Reflecting on Reality TV Dynamics

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I hope that you're having a great week, and I know that so many of you watched with me last night the Bravo special episode of the Amath, The aftermath of course of the West and Amanda S scandal So many of you have DMed me. We've talked about it in the grocery line. Everywhere I go, I feel like the last two weeks, people are eager to talk about the scandal. And I think a lot of it is because in some small way, you identify with one of the people in the center of this story I've also been thinking about whyy the story in particular became a thing that swallowed reality TV as a whole Wyatt crossed over from Bravo drama into mainstream news peopleeople who have never even watched a single episode of Summer House have suddenly had an opinion about it. I've come to realize it comes down to four things Now the first is the betrayal of a friend. Amanda betrayed Sierra. Wes betrayed Kyle. These weren't strangers. they weren't people in the periphery Amanda was Sierra's best friend. West was Kyle's close friend. And the betrayals happen simultaneously in the same relationship to two people who had to sit across from them at a reunion and process it on camera And that kind of double betrayal is rare And it's the thing that hooks people emotionally because again in some small way It may mirror some part of your life Second We watched a couple dates Fall in love, get engaged, get married on TV And then find out at the reunion that they were essentially roommates for the entirety of their marriage Four years, no intimacy They were business partners performing a relationship on a reality show And that revelation reframed everything that we thought we knew about Kyle and Amanda And it actually made the audience feel like they'd been lied to in some ways Third, the timeline Trying to untangle when West and Amanda actually started this relationship became its own genre of content It almost felt like a true crime documentary People were pulling receipts, cross referencing Instagram stories mapping out locations on findind My friends Jesse Solomon posted a date by date accounting on his Instagram, and the internet became a collective detective agency And West and Amanda kept modeling the timeline, which only made people dig harder And fourth, The thing that I find most fascinating watching how the affair and the subsequent scandal impacted the inner office dynamics of a reality TV show because that's what summer House is It's a friend group yes, but it's also a workplace They're coworkers. they share a house, they share a network. They share income streams that depend on the show continuing And when two people in that ecosystem blow it up the way that West and Amanda did It doesn't just affect feelings, it affects everyone's livelihood, their screen time, their alliances, their future on the show, and of course, the ancillary opportunities that come from it It's basically office politics at the highest possible stakes So I wanted to break it all down And I wanted to start at the very beginning because I think it's important to understand what Smmer House actually is and how it was built Because that context matters when we talk about But just happen it. Summerhouse premiered on Bravo in twenty seventeen, and the concept was developed and sold to the network by two production companies Truly Original, which is co founded by Stehen Weinstock and Glenda Hirch and left hook media The idea was a show about New York City professionals who share a summer house in the Hamptons And it got its start at the backdoor pilot that aired during an episode of Vanerpump Rules. The Vanerump girls came to New York visited this summer house, and then the second half of the episode focused on this new cast But here's the thing The show, as we know it, almost didn't actually happen becausecause the production companies held open casting calls And when Kyle Cook showed up, he looked around the room and basically said, you have the wrong people Now a friend had told him about the audition. Now Carl's Axa described it as sounding like real world montu. Kyle had been spending summers in the Hamptons since the early two thousands. and by twenty fourteen, he connected with Carls X The work his twins, Lauren and Ashley, and that was his actual friend group So Kyle, as we know being Kyle, talked his way in front of the casting directors and the producers and told them You don't even have a house rented and you don't have any of the right people. You need a group of friends, real friends. And that's how the Hamptons actually works. And you know what they listened. And he essentially redirected the entire show by bringing in his own social circle And here's a detail that connects to everything that's happening now. No No Sampton, the Bravo executive who currently oversees Summer House and who you'll hear me reference throughout this story was previously a VP at trruly original, the production company that created the show before he moved over to Bravo, so he had been connected to Summer House from the very beginning from the production side, and he knows this show inside and out He just did an interview with Kate Arthur from Variety So he can speak from the production side and he knows again, this