Next Gen NYC Recap: Storming Mad

Next Gen NYC
“The Bunny Hill I Will Die On”
Season 2 Episode 11
Editor’s Rating ★★★★
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After last week’s episode in which Liam professed his love to Ariana in an ill-advised late-night heart-to-heart — which was notably not reciprocated — we need a bit of a state of the union on this union. And the state of it is … a mess. As they start the day skiing, they’re largely pretending like the previous night didn’t happen, but Kendall can tell there’s something up with her best friend, Liam. He’s left trying to reckon with the mixed messages he’s getting from Ariana, and while I do feel for him, there is something almost refreshing about a man getting played by a girl on Bravo for once instead of the other way around. I just wish it was literally any other man. Because poor Liam has been nothing but sweet and kind, but now he’s left confused because Ariana has been simultaneously love-bombing him (granted, without using that word) while also recoiling at dinner at the thought of saying they’re “dating.” 

Then there’s the Charlie of it all. At least he’s had a bizarre change of heart and suddenly decided to go back on everything he said last night and announce that actually he does respect their relationship and thus won’t fuck Ariana. What a gentleman! Why tell Liam this, you might be wondering? Well, Charlie explains that it’s so his own conscience is clear in the event that he does, in fact, hook up with Ariana — because to him this statement means that said hypothetical hookup won’t be perceived as a vengeful act on his part but rather as Ariana not wanting to be with Liam. I couldn’t make sense of that thinking if I tried … and I did try! And do you know what happened? My brain short-circuited so severely that I had to get a full brain transplant. They replaced it with a monkey’s brain, and my new monkey brain still works better than Charlie’s.

Back at the house, they’re planning a little joint surprise birthday celebration for Kendall (someone must have lifted the curse, because the rest of the cast can suddenly see her!) and Ava, the latter of whom dresses up for her “surprise” like Lindsay Hubbard wearing shoulder pads to her beach engagement. During the celebration, Georgia and Shai talk about her calling him a clown the night before — which she maintains was a compliment, and I believe her. Shai didn’t see it that way, nor did he think her changing it to “jester” was any better. Gia, who doesn’t know things, doesn’t know what a jester is, so she looks it up during a confessional. But her phone defines “gesture” instead, so she naturally doesn’t see the problem. “I feel like I’m a gesture,” she says, and if she were a gesture, she’d be a confused shrug. 

Now I have to change the subject for a minute to bring up the fact that it is casually mentioned at dinner that Charlie clogged the toilet, and after he maintains that it was just from tissues he was using to blow his nose, it’s revealed that Georgia used her hands to unclog it. We move on from this much too quickly, but I’m glad for Georgia’s sake — and my own. There’s only so much I can defend! I’m honestly just shocked that Riley even stayed at the table after hearing that. 

While it’s largely been a fun trip, Emira has noticeably been on edge and says she’s still thinking about the Charlie situation and what he apparently said about her identity. Those feelings especially come up after Georgia and Charlie come to a truce of sorts after he explains that he and Omar are opening sports bars and not stealing her idea outright. Georgia decides to put that conflict to bed, and Emira somehow manages to make that about herself. “Charlie said some really problematic shit. If the things that Georgia has told me were so upsetting to her that she felt the need to tell me, then why would she all of a sudden now be buddy-buddy back again with Charlie? Really fucked up,” she says, perhaps forgetting the massive free pass she personally delivered to Charlie with a hug even after that problematic shit came to light. The hypocrisy is, of course, insane, but at least Emira is finally ready to hold him accountable herself.

She pulls him aside to talk through her lingering feelings about his alleged transphobic comments, which he’s not even attempting to deny. She tearfully tells him that she’s having a hard time shaking it, understandably so, and needs some space away from their friendship. For his part, Charlie says he feels terrible. “Hopefully I can be forgiven for whatever nonsense stupidity that I let come out of my mouth that I obviously didn’t mean or feel,” he says, manipulating the English language in a truly crazy way that uses the passive tense to avoid as much responsibility as possible. He’s not sorry; he hopes forgiveness can be bestowed upon him. It’s not something he said; it’s something that left his mouth. Not since Jax Taylor have we seen a master manipulator like this on our screens. 

Luckily, the trip ends with a palate cleanser that brings me such an enormous amount of joy. As the gang all packs up and loads into the cars to get ahead of an impending snowstorm, Rowan asks if she can take a rotisserie chicken home with her to make chicken salad, and does just that, hopping into the SUV with the rotis’ chick’ en tow. A girl after my own heart, and finally someone on this show who is making some sense. 

Back in New York City, we forge ahead to our dueling clothing line pop-ups being thrown by Brooks and Shai, respectively. Unfortunately for Brooks, his mother, Meredith, has to pass on attending, telling him, “Unfortunately, I don’t think I can be there because I have to DJ.” Imagine your mother saying this to you under any circumstances whatsoever. That’s what makes the Marks family so special. That, and the fact that Seth takes Georgia under his wing at the event itself after she seeks his expertise for her newly renamed cleaning brand, Messy. “Seth Marks is one of the great spiritual leaders of our time,” she says, just after he calls her the Ralph Lauren of household cleaning. And you know what, you can’t argue with that. 

Shai’s pop-up has a much cooler, grungier vibe, but the big headline out of that event isn’t about the clothes; it’s the fact that Ava is starting to warm up to her not-so-secret admirer, especially now that she gets to see him in his element. No longer the jester (or gesture), the flirtation is suddenly mutual. And honestly, what a relief — the secondhand embarrassment from his rejection earlier in the season was too much to bear. 

Since cameras went down after the pop-up, we naturally missed all the good stuff, but to the cast’s credit, they fill us in via confessional. They went to a bar afterward, where Ava mentioned that he’s suddenly hot, to which he replied that he’s always been hot. That’s a hot response, and Ava must have agreed because they then made out. 

They went back to Charlie’s place along with Ariana and Liam for what I can only imagine was set to be some kind of twisted Gen-Z take on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — but Liam left early to go walk Ariana’s dogs. Now why the hell would he do that, especially after asking her to stop hanging out at Charlie’s late at night? These two are a complete mess, and I can’t believe they’re set to spend Christmas together. Somebody free Liam from this girl’s torture! Ava and Shai naturally did some more making out at Charlie’s, but what did Ariana get up to? I’m almost too afraid of what the answer might be, and worst of all, Ariana is leaving us on a cliffhanger until next week. At least we’ll have time to prepare for the worst, just in case.