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When a 28-year-old unemployed journalist named Westling Wilson, who goes by West, was enthusiastically embraced by Bravo fans during his first season on the reality TV show \u201cSummer House\u201d <\/em>this year, it made some wonder<\/a>: Could he keep the good vibes going?<\/p>\n Last week many viewers issued a resounding answer to that question: No. Over the course of the first episode of the \u201cSummer House\u201d reunion on Thursday, Mr. Wilson went, in some viewers\u2019 eyes, from fan favorite to villain, due largely to the way he handled a breakup with his co-star, Ciara Miller.<\/p>\n Ms. Miller, a 28-year-old nurse and model from Atlanta who has been on the show for several seasons, is known for not warming easily to new people, which made it all the more surprising when she and Mr. Wilson seemed to hit it off almost immediately.<\/p>\n By the middle of the latest season, the two were cuddling, sleeping in the same bed at their shared Hamptons house and going on dates in New York City. Their will-they-or-won\u2019t-they tension was a main story line, and audiences were fervently rooting for them to make it official.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Their romantic fate wasn\u2019t revealed until last week, when Mr. Wilson and Ms. Miller said in the first episode of a two-part reunion that, after several months of dating \u2014 during which Mr. Wilson took her to Missouri to visit his parents \u2014 he told Ms. Miller in December that he wasn\u2019t ready to commit to a monogamous relationship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n At the reunion, Andy Cohen, the host, prompted the two to litigate the breakup in front of TV cameras.<\/p>\n Ms. Miller said that Mr. Wilson told her he couldn\u2019t commit \u201cbasically, for show-related reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Wilson then said that, at the time of the breakup, he was worried about what perceptions would be when the show began airing. He added that he had to make appearances with the heavily female Bravo audience \u2014 and that it would be a bad look \u201cto go to these watch parties with women.\u201d<\/p>\n A visibly flustered Mr. Wilson then said that another reason for breaking up with Ms. Miller, which he admitted was \u201cnarcissistic,\u201d was that they were often referred to on social media as \u201cCiara and newbie guy.\u201d He worried he would come off as a \u201cdude who came onto the show and is just Ciara\u2019s puppet the whole time,\u201d as he put it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This prompted a verbal evisceration from Ms. Miller\u2019s best friend and co-star, Paige DeSorbo, who accused him of caring more about the \u201callure\u201d of the show than about the \u201callure\u201d of Ms. Miller.<\/p>\n Mr. Wilson said in an interview on Monday that he regretted using the show as an excuse for the breakup, but that he did so to avoid further hurting Ms. Miller\u2019s feelings.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it was right to place the end of the relationship on those things,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I would\u2019ve read more honest if I was just like, the relationship ran its course, I don\u2019t think we were meant to be together, that\u2019s it. I think me trying to deflect the actual relationship and name all these external things really made me sound like an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n As quickly as the pendulum swung in Mr. Wilson\u2019s favor while the season was airing, after the first reunion episode, it swung back even more swiftly.<\/p>\n \u201cI am never trusting a straight man ever again,\u201d the comedian Joel Kim Booster wrote in a post<\/a> on X. \u201cI have been made to look a fool. Humiliated and devastated. You have made a powerful enemy, sir.\u201d Mr. Booster had previously posted that he hadn\u2019t liked a straight white man as much as Mr. Wilson since \u201cfriggin Bernie Sanders.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen the good will of the Bravoverse turn so fast than it did on West,\u201d read another post<\/a> on X by the Bravo fan account @BravoOMG. \u201cIt took a total of seven minutes for the tides to turn.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Wilson said that after filming the reunion in early May, he knew it hadn\u2019t gone well, but he never expected the level of vitriol fans are now throwing at him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so much worse\u201d than expected, he said. \u201cI thought people would be upset that we, like, didn\u2019t work out. I had no clue that I would be getting the hate that I have gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n Some have compared Mr. Wilson to Tom Sandoval, a star of Bravo\u2019s \u201cVanderpump Rules,\u201d who had an affair with a castmate while in a long-term relationship with another \u2014 a transgression better known as \u201cScandoval<\/a>.\u201d But other fans, and even Ms. DeSorbo<\/a>, felt such a characterization was going too far<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Wilson called the comparisons to someone who cheated on his girlfriend of 10 years \u201cshocking.\u201d He added, \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been, like, blacked out for the last five days.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There is, of course, a learning curve when it comes to reality TV stardom. How Mr. Wilson handles the fallout of the reunion and filming for Season 9 this summer will dictate whether he\u2019s due for a redemption arc \u2014 or if he\u2019ll become another Bravo villain. He said that though his cast members gave him a hard time during the reunion, they have largely been supportive, but that he expects the first few weeks of filming the new season to be awkward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He said castmates have \u201creached out to me and been like, \u2018We\u2019ve all been hated from time to time, just give it time, you\u2019ll be OK,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately I think I handled the reunion horribly and was nervous and said the wrong things,\u201d Mr. Wilson said. \u201cBut I still stand on the decision I made. I think our relationship ran its course. I hope that decision doesn\u2019t haunt me forever, even though I still think it\u2019s the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n