On tonight's superlative episode of Winter House, Lindsay Hubbard and Austen Kroll finally admitted what many in their orbit have suspected: They slept together one time. "We fucked," said Lindsay, on her way to being absolutely hammered after a couple hours of nighttime snow tubing. "We fucked," Austen concurred. The longtime "friends" made their confession to pal Kyle Cooke, who was happy to hear it. What happens now?
During last week's premiere episode, Austen memorably made out with Lindsay's Summer House co-star Ciara Miller in a hot tub (next to Paige DeSorbo and Andrea Denver, who were also making out). In episode two, Lindsay burst onto the scene to claim Austen for herself, citing their shared history.
What exactly is that history? And will it keep Austen from pursuing a relationship with Ciara? And how much will Lindsay freak out no matter what he does?
We don't have the answers to those last two questions yet, but we do know quite a bit about what's gone down between Lindsay and Austen in the past, thanks to various disclosures made during this episode. Below, a rough timeline of dramatic events.
"Three Years Ago"
Lindsay first disclosed the Ballad of Lindsay and Austen to her new roommate, Julia McGuire, as the two prepared to go snow tubing. "No one really knows, like, the history between us," she said, before telling her most of it. Her first encounter with Austen, she said, happened "three years ago" in the Hamptons, where Summer House is filmed. They made out.
We can conclude that this was also probably around the time that they slept together, as Lindsay and Austen told Kyle the romantic event happened "a few years ago" when Austen was on a break from his girlfriend at the time.
"Two Years Ago"
A year later, Austen traveled to New York City to visit Lindsay. "We basically hung out for four days straight," she bragged to Julia. After that, she said that they began talking on the phone a lot: "We both kind of talked each other through our relationships and like, call each other crying and like, call each other when we're drunk."
"So you really have an emotional relationship," Julia concluded. Lindsay agreed.
"New Year's Eve This Year"
Lindsay revealed that in the wee hours of the morning on January 1, 2021, Lindsay and Austen "probably FaceTimed 15 times." Lindsay said she asked him what his goals were, and he responded, "Lindsay, I'm going to date you this year." Wow!
And then, of course, Lindsay and Austen showed up to film Winter House together. When Lindsay arrived at the house at the beginning of this episode, she embraced Austen in a hug that lasted approximately 40 minutes. And then, after she made her various claims about her history with Austen to Julia and Kyle, she drunkenly crawled into Austen's room and confessed, "I'm in love with you." Oh boy.
Of course, most of the timeline we have constructed is based on Lindsay's perspective. What Austen thinks of their history, as well as Lindsay's declaration of love, will most likely be revealed in next week's episode.
According to the teaser, Austen tells Lindsay he loves her "like a sister" (hoping for his sake that he immediately takes it back) and proceeds to go on a date with Ciara.
As for where things stand today: Lindsay is being coy, and Austen has so far declined to comment. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight this week, Lindsay said she was not the only one who made drunken declarations of love during Winter House.
She also suggested that at some point during filming, she got romantic with fellow cast member Jason Cameron. And she also might be back together with her Summer House co-star Carl Radke (who declined to film Winter House). Austen, who?