The group breaks the news to Sammi ‘Sweetheart’ Giancola that her ex Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is going on their Nashville vacation

Tensions rose amid the former roommates on Thursday’s new episode of MTV’s Jersey Shore Family Vacation with Sammi ‘Sweetheart’ Giancola.

Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino and Nicole ‘Snooki’ Pollizi revealed that they were planning on inviting Sammi’s ex – Ronnie Ortiz-Magro – to their Nashville vacation.

The news was sprung during an ’emergency’ family meeting at Sorrentino’s house, though no one was told what it was when they arrived.

All of the roommates agreed that Ronnie should get a second chance and should come on the trip, but things when asked if she’d be OK with it, Sammi simply said, ‘Hell no.’

After a few tense moments, though, Sammi ultimately agreed to try and find a way to co-exist with her ex, who she said she hadn’t spoken to in 10 years.

The episode begins with Mike and Nicole having lunch as they talk about it being time to bring Ronnie back into the group. 

‘I think it’s time. It’s been like two years or so that he hasn’t been on a family trip with us,’ Mike says, adding, ‘And I feel that, after all the check-ins over the past couple months, or actually, years.’

Nicole adds, ‘He’s off TMZ. He’s not doing anything crazy,’ as Mike continues, ‘He needs to maybe hang around good people. I think it’s time.’

Mike adds in confession, ‘I believe Ron is at peace and where he needs to be in life. And I think bringing Ron back into the fold will be a positive– for him, for the squad. And as a friend, it would be nice to see more of him.’

Mike tells Nicole, ‘Right now, the first thing to get over is to call Ron and be like, are you gonna be available this weekend? We think it’s time.’

Nicole asked, ‘So we’re not asking the roomies?’ as Mike joked, ‘Well, this is why you’re here, so I don’t get yelled at,’ though he admitted he was joking, adding, ‘We have to figure out the Sam situation as well.’

Nicole adds in confession, ‘Mike wants to invite Ron. But what I’m worried about is Sam. You know, like, they haven’t seen each other in so long, and they’ve been through so much s**t.’

Mike tells Nicole, ‘I am a big believer in giving people second chances,’ as Nicole admits in confession, ‘I mean, this definitely can go sideways.’

‘Like, this is my first trip. I haven’t planned a trip yet. And I’m like, f**k, maybe it’s not gonna be so much fun,’ Nicole admits in confession.

Mike tells Nicole, ‘You guys opened the door for me. I had already been a couple years sober, and I took the ball and ran with it. And now we’re gonna do the same thing for Ron.’

Mike adds in confession, ‘I am a big believer in the comeback, so we gotta at least take the leap of faith.’

As their food arrives at the restaurant, Mike tells Nicole, ‘We will be part of the orchestration that had brought the family back together, ‘though Nicole adds, ‘If it goes well.’

Mike adds in confession, ‘This is a very big moment, because Ron has been absent in this group for many years. Sam has been absent for almost ten, and she just came back. And now we’re all trying to bring everybody back together. Things could fall apart very quickly.’

Mike asks Nicole how Sam is probably feeling about all this, as Nicole responds, ‘Honestly, she knows it’s coming. Cause it happened in Orlando,’ as they show flashback footage from Orlando showing Sammi talking about Ronnie.

Nicole adds, ‘If he stays his course, I think we’ll be ok,’ while Mike says in confession, ‘This happens all the time in life. Parents get divorced, and people sort of move on. And you know, we tired of multiple holidays and you know, two pizzas and stuff. We want to share one.’

They decide to call Ronnie from the restaurant, as Nicole adds in confession, ‘If Sam wasn’t here, I feel like we’d all just be like, all right, Ron, let’s go. But now Sam is back, and they have such a history. I don’t want her to leave again, because we just got her back. So this is like a sticky situation. Like, I can’t imagine seeing my ex.’

They video call Ronnie who says he’s in Miami and he just got out of the gym, as Nicole mentions, ‘Still doing GTL (gym tan laundry).’

‘Me and Nicole have been sitting here for the past hour talking good things about you. We’re going to Nashville, and we were like, we think it’s time, man, that we take the leap, man,’ Mike tells him.

They ask what his plans for the weekend are and he says he’s free, as Mike tells him they’re going to break the news to Sam, ‘and see if we all can have this big reunion.’

Ronnie says he’s in and he’ll wait for their call, as Mike thinks it’s better to have Ronnie reunite with Sammi on the roommate vacation and not the family vacation when Sammi’s boyfriend Justin May will be there.

Nicole thinks they should tell the rest of the roommates about Ronnie’s return first before letting Sammi know.

‘You know, he’s been our brother. We have to give him a second chance like we gave you,’ Nicole says, adding, ‘This is also a business trip. I really want to find my store, and I don’t want it to be everyone fighting.’

With everything settled between Mike and Nicole, Mike sends a text to the group chat, asking them all to meet at his house for, ‘important family business.’

They all show the roommates reacting to the group chat, everyone except Angelina, who Mike says has been, ‘M.I.A.’