show inside and out So that's the origin story. The production companies created the concept and sold it to Bravo, but Kyle Cook shaped what it actually became Real friends, a real house, real summers in the Hamptons, and for ten seasons Kyile, as we know, has been at the center of it now enters Amanda Batola Amanda first appeared on Summer House in season one. She and Kyle had started dating in the summer of twenty fifteen. things off and then reconnected by the time that filming began in twenty sixteen And here's the thing. fromr the very first moment Amanda appears on the show, Kyle was already being unfaithful In the season one finale, Kyle himself recapped the summer by saying he'd spent the first half hooking up with his ex girlfriend and the second half hooking up with the other girls He told Am manne about it, she was furious, but she took him back and they became official in the finale episode So the foundation of this relationship, the relationship that would become the backbone of this entire show was built on infidelity from frame one Amanda became a full cast member in season two, and she said she thought it was the coolest thing to be on a network that she grew up watching And from there, Kyle and Amanda became the couple of Summer House. They get engaged in twenty eighteen But before that proposal could happen, there was another cheating scandal In the season three premiere, which filmed in twenty eighteen, Kyle confessed that on a guy's trip, he had blacked out and woke up with a girl in his bed Now Carl Zax brought the rumors on camera. Amanda already knew she for forgives him again And he proposes later that year. And they were supposed to get married in September of twenty twenty, but had to postpone because of COVID. They finally tied the knot in September of twenty twenty one at Amanda's parents home in New Jersey And it was a TV wedding which of course, Everyone watched And the chey rumors never stopped In twenty twenty four, video surfaced of Kyle apparently making out with a woman at a bar in Charleston So by season ten, Amanda said on camera that women were constantly sliding into her DMs with evidence of Kyle's behavior And she'd stopped even bringing them up to him because it was just constant A producer asked her pointint Blank if she believed Kyle had been cheating and she said, I don't know. I'd like to think not, but he has in the past. There have been plenty of rumors about it. who knows On Kyle. She also said something about broke my heart a little bit. She said she was used to having crazer reactions to the rumors She'd call him sobbing and she couldn't sleep until he got home. And now she said I just don't even care what he's doing So even she recognized that being whatever about everything was not a good sign She'd already given up And it makes me sad because this continued on and on and on And it's just like what's the point of watching a marriage fall apart. Is that really entertaining So bravo viewers watch this couple, date, cheat, reconcile, fight, get engaged, cheat again, reconcile again, get married on TV, and then find out at the reunion. they were never intimate during the entire marriage, not once in four years So the question becomes Why did they get married? And I think the answer is painfully obvious It was a business decision, whether they would frame it that way or not. They had built their entire professional lives around this relationship. Pilid lover boy Amanda was his creative director. They were the central couple of this franchise Walking away from the wedding would have meant walking away from the show, from the brand, from the income from the platform. and they move forward They filmed a wedding, they played the part, and behind closed doors, they were two people who had fallen out of love years before And by season ten, the contempt was visible to everybody I used to make jokes on the show. I'd say this is a show a bunch of single people living with a miserable couple The man was having fun with everyone in the house except Kyle You would see her in bed. she'd hang out with all the girls She may be in the pool, but she never wanted to be around Kyle. In fact, you would see scenes where he would come back after he'd been out all night And she's basically like kicking them away She couldn't have cared less about his DJ career, and Kyle admitted at the reunion that he'd been completely starved and deprived and enacted out And Amana for her part had simply checked out And the internet was rooting for their divorce before they even announced it They finally made it official on january nineteenth, twenty twenty six. Now joint statement on Instagram story said after much reflection, we have mutually and amicably decided to part ways as a couple. Amanda confirmed on Watch What Happens Live that they'd been living separately since around October or November of twenty twenty five just before Bravo Kon There was no preu, which she says, off course, she now regrets. And I think a lot of the people who had gone to Bravo C had said that there had been obviously something that had gone down because she seemed very disconnected So that's the backstory. Now let's get into the scandal. And to do that, you need to know who West Wilson is West Wilson Wesling Con Red Wilson is from