Bros & Shows - Super Southern Charm Episode (Southern Charm Finale + Reunion Pt 1 Full Recap)

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

What's up Bro's?? We finally got ourselves caught up on Southern Charm and it did not disappoint. What was one of the better seasons of Bravo we've seen in our opinion, had the finale and part 1 to support it. In the finale, we see the breakdown of multiple storylines. JT finally confesses his love to Taylor, Austen and Olivia seemed to have reached a stalemate in their friendship and may not be able to move forward... Shep finally draws a line in the sand with Taylor and tensions flare at the end when JT decides he's going to confront Austen in Whitney's new bar cottage. Then in part 1 of the reunion we waste no time. We talk about Taylor's effects on the group and how her behavior has damaged friendships. Madison get's her flowers for a great season and it's been fun to see her growth this year. JT (shocking) is hell bent on tearing Austen down, albeit rather unsuccessfully. Shep has a revelation stemming from Bravocon about his drinking that hit Steel pretty hard and the group responds to how they're handling Shep's behavior over the past year. Is this an actual cry for help? Time Stamps: Intro: (0-5:59) Southern Charm Finale: (6:00) Southern Charm Reunion: (39:48) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I don't need the spotlight I shine just fine hi I'm karma and yes I am a bitch brav bros good afternoon everybody and welcome back to another episode of brav bros your favorite podcast from the bros for everybody for whoever wants to listen And I am your co-host, Steele Russell, joined as always by the one and only Rootin-Tooten McGooten. What's up, dude? You used that last week? I used that. I didn't forget when I used it.

I mean, it's a good one. I like it. I just don't want to use it too often because then it's going to lose its luster, you know? I agree. But it just fit. I don't know why it fits? Because we're rooting and tooting for the birds today. That's why it hurts.

See, I don't know if I even want to talk about it because this episode doesn't come out until tomorrow. Correct. So right now we're rooting and tooting. Tomorrow we may not be. It might be booting and scooting tomorrow. You're going to booting and scooting tomorrow. You know, that's how it happens.

But, yeah, life comes out you fast. It sure does. And look, we're not going to talk about it a lot. It's a big game tonight. We have lulled ourselves into a false sense of security. Because the Cowboys lost. Yes. Honestly, like, that's the thing is I spent the first half of today just happy.

Yesterday was just unbelievable. It was amazing. It was a great day of football, yeah. And there were only two games. It should have been three. But, yeah, great day yesterday, great morning today. I had to remember that the Eagles played tonight. Yep, and this day has been taking a really long time,

but I'm glad we get to record. We have a lot of shows to catch up on. Our schedule's been nuts. Just wait till next week. It's even more crazy. So we've been, look, we've been lacking a little bit on all of the shows. We've still gotten our episodes out, but I'm glad we can finally jump into Southern Charm today

because it was a great finale. It was an even better reunion, so we have a lot to discuss. And it's almost fitting because on Saturday, We were lucky enough to go to pillows and beer. We're in Philly, and we hit Craig up to see if they were playing where they were playing and all that. And they were nice enough to leave us tickets, which was so great. We have to hang out with him in the green room for a little bit before the show. And it was a great.

I didn't know what to expect. I hadn't heard a lot of that. I've listened to a couple episodes, but not a ton. They did a great job. I had a blast. Like, it was a genuinely fun time. Yeah, it was a good time. And obviously, it's just two friends sitting up on a stage, much like what we do, just hanging out and telling

stories. Yeah. You know, it was a really good time and shout out to Craig and Austin for having us there hanging out with us beforehand. That was a blast. But yeah, it's very fitting because we hadn't had a chance to really talk about Southern Charm after the finale and then obviously the first start. How many episodes of the reunion? I think there's two parts. I hope there's only two, yeah. But yeah, this is very fitting for us to get back into that. It kind of jump started us. Yeah, for sure. And before we dive into it, we're not going to talk a year off today, but I do have a theory for you. Yes, we are. What are you talking about? I have a theory for you. for you okay okay i like this one a lot oh you just mean the preamble's not going to be too long yeah

oh okay i think yeah we're not going to talk your ear off says talk your off says podcast hosts we keep this short and sweet here's what happened goodbye no so here's my theory of the day and uh this one comes from toy story and the theory is that andy's parents are actually divorcing throughout these movies and that's why they're packing up the house to leave okay If you notice behind the scenes, the mom's not wearing a wedding ring, I guess. I've never noticed that. But would that make more sense? You know, he's kind of, and he's diving further into this world of toys because he's trying to take away attention.

Yeah, the toys aren't actually alive. It's just Andy's imagination to try to deflect from the situation that his parents are going through. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. Dark. But every, every theory about Pixar movies is really dark. Yeah. Well, no, I had a moment where I'm like, I think all of our theories have been dark thus far. I don't think we've had a happy theory yet.

Yeah, that's a good point. Greece is Sandy drowns, and this is Andy's parents are divorced. Oh, no, I guess. The next week we'll try to have a happy theory. Ho's this is happy, no? I don't know. Who's this is not? Oh, I guess not.

No. Not if it's the, you know. Yeah, I think of the Seussical arrangement in which Jesus is being, or who's this is being crucified. Who's this is being crucified? Hussified. You don't have to go that far. It was right there I know, I get it

But yeah, no None of our theories have been happy So we'll try to get a happy theory next Yeah, I'll try to find a happy No promises The sad ones are more fun to talk about That's true, yeah But do you believe that, I guess?

Yeah, for sure. Oh, that's sad. Yeah, no, I'm sad But that's how Pixar movies work There's always something going on In the background and you're like, oh, it could be really sad We could do a whole podcast Finding Nemo, there's another one where

Marlowe, the dad actually killed the mom Oh There's a whole theory about that too. They're all dark about pictures. I don't want to talk about that one, though. No, I'm not going to get into it. Okay. I'm just going to tell you.

Yeah, I don't want to know any more about it. It's a sad podcast. Let's get sad. Welcome to the sad, bros. Six hours until game time and we're going to be sad. Oh, stop it. Don't put that juju out in the universe, okay? There was a lot of hype on 94-1 today.

They played the Rocky song behind a caller because he started to go on a rant about it, and I was like, hell yeah. I heard a different one, and the caller was not very enthusiastic. and they still played the Rocky music. Oh, that's not funny. It was like as a joke. Oh. Because he was really like down on the dumps talking about like the defense better show up today.

And then they just started playing the Rocky music behind it. I thought that was pretty funny. That's pretty funny. They also had a Cowboys fan on. They played Had a Bad Day by Daniel Powder behind him. That was funny. But yeah. Death taxes and the Cowboys collapse in the playoffs.

All sure things, baby. All sure things. But, uh, yeah, it is our early week episode. We have a few episodes coming out this week. so our preamble as far as like rankings and power rankings, I think we'll save that for tomorrow. Yeah. We'll just leave it for theories today.

And we got a lot to talk about. So let's jump right into Southern Charm. What did you think about these two episodes? And we're going to talk a little bit about the finale. I think the bigger chunk of this will be the reunion. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And again, it's the first episode of a reunion, which they always kind of warm up into.

They don't go for the, well, actually, everybody kind of understands how this works, except for J.T., which we'll get into. But I thought it was good. I thought that it was a fitting end of the season because there was a lot of animosity that was boiling over, and it seemed like we finally got to our sticking point where J.T. is calling out Austin again,

and Austin finally just saw J.T. for who he is and actually went back at him. I guess instead of just ignoring him, his background always the entire time. J.T., his behavior over the last two episodes and the stuff that's coming out about him now on social media, which is the least surprising news ever is that, oh, he's not actually a good dude? He's not a gentleman.

Who would have thought? Multiple ex-girlfriends found out that he was on Southern Charm and were not surprised and then found out that everybody hated him and we're even less surprised by that. So, yeah, I'm not surprised. No, and I think that if you look at his behavior throughout the season, culminating in what we saw in the finale and then how he's acting at the reunion, you can tell he hides behind this guys of nice guys finished last and all I am as a gentleman and this and that.

No, you're not. You're none of those things. You like to do that because you're the little boy scorned sitting in the corner of the room at the party that nobody wants to talk to and you just want to be one of the cool kids. So you play this hurt puppy dog all the time instead of taking ownership for your own actions because you're a pansy. Yeah. Honestly, you have to do a lot because people openly admit when it comes to Austin that he does fucked up shit, but they still have a soft spot for him. For whatever reason, and nobody can really identify it. We met him.

He's still a nice guy, but he would probably even tell you at this point that he does dumb shit. Yeah. J.T. comes in with this vendetta against Austin, and he just never let it go, never hit correctly. He never approached it in the right way to try to get it never made sense as to what's your obsession? Why? And I understand it's the Taylor aspect. He thought it was no. I don't even think it's the Taylor thing anymore. Now he's just fully obsessed with Austin. That's what we talked about the entire season. It's like, okay, dude, you have one storyline. Clearly you were a plant to get in there to start, I guess, everybody else having the conversation about Austin and

Taylor, you did your job and you just never let go of it. And that's what we were obsessed with. He is so in love with Taylor that he's letting everything else kind of fire him up when it comes to Taylor. And Austin was the main component of that. So he went after Austin. At least that's what we thought. Now it just seems like he's obsessed with Austin.

