Hello, Good Vibe Tribe! First of all, apologies for my absence last week. Did I … miss anything? Oh wait, that’s right. Lindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke are engaged! Did anyone see that coming? Surely not Danielle Olivera, who ended last week’s episode completely blindsided when Kyle Cooke shared the news with the entire house. So let’s start there, shall we?
Danielle’s meltdown, Part 1
While Carl and Lindsay celebrate their engagement with production at the scene of the crime, err, proposal, Danielle is busy totally spiraling back at the house. In fact, it’s pretty telling that the reaction of the entire house to the news is, well, complete silence. Until Kory Keefer breaks through the tension with a hearty “Oh sh-t!” And there’s a second surprise: they all have to go to the engagement party! Like, right now.
Danielle was unprepared for any of this news. And promptly bursts into tears, feeling the kitchen for the backyard, where she collapses into Mya Allen’s arms. She doesn’t even know if she’ll be invited to the wedding of her two best friends at this point. As she tells Kyle, there may not be any friendship left to salvage at this point.
Danielle’s reaction to being in the dark even leads to production breaking the fourth wall to comfort her as she hyperventilates in the bathroom while everyone else gets ready for Carl and Lindsay’s surprise engagement party.
Danielle’s meltdown, Part 2
As it turns out, the aforementioned engagement party isn’t just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Carl put a ton of planning into it, even flying Lindsay’s parents into the Hamptons for the first time. He also got Lindsay’s *other* best friend to come up from Washington D.C. for the moment. Which means, by my count, that he told numerous other people he was getting engaged — Kyle and Chris Leoni among them — without giving Danielle any sort of heads up. Ouch.
However, Danielle can’t keep her cool at the party. In the minutes leading up to the happy couple’s arrival, she tells every person she talks to that she has no idea Carl was proposing. She’s boiling to the point that you can see it spilling over. She just can’t help herself. It even leads to a tense, bitter exchange of words with Lindsay’s other BFF Dannia — the one Carl informed three weeks beforehand. Double ouch.
By the time Carl and Lindsay show up, Danielle manages to plaster on a smile and go along with the celebration. HubbHouse maintains the narrative that she was completely taken by surprise by Carl’s plan, but let’s be real. Would a type A control freak like Lindsay leave her proposal up to someone — anyone! —else? Paige DeSorbo calls B.S. in her confessional, pointing out the shoulder pads. The perfectly curled hair. All the signs Lindsay knew it wasn’t just a casual bonfire on the beach. And hey, good for her for being camera ready. We’d expect nothing less.
What’s the plan?
But the weekend’s not over yet. So the next day, Carl’s planned a beachside game of flag football for the whole house. Except he’s not in the best mood since Kyle pulled him aside at the party the night before to tell him Danielle was hurt and upset. (Time and place Cookie, time and place!) He informs Lindsay of Danielle’s reaction as they set up the beach. Which naturally activates HubbHouse to the nth degree in terms of getting defensive. From her POV, Danielle should know exactly why she was left out in the cold.
An afternoon of sand and tackling commences. Several housemates’ faces feel the effects — Mya doesn’t seem to understand that pelting Gabby Prescod in the kisser with the ball isn’t the way to score a touchdown.
After the game, Samantha Feher pulls Kory aside for as close to a DTR as they’re going to get. As a couple, they’re so cute and I kind of can’t help shipping them honestly. So I’m not mad at all when Kory sweetly admits he like-likes the blonde newbie and wants to see where things go after the summer.
Last weekend vibes
Cut to the last weekend of the summer. It’s Labor Day weekend and Craig Conover is joining Paige in the Hamptons. Robert Sieber’s also showing up on the first night with Danielle. And Ciara Miller’s back too after being MIA for the engagement weekend. Basically, after however many weekends a summer lasts, we might finally have the entire cast together. Where is everybody going to sleep?
Lindsay’s furious with Danielle, even declaring in her confessional that she’s done with the friendship. Carl, meanwhile, is feeling guilty. But put a pin in the drama because first, the whole crew heads to a pool party somewhere in the Hamptons. Which is the perfect opportunity for Robert to pull Carl aside for a chat.
Somebody that I used to know
Robert’s angry that Carl didn’t even bother to reply to his congratulatory text. But he’s not here for himself, he’s here to advocate for Danielle. Carl’s excuse is that he didn’t tell any of the girls in the house. Which is even more insulting for Danielle to be considered just another girl in the house rather than Lindsay’s best friend. And one of his best friends, frankly. Remember the Tres Amigos? (Note for all future Bravolebrities: labeling yourselves the Tres *anything* never ends well.)
Both Robert and Carl both handle the conversation calmly, even when Robert points out that Danielle took a glass to the chest while defending her erstwhile bestie last season in her fight with Ciara. However, it all becomes too much for Carl when Robert turns the subject to his and Lindsay’s relationship and calls the couple “two people who got engaged that we knew one time.” So he storms off, and when Kyle tries to follow with cameras, he retreats even furthering, flipping the cameras off in the process with a “To Be Continued…”
TELL US – ARE YOU TEAM DANIELLE OR TEAM LINDSAY AND CARL? SHOULD DANIELLE HAVE BEEN TOLD CARL WAS PROPOSING? DO YOU THINK SAM AND KORY MAKE A GOOD COUPLE? SHOULD DANIELLE BE INVITED TO THE WEDDING?
