Reality Recap: Truth, Receipts, Peaches

Just one year after dating, The Valley’s Michelle Saniei and her weird boyfriend Aaron Nosler have called it quits, complete with an unfollowing and everything. Dr. Nicole is going to be making a guest appearance on the next episode of Real Housewives of Miami and let’s just say – the fans are excited. And though season one of Next Gen: NYC is officially wrapped, the fans are almost all in agreement that we need season two, STAT. 

The Valley cast are anything but zen in season finale

On the season finale of The Valley, some members of the group find resolution while others…well, don’t. A way too excited Jax invites some of the guys over to his new bachelor pad for beers on his rooftop, which is tete-a-tete with Tom Schwartz’ rooftop. He’s finally got his place decorated and despite Brittany making it crystal clear that she isn’t comfortable with their son spending any time over there, he’s got a fully decorated room for his son. Father of the year, right?

Up on the rooftop, he gives a very inaccurate snapshot of his explosive last conversation with Brittany, telling the group that she “yelled” at him the other day. I mean, sure she did, but do we want to get in to why? 

“She’s been texting me everyday since,” he said. 

He goes on to say that she’s asking him questions about the house and about the flowers in the front yard – which, to be clear, are very normal conversations to be having given the situation. Then, he continues on with his gross miscategorizing and says:

“This is what you would call breadcrumbing.” 

No, Jax. That’s not what that is. Not even remotely. Thankfully, Luke, who was donning a very appropriate “Therapy is cool” t-shirt, was present and acted as the voice of reason. He commended Jax on the new place but kept it real with him.

“Your place is gonna pass the test,” he told Jax. “I think it’s more your lifestyle she’s worried about.” 

Noticeably absent is Danny, who, according to the group, has been absent from the last few hangouts. Even in his absence, Jax continues to shade Danny, suggesting that he’s “out drinking somewhere”, though he revealed he’s actually been abstaining from alcohol for the last several weeks due to the chatter in the group. 

“Until you’ve righted your rights, you can’t come and preach to people,” Jax said. Oh, the irony.

Elsewhere in the episode, when Michelle stops by Jesse’s house, the two of them have the healthiest conversation we’ve seen them have all season.

“Whatever power I have left, I give it to you to do whatever you want, say whatever you want about me. I’m just so tired,” he says to her through tears.

The pair discuss their divorce and he admits that the divorce was not her fault, but their fault. He accepts accountability for the role he played in their separation, and Michelle says it’s “the best first step”. They end in a hug and agree to chisel off resentment and irrationality. 

But when it’s time for Michelle’s “zen party”, the group is everything but chill. There were at least four separate tense conversations. Kristen and Janet face off over their brewing tensions, while Zach took Brittany to task over her unwavering support for Janet, which him and Kristen have both expressed their gripes over. 

But my favourite conversation was the one between Brittany and Jax (though Zach’s drunken tirade at the end was certainly a spectacle), because we get to see her healing in real-time and his gaslighting tactics are no match for her. When he tells her that she can’t handle the home on her own financially, she reminds him that he is the reason their mortgage doubled from $8,000 to $17,000 due to his $1.7-million in unpaid taxes which they tacked on to their monthly house payments. 

She explains that when she was in love with him, she had blinders on. But now that their relationship is in the place that it’s in, she realizes just how gross he is, calling him a “greasy man child”. I’d say she’s over him, wouldn’t you?

Guerdy puts the receipts on the big screen on Real Housewives of Miami

Over in Miami, social media users are throwing their support behind Guerdy who pulled a bold move at a party she threw to celebrate life and being cancer-free. 

At the lavish event, the women cheered her on as she spoke to the audience about how cancer had impacted her. She revealed that despite the horrible ways cancer had impacted her, she was thankful for the fact that it has made her live deeper and more meaningfully. She described now fully understanding the importance of saying what you need to say and feeling what you need to feel. 

But when her husband informed her that Julia had spoken to him about feeling like her friendship with Guerdy was on the mend, Guerdy decided to display the text conversation between her and Julia up on massive screens throughout the event so that everyone could see the true story. 

For background, over the course of the season so far, tensions have been brewing between Guerdy and Julia. Pinning it down is a bit difficult, but essentially, Guerdy’s partner Martina was unable to attend a cruise and Julia asked that Guerdy come with her in her place. Guerdy had just gone on the same cruise with her family, but decided to attend to support her friend. But Julia was unhappy with Guerdy’s behaviour over the course of the cruise, essentially feeling like she was being a bit too high maintenance and demanding. 

It didn’t help the situation that when Julia invited the women onto a web call to announce to them that she and Martina would be adopting, Guerdy was unable to join the call due to technical difficulties, and Julia didn’t take it well. Things came to a boiling point when, during a dispute in which they were discussing the incident, Julia threw a glass of water on Guerdy. 

Since then, Julia has gone around to the women and given her version of events. And for some reason, the women have been incredibly supportive of Julia, but not so much for Guerdy.

The first place my mind goes, particularly in Housewives settings, is race, and Guerdy was very deliberately pointing out the double standards that exist in this group. She’s been dealing with microaggressions for some time now, which makes it that much more disturbing that Kiki has not had her back the way she should.

Had it been the Black woman to throw that glass of water on Julia, it would have been so much more than it was. But because it’s little old Julia, it felt very swept under the rug. And in this instance, with Guerdy doing what she felt she needed to do to be at peace, the women stormed out in support of Julia.

Save for Audriana and Stephanie, who at least wanted to hear what she had to say. While most of the women called the move “disgusting”, a few agreed that she had the right to do what she did, even if it was in poor taste. I wonder how these women would have coped over on the Atlanta franchise, when Kenya aired nudes of a woman that we now know was not, in fact, Brit Eady.

Porsha takes to social media to vindicate her friend performance

Speaking of Atlanta and receipts, that’s exactly what has been flying around online since the second episode of the three-part reunion aired last weekend. Shamea, Porsha and Drew are all defending themselves online over allegations about friendship and…purses?

During the reunion, Porsha accused Shamea of scheming against her and lying about different things throughout their friendship. For example, Shamea said Porsha didn’t attend her wedding, but Porsha is adamant that she did. 

So Porsha posted a carousel on Instagram addressing some of the things she felt Shamea wasn’t telling the truth about. The first being her wedding attendance. Porsha posted a video of her in traditional African clothing at the “traditional marriage ceremony”. The African wedding Shamea had was over the course of several days, so while Porsha may not have been able to attend every event and ceremony, she is trying to prove that she wasn’t completely absent, as it's been made out to seem.

The second slide in the carousel shows that she did in fact send her flowers when it was announced that Shamea was being promoted to a full-time cast member instead of just a “friend of”, as she had been for all the years we had been seeing her. Porsha posted a video of Shamea thanking Porsha for the applause, as well as a post made from Porsha’s account showing a photo of Shamea with peaches in front of water.

Despite my own initial impression that Porsha was perhaps not the greatest friend, this evidence casts huge doubt on Shamea’s claims that she’s been making almost all season long about the quality of her friendship with Porsha. It’s unfortunate to see that the show has come between these two former besties – but now the two have a secured storyline to keep the peaches in their hands.