He adds in confession, ‘Angelina definitely seems like she’s going through a lot right now. You know, there’s problems in her relationship,’ as they show a flashback where Angelina seems to indicate her and Vin have broken up.

Mike adds she’s been having problems with her biological father, who she just met for the first time in the Season 7 premiere.

Angelina reveals that she was trying to get to know him, but, ‘he saw dollar signs,’ as Mike adds she, ‘went into attack mode,’ adding they’re worried for her.’

They cut to Angelina’s house, where she’s with her sister, watching a video from the wife of a New York Jets player, calling out Angelina… or ‘Angela’ as she called her… for DM’ing her husband.

She shared the DM from Angelina which only said, ‘See you soon,’ as the wife though it was, ‘weird,’ but Angelina tried to explain in confession.

‘When we were at the Jets game, I decided to just dm some of the Jets players, you know? I dm’d every one of those f***ing guys, and they were awesome. But I didn’t know one of them was married.’

Angelina’s sister mentions the Jets wife, ‘looks so insecure as a wife posting this,’ as Angelina adds in confession, ‘the girl’s a clown… the Jets–whatever the f**k her name is. Her shower curtain means more to me.’

Back at the restaurant, Mike texts Sam about the ‘important family business’ meeting, telling her to come to his house in an hour.

Sam gets the message and sighs, and says, ‘Important family business? I wonder what that means.’

Back at the restaurant, Mike orders a ton of food for the emergency family meeting at the house, as Nicole mentions this could go sideways, though Mike has a plan.

‘It will probably work out if I bring some cannolis,’ Mike says, as Nicole puts her bottle of wine in her purse before they head to Mike’s house.

Mike and Nicole tell Mike’s wife Lauren that Ronnie is coming on the roommate’s trip to Nashville.

Lauren jokes that she is, ‘gonna have to sit down and digest this,’ though Mike says, ‘I think that we collectively thought that it’s time to get back Ron into the fold.’

Lauren says in confession, ‘I think this is great news. More power to Mike and Nicole, that they are taking this on themselves and inviting Ron on the next family trip, because I think that Ron could really use the family support.’

Mike the wonders, ‘what’s happening with Angelina? You know, is she coming? What’s happening with her?’

He adds that he sent the invite for the family meeting to her but wasn’t sure if she was actually going to show up.

Deena shows up and immediately, because of how Nicole is reacting, knows something is up.

Deena guesses the meeting is about Nashville and there is, ‘either someone coming or not coming’ on the trip, which Mike confirms.

Jenni arrives, wondering if it’s a ‘gender reveal’ but Mike says it’s not, though no one will tell her, while Vinny arrives as well, wondering what ‘reveal’ is happening.

They all wonder if Angelina is coming but no one has heard, as Mike calls Pauly D on Facetime.

‘These family meetings are everything in this family. It’s a sign of respect,’ Pauly says in confession.

Mike tells the group, ‘It seems that there is a catch here. And the catch is that we’ve already had the sit-down in Margaritaville, where Ron made his amends. And then me and Nicole had lunch today. And we were like, listen. Maybe it’s just time to take the leap and sort of see what happens from there. We all started this thing together.’

Mike adds, ‘I feel that it’s been so many years later that we all can be mature about it and just move forward. First thing would be that we’re all ok with sort of moving forward in that direction or not. Then, once Sam comes here, we would talk to her as well.’

They all put it to a vote and they all agree Ronnie should go on the trip with everyone, as they argue about who will tell Sammi that Ronnie is coming.

Sammi finally arrives, as Mike ropes Nicole in to telling Sammi about Ronnie coming on the trip.

Nicole says it’s a business trip about finding another location for The Snooki Shop, before turning it back to Mike.

‘I think we’ve all known that Ron may be coming on a trip, and we felt that it was the time to take the leap and to see how it goes,’ Mike begins.

‘We also went around the room and made sure it was ok with everyone first before we proceeded to now ask you… if you’re ok with all of us under one roof, at one time.’

Sammi’s response: ‘Hell no.’

Pauly can’t help but laugh and adds, ‘I wasn’t expecting that,’ as Jenni adds in confession, ‘I can see on everyone’s face, we were not expecting this.

Sammi adds in confession, ‘This is something that I expected would happen, but there’s boundaries that I do have about it all. So I’m like, how can I figure this out where I can make it work for everybody, and then also for myself.’

Sammi tells the group, ‘You guys have been friends with him for a really long time, and I’m not gonna take that away from you. Yeah, and I’m your friend too, and we’ll figure it out. I’ll navigate it.’

Mike adds, ‘That’s all we wanted to ask you, is if you were able to try to figure out some sort of coexistence.’

Mike says they will all figure it out together, as Vinny jokes they are going to share a room, but no one is laughing.

‘I’m a grown adult. I can handle my own. I know that this was gonna happen, and I’d rather just get it over with. Honestly, I’m excited to go with all of you guys because I know we’re gonna have fun. It is what it is. I’ll navigate and figure out the rest. So don’t worry about me,’ Sammi tells the group.

Sammi adds in confession, ‘I’m so appreciative of how my roommates handled it. They sat me down. They asked my opinions. They told me their opinions. And they really took the time to just be there for me. And I feel like that meant a lot.’

