who have been publicly scrutinized for betraying Miller, in particular, ever since they confirmed their budding connection in a joint Instagram statement. The Detox Retox podcast host drew “parallels” between their current situation and a storyline in Friends Season 9 when Joey (Matt LeBlanc) unintentionally falls in love with Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), who has a storied history with his best friend Ross (David Schwimmer).
“It makes me sad because I really love everyone in that cast. I know West and Amanda,” Schwartz said. “Listen, there’s clearly an ethical code violation here, without a doubt. They made their bed, they have to lie in it, yada yada. But I don’t know. I feel kind of bad. They’re dealing with the consequences of their actions. You can’t help who you’ve fallen in love with, but you can help control how you handle it.”
Whatever happens at the reunion today, it’s clear that Schwartz will be watching with bated breath just like the rest of us.
In the meantime, you can watch him in The Valley Season 3, which airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.