RHOC Season 10 Episode 5

This blog post is dedicated to the beautiful Joanne Steinmetz and her daughter Vicki Gunvalson.

As we learned last week, Meghan is moving again. This time she is moving into a rental house while they search for a house they want to buy. Meghan says that Jim doesn’t help much each time they move. She has to do the work herself… As she is saying this, the editors cleverly overlay scenes of Jim actually helping. Meghan was not properly prepared for being on a reality show. It’s never a good idea to say something that with the use of editor-placed footage can be proven wrong… Meghan tells us she is moving into Shannon’s neighborhood. Oh I’m sure that is joyful news to Shannon…

Like a classy woman, Shannon calls Meghan to congratulate her on her successful charity party and to invite her to a Bunco party at her house. Meghan, being quite aggressive and not so classy, says she is confused considering how Shannon acted when Meghan called her out of the blue… Shannon doesn’t just take the aggressiveness. She tells Meghan she is extending an olive branch, and Shannon promises she will not cause any trouble if Meghan comes to the party. Meghan makes a snide remark about Shannon needing to prove it. Shannon’s look of disbelief echoes my sentiments exactly. Who says that to someone else?... Meghan doesn’t accept the invitation immediately, but she says she will get back to Shannon.

Next we see Tamra and Vicki relaxing at the spa. They are talking about being a grandmother. Vicki thinks becoming a grandmother will soften Tamra, but Tamra informs us that she will not start wearing granny panties, as if that were even questioned. They have a spa treatment where they have to smear some fluffy cream all over their bodies and then shower it off… Sounds like a regular shower to me… Vicki gets up off the table to go toward the shower, and we get a visual of Vicki’s ass… It looked surprisingly perky.

Heather brings her kids to a fancy salon to get haircuts. She seems to be expecting Terry to show up. However, again, he is absent. Heather says the kids rarely get to see their father because he is so busy with work and filming the other TV show Botched.

The next scene was a little surprising to me. Shannon is clearly aggravated at Meghan’s comments during their phone call earlier, so Shannon calls her back. Shannon says that the statement about “proving” herself was sitting wrong with her. I didn’t expect Shannon to let Meghan’s BS to get to her. The two of them have a short and unproductive exchange, and it seems that Meghan will be attending the Bunco party.  

Because of Brooks’ cancer, he and Vicki meet with a health coach who is suggesting a very radical diet and activity regime. We are told that Brooks just finished his third round of chemo, but the doctors are not seeing the progress they would like to see. In an act of solidarity and support, Vicki has decided to do the diet with Brooks… well everything except the coffee enemas…

Instead of hiring a chef or caterer, like many of the other housewives would have, Shannon is actually cooking for her Bunco party. David walks into the kitchen and says that he ran into a “girl from the beach”. Shannon’s mind immediately goes to the woman he had his affair with. You can see her face sink, as her stomach must have been doing somersaults inside her. But then she realizes he was talking about someone else completely. Shannon says that David has promised he will never acknowledge that woman if he ever sees her again. For the next few minutes, Shannon is visibly shaken. She talks to her friend about what just happened in hopes of calming herself down. She says she is trying her hardest not to bring up the affair to David because he fears Shannon will never get past it. It’s also probably not healthy for their relationship if she keeps bringing it up. It seems that they are at a very delicate place in their relationship, and I’m not sure if being on a reality television show is the best idea for them right now. There is no privacy and their lives are under a microscope.

Meghan is now moving into their temporary rental house. With every statement I am seeing Meghan as a living contradiction. In fact she is reminding me of Kelly Bensimone (playing against Shannon’s Bethenny…) Meghan says that she and Jim are in a true partnership. She goes on to say that she bought the last house…at least she put her name on it. So she didn’t pay for it, she just picked it out and put her name on the deed? Furthermore, didn’t she just say at the beginning of the episode that Jim never helps in the moving process? How is that an equal partnership?

