Reality Recap: Dinner disaster, steps backwards, a wedding

This week, it was ruled in court that Erika Jayne’s hotly-contested $750,000 earrings were purchased with “comingled client funds”, ouch. People are asking questions about former Real Housewives of New York star Heather Thomson after photos of her and disgraced Diddy resurfaced. 

Tamra took accountability, kinda. She expressed regret over calling Shannon an “alcoholic” so many times on Real Housewives of Orange County. Oh, Tamra, if only you apologized on the actual show and not Watch What Happens Live. Despite her long-awaited engagement to Luke Broderick, Kristen Doute says kids first, marriage second. We finally got to the bottom of which housewife is working with Reese Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine. There was this tweet about housewives being boomers that gave me a good old-fashioned cackle. And to top it all off, we have footage of Bethenny on a runway, giving Ramona Singer’s famed googly-eyed catwalk a run for her money. 

Katie’s dinner party disaster

Between Tamra being a drunk ass at the dinner table and the beef between Ryan and Eddie boiling over, it’s safe to say that Katie’s dinner party was a disaster. TV gold, but disastrous for all involved. 

To be completely honest, I actually don’t think Ryan came out looking that bad. For a guy whose go to outfit is jean jackets with splattered paint, he wiped the floor with Tamra. He was eloquent, coherent and very articulate in defence of his remarks. Tamra, on the otherhand, whose own husband had to cut her off from alcohol and speaking, didn’t end up in the best position. 

There are two things that are really interesting about this podcast-gate. First, it’s that the women behind the podcast he went on have been very vocal about their recording of the episode, taking up for Ryan, clarifying on social media that they were the ones making most of the comments that offended Tamra. Even Andy Cohen himself said to Tamra on Watch What Happens Live that he didn’t believe the comments on the podcast were all that bad.

But the second thing is that Tamra truly does not know how to handle being treated or spoken about the way she speaks about and treats others. Every week, soundbites of her Two Ts in a Pod episodes gain traction on social media for the egregious claims she makes about other women. But when it’s given back to her? She crashes out. In the words of famed poet Lil’ Jon, don’t start no sh-t, won’t be no sh-t. 

Gina navigates relationship and coparenting issues

In this week’s episode of Real Housewives of Orange County, we hear Gina express concern over the fact that her ex-husband Matt and his new partner are progressing so well in their relationship, while Gina and Travis are essentially moving backward due to Travis’ ex-wife’s inability to “effectively coparent” and the havoc it is wreaking on their family dynamic.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a cat fight and a thrown drink, but watching real-life scenarios like these play out on TV is a great way for me to see how other families navigate a situation I have lived, slept, and breathed for the last five years.

We’ve seen Gina and Travis’ relationship and family evolve, with them joining households and getting all the kids under one roof. We saw Travis stay by Gina’s side as she navigated the fallout from her divorce with Matt until they were able to not only become cordial, but establish and maintain an actual friendship, which has now extended to Matt’s new partner, Brit, who Gina gets along with so well.

But this season, Gina is looking to put more space between her and Travis, citing the drama with his ex as a pretty big part of wanting to split households, but still date. This didn’t seem to resonate well with some of the audience, who felt like she owed it to Travis to stick by him through the stuff he was navigating with his ex, just like he did for her.

As someone who is in a very strange coparenting dynamic myself, I’m torn on how to feel. I love that she’s getting her independence and that her real estate career is blossoming. But I think that’s also partly to blame for the demise of her relationship with Travis. 

I think part of Gina’s mistake was getting into a relationship so quickly after Matt. I think she, like so many people do after a split, panicked about being alone and grabbed the first guy that came along and checked some of the boxes on her list. In not giving herself time to see how that part of her journey would play out in the absence of a man, I think she sold herself short. Now that she’s seeing that she can be successful and she can bring in a paycheque to support her kids, and she can have a healthy relationship with Matt and his new partner, the “need” to have Travis there is disappearing, and the things that once bonded them together aren’t functioning in that way anymore. In fact, it’s what’s tearing them apart, no longer bonding over toxic exes.

Gina is giving us a real-life example of how much your self-perception and the belief in your potential can elevate when you are no longer entering into relationships just for the sake of being in a relationship, just to get married and just to have a baby. As Gina’s standards continue to rise the more she proves to herself she can really do it on her own, the less she identifies with the life she created for herself when she was operating out of panic. It’ll be interesting to see where their relationship ends up.

Below Deck finale sees OGs return for Captain Sandy’s nuptials

I haven’t written much about Below Deck this season but if I had, it would’ve been a lot of questions about why Ellie was such an ass to Bri, something she, like Tamra, is expressing regret over. I’m thrilled that Aesha was finally able to see for herself how toxic Ellie was toward the end of the season, and even happier that she called her out for always trying to play chief stew and undermining her, the actual chief stew.

I was also thrilled to see Captain Sandy propose to Leah. We haven’t had a gay love story on the show since Kyle fell in love with Frank, the charter guest, though that ended just as quickly as it began. You could see how happy Aesha was to have a hand in facilitating the proposal, which was certainly off to a rocky start when the damn tender couldn’t get started. 

But what was really amazing and spoke volumes to the sense of community on the show was the return of people like Kate Chastain, OG chief stew in earlier seasons of Below Deck and Chef Dave White who actually prepared the food. I would’ve given anything to be a guest at that wedding. Maybe a server at the wedding? Hell, I would’ve given anything to just be on the yacht.