But I think my biggest issue is like when he starts to speak up in certain moments, Taylor's not asking you to advocate for. No. And to her credit, the one thing I can give her credit for, and that's saying a lot because she was not great this for you neither at least she's saying like you can't blame Shep

you have to blame me I'm responsible for my actions that goes for you too JT you're not like this night and shining armor that she is like oh thank God JT's here to speak up for me or else I'd be so screwed she doesn't need your help you make things

worse because you exacerbate things by inserting yourself in places you don't belong go away yeah the problem is that he's one he's delusional of course but he's the type of person that he's already talked himself into this delusion so he's going to continue no matter what happens and maybe it would stop eventually but if one person tells him that he's correct he is going to get so high and mighty that he's going to confess his love to Taylor step in Rod to just go oh JT like yeah

you are a good guy I think you do have a shot with Taylor once you start telling him that it's he's going to go fucking crazy there's no way around it and he does that in the finale and it's even more so during the reunion, which is just tough to watch. And even Andy has to call him out to be like, dude, we're two minutes in. Relax. We'll get to it, bro. This is your first reunion. Try to ease into it. He is, I don't even know,

he's like a dog with a bone. He just like won't let it go. It's so weird. Yeah, it is. That's a perfect. Is he still good for the show, you think? I mean, you can't argue that that scene was captivating at the end of the episode. I don't think it should have to come to violence. And we'll talk about that when we get there. but like sometimes it has to oh i'm not blaming austin no that's not what i mean by that at all i thought

that he actually subdued himself compared to how i would have been in that same scenario i'm just saying thought that he was protected by the show at that point or the bar stool which is so dumb because the way gravity works you are up way higher than you've ever been buddy you come down from that bar stool it's going to hurt you don't have the depth perception from up there probably don't have the athleticism to land on your feet so and it's probably one of them swivel john so if you go it's gonna like spin as you're falling you know what i'm saying it's a lot to think about he thought the producers were gonna step in before anything got crazy and they did but austin also showed some restraint he showed a lot more restraint than i think i like i said i don't

know if i would have had that same restraint there but it's a great place to jump into the finale and that's i just wrote car ramrod because you get rod and you get jt hanging out getting ready for this party and this is where the delusions are furthered and you're 100% right you get one hype man in your corner that doesn't understand the situation, i.e. Rod, then he's feeding into this bullshit. He's feeding into JT's delusions of, hey, maybe you do have a shot. Based off of what? That Taylor was nice to him? Based off the fact that they hung out, she's made it pretty clear in their interactions from where I'm sitting that it's a friend thing. I don't get the vibe that she's putting out a vibe. I think he's trying to latch on two basic friendship. Like, yeah, you're

laughing together. You're having a good time. Has she made any kind of advance? No? Well, you guys are hanging out in a hotel room drinking champagne till 4 a.m. So that's kind of telling if at no point you didn't feel a vibe where, hey, maybe I have a chance here. So for Rod to step in and be like, I think you got it, dude, you're not paying attention. He's not paying attention and he's probably only hearing what JT is spewing, which is absolute nonsense. I imagine that JT's sitting down with Rod painting this romantic idea in his head about how Taylor is a damsel in distress and she needs J.T. and she has told him that before. I'm sure J.T. is probably just lying too to Rod. Lying to himself for sure. So I don't even really fault Rod. But Rod is just like a lost puppy

at this point. There's no way he comes back next year. He has no footing in this group. Nobody really talks to him aside from J.T. And you take out the Olivia of it all. There's no reason for Rod to even be on the show. No, and I know it's going to happen. He's going to come on next week, and the first thing, the only thing and topic he's going to have is Austin. And again, it's like you and JT have no relationship with Austin. Just because you went on two dates with Olivia, you have no ties to Austin. Like, I think that you're 100% right. There's no way they come back, or not they. I don't think Rod comes back. Well, I think Andy's going to start it off by asking Rod about his relationship, quote, unquote, with Olivia. And that's going to be so sad to listen to him.

oh yeah i thought you know i thought i had a chance this is a girl that i thought that i could date for a really long time you know it just really wasn't meant to be i hope he takes like j t told me i had a shot and now we've just got the cycle of delusion just going back and forth but i think the funniest quote from that is as a divorced guy you know i'm aware that laughter can overcome a whole lot from from j t and i'm like what the fuck are you and that's where i'm like okay i don't think that this is you trying to say like this is not a real statement what you're trying to do is garner sympathy by saying you're a divorced guy so that people will be like oh he's just trying to find love again it's not working you i don't take anything that he says without a grain of salt

everything he's saying i'm digging further into like you have a motive everything he does is planned it's calculated and it's for furthering some kind of endgame he's working towards something always yep and that's how those kinds of guys are and that's how those kinds of guys are And that's what's so funny that Austin pegged him, like, from the jump, and everybody kind of does. And that's why everyone laughs when he's trying to cause a scene, when he's getting riled up. And in other situations, if it wasn't J.T. that was, like, getting hype, people would be like, oh, shit. But it's J.T. So people laugh until something happens. I'm like, whoa, dude, calm down, little guy. Like, go, settle down, bud.

Thankfully, nobody's just coming to his aid. Well, you know what? It's very telling because Austin did something that's wrong this year. and he was put on blast for it the entire year. JT, if you just told me nothing about JT and I didn't get to watch any of it and you told me there was somebody going against Austin for what he did, I would have imagined that he would have garnered a lot of support from the group because he's going to be a mouthpiece

for the rest of the group that has issues with Austin and maybe they're just dumping on Austin because of the things that he's done in the past, watching it. It's like JT. It's sort of like what we talked about in Miami. Like Julia is not the person to go talk about the Adriana issue. JT is certainly not the person to go after Austin. It makes no sense.

The correct approach for JT would have 100% been going to this season and be friends with Austin. Try to be friends with Craig. Try to be friends with those guys. Don't go into the show as a newbie that none of us know, none of us care about, and try to take on Austin. Because for better or worse, love them or hate him, everybody has a soft spot for this guy. You're not going to win. You're not going to win with this white night bullshit Where you're coming and trying to save all the women from evil Austin

And like it's gone further Now it's like he's trying to save all of the women in Charleston Not just this little group like who the fuck are you guys He would have been better off just coming in doing what he was supposed to do Dropping the little nugget about Taylor and Austin sleeping over each other's houses And then just kind of blending it Yes Just go have some fun enjoy yourself make some jokes because that will get people to like you

You're doing the same thing every week doesn't make people like you Yep. And I want to skip ahead a little bit and we get like right before the party and Taylor's getting ready and this is an important tidbit because she just flat out says that she does still have some want to get back with Shep, which is out of left field. And like I mean, obviously you've seen inklings of their relationship. They've had certain moments like when they were in Jamaica and he's like, oh, someone's trying to get me drunk, all that. Like there was some flirting. And you can tell that Shep, especially when he's drinking, he gets a little too. too personal like they're too close and obviously that would lead to some confusing feelings but this guy cheated on you relentlessly you've been pretty open about the fact that you're furious at him for doing these things and now to me it seems like she's so far down this rabbit hole of just bullshit that she's created for herself right that this is an easy way out where she's like oh if we get back together though everything else goes away it's the evil you know versus the evil you don't and she has like you said gone down this wild path

of basically getting everybody to hate her. All of her actions have resulted in people disliking her and questioning her behavior. And yes, you do get a pass to an extent. Things that you've done do catch up to you. And if you keep repeating that behavior, people are going to hate you. So, yeah, she's in this.

And we find out in the reunion she's dating a new guy. I don't know if she's still dating a guy that I don't care. The funniest part, she's dating Gastone, who was involved in like a love triangle on Southern hospitality. There's a whole bunch of shit going on there. So when she was like, It's like, T.J.'s roommate. Yeah.

And she's like, he's actually normal. I'm like, eh, he's not. If we know who he is through another Bravo show, he's probably not that normal. So maybe just take a step back and reevaluate your life. But, yeah, Taylor, I get it. And obviously, it's not the right choice. And I don't think, no, no, I understand what she's doing. Oh, okay.

Like I said, like she understands, yeah, my life was a little happier when I was with Shep and he was cheating on me than it is now. That's sad. That's very sad. Yeah. So I do understand that. The thing is, Shep, when he's, and we see drunk all the time, and that'll be a huge sticking point for the reunion. But when he's sober, he has said over and over again, no, I don't want to be with Taylor.

I just want to have a friendship with her. And that might even go away at some point because it's getting very complicated. So it's not a good place for Taylor to be him. Nope. And the other scene we get right before the party is Austin, and he's talking to Katie, his sister. And this is when he does things. I'm like, bro, like, come on. he's like, I'm expecting an apology from, from Olivia.

Yeah. Why? Why? Even if she's admitting that there's inconsistencies on her end, which she did to Lever, like early in this episode, which credit to her for acknowledging that. Right. Because we've seen it. You know, she's hot, cold, hot cold. That's great that she can acknowledge that.

Austin, you can't expect an apology here, my guy. Like, think about it. What do you think of an apology even looks like in Austin's mind from all the now? I don't know. Like, I'm so sorry for being inconsistent. I didn't know what he wanted her to apologize for. I didn't either. Leading him on, maybe?

Like, is that? I don't think so because, like, there is pretty clear this is not a romantic thing. He was even saying, I don't want to pursue anything past a friendship. I just want to pursue our friendship. Which, if that's what you want. Don't say I love you.

Then, well, don't say I love you. Yeah, that's a good point. But if that's what you want, then what apology are you expecting? Because if you're going to try to say that she's inconsistent and leading you on and doing this and that and whatever, if you don't want to be with her,

then what are you fucking want an apology? for. I don't know. And you should also understand, again, what she's been through in just the last couple of months, maybe just give her a pass. You don't get an apology for anything. That's what I'm saying. Just like, let it go.

These people are so quick to forget things, though. It's so funny. We'll see. We'll see about this one. But that takes us to the party. And of course, we got Whitney's cottage bar, which is finished, which if it was a bar out in public that you could go to, like, all right, it's kind of like a darker vibe. You walk in.

Like, it's kind of sexy, but like whatever. When it's at a dude's house, that's just a bar. That's like a sex bar. I'm bringing chicks back here to hang out in my dark bar to take them upstairs to a dark, weird room that nobody knows because it's hidden behind a bookcase with a bunch of like bonded straps. That's who I'm thinking. You're probably right. I mean, I actually liked the bar. I thought that it looked pretty cool.

And it's, would you want it at, like, if you had a home bar. If I was Whitney, not even just Whitney. If I was in Whitney's position, yes. I would have a thousand percent. It would look like that. Maybe a little lighter. I thought it looked pretty nice. I wouldn't come over.

I think he's going for like the cigar bar type. He's not. He's going for a bachelor. Like, I'm going to bring back 20-year-olds to this place and they're going to be so enamored by my cool. Apparently Whitney has a girlfriend that nobody knows because it's Whitney. Well, that's the one moment I can also tailor it. She's like, well, I hope that his girlfriend knows he's cheating on her, him, her with everybody in Charleston.

