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Jarrett “JT” Thomas and Austen Kroll came face to face in the Dec. 5 premiere of Southern Charm season 10 after the former tried to perform a “f—boy exorcism” on the Trop Hop Beer founder during the season 9 reunion
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Kroll tells PEOPLE he expected it to be “awful, awful, awful” when he met up with Thomas again
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Thomas has since decided to quit Southern Charm and did not complete his filming obligations for season 10
Jarrett “JT” Thomas came hard for Austen Kroll in the Southern Charm season 9. The two got into a physical fight in the finale and then Thomas, 39, tried to perform a “f—boy exorcism” on Kroll, 37, during the reunion.
So when season 10 picked back up on Thursday, Dec. 5, Kroll found himself trying to “be the bigger man — literally and metaphorically,” he tells PEOPLE. “If you have to be around him, you’re old enough to know it’s just going to be awful, awful, awful. Every time that you see him, you just don’t want to punch him in the face. I am trying my hardest in the beginning to fight these [tendencies].”
When the group reunites at the Carolina Cup horse race in South Carolina in the season 10 premiere, “I’m trying to figure it out on the fly of what am I going to do? How am I going to be around this person?” Kroll, who’s been dating Audrey Pratt for 11 months, says of Thomas. “I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him, which actually I could probably throw him pretty far, if we’re being honest. So that’s where my head is.”
Thomas, who has since resigned from the show, tried to make light of his return by distributing canes to his friends at the horse race as he needed one to walk following an ATV accident he got into in Costa Rica.
“After my near-death experience, I was thinking about you,” Thomas said to Kroll in the Dec. 5 premiere. “I think I was a little harsh on you during the exorcism. I’m happy as hell for you that you got a girlfriend. So, I got something for you.”
Michelle Watt/Bravo
The cast of ‘Southern Charm’ season 10 (clockwise from top left) Ryan Albert, Salley Carson, Madison LeCroy, Rodrigo Reyes, Austen Kroll, Venita Aspen, Molly O’Connell, Leva Bonaparte, Jarret “JT” Thomas, Craig Conover, Shep Rose and Taylor Ann Green
As Thomas handed over the cane to Kroll, the Trop Hop Beer founder asked Thomas if he planned to beat him with it.
“I’m not fighting with you,” Thomas said. “This is your cane because you turned over a new leaf.”
Kroll believes Thomas had been “trying to very clearly be something that you aren’t.”
Even Patricia Altschul did not appreciate the gesture. “I am genuinely offended,” the 83-year-old told the cameras in the Dec. 5 premiere. “What’s next, a wheelchair? I don’t know what in the hell he was thinking. It was kind of a stupid gift in my estimation.”
Kroll admits “there’s still some bad blood on my end” between him and Thomas. “You don’t just slander someone with horrible and awful things for as long as he did at the reunion and then expect it to all be cool,” he says.
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Since Thomas decided to step away from the show, he doesn’t plan to reflect on season 10 at the reunion at the end of the season.
“In the Bravo universe, there are like three certainties: there’s death, there’s taxes and there’s your f—ing reunion,” Kroll says. “You go to your reunion, you face the music; you hopefully face it in a good enough manner so you can clean slate it and move on. It’s very apparent to me that he doesn’t want to have to face the music for all the things that you’re about to see on this upcoming season.”
The Dec. 5 episode also saw Kroll sit down with Craig Conover and Shep Rose after he and Conover, 35, stepped away from their friendships with the reality star due to Rose’s excessive drinking at BravoCon 2023.
“If anybody can give help, guidance, support or harsh correction, it’s us, right? And you guys didn’t do any of that,” Rose told Conover and Kroll in the premiere. “And that hurt more than you’ll ever know.”
Alan Smith/Bravo
‘Southern Charm’ stars (from left) Austen Kroll, Craig Conover and Shep Rose
While Conover said he didn’t want to be “associated with Shep’s unhealthy behavior,” Kroll didn’t want to create as strict of a boundary.
“I always feel like I’m caught in the middle with those two,” Kroll says. “I have always said that Craig is over here on the far left and Shep is over here on the far right — not in politically speaking — and I’m in the middle somewhere. Craig finds it easier to cut people out and off than I do. It weighs on me heavy. In the moment, Craig is just super pissed at Shep for being Shep, but we all know who Shep is. We’re like, ‘Hey dude, time to usher in a new era.’”
Rose attended an Ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica earlier this year, and in the Dec. 5 episode, Rose told Kroll that he had a vision of Kroll’s late sister while on the trip.
Today, Kroll describes his friendship with Rose as “great.”
“I’m definitely glad where we ended and where Shep’s head space was at for these opening talks together — talks I’ve been wanting to have for ages, but maybe have been waiting for the right moment to have,” Kroll says. ““What you see is that it is like a brotherly relationship the end of the day. My sister pisses me off more than anyone in my life, but I will always love her more than anyone. And that’s how I feel about Craig and Shep. We’re all trying to grow and figure out how we all can continue to fit into each other’s lives.”
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Southern Charm airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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