Columbia, Missouri. His mom is an OBGYN. hisis dad is a former history teacher turned cattle Rancher He played college football at Montana State as a defensive back He studied marketing, graduated in twenty seventeen, and moved to New York City with no job, sleeping on couches He built a career in sports media worked as a production assistant for major League baseball, and then landed at Bleachher Report as a social and video producer for about four years That was his long as gig, and then he got laid off in a round of cuts. I say a lot of this because he was a guest on this podcast I did have to say I found him very charming. And that's when Summer House happened. West meets Carl' X out in New York City onene of the three original cast members of the show. Now she introduces him to the group and when the show was casting for season eight, West was unemployed, available, and had the personality for TV. let's be honest He was willing to live out loud on camera And in a city that is dominated with people who have jobs and thingsings like finance I would presume that most of them were unable to go on camera because of the confines of their job. So here you have somebody who works in media, and that really would be the perfect kind of person to get on the show Also, he was unemployed. He was available So his Bravo bio literally said that his biggest hurdle in dating was being able to commit, whichich in hindsight is the most prophetic thing that a casting bio probably has ever said So we joinedummer House in season eight and that was twenty twenty four And he was immediately the breakout star I would say, I mean He was on He was in a lot of interviews with Jesse, but I feel like he was the one that probably jumped out the most He was this Midwestern nice guy, charming sports journalist who was just figuring out his next move career wise And he and Jessie were cast together and they brought a breath of fresh air to the show because of course, as I mentioned, you've got this miserable married couple. Now Wes came in and immediately started a thing with Siara Miller, and Sara fell hard. Siarah was a former nurse gorgeous beyond measure So of course, he would fall hard for her. So she and West had this tortured, messy on again, off again dynamic that played out over multiple seasons And it was a central storyline Sierra was invested. she was vulnerable. and Amanda, Amanda Aa is confidant throughout all of it Amanda listened to every single detail of Sierra's romantic entanglement with West Every fight, every reconciliation, every insecurity. I mean, she basically had a playbook on this man his idiosyncrasies, what made him tick, how he operates in relationships She had the inside track because her best friend Canada tour Now let's lay out the timeline. and this is where Jesse Solomon's contribution becomes essential Jesse goes on Watch What happppens live after the reunion aired and walk through a detailed accounting of what he had observed And he also posted the full timeline on Instagram on june tenth He sneaked it in as a last slide of a photo dump, which is, of course, very Jessy And it tracks events from february tenth through march thirty first. And when you read it date by date, it's devastating So before we get into it, for context, on february third, Amanda appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Sierra. Now Andy Cohen asked her if she would take any of the summer House co stars flirtations seriously, because if you've watched the show Jessie would comment on how hot she was all the time. and there was one moment where she actually goes skinny dipping with them When she said, and I quote, no, o Well, five days later on february eighth, Siarah and West went to the Sper Bowl together. and I want you to keep that in your mind February tenth, Jesse's first red flag, West and Amanda went to dinner in Miami without me, he wrote. And this is barely three weeks after Amanda's separation from Kyle was announced on january nineteenth Later in February, a friend of a friend tells Jesse that West and Amanda seemed into each other february twenty eighth, Wes leaves brunch with the boys to go meet up with Amanda and her friends, and without mentioning to Jesse that Amanda would be there Now, when Jesie and Kyle run into West and Amanda later that day, Jesie joked, I can't believe you and West are dating. Amanda's response West is my boy Now at the reunion, West and Amanda later confirmed that their first kiss happened on february twenty eighth after that brunch So the timeline they've given us puts the first kiss on the same day that Jesse is already getting suspicious. And the same day that Amanda is laughingly deflecting the idea that anything is going on You know that feeling when you go to someone's home and you think, I want to live like this? 