Yeah. Because for sure. he's a producer on the show we can't talk about winning i'm actually surprised that they talking about that no we can't yeah i was very surprised that came out in the reunion because he's a producer he's a producer andy cohen's the executive producer he decides what gets cut with his not cut but that brings us to what i wrote down as simply the talk and this has been a long time coming for young j t and he's been jumping at the bit to take his shot and this probably could not have come at a worse time i don't

know why on earth you would do this at a party maybe it's because he was aware this is the season finale and he wants to get his last shot in here i don't know i think that if you're going to profess your love to somebody it's probably best to not do it around a group of people but hey to each their own and he takes taylor off to the side and it's already weird i need to note here that as this is progressing and taylor knows what's going on she knows what this conversation is she says friendship four to six times or he even gets to what he's about to say yep and he's like you know I love like I love being around you we have so much fun together and everything's always great we're always laughing we're always laughing together and all the sudden he just says

I love you I love you I would marry you tomorrow not today I guess that would have been yeah but what the what do you think she's going to say like how is that your approach dude like why would you not ease into it a little bit hey I've been having feelings I don't know if you feel the same way but could we go grab a drink as more than friends something mellow not hey I think about you every night when I go to sleep and you left your hair brush in my hotel room so I stole a bunch of your hair and I have it in a little ball that I like to smell occasionally I don't know JT's brain is like a bag of cats like that's a good idea crazy so I don't know what he's thinking but

But this is the best I can do. Taylor is in such a bad place that I think he's trying to take advantage of that by being there for her and then swindling her into being in a relationship. I think that's actually a really good call. And he's not being the nice guy. He's taking advantage of somebody who's in a very bad place. I agree 100%. And I'm going to get into the nice guy thing.

I just need to mention I didn't think you could ramp it up further. But she's like, you know, you might not like it. She's letting him off easy. Yeah, which is nice. And she's like, he might not like me. Like, I might be a psycho. He's like, you are a psycho, but you know what's really psychotic? We could die tomorrow.

We're our weddings tomorrow. What the fuck, J.T. Like, we have now covered bag of cats. It's fucking insane. Love marriage and death. Yeah. To try to swindle her. And you're right.

He's using these big, like, big phrases and big turns of phrases to try to be like, like, capture her in this moment. And again, you know, Taylor sucks. But this is manipulative. What he's doing is very manipulative, and guys like this are the absolute worst, because when it does not go the way he wants, he plays the role of nice guys always finish last. It's always assholes like Austin. You too are an asshole. You go about it differently.

You're actually the worst kind of asshole because you hide behind this smokescreen of I'm the good guy. I'm the nice guy. I'm the guy scorned. No, you're a pissed off teenager that got his heartbroken over a girl that owes you nothing. Just because you're nice to her in her time of need. That's why these kinds of guys are the worst. They think that because they're there for somebody in their time of need, they're owed something, that Taylor owes you anything.

She owes you jack shit. You're doing the bare minimum. You're being a friend to her. So for you to expect a relationship to blossom out of this simply because you caught feelings and she didn't. And then you're going to go on camera and say that you are the man scorned. You lose. You always lose because guys like Austin always win. Maybe take a look in the mirror.

Why are you coming in last? It's not because you're a nice guy. That is not the reason. Plenty of nice guys end up in great relationships. There's something else here. And look at the TikToks your exes are making. That's why you're single. That's why you can't find anybody because you're a dickhead.

We have seen it all season. Like, he's never hidden behind. I've said he's good for TV. I've never said he's a good guy. I've never thought he was a good guy. But I'm so glad it's coming to light because I hate, hate, hate the narrative of I'm the good guy and I always get fucked. no you're not and thank God thank God this didn't pan out for you because you don't deserve it

yeah and to make matters worse to add to the manipulation he does this at a party when a bunch of people are there including her ex yes how many times you just went on a rant talking about how many times you've hung out with her one-on-one and how much fun you've had together you couldn't have done it then correct you got to do it and the cameras are rolling at a party with her ex standing right behind you weird you're trying to put the pressure on her to have her make a decision and say something that you want to hear without knowing what she actually feels

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anyway. Welcome to Night Vale. is available wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm here to tell you about Good Morning Night Vale. Welcome to Night Vale's official recap show and unofficial best friend food podcast. Join me, Meg Bashwinner, and fellow try hosts, Hal Lublin and Symphony Sanders, as we dissect all of the cool, squishy, and slimy bits

of every episode of Welcome to Night Vale. Come for the insightful and hilarious commentary and stay for all of the weird and wild behind-the-scenes stories. Good Morning Nightfail, with new episodes every other Thursday. Get it wherever you get your podcasts. Yes, even there. But like a movie scene, the cool guy comes in and Shep walks over and swoops and immediately she leaves. Like, there's your sign, Val.

Like, I hope that stung a little bit because, again. Here's her ex-boyfriend that cheated on her and boasted about how much fun it was cheating on her. And she still walked away with him. And would get back together with him. It says more about Taylor that it does about Shep or, even you. But still, if you weren't so crazy and so focused on Taylor, you might be able to see that and say, you know what? Maybe a relationship with this girl isn't a good idea. Absolutely. But in this next scene with Shep, we actually see, and it's interesting because

this leads into the reunion a little bit, we see a more mature Shep in this conversation. I was actually proud of him because she is at her, like she's scrambling. If JT's a bag of cats, then she's just she's a lost cat that's what's in her right okay she's a lost cat analogies go and keep going with cat analogies and she is grasping at straws to try to figure out how to find her way through this and i'm surprised that shepp didn't at least entertain the idea he was pretty steadfast on look i don't think that there's anything here anymore i don't want to go down this path again i would love to find a place where we're okay and i'm still going to message you but if that messes with your head,

I'm not going to message you. And she says, it might. And he goes, okay, then I'll step back because I don't think that this is the right thing. And I was proud of him. I never thought I would hear him say that. And I also, I really appreciated the approach to it. It wasn't aggressive.

He was sympathetic to her and her emotions. And that's a big step for him. And I think that's important to highlight that that happens before what we're about to talk about at the reunion. Because in between these two things was BravoCon. and I guess that was his pivotal moment where he kind of woke up a little bit. Yeah. We'll discuss that at length because that one hit me really hard.

Yeah, real weird 10 minutes for Taylor there. Yeah, yeah, that's a tough transition in conversations for sure. Here's a crazy guy who loves you, and here's a crazy guy who wants nothing to do with you. Yeah, how do you feel? Are you good? Probably not. But we get Austin and Olivia, and again, to her credit, Olivia immediately points out, yes, there's been inconsistency's on my end.

She hasn't apologized. She just says, yeah, there's been inconsistencies, and that's because I get hot and cold with you. And then I feel like you say the right thing because you know what I want to hear. It's just not a good friendship. It's really not. And he's like, I just want to be there for you.

And she's like, you haven't been. And in all respects, you really haven't been. Because had you been, and we talked about it earlier on, by using certain phrases at the certain time, and I get what you're trying to do. I don't think, I've said it from the jump. I don't think his intentions are malicious. I think he gets caught up in the moment.

And I've said that from the beginning. And I think this is a sign of that. But then for him to out loud and verbalize, I was, this is, I'm blown away. This went so far left to what I thought it was going to be. I was thinking you were going to apologize. And she's like, what? Why? And we all at home are like, what?

Why? How is that where your brain goes, man? I've actually done a complete 180. We even said earlier in the season that I don't. think and you said the same thing that you don't think Austin is using Taylor's vulnerability in her sensitive situation to get closer to her so that he could date her. I am kind of moving in that direction now because we've moved away from all of the traumatic things that have happened to Olivia. And yeah, I'm kind of thinking now he wants to put himself in a better

position because he said before I love her and I want her to be part of my life. That could mean friends for now so that I can be in a position later to potentially date her. I always think that's in the back of his head. It's got to be in the back of his head, whether it's subconscious or fully conscious. I don't know. You can tell right away because he wants that apology and that doesn't make any sense at all. So he has talked himself into a completely different situation that we don't understand. Yeah. No, I agree with him. But we get the patented 30 minutes later. And any time in recent history that we get a one hour later, and three minutes later, something's about to pop off.

And not only that, it actually delivers. It's Salt Lake and now a Southern Charm. And it's like 30 minutes later, they're talking about certain things. And JT's just off to the side kind of overseeing shit. And he is so pissed off thinking about the fact that Austin kissed Taylor. He has been friend zoned. And I know exactly what happened after that moment because Rod brings him a shot of whiskey. And I know what he did.

He took that shot and he just kept getting further and further. He was sad drinking. That never leads to anything good, especially when you're sad drinking with brown liquor. Let me tell you. Oh, this is the next level analysis here. There's something about a sad brown leather leather. Leather. Sad, brown liquor.

There was some brown leather in that dungeon bar. Yeah, the dungeon bar. When you're drinking bourbon from experience to get over something, it makes things infinitely worse. You can either get sad, sadder, or madder. You got a recommendation for a good thing to drink when you're sad. Really? Yeah, because it's an upper. I swear to God, because it will, it's the only alcohol that is a stimulant.

So if you're sad drinking tequila, it tends to make you goofy. Yeah, I will break that. All right. I'll do a whole book. This is good analysis. I'll make a book on how to drink when you're happy, sad, or otherwise by Steele Russell. I'd buy that book. Yeah, well, trust me.

I'd hope I'd get a free copy with like a signature. You would, but I've done my research on the time. I can write the, what are they, is it a preface? An epilogue. I thought that was after. That's after. It's a prelog. Prelock, yeah.

I can write that, yeah. But anyway, JT's on the barstool. It's important to note. And Austin does initiate it because he walks over and he goes, I did tell you to get on a barstool the next time he talked to me. And I thought that was a dick move, but also I didn't think he was like trying to start a fight. I think it was more so like taking a jab at JT because there are tensions there. He was already like murmuring different things too. Austin and Taylor and whatever.

So I think that Austin recognized J.T. was coming after him and he stepped over there to diffuse the situation by making fun of J.T. Yeah. And anytime a guy speaks like a lord from like old England, he's like, you're a snake and a coward. Like just fucking use normal terms.

You're a fucking asshole. You're a doucheback. Anything but like I hate when they try to pinpoint words like that. You snake, you scoundrel, you scallywag. Yeah, scallywax is a good one. You bring that back. Speak normal though. And this is when Austin's like, dude, what's your problem?

Why are you so upset at this? And he's going in on Austin and Taylor's defending Austin because he should be. Like that is the right move there because JT's making an ass. You're making this way worse. Nobody's talking about this. We don't have to discuss this right now. You're calling attention to an issue that we don't want to call attention to. And it's embarrassing everybody except for the people that you're trying to embarrass.