Heather visits Terry at his office. She seems to think that Terry’s success on Botched is going to his head slightly, but she’s obviously proud of him. As part of his show, Heather is having a growth removed from her hand. My guess is she exercised the muscle in her hand too much popping champagne bottles…

Meghan decides to go to the Bunco party. She says she will look like the asshole if she doesn’t accept the olive branch… I think that ship has sailed, Meghan… Of course she is awkwardly the first one to arrive to Shannon’s house. Shannon gives her the wine that was meant for the charity, and Meghan calls it a jab, as if it is an act of showmanship in being the “bigger person”. Even if that is true, she should graciously accept the gift considering it is for charity.

The other ladies start to show up for the party. Tamra wants to start showing houses to Meghan and Jim since she has kept her real-estate license current… Meghan gives Shannon a candle with some stupid kind note about moving forward. Shannon thinks it’s just for show. Considering Meghan waited to give the gift until everyone else was there instead of when she first arrived and she and Shannon were alone, I am inclined to agree… Meghan says she could walk to Shannon’s house from her new rental. Shannon asks “Really?”, and the look of concern and horror on her face made me laugh out loud.

Meghan tells the other women that she is alone a lot; Jim is not home 50% of the time. Vicki says that is a red flag to a failed marriage. I think she learned that lesson the hard way with Don… They are about to start playing Bunco, and Shannon explains the rules to Meghan. Meghan calls Bunco an old person’s game; however, she seems to be getting into it.

Among the excitement of the party, Vicki excuses herself to go take a phone call in the other room. Although it was not shown, I assumed that Shannon does not get very good cell reception in her house, and Vicki was getting phone calls from Brianna. So Vicki went to use Shannon’s landline. Vicki at first seems concerned that she doesn’t know what Brianna is saying, probably due to her crying. Vicki then breaks down in tears and collapses onto the floor. We find out that Vicki’s brother, Billy, found their mother unresponsive in her bed. Shannon walks into the room and asks what happened. Vicki tells her, and Shannon embraces Vicki, as only a true friend could. Some of the other women come in and hear what has happened. A distraught Heather calls Brooks to come pick up Vicki and take her home.

I have to say that I bawled for about 20 minutes as I watched Vicki break down on my television screen. I know it may sound silly to some people, but Vicki has been part of my life for ten years. I, like many of you, view her as a friend, someone we care deeply for. So when tragedy hits her life, we feel it personally. I know Vicki probably struggled with the decision to allow them to air this on the show. But in the end, I think Vicki made the right choice. As I said before, I feel like I know Vicki personally, and her mother, Joanne, has been shown on the show for years. I think Vicki wanted to share this raw and vulnerable moment with us, and I am very glad she did. If you are reading this, Vicki, please know that your fans out there love and support you. You will get through this because your mother may be physically gone, but she will never die. She lives on in you, your brother, your beautiful children, and wonderful grandchildren.

Over the years, we have seen Joanne give Vicki a hard time about her hair color and her different California lifestyle. We have seen her tell amusing stories and laugh as she stuffed money into her bosom. And of course, we have seen the love she has for Vicki and her family. The final montage of scenes of Vicki and her mom that the editors and producers put together was truly beautiful, and I appreciated it very much.

RHOC Season 10 Episode 4

This week’s episode was like an inverse sandwich. All of the excitement and interesting parts were at the beginning and end with a lot of boring filler in the middle… So my blog might be the same… See how I pass the blame? I could totally be a Real Housewife.

This week we begin where we left off from last week… Shannon leaves the room after being attacked by Meghan out of nowhere about how Meghan was pretending to be hurt after a harmless phone call between the two ladies… Heather goes after Shannon to check on her and try to calm her down, and Shannon seems very appreciative. However, I find this very interesting since Meghan was billed as starting out the show as Heather’s friend. If that were the case, wouldn’t we expect Heather to talk to Meghan first, especially considering Heather and Shannon’s past? Clearly, Heather is not as close to Meghan as the producers and editors want us to believe… Lizzie and Tamra stay behind to talk to Meghan about what just happened. Several of the women say they don’t understand why this conversation blew up into something so heated, but they really don’t know the whole story. They only know what the have been told and how it appears. I think once they view the footage and see what the viewers have seen, they are more likely to understand what happened.