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He also addresses it directly with West, who says it's not weird that he left Brunch to see Amanda march fifth, Duois reports that West and Amanda have been spotted together looking flirty in New York City and the rumors Explode March sixth, Sierra starts getting suspicious too per Jesse's timeline Kyle Again, the husband still thinks nothing's going on at this point Then again He's pretty much checked out of what she's doing day to day to day because I think that they're just operating not as a married couple, but as business partners March tenth. West tells Jesse, there's nothing to confirm. He says it was kind of funny for a day, but I'm tired now. he speaking of the rumors. And that's how he characterized it. It's kind of funny, he's tired of the joke. Meanwhile, by his own admission, he's already kissed Amanda M march eleventh, Jesseie gets drinks with Amanda, He grills her, she gives him a full denial and to his face. march twentieth, everyone is suspicious, Jesie said, including Carl's X. So the circle' closing and West and Amanda are still line. march twenty first, Jesse runs into West and Amanda on a night out. awkward And a min of jokes, arere you gonna add this to the list of reasons why you think I'm Eie, my best friend She's making it into a joke. She's mocking the very thing that is actually happening And I suspect She's doing that because she really wants people to know. march twenty second and this is a big one, Kyle sees on find My friendriends, that Amanda stayed over at West's apartment. Kyle told People Magazine, he'd been oblivious to the rumors at first, but after seeing that location, Penn, he couldn't sleep He reaches out to Sierra and she wanted to meet in person. And Kyle said something telling. He said, Sierra is a homebodyody She wants to drag herself to my apartment to have a huddle, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach He also saw at some point that Amanda was at an Irish dive bar in southern LA. not a spot Amanda would normally go to And he knew and he just knew She's with West. There's no other explanation So it's march twenty fourth, West goes on to watchatch what happppens live and completely downplays everything. He says they were just hanging out. She's single now. He's showing her the streets. He called her a friend and a very important person own timeline, they'd already dated nearly a month earlier. So he lied on national TV march twenty ninth rumors are at fever pitch. Carl posts the photo of himself looking confused on his Instagram stories The others are putting up reactions like WTF. The whole cast is in the dark or pretending to be march thirtieth, Jesse sends West a text offering love and support, and he still believes them, and he's still giving them the benefit of the doubt march thirty first, the bombshell statement drops. Jesse calls West Call him out for line West is in Jesse's words nonchalant. West tells Jesse. It's been a little over a month that he and a man have been romantically involved And that most important He thinks he loves her So think about that. He thinks he loves her. After a month, this is the same man who would later tell the entire cast the reunion. that he and Amana are not using the word love, but behind the scenes, the day of the statement, he's telling his best friend that he thinks he loves her Amanda only told Kyle hours before the statement was released. And even with all the pieces of the puzzle, Kyle said he was still in but disbelief And he said That'd be so reckless and thoughtless and irresponsible, and Amanda is not usually any of those things So Amanda only told him again hours before that statement was released. found that so interesting because as you continue to watch, you're going to see that Kyle really treats her almost as a father figure. So it must have been a slack to the face that this was only released She only told him hours before the statement was released. Now was also, I feel like suspiciously sent to a place like TMZ and TMZ seems to creep up again and again and again. And I felt like from the very beginning of all of this They're in communication with somebody over there So anyway, that's Jesse's timeline, february tenth, march thirty first, seven weeks of lies, denials, deflections, and of course, gaslighting But here's the thing, most people believe the real timeline starts actually much earlier Jesse's accounting begins in February, but many people, including Kyle himself believe something was going on as far as back. far back as June of twenty twenty five during filming for seeason ten So already, I know you guys, you're like roc in your brain of things that you noted this past season The prevailing theory is that something shifted between West and Amanda during that summer. Remember, West was the one who came to Amanda's defense after Kyle's drunken blowup on the show when Kyle called her a dumb ass B West was the one checking in on her. West was the one playing white night, and he's looking back at those scenes now wondering Okay Is there something to this It just read differently. So Jesse himself acknowledged on Watch What Happens Live that just days before the statement dropped West was still telling them like, listen, Amanda and I are half as bad as how SRact. And his reaction on TV, you know, meanwhile, they're literally hooking up And here's what's wild. Even the people who run this show were blindsided. So remember I mentioned Noah? Well, he said people were coming up to him for weeks saying, Ohh, Noah, I've heard about this Westtern Amanda. Do you know what's going on? And he would tell them, absolutely nothing is true. There is no way that's happening. And he was talking to the executive producers, of the people closest to the