Austin's not embarrassed right now. J.T, you're embarrassed and you're embarrassing. Taylor, we were trying to stand up for, she checks him and J.T. goes, I'll never forget this. You're going to stay. I'll never forget this. Here's the funny thing. Okay. If tomorrow J.T. left Charleston and no longer had a friendship with Taylor, Taylor would not give two shits. It would not affect her. He would be screwed, totally rattled. Wouldn't know how to handle himself. Taylor would have a normal day after the fact. She doesn't care that much. She doesn't care that much. Yeah, I don't think that it was the right thing for Taylor to step in and defend

also. I don't know. You did. You said it was a good thing. Yeah, he said rightfully so. I mean, no, I just mean somebody defending. No, I actually, I take that back because it's, it is, look, she caused this whole shit storm. She deserves all the shit 100% when it's warranted. In this moment, it's not a topic of conversation. So I'm saying it more from a standpoint of, hey, you're now, you're bringing me into it now and I don't want to do this right now. So I do think that she's within her right to say, yo, shut the fuck up. I don't think the Taylor was involved in it at all. I think that she could have just left it alone.

The topic is about her, for sure, but her stepping in to defend Austin who she is currently, they have a huge fucking shitstorm on their hands because the two of them hooked up, and nobody forgot about that. It's only been a couple of weeks. You're still heavily under scrutiny for everything that you've done. You stepping in and defending Austin to JT, who's been on a vendetta against Austin for his behavior, mostly involving you, is a bad luck. Shepp immediately is just like what the fuck like we're trying to ignore all of this Olivia is there like it's just not a good look for Taylor to step in I guess the one to defend Austin because eventually when push comes to shove Craig will step in and defend Austin yeah that's going to happen just let that happen yeah I mean I don't know maybe I was so focused on the JT of it all I wasn't I well I mean it does confirm at least for you would hope that it confirms for JT or at least Rod who's in his fucking year telling him that he's doing the right thing Taylor doesn't give a shit about JT correct she she's

He is defending Austin after you just confessed your love to her. And we all know what Austin has done. I'll never forget. I'll never forget this. And you're on your knees on top of a bar stool. But this is when, you know, and I do give Austin credit. And that's, I phrased it wrong earlier. But he's in his face on this bar stool.

And I'm telling you right now, if there was a dude in front of me like that and barking at me like that, I would have shoved him about 20 minutes before that. Yeah. I would have, and I would have kicked the bar stool out so he fell on the ground. and I would have walked away. Like, Austin did control himself. J.T. wanted it. There's a certain point, and like people,

obviously violence should never be the answer. And that Austin even points out, 10 years of this show, this has never happened. And to you, and boom, we get into fisticuffs. Like, this has never been a problem. And now you've taken it to a different level in your first season, because you're just like, you're so pissed off at the world. So for me, watching that scene,

I actually credit Austin for holding back a little bit because there is a certain point when someone's in your face, saying more or less let's do this hit me that's what j t's doing he's trying to provoke him and so you can't get mad at austin for getting provoked and at least he didn't punch him he shoved them and jt's response is to headbut him he pulls a zen and dean zadden zaddon which we haven't seen in the chin those fucking soccer players what it oh right yeah good call yeah i didn't always with the headbut they never use anything else but you know everything blows up and JT's like, guess what, buddy, you lose.

No, he does not. No, no, he does not. You look like a lunatic. You can tell because the producers are also going to Austin to just use the situation, not you. Guess who's going to you? Rod. Yeah. Great.

You and Rod can go stand out there and act like you won, and you had a huge triumph of a victory against Austin because now everybody can see what kind of guy Austin is. He shoves somebody, he shoves a little guy on a barstool when we're eye to eye. not a guy that you want to be around. No, everybody flocked around Austin to try to calm him down because he is in the right. What is J.T. doing? Why is he fucking obsessed with me? Why is he in my face about this? And nobody knows that J.T. and Taylor just had that conversation. They'll look back and think it's really funny and it might shed a little bit of light as to why his behavior was that erratic. But he's been doing the same thing all season. So it's not like this is a byproduct of that conversation. It's just been building up and building up. And he finally said, but he wanted

to say and it doesn't hit at all nobody cares what you have to say nobody cares everyone's concerned about austin there are people in the group on the side that say that like this is an austin thing like shepp his confessionals like yeah you know austin hurt a lot of people he hurt me what he did was really bad finally like yeah that's fair yeah that's totally fair they don't care where it comes from but it's coming from jt so it obviously just doesn't hit on a different level no and it just it painted the perfect picture of jt which is so funny because he thought this would be his moment of triumph standing up for the girl he loves that girl takes the side of the guy that he hates he gets shoved off of a bar stool and headbutts a guy and not only that but you landed a clean

headbut and didn't even phase him so that has to be a hurt to the ego as well the point is just fucking relax jt just relax go home and watch the reg go watch the season and that's the craziest part is he did and he shows up to the reunion, which we're getting into now, doesn't double down. He quadruples down. He bet the mortgage on this shit. He skipped triple. No, he skipped triple.

He skipped the triple. He went straight to quadruple because this guy, it's unfa, I can't put my brain around it. I don't get it. I don't understand people like him. It's annoying. It's got to suck being there and knowing that's what JT is going to do. You can tell because Austin and Craig in the green room before they go out to the reunion, they're laughing.

They're like JT's here. Like, what do you think is going to happen? Oh, God, we have to deal with him. Like, nobody wants to even associate themselves with you except for Rod, who's not even out there. Yep. So, yeah, you're going to sit there. There is one little glimpse of Madison saying, is JT, just me in a malice body? And then they all kind of laugh it off.

But aside from that, nobody knows what you're doing. No one's acknowledging you. And they're just laughing at you. Everything that you do is a joke. And it just falls on deaf ears. he thinks that he's doing something spectacular and he's not. He's a joke to this entire group and he's so

in denial about it. It's just so weird to watch. And his behavior and we'll get there. I'm going to save all the Shep's stuff for the end because I as you could probably guess have a lot to say about that whole scene and a big part of that was JT's behavior during that scene.

We wanted to crawl through the screen and shove him off a bar stool to say the least. But let's get into the reunion. First and foremost, Dapper crew. They look fantastic. This is probably the best dressed reunion I've seen. I love the aesthetic as well behind, and it was based off of Shep's Mountain House.

It's working. Everything I'm seeing is working. You've got a house of your own, like out in the mountain somewhere, and Andy goes, you know what? We're going to model the reunion after that. Much better than a frozen shipwreck of Salt Lake. I'm really sure what's going on there. But you know what?

The background for that one, doesn't matter. It works. It just worked. Somebody tagged us in, or they messaged us, and it was a picture of the boat and the, the um the was the mask the front of the boat yeah has the lady on it whatever like the crest of the boat and she's got um an icicle hanging from her nose and she goes are we going to talk about the frozen booger that was funny pretty funny but we get into this reunion and right out of the gate right out of the gate unwarranted didn't come from anywhere no one said shit about it j t's like i'm

gonna perform the first ever fuck boy exorcism at this reunion you'd think that would be enough, but he keeps talking. He keeps going, like, I'm going to get it out of you. I'm going to get that demon out of you right now, boy. I'm like, dude, you're talking shit again. Stop. Even Andy Cohen himself says, hey, first timer, shut up. Yep. That was Andy's nice way of saying, shut up. He's like, I know you're excited. I appreciate you coming in hot. You're brand new. You're your borderline friend of. You should be in the back with Rod. We gave you the honor of coming out here to sit down. shut up know your place know your role the newbie should not be introing the reunion no i actually don't even think that he should be sitting out there if that's what i'm like that's what we're dealing

with now yeah you should have known that this is what he's going to do let him come out with that energy don't let him sit there because the entire time while we're talking about an entire season's worth of storylines that have absolutely nothing to do with jt i don't need to see his reaction to things nope i don't need to hear what he has to say he's going to sit and mumble about everything else yes He's just sitting there and mumbling and everything comes back to Austin and he's just trying to make fun of Austin and he thinks he's doing a great job at it. He should have come out with Rod in the second part of the second episode. Let him go off for a little bit. People will laugh at him and then that's it.

This is not a main storyline for the season. It's just J.T. being annoying. Yep, 100%. But we get to check in with Madison first and loved, loved Madison this season. She had a great season. She's found her role. And I think this really fits her because she's not the Madison of old where she gets mad and like pops off at everything. She's more subdued.

And I don't know if you credit that to her getting married and not crediting it to bread or anything like that. I just mean I think she's in a place in her life where she's happy. She's content. She likes where she's at. She's past the bullshit. Like she's no longer needing to get involved all of the time. But that's what makes it so good when she gets involved because it's, Now it's more of just, like, kind of a drop in the bucket.

Like, she'll walk by and say something really funny or have a really good retort to shut somebody up, but is able to pull away from it. She gets so far into the shit that she's now a main player. It's just like, oh, that was really funny. And she walks away to her beautiful house with her beautiful husband and her beautiful kid. Love that. Yeah, we love that.

And we actually got to see at their show on Saturday night. One of the questions was a housewife calling Austin out. Right. Because he called Madison a boring housewife. That's the risk that you're. run when you're on these shows and you just start slamming insults into people. Yep. Yeah, that was really funny, actually.

She took umbrage with, you know, calling a housewife boring. Yeah. No, Madison was in clarified. He said a bored housewife. He didn't say that she was a boring housewife because the woman at the show was saying, are you saying that all housewives are boring. Good response from Austin. He said, obviously not our entire network was built on interesting housewives.

That is a really good answer. So, yeah. Madison this year was really good. She was a good mix of the Madison. Madison of old, who can throw shade, who can put herself in different situations, as we saw with the Taylor photo, her stepping in immediately saying, I was crucified for the things that I have crucified for the things that I've done in the past. Now you're doing it and somebody needs to speak up. So yeah, I'm going to go after you because I've got a lot of pent up rage about that. She can do that and still have nice moments like she had with her son when her son was being bullied, which we heard about later in the reunion. She yelled in the ring camera. She yelled in the ring camera. That's a fucking great move. And she's like, and it got settled. So we're good. Yeah, hell yeah. But we got to see a balance of life between what Madison is doing at home and what she's still able to bring to the show, which is awesome.

And that's what we need. I think even more of a highlight of that was the fact that she went in on Taylor. Fast forward to Jamaica. She takes the time to go out by the pool and sit next to Taylor and explain it. Like, hey, this is what I was doing. I'm not apologizing for it. I am going to sit down at a hard tart so we can move past it. But this is what's up.

