Southern Charm recap: Shep blows up at Taylor

After an intense discussion around the campfire in Yemassee, South Carolina at Whitney Sudler-Smith’s friend’s huge house, the Southern Charm crew continued their evening in season 8, episode 10.

At the campfire, it was brought up how Craig Conover used to be years ago — aka a goof-off who was more focused on partying than his career. Shep Rose went in on him a bit, and the two long-time friends got into an argument. When the group sat down for dinner, Shep’s girlfriend, Taylor Ann Green, addressed his behavior with him. “There’s one point in your life where you doubted Craig and his pillows. So he’s obviously succeeding. Be happy for him,” Taylor said, encouraging him to apologize for doubting him. “You’ve got to rise above your ego,” she continued.

When Craig returned to the table after getting a drink, Shep pulled him aside. “Craig, I’m really, really sorry. Hey, I’m dead serious. I’m sorry for all the sh*t I said, and I’m sorry, I’m sorry for anything I’ve said in the past. I really am,” Shep said. Craig explained that they don’t see eye-to-eye, they have very different opinions and they both have to be okay with that. The friends exchanged I love yous and hugged it out.

Back at the table, Austen Kroll asked Craig if Shep apologized. Craig went on to say that when someone comes at someone, it’s not really about that person, it’s because they’re not happy with themselves. “You did it, too, Craig! You were acting out, too,” Austen responded, noting that Craig was “acting out, doing crazy sh*t.”

Craig didn’t appreciate that Austen was defending Shep, and got up to walk away from the “negative behavior.” Austen called him a “crazy person,” and Craig declared that they were no longer friends. Craig eventually returned to the dinner table, but it was clear he was in a bad mood. Olivia Flowers, who Austen briefly dated, told Austen to fix it with Craig so that everyone else could enjoy the night. Austen took that as Olivia taking Craig’s side and he left dinner.

Now to move onto even more important business: Naomie Olindo and Whitney. We found out in the last episode that the two made out after the dog wedding, and Whitney spent the night at her place. The following morning after the campfire and dinner , Austen took the opportunity to find out what Naomie and Whitney did the previous evening. Whitney said the two drove around the property, looked at the moonlight and had a glass of wine. A flashback of the night, however, showed that Naomie’s voice was coming from Whitney’s room. Maybe their hookup was more than just a hookup?

The group headed out after breakfast to have some fun by playing egg toss, where the goal is to throw an egg between two people without breaking it. It started off innocent enough, but when Naomie threw her egg to Shep, it landed in the grass without breaking. Taylor thought that meant they were out, so she stomped on it. Shep got mad and called her a “****ing idiot.” Olivia didn’t like how he spoke to her, so she threw an egg at him, which Shep reciprocated. Other people started coming to Taylor’s defense, but Shep wasn’t letting up. “I should have said something worse,” he said.

Naomie took Taylor inside to get a drink, and Taylor, who was crying, disclosed that things like that happen often. “The fact that he’s like, ‘you’re lucky I didn’t say something worse than ****ing idiot’ in front of all your friends, that’s abuse, like that is abuse,” Naomie said. Taylor said she didn’t even hear him call her that, because she’s so used to it.

In between that chaos, Craig and Austen found themselves talking about their fight from the previous evening. Craig explained that Austen is his best friend, and it wasn’t a good feeling that he was sticking up for Shep and not having his back. The two talked it through with Austen explaining that best friends are supposed to tell you when you’re doing something stupid, but Craig felt the timing was off. “I received it as an attack instead of being like, ‘hey, I’m just trying to help you out, buddy. Like you shouldn’t act this way,’” Craig said. The good news is that both parties understood where they could have acted differently, and they plan to work on their friendship.

Moving onto the next relationship that needed mending, Austen and Olivia sat down to talk. Austen felt a certain way about Olivia bringing a date to the dog wedding, but he acknowledged that it was his fault for saying he wanted to take things slow. “I don’t want you to be with anyone else. I want to date you,” Austen said. A sweet sentiment? Not so fast. 

Olivia wanted to know (although she already did) what Austen did after the nuptials, aka meet up with Ciara Miller of Bravo’s Summer House and Winter House. Olivia called Austen out on being so upset about her bringing a date, yet he went off that same night with an old fling. He reiterated that he doesn’t want to date other people and wants to date her. Olivia said that she doesn’t want to see him with other people either, so maybe these two have a chance at a redo? Time will tell.

Shep begged Taylor to talk to him and she agreed. He apologized, said he’s a better person because he’s with her and tried to prove his love in the conversation. “If I’m not good enough, okay, I will be sad and broken-hearted, but I’ll understand, because I know how much of a ****ing idiot I am,” Shep said. Taylor expressed how she felt and what it was like being talked to like that in front of all of their friends. “It does scare me,” she said, noting that she’s exhausted and sometimes she does want to quit the relationship. The two were able to work through it, however, and seemed to be on better terms.

Southern Charm continues on Thursdays at 9 pm ET on Bravo.