cast, and every single person was saying, there's no way this is happening And when the statement dropped, he's just astunned He's just as shocked as any viewer And again, I've noted this before She posts the statement on her Instagram stories. he just sort of repost it and it's on an Instagram story I think she alluded it to being written by Chat GPT. She couldn't have cared two shs But I suspect they were closing in on people wanting to report it and they had to do something and that's what they came up with. And he seems from even this point, totally disinterested in really putting things in a cemented way The fallout is immediate. Sara unfollows both of them on Instagram. She's photographed on the street in New York City being comforted by a friend Carl's exet picks hera up off the bathroom floor. Kyle comes out and defends Amanda publicly saying she's not doing well and knows what she did was wrong. and the cast starts taking sides. Oh, and by the way, West was also dating someone else the entire time He was sleeping with a woman who that they were in an exclusive relationship right up uil the point that he went public with Amanda And at the reunion, he admitted that She believed that they were exclusive, even though he didn't even see it that way So now let's talk about the reunion. and first, a production detail that matters When Scannival broke, Bravo restarted production on Vanner pump R rolles immediately They filmed a new finale. So naturally the question was, are they going to do that here And the answer was no. There were dozens and dozens of conversations about it, but Noah said at the time it was tricky because the reunion was already coming up And there was a crossover from Summer House finale into the preremiere of the in the City, and you couldn't just jam another episode in between. But more importantly, The cast was reeling This was a painful situation for a lot of people, primarily Sierra and Kyle So Noah, in his own words, he said that they were distraught. What were they going to film? Everybody's just devastated and sad, but here's what did happen. Carl' X comes in for an interview of the day. the statement was released. Kyle walks in. I'm sure you have seen this clip of it, shows her the statement and the phone starts Buzz Everyone's talking and they incorporated all of that into the reunion, and it was the best they could do in real time Because the reunion was something else. So that was taped on april twenty third Three parts aired over three weeks and the thing that everybody's talking about, the thing that made this reunion unlike anything we've seen on Bravo, is that West and Amanda We're basically comatose. They barely spoke. They offered zero Amanda's apologies to Sierra had, as one writer put it, the emotional resonance of an automated text confirming a dentist appointment This was a woman that we have watched criet reunions for years and for far less consequential things. But now facing her soon to be ex husband in the friend that she detonated She's just like Totally flat empty and checked out West It was even worse He sat there with this like eerily calm demeanor while everyone around him was falling apart. So Jesie's crying on the couch because apparently this something similar had happened to him before Sierra was in tears, Kyle's a mess and Wes just sat there plastid and unbothered. And Andy finally asked him point blank, No fs, man, but are you on a bunch of beta blockers or what Because everybody's so emotional around you and your relationship and you're just like this and Sierra chimed in or you're just a sociopath. Jesse had to ask him again and Wes finally admitted he had taken a beta blocker before the taping, which as Sarah correctly pointed out, beta blockers don't mute your emotions Now they may lower your heart rate They stop your hands from shaking. They're for people giving wedding toasts, not people who have their entire moral universe crumbling around them And I'll tell you, Noah said publicly that watching West and A manand of theunion made him want to bang his head against the wall. And I thought about that. I thought about what that crew must have felt afterward He said that he thought there was a real story for Amanda to tell that This was someone who had been through a divorce himself And he therefore understood somebody getting out of a ten year toxic relationship and then behaving bad light and making crazy decisions And he thought that there was so much more that she could have said that could have helped viewers understand her. And it was frustrating to watch her refuse to explain herself Now as for West, he says and I'm paraphrasing, I still don't fully understand him. I don't know what I would have wanted to see out of him, but just something would have been nice Now that's the executive who runs the show saying, I got nothing from this man, notothing. Now I have said on my podcast bonus episodes that I think that once the scandal happened, which was sort of revealed itself in March I think the network Naturally would come to them and say, we want to control this moving forward. We don't want you to say anything. Keep in mind that the reunion will be filmed in April. It won't air until may And we would like for you to not say anything until then And I think for somebody