We’ve seen a lot of wild moments on Summer House, but Carl and Lindsay’s earth-shattering breakup easily takes the cake for the most dramatic moment of the series ever. When the cameras picked back up three days after the final party of the summer to capture the fallout, Carl first does what he did all season: talk out his feelings with his personal Jimminey Cricket, Kyle Cooke (a truly scary thought). Carl told Kyle he’s been running from the “revelation” that Lindsay is who she is, and she isn’t going to change ever, period. Duh!!!!
Then, the conversations of all conversations happens when Carl decides to sit down at home with Lindsay to break up with her. Kind of. I wouldn’t say he’s the most direct person in the world, to put it mildly. Let’s get into it and do a much-needed breakdown of Carl and Lindsay’s Summer House finale breakup scene.
Carl and Lindsay Breakup Scene Breakdown
Carl says Lindsay doesn’t support his career
The moment Lindsay and Carl sat down, socially distanced from each other on their couch, I knew this going to be rough. Lindsay volunteered to break the awkward silence (spoiler: it doesn’t get much less awkward) by explaining that she’s not sure when her asking significant questions about Carl’s future became less like a sounding board and more like an evil shrew to him. Carl kicked the argument into high gear (to be fair it was going to get there anyway) by listing all the times Lindsay has shot down his aspirations instead of “comforting” and/or getting excited for him: declaring his sober empire as gimmicky and unworkable, telling him he’s not an actor (Um, does this mean Carl wanted to take a swing at Hollywood? Because if so, dear Lord, she did him a favor by bullying him out of that), and being bewildered by his pursuit of cigars (whatever that means).
Why did Lindsay threaten to record Carl?
Carl then snapped his fingers to move on to the next subject, which is that Lindsay threatened to record him when they were fighting about Labor Day. Lindsay favored staying home to “reconnect one-on-one” and that somehow led to a bigger argument about Lindsay’s bossy demeanor. She wanted to know why he proposed in the first place if he was so turned off by her personality (valid) and he answered that he “honestly” wasn’t sure himself (not valid, but definitely true). So Lindsay decided she wanted to capture Carl’s nasty side on camera for evidence since she knew no one would believe her (sorry girlie, we do now) but Carl beat her to the punch by recording her first while driving, which seems questionably safe.
The Craziest Lines From Lindsay And Carl’s Breakup
After the recording bombshell was a bit of a flop, Lindsay expressed she thinks their small arguments spiral out of control because of his mean digs and anger. Carl countered that Lindsay lives in an alternate reality where she is “gifted” in spinning herself as the victim, which she’s done since she’s known him. He claims their relationship is The Lindsay Show and he is only there to pay rent. I mean… that’s not not an angry insult. Carl also said that Lindsay has called him name such as: a loser, a little bitch, a little baby (an important distinction), and a lil’ mama’s boy who runs home to his parents.
Lindsay doesn’t spend any time denying his claims, but rather questioning why all of this is coming up now. Carl didn’t have time to answer though, because he was too busy gearing up to drop the most shocking reveal of the entire convo: He believes Lindsay wants him to relapse on his sobriety so she can keep him under her thumb while he continues to fail. After the woman was too stunned to speak, she eventually denied the accusation. Would’ve been cool if this guy (or like, maybe a slightly less aggravated version of him) had been in the Hamptons, huh?
Carl was the one to break up with Lindsay… kind of
So just to recap: If you think your partner is your biggest hater on the planet, probably don’t get married. Carl starts making some serious sense when he gets to the breakup portion of the chat. Their wedding is two months away and he’s too unhappy to keep hoping their communication is going to get any better. He’s gotten to a point where love is not enough, and couples therapy for life sounds like a bit of a drag. Lindsay finally realizes this conversation was not a negotiation, but rather a final salute to her service. She repeated over and over that Carl “made the decision,” seemingly hoping he’d say that he hadn’t. Meanwhile, I’m still over here hoping, wishing, and praying that Carl will summon the strength to give Lindsay the closure she’s basically begging for with two words: it’s over. After repeated prodding, Carl confirms he did (FINALLY!!!!) make up his mind. It’s hard to believe she’s stunned as an outsider looking in, but as Hubbs explains later to the girls, her vision of marrying her best friend who knew her better than anyone felt too big to fail. SMH.
How did Lindsay and Carl’s fight end?
Lindsay makes one last push to insist that giving up because of personality differences isn’t right. But Carl doubles down that Lindsay must think he’s untrustworthy, incapable of making money, sensitive to the point of not being a man, insecure, and possesses serious anger problems. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone read themselves so viciously on reality television, so kind of slay?
The thing is, this is how breakups work. One person decides they don’t want to do it anymore. But that doesn’t mean you can’t give the other person respect along the way. Carl claims he didn’t summon the cameras to break up with Lindsay in the reunion trailer but watching it play out he so clearly did. Carl told producers he was upset about looking like the crazy blindsiding bad guy while she was the scorned woman. Lindsay is plenty scorned, and fans have related to her concerns. But I think Carl can rest assured no one will think he was crazy for calling this thing off, even if everyone (giddy Danielle included) agrees he should’ve never proposed in the first place.
