Even the best parties have to come to an end, and we’ve reached the season finale of Winter House Season 3. Before we say goodbye to this season, there were a few tears left to cry, hookups to have, and beefs to squash.
Winter House Season 3, Episode 9, “One Last Ride,” picked up right where we left off last week, with Sam going after Malia over concerns she had been flirting with Kory. With less than 48 hours left in the sharehouse, the roommates had to race to find closure in all of their messy relationships before saying goodbye to Steamboat Springs. Here’s how they tied up all those loose ends during the Winter House Season 3 finale.
Sam and Kory DTR
When we last left off, things were getting heated between Sam and Malia. Possessed by a toxic combination of alcohol and insecurity, Sam fully went after Malia and accused her of wanting to be in a relationship with Kory. Malia handled it like a pro, and by the time their conversation was over, Sam was crying and confessing her deep, deep feelings for Kory.
Sam admitted that she felt anxious coming into the house and not knowing what Kory had been doing. Through tears, she confessed to Malia that she loved Kory. Yes, the “L” word. Then, moments after admitting her love for Kory, Sam ran into the bathroom and sobbed.
Eventually, the housemates got Kory to console Sam, and she explained her complicated feelings. She made it clear that she didn’t like being in the situationship zone with Kory for so long. After all, it had been eight months. Then she awkwardly asked him, “Like, are you my boyfriend?”
Kory’s response was priceless. He looked at her with a shrug. Then, he replied, “Technically, I guess we are.”
Romance isn’t dead! With that uncomfortable exchange, Sam and Kory officially became boyfriend and girlfriend. This is the kind of closure we want out of a season finale. Cheers to them.
The tortoise and the hare
While Sam and Kory made things official, another couple was frolicking through the halls of the Winter House making moves. After spending the entire season playing a weird cat-and-mouse game, Brian and Casey finally crossed out of the friendzone and into a hookup.
Brian said he knew it would happen eventually, and he likened his approach with Casey to the classic tale of the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady, he finally won the race with Casey and the two made out. When they first started kissing, they were going so hard that they didn’t realize they were lying on top of Alex!
In other relationship news, Tom and Katie also crossed out of the friendzone threshold. They had a romantic, candlelit date, and Tom told her that he was ready to take her out of the friendzone. Finally!
Tom and Katie made plans to go on a date in Los Angeles, and Tom said he felt excited to connect with someone outside of the “cesspool” Vanderpump Rules circle. However, in a confessional, Katie admitted that the two of them would probably never amount to anything serious. Still, we’re glad they made some progress.
Casey gets confronted (again)
At the top of the episode when Sam and Malia were arguing, Malia let it slip that Kory was hiding something from his lady. Sam probably thought it was a hookup, but it was actually just the tea about Casey trash-talking Sam. Kory was forced to tell Sam about it, setting Casey up for another tough conversation.
The way the cast has lingered on Casey’s trash-talking, you’d think she had said something horrific about Sam. Seriously, who hasn’t been called trash? Sam could easily get over it, but instead, she decided to confront Casey on the last day of the vacation.
For the final day in Steamboat, the gang went skiing and Sam pulled Casey aside to talk to her about the trash-talking. Kory already squashed the issue, but Sam felt compelled to say something too.
Once again, Casey had to apologize, but she fully owned the fact that she shouldn’t have called Sam trash. She felt especially silly about it since the two of them ended up hitting it off! The two blondes hugged it out with no hard feelings. We can consider this case closed!
Danielle and Alex’s last stand
Last week, Alex decided to move Danielle into the friendzone, and the pair made it seem like they weren’t going to get handsy anymore because of all of the drama it was causing. That was easier said than done because, throughout the finale, Danielle whined about wanting things to go back to the way they were with Alex.
On the other hand, Alex wanted to avoid Danielle during the last bit of the trip because he didn’t want the final hours of Season 3 to be clouded with her chaos. However, he eventually caved and they hooked up in the bathroom. He just has zero willpower.
“I’m human. I’m weak, whatever,” Alex said in his confessional interview. “It’s not like anything could get more complicated,” he continued.
Alex was wrong. He was very wrong. On reality TV, things can always get more complicated, and things peaked during the final night in the house. After seeing Jordan and Alex being too friendly with each other for the 900th time, Danielle reached her breaking point and confronted Jordan with a shocking level of aggression.
Danielle told Jordan that if she were a “cool girl,” she would push back against Alex’s flirty advances. Jordan argued that it was not her responsibility to police Alex’s behavior. That went right over Danielle’s head.
The screaming match between Jordan and Danielle got so nasty that it almost seemed like it could get physical. Alex was the only person in the house with the power to calm things down, but he wanted no part of it. He took his behind to bed because he knew that none of it would matter the next day. This is the season finale, so it’s not going to matter once the cameras go down.
Packing up the baggage
On the final morning in Steamboat Springs, Danielle woke up feeling regretful about trying to fight Jordan. While everyone else packed their luggage, Danielle pulled Jordan aside to “apologize” for her behavior. However, it felt more like a hungover person feeling embarrassed about their drunken actions rather than a genuine apology.
“I hate what happened last night,” Danielle said, before immediately jumping back into questions like, “Why were you flirting with Alex last night?”
Jordan showed an unnecessarily high level of patience with Danielle, and she calmly explained that her relationship with Alex throughout Season 3 was the same as her relationship with everyone else — platonic.
After some back-and-forth with Jordan, Danielle finally admitted something we’ve all known this whole season. She said, “Maybe I have stronger feelings [for Alex] than I thought I had.”
It only took Danielle eight episodes to figure that out, but better late than never, right? She finally realized that her manic behavior about Alex all season had nothing to do with Jordan or anyone else. It was a Danielle problem.
So, with that final bit of baggage resolved, the gang packed their bags and said goodbye to Steamboat Springs. It’s safe to say this was a successful vacation. Situationships turned into relationships, lifelong friendships formed, gnar was shredded, and Brian finally got kissed. What an ending!
All episodes of Winter House Season 3 are streaming on Peacock.
TELL US – WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE WINTER HOUSE SEASON 3 FINALE? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SAM AND KORY BECOMING OFFICIAL? DO YOU THINK DANIELLE’S APOLOGY TO JORDAN WAS SINCERE?
