‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ Is Becoming Bravo’s Version of ‘Succession’

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This week’s episode of Real Housewives of Orange County is very Succession-like, in that everyone is just milling around the ranch and fretting about their status within the cast while Tamra (our de-facto Logan Roy) is pulling all the strings.

Heather is worried she’s become the third wheel to Tamra and Shannon, who have now fully made up. (Has Vicki been gone so long that Heather thinks she’s the third Tres Amiga? She hates Shannon!) Gina, who’s perpetually at the bottom of the Orange County totem pole, is trying to establish dominance by any means possible, including weaponizing her past marriage against Jenn while she’s with a whole ’nother man. Meanwhile, Jenn is simply trying to make it to s’mores without Tamra divulging embarrassing details about Ryan. And Emily, the Cousin Greg of the bunch, is trying her best to integrate herself into this cast trip over FaceTime.

Last week, we left off with Heather scolding Taylor and Tamra for looking at her IMDb acting credits and mocking them. Tamra smooths things over the only way she knows how, by creating more mess for someone else. So she takes Heather into the bathroom to deny her part and throws Taylor completely under the bus.

Heather’s smart enough to know that Tamra was talking shit about her one-episode guest roles, too, but accepts her explanation. After all, Heather needs to maintain her alliance amongst the vets, with Vicki slowly staging a comeback. And she’s never going to fully win Shannon’s trust. Who’s she supposed to be in a dynamic power duo with? Gina?

Funnily enough, Gina does think she and Heather have some sort of special relationship, which is why she tries to turn her against Tamra in this episode. It’s funny watching her warn Heather about Tamra taking digs at people, like Heather and Tamra haven’t spent years getting to know each other on this platform. They’ve also previously gotten into fights over Tamra running her mouth.

Speaking of Tamra’s mouth, she can’t shut up about Jenn’s relationship with Ryan. And I’ve never been more giddy watching someone be a terrible friend. While sitting down with Heather and Shannon, she rehashes Jenn’s admission that Ryan’s a serial cheater and even refers to him as the “town whore.” She also lets it slip that Ryan cheated on Jenn, which shocks (not really) the women.

Jenn previously told Heather that Ryan slept with someone while they were on a break. But according to Tamra, she called her up one day and told her that he cheated on her with her friend Heather Amin, who we’ll apparently see later on in the season. (Thank God!)

Tamra also says that Ryan told Heather that he was “going to fuck her” the first time he saw her at Cut Fitness. Allegedly, Heather told him that Tamra was married to Eddie, to which he replied, “Watch me.” Oh, boy. This dude is giving major Slade vibes, and honestly, I love it. We haven’t had a man to be repulsed by on this franchise forever since Shane put on his nice-guy act. Jenn is really doing the Lord’s (Vicki’s) work.

Likewise, the women spend the rest of the episode not-so-subtly trying to break Jenn down and get her to break up with Ryan, I’m guessing. It’s unclear whether they want her to be in a healthy relationship or just feel like shit. Either way, they’re only making Jenn look like a total angel by comparison. Gina, especially, is not coming off well.

After the women do some obligatory farmwork on the ranch, Gina has a heart-to-heart with Jenn about their rocky start—which is all Gina’s doing, by the way. Jenn basically tells Gina that it’s not her job to make her comfortable about her relationship, although she understands why it may trigger her. And Gina pretends to respect Jenn’s honesty about her affair for about five minutes.

You can tell Jenn thinks her conversation with Gina is the last step she needs to take in getting the entire group to move past her affair. But Gina brings up that Tamra is telling everyone that she’s not being truthful about her relationship and spilling the details herself. Everything goes to shit again when Tamra puts Ryan on blast in front of the entire group at a camping site.

To be fair, Jenn makes the bold choice to confront Tamra in front of everyone, as if Tamra would ever reserve her arsenal. Not only does he bring up Ryan saying he wanted to sleep with her—which is apparently news to Jenn—she also rehashes the rumor about Jenn’s ex Will catching her and Ryan in her car. Jenn maintains that nothing sexual happened and that she only met up with him to receive a present. Somehow, this triggers Gina (and Heather who starts piling on Jenn, randomly), and she has to walk away.

Then Jenn pulls Tamra to the side, and you can see these women are on completely different wavelengths. Jenn, trying to be patient, is talking to a friend. And Tamra, practically foaming at the mouth and ready to expose more dirt about Ryan, is talking to a castmate.

Like clockwork, she brings up Ryan allegedly sending a dick pic to Heather, which Jenn claims was a mistake. Apparently, Jenn, Ryan, and Heather were all really close at one point. She doesn’t say this explicitly. But it seemed like Heather was a part of his Close Friends on Instagram or Snapchat, and he sent out a dick pic to everyone on the list when he meant to send it to Jenn. More confusingly, Jenn claims she was sitting across from him on a plane when it happened.

Tamra’s rightfully confused why a 45-year-old man would send a dick pic to his partner. Jenn also casually mentions that her kids got the picture too, which is weird?? Ultimately, they end the conversation promising to be more direct with one another. But we know that this is just the beginning of Tamra’s mission to take this couple down.

Meanwhile, Gina is crying about Jenn discussing her infidelity (as if Tamra didn’t force her to defend herself again) and is about to call Travis. Heather grabs the phone and tells Gina she can’t whine to her boyfriend of several years about unhealed wounds from her previous marriage. For some reason, this very anticlimactic conversation ends with a “To Be Continued…”

As much as I enjoyed this episode, I’m slightly worried we could be headed in a Beverly Hills situation with this Ryan stuff. (Those women love to beat a dead horse!) But so far, this horse—aka Ryan’s scumminess—is still alive and well, and I can’t wait to hear more gross things about this man. Till next time!

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