When the news that Lindsay and Carl’s dream wedding had abruptly been called off under nightmarish circumstances first broke, most people probably assumed it was Lindsay’s fault. But surprisingly all of the Summer House girls were seen rallying around her, even including Danielle after their tumultuous friendship implosion. This gave fans of the show the impression (whether they were fans of Lindsay or not) that Lindsay had ended up the scorned woman. Which is why the first couple of episodes of season 8 were so jarring. Lindsay was displaying some evidently bad behavior, all while calling Carl the malicious instigator in moments off-screen. How was she to become, yet again, the people’s champion with a start like that?
Let’s back it up for a second. Why would I be rooting for Lindsay in the first place? Lindsay has always been my favorite girl on Summer House because I root for the overdog when it comes to reality television. I’m willing to accept some of my faves may not always be someone you’d want to get stuck in an elevator with, but even-temperedness a good Bravolebrity does not make. More recently, I’ve found Hubbhouse’s most alienating “flaw” (AKA being a huge bitch) is actually more relatable than how most of the other girls have moved over the years. She’s not two-faced, she doesn’t take men’s shit, and after she’s done screaming about sandwiches, she knows how to laugh about it, too. When you review her track record over the season, there’s not a lot of misses on actual points made. Her delivery is just so nuclear, it’s easy to get distracted. But if saying the truth out loud comes with a little volume, I’m happy to hand you some earplugs.
I may not be able to convince you Lindsay Hubbard is Summer House’s real hero, but the fandom is slowly aligning around the truth that she is not solely to blame for this breakup, despite the attempted villain edit. In fact, Lindsay’s side of her breakup with Carl is turning the tide of public opinion in her favor. Let’s discuss.
At the beginning of season 8, Lindsay and Carl’s first major fights happened off-camera. She claimed he was being unsupportive of her insecurities reentering the house full of girls who hated her and being nasty to her, even when she agreed to come home early from the club. All we saw was Lindsay recklessly questioning Carl’s sobriety after the fact. It felt unfair to watch Lindsay make such a huge accusation without real evidence, especially because if it was true, the subject would require a lot of sensitivity. In the following weekends, Lindsay was able to admit that she was feeling judged by Carl for her own drinking, so she wanted to question him just as hard on his extracurriculars to even the score.
This was undeniably a horrible ongoing fight to have with your partner, especially with the added stress of planning a wedding, so no one could blame Carl for being upset. But as the weeks have continued to air it now feels like after these incidents happened, Carl checked out. It’s even possible that Carl was done before the summer even started if things were always as bad as he now claims they were the whole time (rewatch the scene at the basketball court where Lindsay talks about wedding planning and tell me that man is planning on walking down the aisle).
For a while after that, it seemed like they got past their lifestyle issues, and that their connection could be stronger than their struggles to communicate. Except the question soon became who wasn’t communicating with who? Lindsay unintentionally set off their next major battle by expressing to Carl on multiple occasions, in multiple different ways, how she needed him to step up financially. Carl is making decent cash from influencing (which is a valid stream of income despite his denigrating Lindsay’s online career as successful, purely based on her being a woman), but Lindsay wants more. As she said in one of her attempts to level with him, being with a man who’s “crushing life” and can take care of her while she’s nursing their children “turns her on.” While Lindsay’s words were rough to hear, most women being promised a family would probably agree that a 40-year-old man without a regular paycheck isn’t crushing life, too.
Following that, the job drama continued after Carl had a wishy-washy business meeting with a zero-alcohol drink brand that isn’t offering him a job… but he’s still excited… although going back to Loverboy is tempting… even though they also don’t have a role for him either and it ended horribly the last time. Hearing Carl talk in circles about his career is stressful after nine episodes, let alone a year. But Carl doesn’t want Lindsay’s tough love. He wants “softness” and “tenderness” from his partner, even if that 13K a month rent is due.
These issues aren’t my idea of normal relationship woes leading up to a marriage. It wouldn’t be so shocking that Carl expresses feeling that way to his parents if he had indicated anything of the sort to his partner. After every fight, Carl has reassured Lindsay they’re good and, yes, perhaps foolishly, Lindsay believes that they can work through it. Carl doesn’t even tell Lindsay that his step-father point-blank said they should not get married until marriage gurus Kyle and Amanda point out that maybe that’s something Lindsay should know.
Carl sugarcoating his feelings and dodging their issues to Lindsay’s face while openly disparaging the state of their relationship and the depth of his fears with anyone but the person he’s marrying has been infuriating to watch. Why let Lindsay smile through a bridal shower knowing your mom is advising you there should not be a wedding day? Carl tells Lindsay things are fine, his parents love her, and she has nothing to worry about because they haven’t heard her side of story as if the first side of the story didn’t come from his mouth. Within hours of telling Lindsay to stay calm through a paradigm-shifting conversation (which she already was), Carl soberly drops that “he’s fucked” to Kyle. It became clear Carl wasn’t lost on what he wanted. He just didn’t want to garner the courage to say it to Lindsay’s face.
Even more troublingly, the “mean” Carl that Lindsay saw episode 1 seems to have shown himself on camera. After he finally breaks the news of his parent’s real opinion, he seems upset that Lindsay isn’t activated and keeps prodding her to give a bigger reaction. After a heated discussion about going back to Loverboy, Carl takes an unrelated jab at Lindsay for calling it “my pool day” as if he doesn’t understand possessive semantics. Referencing the PowerPoint Lindsay’s ex famously made for her to mock her so she would “know what it feels like” when she’s never actively made fun of Carl to his face to hurt him was cruel.
I still don’t think Carl is responsible for the breakup, and Lindsay doesn’t either. But Carl has taken issue with Lindsay’s repeated truth that she felt blindsided. Watching the footage back, it feels impossible not to empathize with that perspective as we watch her zen jack of all trades, master of none keep his cards too close to his chest as drives off leaving her and her luggage in the dust.