Shannon then sits down on the sofa with Tamra, Lizzie, and Katie. Shannon says she doesn’t want to talk about what has just occurred, and Katie lets her know that if she ever does, she is there… As Katie is saying this, Meghan walks back in for round 2…She starts off demure and apologetic… At this, things immediately clicked for me. Meghan is being extremely manipulative. When she and Shannon were talking one-on-one, Meghan was being very passive-aggressive and insinuating somewhat character-hurting things about Shannon; however, as soon as the other ladies are present, she acts innocent like she didn’t want the explosion and drama. In reality, that’s exactly what she was trying to get. She wants a storyline.

Shannon then tries to defend herself and says, “I bend over backwards for my friends.” Meghan responds, “You didn’t give that impression…You didn’t even respond to my text message…” First of all, did Meghan not see that the other ladies were still sitting there? For the double act to work, you have to play nice in front of the others the whole time… Maybe she is as dumb as I originally thought… Second, Shannon used the word “friend”; she does things for her “friends”. Meghan is not Shannon’s friend! They have spent probably 24 hours together at this point, and part of that time Meghan was insinuating that David was flirting with her a year ago. Needless to say, I would not expect for Shannon to consider Meghan a “friend” any time soon.

Meghan continues on with the victim routine about how offended she was. Then it seems that Shannon calls her out for lying about how she got Shannon’s private number, but that part of the discussion doesn’t really go anywhere. So where did Meghan get that personal number? Bravo producers perhaps for some planted drama? I don’t want to go off on a conspiracy theory, but if you want my theory, let me know… Then Meghan launches into a personal attack of how Shannon isn’t so important to need a personal number. Shannon tries to disengage, but Meghan demands she look her in the face… Shannon does eventually give an apology, probably to stop the argument and to shut Meghan up, but Meghan calls the apology “not genuine”. I’m surprised she was smart enough to pick up on that…

Vicki is back from her trip to Florida. Part of the trip was for an award, and the other part was spent with her family. She tells us she wanted Brooks to be there, but she does not press the issue in order to keep the peace. It is really sad to see this situation and how Vicki is torn in two by it, but at the same time, I’ve been in Briana’s position. I didn’t like or trust someone my friend was dating, so I refused to be around him, and I didn’t even have to worry about my kids being involved in the situation… Apparently as part of Brook’s cancer treatment, someone has prescribed him coffee enemas… Not only does that seem like an odd cancer treatment, but also I really did not need to picture Vicki squirting hot coffee… You know what? I’m gonna shield you from that image… I’ll stop right there.

Next we meet Meghan’s assistant, Melissa, who, like some typical assistants, cooks and cleans… and keeps secrets?…  What does that even mean? What kind of secrets would she be keeping? I hope she has signed a confidentiality agreement… The charity event planners stop by to go over some party details. Meghan tells them some story of how she has to move here and there and everywhere, and, quite shockingly, the event planners seem not to care…

Heather meets with her builders, and they are having more budget problems. I cannot say that I am surprised considering the size of that house. I imagine it is difficult to gauge pricing correctly when you have so much labor and materials. Heather says she never wanted that big of a house; Terry did. However, she is stuck doing most of the house related work and making the decisions because Terry is not there to help; he is working to pay for that big house. I can understand why Heather is frustrated, but she also understands and is willing to do the work for him to have his dream house.

Vicki and Tamra meet at a restaurant, and they start talking about grandkids. I hated this part, and it’s not because I loathe children. It’s because they are making me feel so old! Both Ryan and Briana were so young when we first saw them on the show. The fact that they are having kids of their own is too much for me… Shannon joins them for dinner, and she proceeds to tell them her side of the Meghan story. She says that the party she planned and hosted for the charity was a completely different type of party than the one Meghan is hosting. Vicki and Tamra inform her that they had been invited to the event earlier that day, but Shannon has not yet been invited. We then see a flashback of the phone conversation between Tamra and Meghan. Tamra asks Meghan straight up if Shannon will be invited. Meghan says she doesn’t want to be mean, but she feels Shannon has excluded herself, and she doesn’t want Shannon to have another blowup at her charity event. This is complete BS. The only reason Shannon got upset in the first place was because of Meghan. If Meghan doesn’t start anything, there would be no issue. As the saying goes, “Don’t start none, won’t be none…” Tamra tells Shannon that Meghan has no intention of inviting her. Shannon is extremely surprised, and she says she already bought a dress and wine to donate for the event. In a move of solidarity, Vicki says she’s not going to the event if Shannon isn’t invited.