And I want to hear from you and your side of it. Like, I don't think we would have seen that in the past. Providing perspective. Yeah. And she had a great, great season, and she continues to be just a centerpiece of this show and will be for as long as she wants to be. But we start talking about Shep a little, just a little bit. And in respect to watching Madison grow in her relationship and her life, hey, is this

inspiring you at all to settle down? And he just says, I'm afraid to move forward because of the monotony of it. And they make the joke like the monogamy, monotony. And it was interesting. And I didn't know, you know, I've seen clips, but I wasn't sure what's. to expect what got Shep to his breakdown later when he starts talking about things. But even his responses to people and the way he's reacting to jokes and stuff, he's very, very subdued with it.

Like he's not popping off about stuff. He's not getting overreactive to stuff. And like the monotony, monogamy thing, he's like, yeah, ha, ha, but just continues to kind to kind of talk instead of addressing it. So I'm already like, whoa, what's like he's got something heavy on his mind. Something's going on. Yeah. And he says, you know, I'm just afraid of the fact that like, oh, we got to,

reservation on Saturday because that's her big night out because the rest of the week we've got to put the kids to bed you got to give the kid all the stuff that you do as a father or just as a quote unquote a grown up you know moving forward in your life that scares him and I'm actually proud of him once again for being open about it and honest about it and talking about it and lovea breaks it down she's like look I was scared too and I think every parent can relate to this yeah you have a lot of questions in your head especially at the last month when the baby's almost there you're like well what about this what about that and as soon as you have your kid all of it goes away any worries any what am i going to do with this it's no longer a problem because you realize that

you would do anything for this little baby so everything else goes to the side and leva voices that i was so nervous to just the the prospect of taking a bath every night putting my kid in the tub seems so monotonous and so now i look forward to that time with my kids right it's a great time for me because i get to like zone everything else out and focus on my child so i think that it's good for him to hear that like look it's scary but what you're scared of is not a reality that is not what's going to happen you can be scared of certain things nervous apprehensive whatever you may want to use the adjective but at the end of the day like once it's there it's not what you think it is and it's beautiful it's great and you're going to love it so i think that for the first time and i've

seen these conversations with chef where he does get emotional and seems to be open to things this seems different this seems like he's actually open to these people he's actually listening to to what people are saying. And I think that goes so far from me. My opinion on Shep has changed drastically in these last two episodes. Yeah, not even the last two episodes. You can see pretty much the entire season. Yeah, throughout the season.

Yeah. And look, maybe it's just the pressures of being in a relationship have been lifted from him. So we get to see where he's actually been and like what he's done in his recovery process from, you know, the end of a relationship that was absolutely nuts for him. And Taylor, probably more so, obviously. And this is a different type of chef. And obviously, again, the beginning of this reunion is a little weird because we don't know what happens at the end.

So you can tell something is weighing heavily on his mind. We don't know what it is. Maybe this is a good time for him to just, you know, think about his life and what he actually wants. And if he's going to listen to people around him, that could help. It could. And it seems to be what he's doing. But this is when we get the board housewife comment. And they're discussing it.

And Austin does apologize. He says, yeah, I was drunk and I wanted to hit below the belt. That seemed like a layup. So I said it, which is what we all knew. Yeah. I don't, I actually think that Austin has more respect for Madison than anybody's saying like right now. Oh, absolutely.

He definitely respects her. He respects her relationship with Brett. Like, I don't think that he has any weird vendetta against her. I think that they have a long history together. They do. So when shit starts to go down, both of them are like, well, I know exactly how to get to you and vice versa, because they're just the history. Yeah.

And you can also just kind of wipe it off immediately. Like, it's not like Madison got upset that he said that. laughed at it. And she's like, oh, I know what you're doing now. You're hitting below the belt because I actually got you this time. And you know that right away. But he still apologized. And I think he actually meant it. I don't think, I think that their relationship is very weird. And there's obviously some weird vibes that happen here and there. But some of the realist moments that we get from Austin are when he's sitting down with Madison and they're talking about Taylor and Olivia. We got more out of him in just that little conversation in Jamaica than

we got pretty much the entire season. He was more authentic with her than he was with even Craig. So, Yeah, there's a deeper level there. And where Madison is now and how happy she is, I think that she's okay with that. I do too. And of course, of course, because Austin is the topic of conversation. We have to get the sidebar from JT. And he's like, all you'd want to do is harass her. It's all you want to do.

And he's like, what? Now you're standing up for Madison. Like it doesn't make any sense. She does not need it. No. She has never need it and will never need it. She's good. Trust me.

Yeah. She can handle her own shit. But this. goes to tell you who J.T. is because he brings up two reunions ago. J.T. You weren't here. This is weird. I'm surprised he even watched a reunion based off of his actions right away. I'm not at all. When he came out of the gun hot like that? I think that he has watched the reunions and because his perception of reality is warped because he's an idiot. He's like, oh, I know exactly how I'm going to play this. I've seen enough

reunions. I'm coming out of the gate hot. I'm making my point early. Yeah, I had a difference. I had a different look at that. As soon as he brought up another reunion, I'm like, he watched reunions not based off of what I've seen. I think he watched every single scene of every single season. That's the vibe I get from him. And you texted me this before I had watched it.

And he makes, your favorite movie is Gladiator. Yeah, he makes a gladiator reference. And the funniest part, he calls Austin Commodus, who is, you know,

the emperor that kills his dad, in love with his sister. And he pins the murder of his father on Maximus, who then gets sent into slated. and then ends up as a gladiator and then overthrows the emperor and saves Rome. Good job. Thank you. Amazing movie.

I need to revisit it, actually, especially before they drop the sequel. I can't believe they're making another one. I'm actually kind of upset. The only way I won't be upset is if Russell Crow makes a cameo somehow. He's an executive producer, but they're not going to be doing, it's not a continuation of the story. It's going to be different eras in Rome and different emperors. Which is fine, but I need a statue of Maximus then. there will be there needs to be something alluding to him yeah okay then i'll be if i'll i'll be

better about it then but the funnest part about it is if he's making the comparison to commonus who's this obsessed little pissed off man that wants to constantly prove that he's more masculine than other people he uses his power to try to like venigal austin all this stuff if you want to like break it down he's commoditist jt is common jt is the most ironic comment of the day it really is saying that is so funny. And the big, like the topic of conversation is JT. is Napoleon. He tries to say, you know, little guys can rule the world. Like, no, dude, you are comidus. You are the one who's pissed off at somebody else for something that you don't have. And that's what Austin is showing you. And you mistakenly, and that's why I was so pissed off, completely

got the reference wrong. Yep. Don't bring my favorite movie into this. I don't want to hear you say that. Austin can. Sure. Craig can. Of course. No, not you, J.T. you keep that movie alone and he keeps doing movie quotes after like what are you doing were you getting ready for the reunion by watching old reunions and then in between just watching like bro films he's like big bird and and and and he's like why are you naming characters this is what you brought these are your receipts movie quotes i'm actually surprised that he doesn't have a burn book uh dude he might have a bedazzled burn book who knows but mom made it for him i just wrote down psycho behavior i don't know why he's doing this he's like he says you're

Her glow up compared to your glow down is comical. They're comical compared to each other. Nobody was saying anything like that. It's not like Austin was talking shit on Madison saying, oh, yeah, just because you're in a better spot in your life, doesn't mean that you can come after me. They were okay. They're fine. Madison immediately said, yeah, I know you didn't mean that.

It's okay. He apologized. She said, yeah, pissed me off. But, yeah, move on. Austin's response was, you don't know about me and Madison's relationship. We're good. We're fine. Don't worry about us.

It's not like you needed to save Madison in that moment, so I don't get what you're doing. And again, I put this on Bravo for even having JT out there this early. That's actually not a bad point. But then we talked about Craig for a little while, and obviously the first thing that comes up is Paige. And, you know, will they move in together or this and that? We've talked about this at nauseam. I don't think we need to continue to rehash this conversation. We've talked to him.

You guys have heard him talk about it. They're in a good place. and we haven't seen anything to the contrary. Every time we see them together, they seem to be in a good place. Whatever this setup is seems to be working. Yep. But it leads to another conversation.

This is because J.T. brings it up talking about bondage and their sexual relationship. And I think he just idolizes Craig and wants to be Craig and he wants to kill Austin. Yes. That's what I think. And it's all psycho behavior, but whatever. It's neither here nor there. And we get into the females' joy conversation and whether or not,

Shep cares and apparently, you know, or knows what it is. I don't think it's lack of, yeah, initially when they're on the bus and he's like, I don't care as long as I get mine, I think that was a deflection. I think this is a more realistic answer. Look, man, like, there are finish lines different. It's finicky down there. I don't know. I love the Vanita steps in and says, hey, Shep, I can give you a book.

She comes first. He's like, I would read that. I would definitely read that. Like, all right, yeah, I think you probably would. or it would just sit on your mantle and you would think that. But I don't really is. This is, again, goes to show you what Chef's behavior is. Because we've seen him in reunions in the past.

When people go after him for stupid shit like this. He gets defensive. He gets very defensive and then makes jokes and then goes after them and he's very mean to them. Or he just takes it out on Taylor, one of the two. This time he kind of laughs a little bit and then has like one or two words and just kind of shakes his head and puts his head back down. Almost like he's going to buy the book. What's going on with Chef? I don't know. We're going to talk about it soon, though.

but overall with Craig man like this so we talked about it the sewing down south has blown up it's awesome and will they move to charleston maybe eventually in the future who knows but it gets to the page cheating rumor and a couple people have heard it being kicked around i guess katherine started it and if katherine started it last year we all know what place bravo con last year yeah and we're aware of the place that katherine was in and hopefully has gotten away from since leaving the show because i mean you saw that video of her like flying through a school zone and hitting like a traffic officer if she's the root of the rumor at bravo con last year like no i don't think there's any merit here i don't think there's any merit at all page

does not strike me as unfaithful no not at all and like we had questions about it last year and it's probably just based off of summer house just because andrea was there and there was a whole thing with that but i mean that's early on when they were dating and they were also open about that yeah and they don't like yeah they cared now for sure was that at the time we had questions about it and they answered it pretty much immediately like yeah you know we're dating we live in two different states but you know we just started so we'll see how it goes i don't think there's anything wrong with that i think it's completely fine i thought it was weird to watch it was definitely because it was weird to watch because again we're watching six months in the future right so it's

like yeah we know where craig and page are now so watching this is making me uncomfortable yeah but again they they cleared it up for us again at the end of the day it's up them. If they're okay with it, everybody should be okay with it. That's it, right? That should be a headline, like, tagged on Bravo. If they're cool with it, you should be too. Agreed. Like, we dive too far into certain things. But the whole spotlight thing that Shep had brought up before, and I didn't know what he was referencing. And he at least made me understand it more. Yeah. Where he's like, you know, you get away Scott Free. And it originally, I was like, what are he talking about? He elaborates on it. Like, you don't have to be in front

of camera all the time, having a relationship on camera is really hard and a big strain in a relationship. That I believe. And we've seen that across the board. Look at Beverly Hills right now. Look at Mo and Kyle. I mean, you can name a thousand different examples across the Bravo universe of this actually being a thing and a factor in a relationship.