who sees how much media attention they're getting and they work in media and they have their own podcast that they would have considered Do I want to be controlled like this And then they go and they decisions that are not in alignment with the network and they start to get frustrated. And they really like to work with people that they feel like there Willing to follow the rules because following the rules means things go smoothly I think they were getting tired of this guys Pretty pretty easy like early on I also think he had hand in TMZ mysteriously having the ability to cover everyvery little update in their relationship, even to the point of The movie theater where they're going to go see something. I think there was a little finesseing behind the scenes, and that is not going to work when they're trying to control a show And the ins and outs and the flow So I think he had his basically nameame written on the wall from the from from the get go So you could imagine why the crew would be frustrated because they're going to have to hear from you and me and everybody else. Why were these two completely comatos? What were they on? Maybe you should be drug testing people. I don't know. Why are you on a reality show if you're not willing to explain yourself? Also, they shared a room at the reunion. They showed up together and they left together. And at one point, Amanda left the stage, and it was reportedly for about an hour to collect her thoughts Now West did not chase her. He didn't go after her. He stayed right where he was and the rest of the cast was confused Although they have said that he does seem to be completely self centered about his own image and wanting to be at the center of things. So Bbe getting up and comforting her would take away from the hour that he could be on camera The rest of the cast, as I said, are all confused. They can't understand the complete disregard. Mly the disregard for Sierra's feelings and then for Kyle's pain and for the friendship they'd obviously blown up Now Mia asked the question, everybody was thinking, did you only come forward because of the speculation or were you just going to keep lying And Amana admitted that they came forward because of the speculation, not because of the damage to Sierra, because they got caught So West confirmed the reunion that he and Amanda are not in love They're just exclusively dating, but they arere not using the word love. He said, it's been two months, three months. Amanda agreed, it was too early. So this is a man who destroyed multiple friendships, hurt his ex girlfriend, abandoned an entire cast and lied to everyone for weeks and He wasn't even sure if he was in love with her but he was committed to the relationship And again, as we know There's this other woman who later appears on camera to Sera. who has been in a full relationship and her name is Maja, and she should probably be on the next season of Summer House So I want to address this one more thing about the reunion because there's been a conspiracy theory floating around that Bravo is somehow protecting Amanda. And I can understand why people would see this. because the edit does seem too kind to her at times that she gets off easy The reunion was ten hours of taping cut down to about three hours of TV So of course, stuff is going to hit the cutting room floor But Noah's asked point blank about this in variety if they were protecting her. And he said, I don't know how you could watch that reunion and feel like anybody protected her from anything He said there's never any intention to protect somebody or spinning it in a certain way. It's just about representing what happened in the most fair way but also entertaining in the best way they can Amanda didn't need protection from the edit. She did plenty of damage to herself just by sitting there and say nothing, which of course, let us all into this cycle of looking through every frame that she's been on TV and coming to this conclusion, she has always been somebody who wants to be in a relationship with someone and with somebody who has the real personality and gives her access. to people and power and situations. And then you're like, I can't believe she's been committed to being on a reality show. When she seems too fragile for it, she's always upset. She's been in a loveless marriage or at least in love marriage. and She kind of doesn't really participate on the show. Like a lot of the years she was just sort of sitting in her bed and social media certainly makes it seem like that's the same thing that she does off camera too. So then you of the aftermath, Bravo aired a bonus episode tonight And that was filmed in May three weeks after the reunion with three separate sit downs. And what's fascinating is how this came to be. So it was Andy who inspired production to Go for it But the actual conversations, those were all cast driven according to NoOA Siera reached out to production first, said she wanted to film the scene with Maja production initially wasn't sure of whether or not that even fit. And then Siera spoke to her at the reunion, called her afterward and came back and said, she still wanted to have that conversation on camera which probably is driving West crazy because It seems like he'd say Don't tell anybody we're in a relationship