‘In the City’ Premiere: Amanda Batula, Kyle Cooke Address West Cheating Rumors

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the series premiere of “In the City,” streaming on Peacock as of May 20.

Picture the intro to “The Sopranos,” substitute Tony for an anxious-avoidant Italian woman exiting a hellish decade-long relationship, brighten up the score, and you have the opening beats to “In the City,” the much-ballyhooed “Summer House” spinoff.

“In the City,” which premiered Tuesday night on Bravo following the Season 10 finale of “Summer House,” revolves around Amanda Batula, Kyle Cooke and Lindsay Hubbard, three cornerstones of the aforementioned Hamptons-set series, as they navigate their lives in the not-so-mean streets of Manhattan. Amanda, 34, is the estranged wife of Kyle, 43, the founder of a canned cocktail company inexplicably called “Loverboy” that is hemorrhaging money; Kyle is her recently-dumped husband, who chose to pursue a DJ career in his 40s both to spite Amanda and to funnel money his struggling company; and Lindsay is a former publicist and single mom to a ridiculously cute baby girl, Gemma, whose palatial apartment would make Nancy Meyers blush.

There are other assorted cast members sprinkled in, such as former “Summer House” star, founder and president of something, Danielle Olivera, and her Irish live-in boyfriend Eoin; occasional “Summer House” cast member Andrea Denver, a really, really, ridiculously good-looking Italian model, and his wife Lexi; Lindsay’s pals Yvonne and Georgina; and Kenny Martin, an insufferable venture capitalist who immediately emerges as the villain of the show, and is joined by his lovely-seeming girlfriend Whitney, a former “Bachelor” contestant who should run for the hills.

Other than plenty of expected scenery-chewing from Lindsay, who clocks Kenny the moment she meets him, and the most awkward “anniversary” date you’ve ever seen between Amanda and Kyle, who still seems incapable of accepting accountability for his deplorable behavior toward his semi-spouse (even ditching couples-therapy sessions), the main takeaway from the pilot comes in the opening scene.

But first, some background. The 10th season of “Summer House” saw Amanda and Kyle’s four-year marriage on the verge of complete collapse. Amanda was beyond checked out, barely acknowledging her husband’s presence, while Kyle threw violent temper-tantrums left and right because he doesn’t know how to deal with his emotions, even saying “fuck you” to Amanda twice in front of their housemates. In January, Amanda and Kyle publicly announced their separation in a joint statement; the Season 10 finale of “Summer House,” meanwhile, features them separating and Amanda staying in a hotel for a few days. On March 31, two months after their separation announcement — and following weeks of online rumors and speculation — Amanda and Westling “West” Wilson, 31, a content creator, friend to Amanda and Kyle and overall hypebeast, announced that they were a sorta couple. That West had previously dated Ciara Miller, one of Amanda Batula’s BFFs who still harbors feelings for West, made it a particularly thorny scenario.

Following a montage of news reports about the separation and the coupling, “In the City” opens on April 9, as cameras picked up nine days after the Amanda and West announcement to capture the aftermath. Kyle is doing the dishes, and Amanda enters. He warmly greets her, asking, “Have you eaten? You’re looking skinny. I’m worried about you…,” to which she replies, “I’m worried about me, too.”

Amanda has long suffered from depression, some of which was documented on “Summer House,” and has been cast as the backstabbing friend (or “Raquel/Rachel”) in this imbroglio, which the internet has dubbed “Scamanda.” The amount of vitriol aimed at Amanda versus West has been wildly disproportionate, in my estimation. West is the one who served as a shoulder to cry on for Amanda, and took advantage of a deeply vulnerable woman who’d recently exited a traumatic relationship. Amanda should have shown more transparency and grace toward Ciara, who dated West years prior, but also likely viewed West as a fun, unserious post-breakup fling (at least initially). This mess should really be called “Westgate.”

The two move over to the couch and begin by discussing their split. “I know we’ve been able to somewhat keep in touch through all this, and like, I want to be there for you, but I also want to take an opportunity to, like, clear things up. Because I look back at the summer and it looked like you were done with me,” opens a visibly annoyed Kyle.

“And that’s what’s so frustrating, is I gave our relationship everything I had because I wanted the relationship to work so badly,” Amanda replies, tearing up. “And the idea of not existing with you in my life was so impossible for me to wrap my head around, and it’s what made it so hard to call it quits, which is why it got so fucking messy, because I was so afraid that once we ended things we would just be out of each other’s lives forever, and I couldn’t handle that.”

Kyle presses on. “But I’m gonna be honest: I can pinpoint these instances during the summer and fall where I’m like, damn, she wasn’t just one foot out, she was fully out the door,” he says.

“I was done to an extent. I was tired. I had nothing left in me to fight, but I was still trying to give it everything I had,” Amanda reiterates.

And then Kyle addresses the real elephant in the room: Amanda and West. “Can you honestly say, though, that right through Thanksgiving, for that matter, even if it was an emotional affair with West…” he says, before Amanda cunningly cuts him off. “Nothing was happening! I was so committed to you throughout the whole fucking thing, and all I wanted was to make it work, and for you to even question my faithfulness in any capacity just really fucking hurts, because that’s not the type of person that I am! Like I would step out on you or cheat? I’ve been cheated on by you.” (I think it’s fair for Kyle to question the timeline, but he also did cheat on Amanda a bunch throughout their relationship, so he doesn’t really have a leg to stand on.)

“I had a one-night stand…” responds Kyle defensively.

“Kyle, you made out with someone while we were married,” Amanda says. “There’s a video.”

Bringing up the video stops Kyle in his tracks, and his reaction screams guilt. He switches gears from defensive ex to sympathetic one.

“I know you’re not a bad person,” he says. “I think you were reckless and thoughtless, if I’m being honest. But in all of this, I’m still trying to be a good friend to you. I mean, I worry about you. I worry about your mental health.”

“It’s not your responsibility, but I appreciate that,” says Amanda. The action then flashes back seven months to September 2025, and to our regularly scheduled programming. For the real fireworks, I guess we’ll have to wait for the three-part “Summer House” reunion, kicking off May 26. The teaser alone is absolute cinema.