On Tuesday night, devotees of the Bravo series “Summer House” packed an AMC theater near Union Square. The gathering was not far from where cast members sat down with Andy Cohen in late April, surrounded by many, many lanterns and other Hamptons décor to hash out their issues after a summer sharing a multimillion dollar mansion in Sag Harbor, N.Y.
The fans, who had bought one of the $70 tickets for the first episode of a three-part reunion wore themed apparel including shirts and hoodies with several of Kyle Cooke’s most popular lines: “Carl’s a mess” and “Summer should be fun.”
Gibson Johns, the host of the reality TV podcast “Gabbing With Gib” and an early viewer of the show, wore his own “Carl’s a Mess” T-shirt, which he said strangers had complimented on his way to the theater.
“There’s a yearning for communal experience,” Johns said. “In such a fractured world, but also a fracturing pop culture landscape, it’s very rare to feel like everybody is talking about and watching the same thing. And all of a sudden, ‘Summer House’ is that show.”
The series’s current season was filmed from July to September 2025. Its early episodes were a lighthearted run of reality TV, with boozy nights, rocky relationships and raging costume parties.
But after speculation emerged that two cast members, Amanda Batula and West Wilson, were romantically linked, this season became a headline-grabbing, emotional retrospective. Batula had recently separated from Cooke, her husband, and Wilson had dated Ciara Miller, another cast member and one of Batula’s closest friends on the show.
After months of speculation, on March 31, as the new season aired, Batula and Wilson confirmed they had a “connection” in a joint statement on Instagram Stories. Viewers analyzed new episodes for hints of what was to come, and how the two could have betrayed their friendships with Cooke, Miller and other castmates.
The reunion offered an opportunity for Miller to confront Batula and Wilson, and as interest mounted, bars and venues jumped at the chance to host fans for the first reunion episode. AMC announced it would screen the episode at the 19th Street location in Manhattan. The tickets sold out quickly, according to Bravo; thousands of people were on the waiting list.
Many in the crowd seemed to share a desire to watch the reunion with others who would appreciate their relationship to the cast members and the conversation around “Summer House.” The show, which was once a chance to live vicariously through hot, young people in the Hamptons, shifted into relatable topics including friendship breakups and romantic betrayal.
“Usually I’m just at home yelling at my TV, so it’s going to be nice to yell with other people this time,” said Josh Banfield, a pop culture commentator.
Semajh Bludson, who grew up on Long Island, was wearing a shirt with an image of Lindsay Hubbard, an original cast member. Bludson had traveled from Maryland to attend the screening and said he had been watching since the first season.
“It’s a show that’s local to me — familiar places, familiar faces,” he said.
Casey Clemenza and Emily Baron, both in their late 30s and living in New York City, brought friendship bracelets.
“This is such a community experience,” Baron said, adding, “We just thought it would be a fun thing to be with people who are so invested in this reunion.”
Movie posters around the theater had been replaced with photos of the cast and a bar served themed cocktails, like the Bravotini, Sumerita House and Soft Spritz.
As people lined up to redeem drink tickets, Miranda Sanchez, 33, was wearing a “Carl’s a Mess” T-shirt on top of a Lorax costume (a homage to one of Miller’s party looks this season) as she chatted with other attendees and posed for photos near the soda machines.
“I love that Ciara embraces her freak, and I was like: ‘Why not dress up as a Lorax for a reunion screening with a bunch of people that are also fans? They’re going get it,’” she said.
For Sanchez, her costume was also a way to show her support of Miller.
“I’m so excited for everyone to have her back,” she said.
The viewers made their feelings known as the reunion played on three screens. When an image of Wilson’s and Batula’s names popped up, someone in the theater made a loud and audible gagging noise. When the cast member Carl Radke first appeared on the screen, a couple of viewers cooed while another yelled, “Carl’s a mess!”
And after Cohen read a comment from a fan about how incredible it was for Miller to buy her grandparents’ house (something she discussed this season), the theater erupted in applause.
Fans also cheered loudly when Miller said, in a cutting quip, she was ready to have her questions answered by Batula and Wilson before “I put them in the ground and cover them with dirt.”
As the episode ended and the theater lights went up, there were still many more wounds to unpack. The room erupted and called for more.
Shivani Gonzalez is a news assistant at The Times who writes a weekly TV column and contributes to a variety of sections.
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