because it hurts my chances to stay on this show. I mean, if that's not a red flag, I don't know what it is. I mean, he would go film and she'd be waiting at the apartment for him Also, not a lot of people knew where he lived. That's another weird thing. I think he probably was moving a lot of plates around at one time, speaking to a lot of women And then Amanda did film with Carl ZX, and they sort of have this conversation And then West reached out to Kyle for a private conversation, but Kyle, as he says in the special, said that the whole story unfolded on camera You know, this should be on camera too So it could have been a private conversation, but the cast chose to make them in public And the reason they needed to happen is because as Noah put it, when you watch the reunion as incredible as it was, ish You're going to walk away feeling unsatisfied because of the way that West and Amanda handled themselves. Again, they were basically comatos They didn't explain themselves. And then there's the whole separate conversation about West and this relationship, who nobody knew anything about, and those stories needed to be fleshed out as well And I think In many ways, the conversations were very helpful You've got Amanda to Carl axs. This is the most substantial conversation in my opinion because She's getting this tough love and she starts to crack. And she admits that after years being in an unhappy marriage Her friendship with Wes made her feel young and vibrant again And it brought out a sight of her that she thought she'd never seen somebody who wanted to have fun, who loved life She said she'd been in love for so long that when he showed up, and gave her attention. It awakensed something in her And she couldn't think rationally or logically. She was overwhelmed by the feeling that someone actually cared about her ine At no point does she say I feel terrible that I destroyed my friendship with Sierra for it And that, I think is so absolutely crazy. So did she destroy a relationship with a ton of people for a guy that she doesn't even know if she's super Eclusive what because she's asked it all came together. and she said basically that West pursued her And then on camera, she's having to hear, well, he says that you were basically obsessed with him. And she's sort of laughing like, well, that's not true. And then you would think you wouldd have a moment of clarity and we were like, ab mission. L I need to get off this train. this is not going to work I don't think she really cared. I don't think she really cared that she was destroying relationships in the way because she was so set in feeling that she got attention. and that is pretty depressing. Now remember that West made a comment that he hoped that the Kicks would still be in the NBA final. so everybody would watch the The final for you know And so Noah said that he had a conversation with Kyle after that separation was announced, warning him to buckle up because he was about to be annihilated in the press And he thought Kyle was going to be the most hated man in America and instead West and Amanda made everybody forget Now again Amanda is told in that scene, You gott to let go of this loser. L it's a sinking ship You gotta let go hand Amanda look like she felt stupid that moment she ended up going to Italy with West like a few days after Again, there's no mention of Sira at all. Amanda was just sitting there talking about her own pain, her own loneliness Her own awakening and she's showed zero empathy for a woman that she called her best friend, which is super troubling Then I start to go, okay, well, how many girlfriends does she have? And it looks like she only has one, her childhood friend. So Again, I think that is what is troubling to so many people is it brings up memories of something that happened to you or somebody that you know. and the idea that you could just throw away a friendship with somebody just because you wanted to get with the person that they had been with is just so bizarre and gross and weird and troubling So we also get to hear that West had been sleeping with the other woman in March around the same time that he had his quote unquote connection with Amanda developing. And You would think that she would be embarrassed, but now again, she went to Italy Kyle and West, this filmed on may twentieth. There was a small but devastating detail that Kyle notes. The dog West arrives for the sit downown You see that the dog's very friendly with him extxtremely comfort, which means clearly that West had been spending time at the apartment around the dog for a while. and it's a small thing, but it says everything about how deep this went before anything was ever admitted in public. which again goes back to can you imagine there reliable narrators for the timeline And so The modeling continues about where it began and West offers Kyle virtually nothing in terms of accountability or clarity in that conversation The timeline remains murky as ever, and West has been much more talkative on his own podcast about this than he ever was at the reunion or in the aftermath again That's a problem, I would assume for the network Why are you saving this for your own show and you have a commitment, you're an obligation, You signed a contract to talk about it on our show