I firmly believe that. So I get what he's saying. But at the same time and Craig points it out, it's like, yeah, but the setup is entirely different. You broke up with Taylor or she broke up with you because of it. infidelity. That's why. Like, let's not get a twisted. Does he get a pass sometimes because everything's not on camera and it's probably easier

to deal with some of the shit. And when they get into a fight, it's probably much easier to get past it because there's not a camera and a microphone in your face. Okay. Is that a reason for you to go after him? No, it's not. Absolutely not. Just because they're in a long-distance relationship and you to claim that that is a tactic.

That's not a tactic. That's a weird thing to say, like, oh, you're going to stay in New York because I don't want you to be on camera. Like, he admitted that there's times. that she goes upstairs to remove herself from a situation? Which is fine, too. It's just, it's not even about any of that.

And I feel like they're upset because she's not around more often. There's questions about it, but Craig isn't answering to the public about it. It's a personal relationship. How about you just leave them alone? And we're getting as much as we possibly can. I feel like we've had the same conversation about Paige moving to Charleston 50 times between Summerhouse and now Southern Charm.

And we're just kind of revisiting it. And we watch things a little differently, of course, because we have to talk about them. And we can notice a subtle change in it, whatever the way that Page is answering or how Craig feels, we can analyze that to a certain extent. I think they're showing about as much as you want. It's just, you know, I don't need to see it every week because we haven't gotten any further. It also has nothing to do with Shep's relationship.

Like, Shep, you were cheating on Taylor. And you were on a TV show. So we could see that you were flirting with other girls when you went up to Charlotte with Austin last year. We can see all of that. The evidence is presented in front of us, the evidence that's presented in front of us for Craig and Paige is they love each other very much and they're trying to figure out what they want to do moving forward. Nothing wrong with that. But to Shep's credit, I'm giving a lot of people

credit today. Yeah, a lot of credit. That's my word of the day is to give them credit. But instead of going back at Craig after Craig checks him, he just says, you know, Taylor recognized a lot of my flaws and she pointed them out to me and I didn't recognize them myself and I'm one year or too late. Again, it's like, whoa. So you are recognizing that you have some things doing to change and you didn't jump down Craig's throat for saying that this is a different situation because even during the season you would have said it was the same like you would have come back and it was something but instead you're subdued and taking ownership for certain things and now my brain is like my brain's spinning oh yeah who is this guy this episode is brought to you by square

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Visit TD.com slash small business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from the league, V or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites musts season and case you missed them we're talking parasite the home alone from greece to the dark night so if you love movies like we do come along on our cinematic adventure listen to unschooled wherever you get your podcast and don't forget to hit the follow button but we get to Taylor finally and you know talking about her relationship with Olivia and they were great friends leading up to the season and Olivia was like I was excited to show our friendship that we don't need no man like we're good on our own and lo and behold everything went to show us. shit and at least taylor acknowledges her behavior's like yeah you know that's that's on me she does

say like i think everything was so cool up until that point because shepp wasn't in the picture he was off gallivanting around the world with his friends and with twins out in australia going pga balls or whatever the whatever the hell they were doing yeah but i i get that's like out of sight out of mind they didn't heal anything there was no closure in the relationship they just split and he bounced so i would get that like coming back into town obviously it reopens a lot of feelings. You're trying to figure everything out. It does not excuse any of your behavior.

No, because her behavior had already started before Shep even got back. That actually might be a good answer as to why Austin and Taylor felt so comfortable around each other because Shep wasn't in the picture. Shep wasn't there. Shep was over an Australian in South Africa. He came back for filming. So in those months between the reunion and I think BravoCon is somewhere in the middle of that too, between all of those things going on, Shep was out of the picture.

So, yeah, one, Taylor didn't get any closure during that. And we saw that in the first episode. That was really awkward. And two, Shep's not around to cast this shadow over it. So Taylor and Austin can just kind of gallivan around. They can go get some lunch. They can hang out with each other. And they don't have to worry about running into Shep and questioning all of that.

So I think that actually may have led to the comfortability that we saw. But they were still dancing around Olivia. Yeah. Which is like, eh, no. Like you can't. It's really tough to hear that Olivia was looking to show they have a real friendship. We're not just the girlfriends of the guys on this show. We can bring it to.

And in the meantime, while Olivia is thinking all of those things, Taylor is considering a relationship with Austin. That's pretty fucked up. It's super fucked up. And, like, that's what gets glossed over. And the group highlights that when, like, they're arguing about stuff. It's like, you're missing the point of all of this. They're not even hurt because you guys made out because of the consistent lies that you've been telling. You've glossed over this for an extended period of time.

Austin, you went to all. Australia with Shep, this was after all this had happened. That would have been the appropriate time to bring it up. You guys are one-on-one. I'm sure you had a bunch of bro-downs or it was two in the morning and you're drinking. You're having hard-to-hard conversations. I don't know if that would have been the time. That's not the time.

I'm just saying, like, no, no. Yeah, let's do it at 2 a.m. I don't know. A different country where Shep is probably footing the bill for me to be here. Sober conversation. Yeah. But while you guys are one-on-one out having a shared experience together, I do genuinely believe that had been brought up in Australia,

Shep would have been able to work through it. I think that he would have reached the least. Timing, yes, for sure. Yeah, he would have had time to process it. It would have been, and it might have ended the trip. Maybe I'm like, I can't be around you anymore. I don't know, but I do think that would have been the appropriate time. Bring it up then.

And it's not fair for Austin to say, like, yeah, I didn't think it was an issue. It wasn't going anywhere. I didn't think it would come up. Not for you to say, you committed the sin, if you will. You need to cop to it. That's the problem. The problem is it happened. The problem is you continue to be friends and keep this under the rug.

Taylor is the same with Olivia. There's the issue. That's what everyone's trying to get through to both of you. No, this isn't going away because you haven't taken ownership of the part that people want you to take ownership for. You take an ownership and apologized for making out or whatever else may have happened. You have not said yet, I'm sorry for lying to you over and over again. Yeah. And I won't.

Which is easy to do now because everything is out in the open. Everyone knows. We've moved on from the. I guess side conversation that there was more that happened and you guys aren't copying to it. It seems like people have gotten to a point where they're disinterested in hearing that maybe they ended up hooking up a little bit more than what they're saying right now. They just want you to apologize for lying at this point. They don't understand that, but that's got to be the easiest thing to do with the world. Everybody's mad at you

already. All of the information is out there. Just say specifically to Shep, yeah, man, it's pretty fucked up that I didn't tell you what was going on. That's a lie of a mission. Here we go. Taylor, same thing. She's just like too dumb to get out of her own way. You can probably maybe not now, but months ago, you may have been able to salvage some sort of friendship or relationship with Olivia. You probably could have because Olivia needed friends after that. Like if you had done it beforehand,

Olivia may have come to you after that and said, hey, I need you right now. We've grown really close and I can ignore this for now. We'll revisit it later. No, you made it even worse and just piled on by lying and lying and lying. So yeah, they could have helped themselves so many times. We've said it so many times pretty much after every episode

that this comes out and they didn't. No, they did. But now we get into the nude. And this was a main, main talking point this season. And I hated how it was handled. I hated the fact that Whitney showed people. Should Taylor have sent it? Absolutely not.

She should not have sent it, especially to Whitney. She should have known that this is probably the worst dude in Charleston. You could send this picture to. But at the same time, that is a personal thing. I don't, I will never see an excuse for you showing that around Whitney. There's no reason for that. No, I'm happy that Craig jumped on that too. It seems like we were the only ones, I mean, point for us, that pointed that out.

We were the only ones who talked about Whitney being a scumbag for sharing it to other people. Happily, Craig jumped in, but still nobody else jumped in on that. I don't get it. Are they afraid of Whitney? He's the producer. I could be part of it, but still, Whitney shows shitty behavior all the time. And he, which is crazy, he has final say on what is shown from his perspective. Yep, which is bullshit.

So we got like a little bit of Whitney here and there, and we're still, able to say, wow, Whitney, that's a scumbag fucking move. This still made it to TV and people are not calling him out for it. I don't get it. But Craig being the voice of reason, jumps in and says, yeah, that's, that's on Whitney a lot. Like, yeah, we know, we understand Taylor.

He's sending this to Whitney. And now we finally at least got the reasoning as to why she sent it to Whitney. It's because Shep and Whitney were out at the same. This is fucked up, beyond belief. Shep and Whitney were out and Whitney had said, or Shep had said, yeah, you know, we're just like kind of trolling around. And I guess it just festered in Taylor's

minds that they're going out and finding chicks so you send a nude to Whitney and say is this what you're looking for what the fuck that's yeah i don't know and levis says that she saw the whole fucking thread and there's a lot more to it we didn't get into the specifics yet maybe it'll come out later i don't know i think we're kind of moving on from it i mean she said some pretty specific things like come fuck me in nashville yeah made out there and my whole thing is like when you watch taylor's reactions they're not believable no said what i don't i don't remember saying that It's like, oh, I deleted all the messages. Ooh, you said all of those things.

And I do believe that this was multiple occasions. I think she reached out to, this is not a one-off. No, I think she had a conversation before. I'm talking about just with Whitney. Oh, yeah. I'm not saying multiple nudes, but there is definitely multiple conversations in the DMs that she deleted. And now she's playing dumb. Like, I didn't say that.

I don't know. You can't, like, that's what I don't understand is her sending those texts to Whitney, sending the picture to Whitney. And then when it's brought up, have you ever hooked up with Whitney? She looked disgusted. Right. Okay. Well, then why don't you find somebody that you might want to hook up with to send those pictures?