Sammi leaves and says she has to tell her boyfriend Justin what happened, as the girls head to Jenni’s house for drinks.

After the girls left, the guys start talking, as Pauly says in confession, ‘The thing is, with these vacations, everything’s great right now. Sam is just starting to ease back into things, and now we just threw a wrench into the plans. I hope it doesn’t shift the mood on this vacation, but it could affect the dynamic so much so, it could make the rest of the trip awkward.’

They all call Ron and tell him how the talk went, meanwhile the girls have drinks at Jenni’s house.

Jenni says, ‘I think she’s gonna be polite, because that’s who she is, a polite person. And I hope he doesn’t take that as like an opening.’

She adds in confession, ‘Bringing Ron back could be a huge change in dynamic. Oh, Jesus Christ. What did we get ourselves into? I feel like I miss Ron. Like, everyone deserves a second chance. But right now, I’m trying to be there for Sam. Yeah, it really sucks when you’re in the middle of someone else’s ex-relationship.’

Jenni tells the group that people tend to ‘pick one side’ in a breakup but she has never had, ‘both sides’ before.

Meanwhile, Sammi goes back home and tells her boyfriend Justin, who says, ‘It is what it is.’

Justin adds, ‘Yeah, but it doesn’t bother me, because I know, you know, there’s nothing there no more.’

Sammi adds in confession, ‘I am so lucky to have Justin for this moment because he just makes me feel better about Ron coming on this trip. He is very supportive and understanding. So Justin definitely gives me confidence to face anything, especially this.’

Meanwhile, Mike thinks they are, ‘looming on disaster. There’s a ton of variables that can go sideways. And then, you know, y’all could just blame it on me.’

Justin asks if she wants some shots and she refuses and Justin says not to get into a fight, but Sammi says, ‘No promises.’

The morning of the trip, Mike reveals to his wife Lauren that Angelina was calling him at 2 in the morning but he didn’t know what about.

Mike says in confession, ‘I don’t think that Angelina’s intentions of calling me at 2 AM were good intentions. I really can’t tell you what’s gonna happen. I don’t know.’

They all take off for the trip as Mike admits that they’re all worried about Angelina heading into the trip.

Sammi admits in confession, ‘I’m not looking forward to spending four days with this person that I’ve literally blocked out of my life for like, ever now. But I don’t want to miss out on fun trips with my roommates just because an ex is there.’

Vinny adds, ‘This next vacation definitely could change the family. I mean, it could change it for the better. And obviously, there are some ‘Ex factors’ that are lingering.’

Jenni adds, ‘I’m trying to not make a big deal that Ron is coming, but also, it’s a huge deal that Ron is coming, and Sam is there, while also making sure Sam doesn’t feel uncomfortable and leave early.’

Nicole adds, ‘Usually, we’re excited about leaving on vacation. This time, it just feels different.’

Sammi adds, ‘This is definitely a weird situation that I’m in. I’m about to be on vacation with my ex. There’s, like, a whole outside world to that relationship that people have no idea about. I don’t really know what to expect, but here I am. So it’s kind of like, I might as well make the best of it.

Nicole says in the ride over that she wants to take care of business first and then they can drink later.

They all get to the house, as it’s revealed there are separate houses for the guys and the girls.

After sorting out the rooms, they all gather once again, as the doorbell rings, and the group is on pins and needles, wondering if it’s Ronnie or Angelina.

As it turns out, it was just the food, while Mike says it’s ‘authentic Nashville cuisine’ but it’s really just a bunch of Italian food.

Jenni adds in confession, ‘What the f**k is this, Mike? Honestly, we’re in Nashville, barbecue, biscuits. You got meatballs and f***ing penne.’

Over dinner, Vinny asks Nicole about opening the store, and says her manager is Gina, who she thinks he knows… and admits he had sex with her in the Shore house.

After dinner they all get ready, as Mike tells the guys, ‘Sam seems to be in good spirits. I’ll have a little conversation with Ron you know, when he gets here, to be like, listen.’

Vinny thinks that Sammi must ‘say hi’ to Ronnie when he arrives to ‘diffuse’ the situation, while Mike wonders if Angelina is showing up.

Mike tells Vinny, ‘I don’t know if you got the memo, but there was major beef in Seaside, man. Angelina and Sam were going at it hard. Sam said, you know what? Your behavior is like a toddler. And then Angelina wouldn’t let go of the fact that Sam was calling out her behavior, and they just weren’t able to solve it.’

Mike and Vinny meet the rest, as Mike says, ‘We’re all worried about what’s gonna happen when Ron comes here. When in fact, that might really go very smoothly, and it might be something else that doesn’t happen as smoothly.’

Jenni says, ‘So it’s a toss up between Angelina walking through the door, or Ron walking through the door.’

Jenni says in confession, ‘I feel like Sam is damned either way. Like, I can see her wheels spinning. She is just waiting for the inevitable,’ as the episode ends.

The preview for next week’s episode teases plenty of drunken behavior, and the revelation that Sammi filmed a TikTok video with Angelina’s new ‘nemesis’ – the New York Jets wife.