'Summer House: Martha's Vineyard': A Study In Conflict Resolution

Did you catch the season 2 finale of Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday?

Source: Kareem Black / Bravo

We’re running back our interview with Jasmine Ellis Cooper after watching the many ups and downs between the friends this season. While we were a little disappointed that Summer didn’t open up with Noelle about what she’s been going through before leaving early, we were super proud of Jasmine for showing such grace when bringing the group back.

We chatted with the new mom at the beginning of the season and she told us she’d suffered a little bit of anxiety heading back to the Vineyard for production.

“I was definitely excited about having fun and being there in slightly warmer conditions,” Ellis Cooper told BOSSIP. “I was anxious about really setting boundaries and seeing where I could manage my friendships, to be honest. There was no way to predict how that was going to play out positive or negative but whatever it was going to be, I was ready to accept where I stood with people.”

You’ll recall the season got off to a rocky start, with Jasmine feeling left out due to her friends getting together off-camera and for trips, multiple times without her. Ultimately she seized the moment to hash out differences between her and longtime friends Jordan, Bria, Shanice and Summer.

“I’m a conflict avoiding person in recovery so that was a big big leap for me to take on,” Jasmine continued. “The stakes felt really high and so I had to meet the moment regardless if it was comfortable or not and I hope I did well.”

We’d say she did incredibly well, particularly since she was keeping a pregnancy secret for much of the first part of the vacation!

Source: Courtesy / Bravo

Jasmine did shine a little more light on Jordan’s commentary about how she showed up differently in the first season from their off camera life.

“It makes me laugh, because I’m always changing,” Ellis Cooper said. “Like if you just look at my life in the past three years, I’ve had to change because my environment and the growth has required me to so I’m not even who I am at the end of last summer that I am today, this is always going to be evolving, so she’s right, I was not the same. Yeah, no that makes sense.”

Due to his deployment, Jasmine’s husband Silas wasn’t able to join their crew in Martha’s Vineyard, but she told us that she didn’t feel he was as much of a factor for her issues with friends last season as it seemed to be.

“I really do see last season and this season as a tug of war with myself, and because we’ve done so much therapy he is the one person that really can’t speak to the things that I’m working on in terms of just relationships,” Jasmine said of Silas. “Like having boundaries — I’m trying that out. It was the consequences of me fighting, him and I just not being on the same page, like me not picking up on how much he was actually going through at the time, not picking up on how Jordan was feeling differently about me and some of my other friends, like I wasn’t picking up on none of that, you know and so this season I’m excited about people really getting a chance to see me. I really worked that muscle of just having conversations and being a little bit more direct and sharing my opinion more so that’s a life thing. That was like a crossroad that I had to cross myself.”

Source: Bryan Bedder / Bravo

While season two wasn’t without its fair share of drama, we had to congratulate Jasmine for shining a light on Black excellence with such a great cast.

“We got to represent wherever we go, so that’s always going to be there, whether the cameras are there or not,” Jasmine told BOSSIP. “We represent even amongst each other, so that in combination with the organic friendships, that’s gonna always have us coming back to each other or with a certain amount of integrity or intention even to always come back to each other.”

Seasons 1 and 2 of Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard are available on Bravo and streaming now on Peacock.