What are you doing? That's what I'm saying. And then we also find out that Shep doesn't like nudes, which, you know, I guess teach their own. Sure. We don't, we don't kinksham or whatever the opposite of that is. Nudes from his girlfriend. He likes nudes from strangers, just not his girlfriend. But then, of course, like this was, why?

Because Taylor's involved. Now J.T.'s huffing and puffing and up and somebody calls him out. And he goes, I just can't believe that he doesn't like. nudes and can't make a girl come i never need to hear him say that sentence again as long as i live for two reasons one it sounded disgusting the way he said i don't even want to say it now say it again the way he said come sounded disgusting it was so strong and then for him to say it like that i would bet the bank the bank he has no idea what he's doing no no shot does that man know his way around the area.

He may have read the book, though. He definitely read the book, and he still doesn't get it. He puts it on his goddamn coffee table. There's no practice. So when girls walk into his apartment, he wants it on his coffee table so that they see it and go, oh, wow, he really puts women better. Where'd you get this book? My mom gave it to me.

Oh, okay. Oh, no, 1,000 percent true, though. Yes. Weirdly Madison steps in and was like, well, Whitney didn't say it. His girlfriend said it. And, like, I don't know why she was taking up. arms for him and he was like oh well I was embarrassed and I didn't want to and Craig steps and he's like he wasn't embarrassed he was drunk and bragging about it which is 1,000% true and

because Whitney is a producer we saw an angle in which he was being more sympathetic to it showing Patricia and saying yeah I'm worried about her and blah blah blah no you're not you're a creepy older dude that got a nude picture of a younger woman and you wanted to show people like still got it correct that's what happened and you showed your mom and you showed weird yeah yeah too very weird it and then he blamed your girlfriend and who the fuck's your girlfriend which one are you kidding me i don't know like as far as people that are close to whitney i feel like madison might be one of the clothes just because she's close to patricia yeah so she knows more i just i don't understand any of that i don't understand whitney's involvement and why this is a sticking point

for the whole thing it's just gross gross super gross but j t steps in because now taylor needs to be defended and he takes upon himself to do so and j t says when i got divorced why we're not getting sympathy you're not getting it saying you're not getting it you're not getting it i know what you're doing stop and even taylor the one you're defending steps in and says i don't appreciate that you pin this on shep all season once again i'm going to defend a guy that cheated on me to you because you won't butt the fuck out. Yeah. I don't need you to tell me who is responsible.

I am responsible for this, J.T. Stop being. She at least took responsibility. She took responsibility. Do we thank J.T for that? No. We're starting that. No, just fuck off, J.T.

J.T is so undesirable and so annoying that him trying to defend Taylor actually got Taylor to fess up. Yeah. How about that? Yeah. Good job, J.T. Stop. And she tells Shep the same.

thing like you don't get to take credit for this like this is me it's my reactions full responsibility by the way this is my parade I don't know if you've noticed yet but I have been against JT all year and I fucking hate him and I said that he shouldn't be on the show shut up he shouldn't be on the show you agree right now

he should not be in this reunion I said I don't know in this reunion reunion no you didn't be in this part of the reunion because all he's doing is derailing it's not adding anything it's not adding any umph it's just derailing moments that actually land and that takes us into what we're going to talk about now.

And this is when you would have had me on like, should we kick J.T. off the island? I would have been like, absolutely. Because this scene, I was furious watching his reactions to it. Because we get a clip of Shep in the green room beforehand with Andy saying, hey, I too appreciate Shep's vocabulary because it doesn't sound forced, but he uses really good words. He's like, I want to go on a little bit of a ramble.

It's a bit robust. And I'm like, wow, he's very articulate. I'll give him that. but he prefaced it that he wanted to have some time to speak and I didn't really know what to expect again I saw clips I watched it later this whole scene made me emotional and it hit really close to home and listening to him speak and be this open about it was refreshing for me and you know we do find out that this is not the first time this conversation has been had doesn't take away from the impact of it I don't think but he says you know I'm at a crossroads and I guess when he was at Bravo on things kind of hit ahead and we know he's been running and gun in his whole life he's been drinking partying he's used to that scene and he has this image of himself that he admits you know I thought I was a rock star then you get like an eye roll from Madison and like the side things here I didn't really appreciate because again I don't think in this moment he's saying I am a rock star he's

like yeah I thought that that's how delusional I was I thought I was this guy they said I was out of control he blacked out for all of bravocon i don't know if you've ever blacked out for like three to four days no it's a really like genuinely horrifying thing you kind of like wake up out of this fog and you're like fuck like one what did i do two how did i get here and three what's going to happen because of this like you wait for these ramifications to fall for things that you may or may not have done that you don't even know about like it's a really really anxiety ridden feeling so i felt for him there and to austin's credit and this shows you i think very well who Austin is in his heart of hearts and I think Austin takes a lot of shit

and this is coming from someone that has given him a lot of shit I think he takes a lot of shit for constantly being who he is and I think that's a weird angle to take and I think that it's weird for people to get into relationships with him expecting something different he delivers the same thing that we've watched on TV from day one yeah Olivia's right and saying you leave a list of pissed off women yeah he does but he has and he always has this is nothing new and i think that his behavior gets twisted into look he's a fuck boy he likes to hook up i think that in the moment he means what he's saying i think that he gets overwhelmed with emotions he says certain things makes some certain promises gets away from the

situation and goes shit i think i got too far in here and then he backtracks i think that's his MO i don't think he's a bad person i don't think he has malicious intent i think he gets caught up with certain things it gets out of hand and then it kind of blows up. But when push comes to shove and you need a friend, you need somebody to step up and be there for you, this to me proves it. Yeah, and I think the two are separate. I think that we see multiple times over the years and different shows.

Austin has a hard time when it's processing relationships and personal relationships with other women. And he knows that now. And it's funny because every time that he says something that's a little like outside the box for Austin, somebody sitting around says, well, therapy's working. Yeah. job. And you see that, but I think you can separate the two because he doesn't really know

what he wants when it comes to relationships. And we saw that with Olivia, they're done. And he's still like, I think I'm in love with her. And I think I completely squandered that. And he's done that multiple times. When it comes to friends, he's always there. And yeah, you could argue he did scorn Shep by hooking up with his ex and not telling him. And I think he feels really bad about that. I genuinely do think Austin feels really bad for not telling Shep and lying to him and obviously doing the action of cheating or, well, not cheating, but hooking up with his ex. I think that really eats away at him. But he is there for Shep. And that's when I think it got very real with Craig and Austin kind of sitting up because Shep after BravoCon wanted to sit down with his

quote unquote support group, if you will, and talk about this. And both Austin and Craig decided we're not going to go. We've been through this before. We know what's going to happen. And Austin was there. And obviously Craig has his own thing going on. He was with Page. And he's doing so well. And he's even told us when we had him on and when we've seen when we saw him on Saturday, he's talking about like how he doesn't really drink like he used to. He doesn't drink liquor anymore. He doesn't get out of control and he likes that. And being around somebody who does get out of control all the time is only going to hurt you. And he's separating himself from all of that. Whereas Austin is still there for Shep and making sure that he's okay and talking about

how Shep was really drunk at panels and he's basically like carrying him out in certain situations. and Shep was drunk the entire BravoCon but still just because you're there for him that whole weekend you've heard this before and you're not going to go to the lunch I get that I understand both sides Shep wants his friends to be there because he needs them in this moment

Austin was really there in that moment maybe you don't want to sit down and have the same discussion again that leads to the same thing yeah so I think that when you look at it from that perspective having gone through they said 17 times it's been 17 times we've done this and you know there is this part of because this

to me sounds like a sobriety conversation that's what it's leading to like i know he's trying to say well i'm just drinking beer now and everyone's like you said this before right this is like step one of an alcoholic if you don't know the first thing we say is i'm gonna stick to beer or wine right that's number one it never works it always you fall off eventually something bad happens and that's a moment where you either really check yourself or you go down the wrong path again but for austin and craig and this is an important note to anybody with anybody out there struggling with addiction or alcoholism, it's like you can try to help somebody so many times and be their support system and be there for them. But when they start to affect what I say is your four walls, when they start

to affect your life for their actions outside of your life, you are well within your right to step away. It doesn't mean you're not a supporter friend, doesn't mean you don't love them. It means that I can no longer go down this path with you because as Craig says so eloquently, you're headed towards a cliff and I can't go off that cliff. I teetered on that cliff for a little while. I figured my way out of it by being around you it will bring me close to that and i can't afford that not where i'm out in my life and i want you to get better i am always here for you i need you to make a change this is a great first step and it is and i can't tell you how proud i was of shepp in this moment for being so open on tv because maybe he has had this conversation before but that's the other part of

this whole thing is like just because you've had the conversation it didn't work unfortunately this takes time this takes a lot of tries i was in rehab with people that were there 10 times and it doesn't work but if that 11th time works it's all worth it but at the same time you can't expect to always have the same people around you during this process but i appreciate that craig lays it out really well he's like look i need you to make one change take a step in the right direction i'm there i'm always there but i need to see effort on your part and that's fair and i think that shep seems to be in a place because he does try to check back a little bit because he's like you know what i don't need you like i'm good like i understand i'm good guys both austin and crack like no dude that's not

not what we're saying. We're saying we need to see it. We've heard it. And this is the thing. You can hear it a thousand times until it's put into action. You can't expect people to show up anymore. Yeah. And I understand too that people are a little, and even Madison had said it. She was crying at the end of it. She thought that he was going to rehab or something along those lines because he ends it with, well, yeah, you know, I'm still drinking currently. But I'm thinking about it. I look at it a little differently. He is taking responsibility and maybe even adding a little bit of I guess like a different layer by talking about it on TV. I think that's a big putting it out to a big audience talking to all of your friends are sitting in one room essentially. Whitney's not there,

but he's watching. All of your friends are sitting there and you're taking responsibility for your actions and adding in that extra layer of doing it on TV for a show that you're on. So we're going to watch this next year. And we're going to be able to see as a viewer, not just as your friends, but as a viewer sitting there watching, has he changed it all? We had this whole big moment where he talked about it. Was he just trying to garner sympathy? Or was he actually being serious? And obviously, time will tell. But I think that's a big step. And I can kind of

ignore the step of, yeah, he's still drinking. You don't want to ignore it entirely, but you can at least say, all right, like, he's a big dude. Like, he's going to be able to sit there and talk about this on TV to millions of people. We're going to sit and watch. But yeah, I feel for him. I think that he's going through a lot.

