After an...interesting dinner where Craig Conover blasted his ex-girlfriend, Naomie Olindo, the Southern Charm season 8 group was ready to continue their trip in St. Simons Island in Georgia in episode 14.
At this point, the whole crew had been drinking, but Craig had been hitting the shots especially hard. When they arrived back at their vacation house, Craig and Austen Kroll were getting out of the car. It appeared that Craig was trying to play-fight with Austen by pushing him repeatedly.
Austen wasn’t into it and kept telling him to stop, but Craig kept going and got him in a headlock and brought him to the ground. It ended and Craig went back to his room while an annoyed Austen joined the rest of the group.
Are Craig and Austen fighting or dancing? #SouthernCharmSeptember 23, 2022
Venita Aspen went to bed, but Naomie, Austen, Shep Rose, Whitney Sudler-Smith, Taylor Ann Green and Olivia Flowers continued sipping and hanging out. Shep told his girlfriend to stay with him instead of socializing with the group, but Taylor wasn’t for it.
She got to talking with Austen and Olivia while Shep was with Naomie and Whitney. “You need to treat her better,” Whitney said to Shep, referring to Taylor, but he didn’t want to hear it.
Meanwhile, Austen, Taylor and Olivia were listening in on their conversation from downstairs and made a drinking game out of it. The fun ended shortly after that, however, and Shep went to Taylor saying how he was sick of people attacking him.
“Okay, I can’t with these two whispering to each other and Shep being like “Taylor, listen to me, I love you,” Austen jumped in. “And Shep, you’ve been an embarrassment too long. ****ing moron, Shep, just wait until bed. God, you’re such a ****ing p***y.” Austen walked out of the house still yelling about him, and that’s when Shep chimed in. “You are the biggest embarrassment of my ****ing life. You’re a ****ing joke. I cannot believe I’m even sharing oxygen with you,” he said.
Austen came back into the house and the situation escalated, as both of them were yelling back and forth. The crux of the issue appeared to be that Austen doesn’t like how Shep treats Taylor, and Shep feels like he’s being attacked although he’s happy and in love with Taylor. Austen decided that he’s done being the marriage counselor between the couple.
The following morning, Austen filled Craig in on his fight with Shep and how Shep doesn’t like how people go on at him about Taylor.
The crew split into two groups: One went golfing and the other went shrimping. On the boat, Craig talked with Venita and Olivia about how he acted at dinner toward Naomie the previous evening. “And I’ll always have a place in my heart for her, but like, I hated her, because of the way she put me down in front of people,” Craig said. But he doesn’t feel the need to have a conversation with her about it.
Shep and Austen fighting #SouthernCharm pic.twitter.com/bScGfc2U3oSeptember 23, 2022
After freshening up, the Southerners headed to yet another dinner. At least they were able to make it through the appetizer and most of the entree before it all started to go south again. “What is the, like, mood difference tonight? Because you’re so sweet tonight,” Naomie said to Craig, who responded that he guessed he got it all out the previous evening.
Naomie said that he needed to say sorry for his behavior. Craig brought up how he didn’t like how she told him how to act in a restaurant. As a refresher, Naomie had pointed out to the group that they needed to be better about acknowledging waitresses, because they made theirs feel uncomfortable.
This is when Venita chimed in, and it seemed to only make it worse. “Can you just acknowledge that it bothered him?” she said to Naomie. It seemed a bit out of place since Venita has been friends with Naomie for years and years. Venita continued, saying she thought it would be helpful if Naomie acknowledged his feelings.
“Venita, shut up,” Naomie fired back. Craig used that as an opportunity to uninvite Naomie to the upcoming party for his business, Sewing Down South. “Look, actually, here it is. I’m sorry. This is why I don’t hang out with you, because this is not who I want to be. This brings me to a level that I don’t like, so you guys can enjoy your dinner together. I’m gonna go back to the villa. I don’t want to act like Shep and yell at ****ing girls. I just want to go home,” Craig said before leaving the table.
Naomie shouldn’t have told Venita to shut up. At the same time, Craig did not need his feelings validated. He’s the one that lost it the night before & has been awful to Naomie. And he expects her to just take it. I don’t blame Naomie for calling him out about it. #SouthernCharmSeptember 23, 2022
The awkward silence was broken by Venita, who explained that she didn’t think that what Naomie said at the restaurant was wrong. But Naomie was visibly upset by what just happened and called what Venita did “fake as ****,” noting that she took Craig’s side and she didn’t appreciate it. Venita didn’t like being told to shut up, but Naomie doubled down saying that she needed to be told that.
Back at the house, Venita was explaining to Taylor that she didn’t want Naomie to think that she was taking Craig’s side. She just wanted Naomie to apologize so it could be done with. Naomie joined the conversation and it seemed like the more Venita tried to explain why she was sticking up for Craig, the bigger of a hole she dug herself. “So much for loyalty,” Naomie said in her confessional.
Southern Charm continues on Thursdays at 9 pm ET on Bravo.
