The ‘Southern Charm’ Taylor and Austen Drama Is Getting Juicy

Despite my early hesitations, I’m really starting to enjoy the way this Taylor and Austen storyline (aka the poor man’s Scandoval) is starting to unfold.

Maybe it’s because this week’s episode reminded me of Winter House, with Taylor’s aprés-ski-themed party and the appearance of several members of the deeply chaotic Southern Hospitality, that I was so amused by tonight’s episode of Southern Charm. We’ve also reached the point where everyone and their mother in Charleston knows that something unsavory went down at Austen’s house and has made it their business. By the end of episode, we’re left on a cliffhanger of Shep interrogating Austen for the first time. Somehow, I was biting my nails even though I already knew the conclusion.

As I said, tonight’s episode revolves around Taylor’s product-placement party for these mysterious Day Chaser seltzer drinks she’s hawking. But before that, we pick up where last week’s episode left off with Olivia crying in her car after Taylor revealed that she and Austen considered getting together. And she vents to Leva with a shaky voice as if she just encountered an alien. To be honest, I was expecting Olivia to be more performatively shook than actually shook. But she seems genuinely unsettled by this news and spends this whole episode rubbing the sides of her neck as if to prevent an anxiety attack.

Read more at The Daily Beast.