‘Winter House’ Recap: “Evil Sorcerer” Madison LeCroy Interrupts Austen Kroll’s Good Time

There’s always at least one lesson deep, deep down in every Winter House episode, and in the latest, it would be: do not unblock your ex.

Things are going swimmingly for Austen Kroll and Ciara Miller — so good that he even shields the camera in his bedroom so that the two can have some nighttime privacy. Ooh la la!

However, he was unable to shield his heart the next day when his ex — somehow, while miles and miles away from him — still manages to ruin his day. Now, all due respect to Madison LeCroy, who seemed to probably be having a worse and scarier day than him. But it’s safe to say that all parties — not just those involved, those there to lend a supportive shoulder and ear to their friend, and those of us watching from home — are all pleased that she’s moved on and found love, and hopefully he has too.

Austen is seen getting a text so stressful that he can only pace around the Vermont house and can’t even bring himself to join the others in some hot tub fun. Finally he confesses to bestie Craig Conover, “Someone reached out to me and was like, ‘Madison just went to the hospital’. And so I unblocked her and I had a bunch of messages, and she was like, ‘I just went to the hospital. But I only just wanted to talk to you’. And I’m like, ‘Ok well what happened?’”

According to Austen, she told him, “I had a seizure when I was cooking for Hudson and I passed out on the floor and Hudson called the fucking ambulance,” referring to her young son. Austen admits he’s very caught up in all of this “because I’m drinking,” and doesn’t want to mess up what he’s got. “Life is so fucking wonderful, Craig. I have this fucking great girl who’s like, all about it.” And for his part, Craig tells him, “Look, you start to doubt your opinions about stuff. How many times has she said sorry to you? It doesn’t change. You’re not crazy, she’s just a bad person.”

In his interview, Craig goes on to explain, “Madison’s biggest pleasure in life is putting Austen through hell. Austen was finally getting over Madison, he was finally moving on, and somehow this evil sorcerer, she will never let him go.”

Andrea Denver also joins the guys and offers the advice of “You gotta block,” and “Don’t answer it.”

“But he can’t not answer it, that’s what we’re saying,” Craig explains to everyone that hasn’t already been watching this happen for years on Southern Charm.

But the real kicker is when Austen reveals, “She texts me and she goes, ‘Please tell me that you haven’t moved on.’” While he’s emotionally sorting through this crisis, Craig even instructs Ciara to go away when she knocks on the door. They’ve got Bro Business to figure out! Paige is naturally, justifiably suspicious of the conference occurring in Austen’s bedroom.

“Do you want to continue to be a pawn in someone’s fucking life or not?” Craig asks his pal in a caring yet firm manner.

“This girl who’s so fucking beautiful and for some reason thinks that I’m so amazing, and that could all stop in one instant if she’s like, ‘Oh you’re still hung up on your ex?’” Austen tells the guys. “I just don’t want to scare her off.”

Craig also offers the advice that “I’m always an honesty is everything person, [but] you can’t be honest to her about this though.” Austen agrees, and even goes so far as to refuse to have any questions about the potential of his relationship with Ciara post-Vermont asked at the dinner table, which only makes everyone even more suspicious.

He finally pulls Ciara for a chat in her room to tell her, “You and I thankfully have never talked about exes before. But I do have something where I just got out of something four or five months ago, but that shit haunts me, is what I’m saying. I feel like I’m like messed up from it and I just want to be honest with you.”

She asks the very legitimate questions, “Is there a reason you’re telling me now? Is there something that set it off? Are you guys still in communication?” But we are left with a cliffhanger before he has a chance to respond. However, in a glimpse of next week’s episode, we see Austen saying, “I’m not in the place to be exclusive right now,” which sounds very self-aware, but he’s also pictured wearing a gold hoop earring with the word “BABYGIRL” on it which…well, demands some more information, is all.

Lindsay Hubbard reveals, “I don’t think he’s over his ex, I’ve known that and I’ve been keeping my mouth fucking shut,” and we see Ciara in tears telling Austen, “I’ve been scared to like you because it felt like something like this was gonna happen.” Plus, he is definitely not Amanda Batula’s favorite person at the moment either. We’ll be staying tuned for the answers, certainly about the earring, but about the relationship stuff too, I guess.

Winter House airs Wednesday at 9 pm ET/PT on Bravo. 

Stream Winter House on Bravo

source: nypost.com