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Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard Recap: Shanice’s Revenge

Season 1 Episode 6 Editor’s Rating4 stars ****

Photo: Bravo Shanice’s return to the house after a week at work throws a wrench into the calm energy that has settled on the Vineyard in her and Phil’s absence. A firecracker party girl, Shanice’s presence at girl’s night helps bring out the turnt-up side of Jasmine and Bria. Jasmine, who opened up about her feelings of isolation at dinner the previous evening, lets her hair down when the boys and girls split up for the night. It’s evident that she needs this girl time; during her breakdown at dinner, she expresses how she doesn’t know how to navigate her female friendships now that she’s a married woman.

While I queued up the world’s smallest violin to accompany Jasmine’s tears (the problem she’s crying about is one she created herself), I wondered if what she was saying to the group was what she truly wanted to say to her husband. Maybe Silas is the reason she feels isolated because he disapproves of her going out with her single friends. Or perhaps it’s the pressure of upholding Silas’s expectations of what a wife should be. Interestingly, she explicitly says she doesn’t know how her friends “feel” about her as a wife, as if she wants their approval or knows something is off and wants them to bring it up. She also opens up about her desire for her friends to check on her more often, which sounds to me like a small cry for help.

As the season progresses and the layers of Jasmine and Silas’s relationship are peeled back, the issues she’s projecting onto her friends seem more like her own personal problems. And if you thought their relationship was toxic before, tonight’s episode and the preview for next week’s show we’ve barely scratched the surface. Silas’s toxicity is on full display once the guys split away for their night out. First and foremost, he has removed his wedding ring for the occasion, which Amir suspects is due to the burnt breakfast Jasmine served Silas that morning. I had to pull my tiny violin back out as Silas complained to the table of unmoved men about Jasmine treating vacation like a vacation.

Silas misses the Stepford wife he’s grown accustomed to (well, he describes it as feeling thrown off from their “routine”), expressing disdain because his wife was sleeping later and slacking on making his meals. Once he sees that the men aren’t feeding into his woe-is-me-I’m-a-helpless-man narrative, he randomly switches gears to shade Jason’s strategy toward women. Jason, a new father with a sensitive nature, is the antithesis of the alpha man Silas desperately wants to be. Jason explains how he prioritizes authenticity and vulnerability over traditional gender roles, but Silas cuts him off, saying, “If you listen [to women] too much, you won’t get any pussy.”

Their friction carries into the next day when the two get into a tiff after Silas tries to order Jason around as they move furniture outside for the rosé themed brunch. Jason pushes back on Silas giving out orders, prompting Silas to discuss the origins of his controlling nature during his confessional. He talks about living in a refugee camp and the mindset his mother instilled in him as a young boy.

This moment speaks to a much larger dynamic within the Black community about respectability and how Black people must act to be accepted into white spaces. And, it’s also what Preston was alluding to when he said he didn’t like the phrase “Black excellence” — we shouldn’t have to jump through hoops and ruthlessly climb the ladder in white spaces to be respected.

Black people are taught that the perks of whiteness and the approval of white people will come if we work hard and “follow the rules,” ignoring the fact that those rules have been rigged against us, and forgetting that the number one rule for them is that their skin color trumps everything. But, they dangle the carrot of “equality” in front of us nonetheless, and we pass down these expectations of respectability onto our children, even with the very best intentions, continuing the cycle of internalized anti-Blackness without white people having to lift a finger. We’re told we should be “grateful” for the crumbs we get, especially if we live in America. And in the process, we create men like Silas, who has come all the way from Africa to salute the very flag that enslaved us.

The irony of Silas’s staunch patriotism and misogynistic conservative values is an excellent example of the effects of colonialism and the ideology of white supremacy that continue to trickle down today. Silas, like many modern Black men, desires a life that has only been accessible to white men for far too long, a life that includes a submissive housewife to bear his children and tend to his every need. But Jasmine, who is so much more than that even if we haven’t seen it yet, is having a hard time filling this role, so it’s unsurprising that the ladies are having a blast when Jasmine is freed from the cage Silas keeps her in.

Girl’s night consists of copious amounts of tequila (probably way more than was in Amir’s oversized margarita), twerking, and falling in the bushes. The bacchanal continues back at the house with Bria and Shanice dancing half-naked on the kitchen counters in all their drunk girl glory. The party moves to the hot tub once the boys return, and the drinks and dancing keep flowing. Bria retreats inside for a moment, then Shanice strips completely nude after asking Simon if he minded. When Bria comes back out and sees her friend naked next to her boyfriend, the camaraderie from earlier in the night completely dissipates.

Bria’s head essentially starts to spin around on her neck to reveal the Bria we’ve seen a couple of times on this trip — she has no problem getting buck. Not only does she condemn Shanice for getting naked in front of Simon, but she takes issue with every bystander that allowed it to happen, denouncing everyone as “fake” and telling Simon that if he goes back outside, he might as well “get the fuck out of this house.” Even as the effects of the alcohol wear off the following day, Bria is still livid with Shanice’s behavior. She spends the first few hours of the morning sounding off about it to all of her housemates, eventually calling her mom about it too.

For the most part, the house isn’t too fazed by Shanice’s behavior. Some, like Summer, agree that they would be upset as well, and others, like Jordan, feel that this is just Shanice’s personality. Shanice already has a reputation for out-of-pocket behavior; Alex has voiced his discomfort with her forwardness, and rumblings about her toxic situation with her ex have bubbled to the surface after Alex Googled her. Shanice is simultaneously fighting this reputation by attempting to get the people in the house to know the “real” her and adding fuel to the fire by being overly provocative. She’s not malicious, but she obviously likes to push having a good time to its limits.

Everyone convenes outside for the pastel-hued rosé brunch later that afternoon. Jordan and Alex help set up the table before having an incredibly awkward conversation following a clumsy attempt at flirting from Alex, foreshadowing the breakdown Jordan will have next week regarding feeling objectified in the house. But for now, the conversation is just a blip compared to the drama Shanice ignites as retaliation to Bria’s disgust. As she’s getting dressed for the brunch, she skips putting a shirt on and, instead, steps outside on the balcony, titties fully exposed, and yells out, “Wait for me, you guys!” while exposing herself in all her glory. This time, it’s Jasmine who is perturbed by her friend’s shameless nudity in front of her significant other and proclaims, “I have a problem with that.” And one thing we know about Jasmine is that she’ll make her problem everyone’s problem.

Vineyard Tales

• I’m sorry, but my final straw with Silas was how he tried controlling what Jasmine was wearing. One thing a man is never going to do is tell me what to wear or how to wear it. She’s made it over two decades on this earth without Silas; I think she can handle dressing herself.

• Jason is hilarious. His speech and proclamation that “80 or 90 percent” of women lose themselves in marriage were the perfect drunken moments to offset Jasmine’s tears. Plus, Summer asking where he got those numbers made it even better.

• Shanice and Bria’s OnlyFans account was a fun revelation — I’m all about sex positivity and getting your money! However, absolutely no shade to them, but it’s funny that Silas had more of an issue with Jordan than Shanice and Bria. We saw tonight that Jordan is relatively tame next to those two, at least on camera.

• The hoopla around Milo’s shit shows yet again how militant and annoying Silas is. Going to Preston’s room to sound off and then trying to call another house meeting was obnoxious. What does Preston have to do with any of this? I’m not at all a dog person either, but, no pun intended, shit happens. Never should it have been that deep.

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