And it's not even the Taylor aspect of everything. I don't think that he was drinking himself stupid after he broke up with Taylor. I think he was having a great time. I think this is his lifestyle that he's used to and become accustomed to, but as he said, he can't do it like he used to, one, and two, now he's starting to see the negative ramifications start to pile up, blacking out for a whole weekend where you are a public figure at an event that you're supposed to be speaking at, be present at, be there for. That's a big fuck up. That's a big fuck up. And one, I'm sure that he's thought about since it happened. And that's what's

driving me nuts about this scene, because as Shep is bearing his soul here, and it's something that we haven't seen as a viewer, it's something that I've wanted from him, something that I think I needed from him to be able to see him the way that you see him, which is with a little more grace and a little more, ah, that's Shep, you know, and I haven't given him that. I think this opens that door for me because it tells me that he is self-aware enough to be like, fuck, I am actually not happy with this. I was under the facade that he likes this life, but he goes on to say, like, I look around this room and this is when I got emotional. And I told that to Deb as we were watching it together just because when he starts talking and, you know, I do believe that

he's in the throes of something i'm not going to say it's alcoholism addiction whatever but i do think he's in the throes of something and that feeling of i look around me and i see these other people doing these things i look at craig and austin they have their podcast Craig has the pillows they have careers i look at my other friends even though i'm surrounded by a million people i feel so alone and i feel so isolated what do i have to offer who the fuck am i that feeling resonated with me so hard because i remember at the end of my days of drinking like that was how i felt every single day and i would look at instagram posts of you guys back at home this is a true story i would sit in my apartment and i would see you guys back here just doing everyday things out at a game like watching the

game together or just out being fun having a good time and just remembering the feeling of you get this like quick little flutter where you're like oh i could go back and then you're like what do i have to offer anybody how can i contribute to this because i I'm such a piece of shit. And that's a genuine feeling in your gut. So when he started saying that, I'm like, fuck, this is real because this is something that I can understand. It's something that I myself have been through.

And for Shep to take the step to talk about this on national TV to me was such a major step for him that I can gloss over that I'm still drinking beer thing because this is a step to maybe eliminating that. And if it is something in his life that's going to hold him back, this is the step forward. it's okay that you're at least made one change. Is that an acceptable change that's going to lead to you being better? Probably not because I know where the only beer thing goes. I did it.

It doesn't work. So I think you need to not read so far, not you specifically, just the people in general. The specifics aren't as important as the actions that he took on this day to be open with a much larger audience because now he has accountability. And the biggest thing for anybody going through something like this is you need accountability and when you have accountability and people around you support you through these things that's when major changes happen so i'm for the first time in my life about chef i'm very hopeful and i'm hoping that he gets through this i'm hoping that he understands it and i'm glad that

his friends are there to one not bend the need to it hey man we hear you but this is what we need from you they need to do that that's so important for craig and austin in that moment as his two real friends to say dude we got your back but you got to take the first fucking step we'll be there But until that happens, we can't because we can't afford to. That's massive. And for Shep to hear that, get defensive, but then work through that and get to a place where he's like, okay, Vanita chimes in and says, you know, you need to cut out the beer, and he's receptive to that at the end.

All of these things are working towards a common goal that I think with us, the audience watching. And it's unfortunate that Shep's whole life has gotten tied to reality TV. And I do believe that him and Taylor had a chance without the cameras. I really do. but for his whole life to get tied into this, I think the only way to hold him actually accountable is by including the audience.

And that's what's happened now. And I think that he has a chance. I really, I really hope he, I really genuinely hope the best for him because hearing him talk, I literally cried at it because it hits so close to home. And I hate that any person in the world is to feel like this because it's not fair.

And it really sucks and it's hard. And yes, it's by his own doing. It doesn't take away from that. The responsibility factor of it. but god damn dude i i hope the best for him and i hope that he can figure his way out through this and i'm glad he's got people around him that'll hold him accountable say what they need to say but we'll also support him through it sorry for the ramble that was a good ramble thank you thank you meant a lot what do you what do you expect from this week's reunion um i expect that's the thing

because i feel like we touched on so many that's how i was thinking yeah what's left i don't know I guess they're going to get more into the Olivia Austin thing. Yes, but, like, I think we've done enough because, like, what's the answer? We get to the same spot. Nothing, really. And, again, I can't stress this enough. The reunion already aired, and it looked like Olivia at Austin were on vacation together in a big group. So I think they're okay.

They seem to be fine. They seem to be fine. I often wonder if it's like, almost like a camera thing where Olivia is just, that's why she's so inconsistent. Because if it was no cameras, she might still be able to be. friends with Austin and kind of leave it at that. But there's so many people that are like, how are you still hanging out with this guy after what he did, that that's when she kind of goes back on it. So I'm interested to see if maybe we get like a little bit more into that.

I don't know what else we can get into in the next one. If it's just going to be JT spouting nonsense for an hour, I'm going to blow my brains out. I guess if you add like the TRAV part of it, not because that should have any bearing on anything. Like that is such a non-issue. she hooked up with a creepy older dude that used to be married to another cast member that Olivia did not know at the time.

It's gross that she hooked up with Thomas Ravanaugh because he's a fucking scumbag. But as far as like ramifications within this group right now, it has no weight. And that's even Catherine spoke out yesterday. She tweeted, she goes, a picture of her and Olivia next to each other

going, we're cool. This happened a long time ago. We didn't know each other. I don't give a shit. Maybe that, yeah, maybe they'll get into a little bit of that. But again, answer from i don't even i don't know that's not what i mean getting into like that i mean i'm just wondering where they're going to go because they did a lot in this for union that's what i'm trying

to say is that's going to lead to just a big clash between taylor and olivia because it has nothing to do with thomas it just the fact that now she brought thomas up now i don't want to get into that then might rip her apart is what i think that's what we're going to see is like a it's funny because we usually have an idea of what we're going to get into pretty much we talk about all of it part yeah i don't i don't well Oh, we get to talk. J.T. is going to come up about getting shut down by Taylor. That's going to be interesting to watch.

Okay. J.T. and Austin fighting is going to come up. Do you think he's going to cry? I thought he cried when Austin was pressing him at the bar. He looked down. I thought he got shot up. I thought he was crying, too. No, I think he's going to cry on live TV.

I think he is, too. I hope he does. I hate him. I still don't need him off my TV yet, but I don't like. Why? I think you're just being stubborn. I'm not. I don't want to agree with me.

You don't want to tell me that I'm right. Simply not true. I tell, I give you your flowers all the time, pal. I want them now. I'm not giving them to you. All right. Next week,

you'll definitely give them to me. But I will if it happens. If I find a moment in which I'm like, yep, you're right, I'll tell you. Okay. That you can at least give me that. I always stand in my laurels.

I own up when I feel like I'm wrong. It's fair. Notice I did not say when I feel like you're right. I feel like when I'm wrong. Yeah, exactly. You're not going to tell me I'm right, but you're going to tell me that I may have right. But that takes us to the question portion of the show. And up first from Kimberly Ann, as a recovering alcoholic,

what are your thoughts on chef's drinking plan moving forward? I just answered. I think you just answered that. Sure did. From female-owned film, do you think Shep will actually get sober or it's a whole play to get Taylor back? I don't think this has anything to do with Taylor. No, yeah, I don't think this has anything to do with Taylor.

As far as Will He, I don't know. What Shep wants to do. And again, if it ends up just being Shep wanted people to feel bad for him, that would really suck. I don't see that. I think this is a step forward for him. Yeah, I agree. From Evan Clark, do you think JT or Rod deserve another season,

or would you like to see new guys again? Neither. There's definitely more people that you can plug in there. I don't think you need to. You know what? Give Rodrigo more time. Yeah, Roderigo would be great. Rodergo is great.

Is he at the reunion? Yeah, he was at the reunion. He was at the reunion. Yeah, so he's going to be in next week. That'll be a pleasure. Give him more time. I don't think we need to add new people we've never seen. I think you give some of the people that are there more of the limelight.

maybe I usually disagree with that when it comes to Housewives, but for this, you can plug another person in there. As long as they're actually friends and they're from the same group, then vet them better. Yeah, vet them better for sure. And Joey Nelson, do you think they're trying to make Austin Taylor into Scandival 2.0? No. No, because they didn't focus on that enough. That would have been the immediate conversation, I feel like, if it was.

Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think there's enough there for it. I'm happy. I'm really happy they didn't do that. that because they could have easily done that. And that would have made this season suck. And this season was incredible. Yeah.

You can tell, too, because they didn't harp on that every single episode. Like, yeah, when things happen, such as an article popping off or somebody saying something else, they obviously revisited it. But it wasn't the main point for each and every episode. There was something new. So, no, they're not going that route. Yep. And the last one from Old Musical Diva. No question.

Just glad you're finally doing it. I know. Yeah, we are two. We love Southern Charm. This wasn't a choice to not do it until now. We just didn't have the time to do it. We wanted to talk about this since the finale aired. We got a lot going on.

There's a lot of irons in this fire, baby. A lot of things going on here. Just wait until next week, okay? Even more things. Yeah, more things. Our live show is on Thursday night. If you don't have your ticket yet, there's still some tickets available. So go get those now before they sell out.

January 25th, the Green Room 42, New York City, Times Square. Aaron Litchie is coming out to be our guest. We also have the amazing Brooke Ashley is emceeing for us. She's going to be there to hang out. We love her. It's going to be a blast. So make sure you get your tickets. Come hang out with the bros.

A little Thursday night, fun. And don't forget, we also have another show in March, March 6th at the City Winery in Philadelphia. Those tickets are on sale now. So click the link in the bio as well. But don't click the wrong link unless you're planning on buying tickets to both, which if you are planning on buying tickets to one, just buy tickets to both. Yeah, get them both. Why not?

Cities are close enough together. New York's an hour train ride away. Not true, but yeah. Hour, what, hour, 30? Yeah, something like that. Between an hour and an hour 30. If you take the Acela, whew, that's the sound it makes.

That's speed race. That's a different thing. That's a high school reference. But anyway, do you got anything else? Go birds. Oh, God, you're listening to this tomorrow. Hopefully, go birds. Hopefully, go birds.

If not, tomorrow's episode, because we have to record tomorrow too is going to be a sad boy about them cowboys we could say that because how about them cowboys oh continue to collapse baby I love it brof bros we're out of here here the most popular

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