Heather visits Meghan a few hours before the event is to start. In a last ditch effort to save Meghan from the can of worms she is about to open, Heather warns her that not inviting Shannon might be a bad idea with dire consequences. Meghan claims she has thought it through, and she is sticking by her convictions not to invite Shannon. She probably has thought it through. She knows it will get her involved in the drama, but she is naïve if she thinks it’s going to be something she can handle, especially if all of the other ladies side with Shannon.

Vicki calls Meghan to tell her that she will not be coming to the event. She says she will still donate her wine and money for the charity, but she doesn’t want to get in the middle of an argument. Vicki tells Meghan that Shannon expected to be invited, but since she was not, Vicki is taking her out for dinner instead. Meghan is confused that Shannon assumed she was invited, but in reality, Shannon should have expected an invitation. They are part of an ensemble cast of a reality show and it was a charity event, both valid reasons to assume an invitation would be extended.

At the event, Meghan is surprised to see that Tamra showed up. She thought Tamra might follow Vicki’s lead and not come. Tamra tells Meghan that she has no issue with her, so she has no problem showing up. Meghan says she doesn’t want to be called “the mean girl”, again trying to turn the situation around and play victim. However, Tamra seems to feel that “mean girl” status is exactly where Meghan is headed, although she doesn’t say it overtly.

Vicki and Shannon meet for dinner. Shannon feels Meghan is being malicious for not inviting her, and Vicki agrees. This is juxtaposed with Meghan giving a speech at her event about how it was all for the charity…yet by not inviting someone who would have donated readily to the charity just to make a storyline for yourself, Meghan has not made it all about the charity; she has made it all about Meghan.  

During the event, Heather and Tamra sneak off to talk about the situation. They feel that Vicki is putting herself in the middle by being a good friend to Shannon. However, Vicki knows Shannon better than Meghan. She has nothing to lose by not getting close to Meghan who is being rude to her friend. Heather and Tamra acknowledge that they feel bad that Shannon is being left out. While they are talking, in a transparent producer-orchestrated move, Meghan walks up and asks them if they’re talking about the Shannon situation… The hostess of a crowded charity event walks up to two people who are sitting outside on the outskirts of the sea of people and asks directly if they are talking about a certain issue that they happen to be talking about? Clearly, Meghan does not understand how reality TV works. I’m sure a producer was standing behind the cameras cringing… Meghan again claims she doesn’t want to feud with Shannon, but she just wants to make sure she can be around Shannon without her blowing up… I won’t belabor the issue with explaining again how fake and manipulative this all is, and how Meghan is reaching desperately to make herself relevant… I think you get the idea.

While at dinner with Shannon, we find out what Vicki really thinks of Meghan. She says that by marrying Jim, Meghan got a “cash cow”; she seems entitled, like a little girl. She thinks everything is hers, when in reality everything is Jim’s… From the charity event, Lizzie calls Shannon to check in on her. To Lizzie’s surprise Vicki and Shannon are having a glorious time. The whole group of ladies decides to leave the boring party and go join the real party at the restaurant with Shannon and Vicki. Tamra tells Meghan flat out where they’re going, and Meghan claims not to be offended. So Meghan is offended by a short phone call with Shannon, but she is not offended when all of the ladies ditch her party to go hang out with her enemy? Yeah, right…

It seems the line is being drawn in the sand. Meghan is on one side, and everyone else is on the other. Meghan tried to freeze out and isolate Shannon, but it seems to be backfiring. She’s the one being isolated. I wonder if things will stay this way. Only time will tell…