Tamra Judge Is Killing It on ‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ This Season

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Forget my reservations about Tamra Judge being the centerpiece of Real Housewives of Orange County again after she did everything short of breaking into Bravo’s headquarters to demand her job back. After a poor showing in Season 15, I would compare her artful instigating this season to Roger Federer winning two major titles fresh off a knee injury in 2017.

All of Tamra’s choices, thus far, feel economical and even generous to other castmates. She knows she jumped the shark and made an ass of herself on that tiny yacht in Episode 2—hence her cursory apology to Shannon, which still left room for tension between the constantly at-odds pair. She’s gradually throwing Jenn and her relationship with Ryan under the bus. She’s also helping Taylor piss off Heather, which makes me think Tamra is salty that she was essentially brought back as her replacement last season.

And according to the season trailer, Tamra eventually finds time to rile up Emily, who’s been nothing but nice to her this season. (It’s still unclear whether Tamra can make Gina more interesting at this point.)

That said, whatever energy this woman was putting into keeping Cut Fitness running for 10 years is finally being put back into the show. And apparently, next week, she goes full throttle with her goading. But first, let’s get into this week’s very fun episode, where she orchestrates several shady moments and questions Heather’s IMDb credits.

This week, the women are preparing for their first cast trip to Montana, which I can only hope is as catastrophic as the RHONY cast’s pilgrimage to the Midwest in Season 6. But first, during an obligatory shopping scene to purchase cowboy hats, we get a not-so-shocking admission from Jenn about Ryan. It turns out he’s not just a man-stress. He’s also a serial cheater whose infidelities everyone in Orange County seems to know about.

You’d think Jenn would hold onto this information a little longer, given all the PR she’s done for their relationship. But based on her jittery mannerisms and constant chiming in, Tamra clearly knows all of this couple’s dirt. And there’s no point in Jenn trying to make it seem like Ryan is some sort of saint with Tamra around to undermine her.

It’s funny, though, that Jenn has seemingly never thought about the possibility of Ryan cheating on her (if he already hasn’t) until Heather brings it up.

While Jenn is struggling to sell everyone on Ryan, Taylor is soft-launching a beef with Heather that is already my favorite storyline this season. During last week’s acting lesson, she felt the former television star was condescending towards her and whatever straight-to-Vimeo movie she’s shooting in Oklahoma. She also complains to Tamra that Heather left the script she gave her at her house.

Heather’s disposition is naturally snooty. And I’m 99.9 percent sure she’d rather watch Terry get his 500th round of Botox than sit in Taylor’s living room for an hour. But she wasn’t nearly as rude as Taylor is making her seem to Tamra in this bar scene. Heather even handled Taylor’s on-the-spot casting of her in someone else’s project in a polite manner. (Even though Taylor's now saying production wanted her to send in a casting tape).

Still, Taylor is insistent that Heather thinks she’s better than her. So she pulls up her IMDb page, filled with brief guests stints and network shows no one remembers, to bring her down a few notches. Tamra is just as shady about Heather’s underwhelming resume.

Finally, the women (minus Emily, who tested positive for COVID) fly out to Montana. It’s only the first day, which means the girls are mostly just picking out rooms and poking fun at the rural atmosphere. Shannon is already in full-vacation mode, which, for her, means being extremely frazzled and worried about getting the Zika virus. For a second, we think she’s about to have a classic meltdown when she abruptly leaves a picnic table where they’re having dinner. But it turns out she just wanted to put on a saloon waitress dress and surprise the women with shots inside of their lodge. I love that Shannon always needs props to enable her fun side.

While Shannon and Tamra toast to moving past their issues, Taylor and Heather engage in a hilariously passive-aggressive conversation about this movie fiasco that only escalates when Tamra gets involved.

Taylor still doesn’t understand why an experienced actress and plastic surgeon’s wife wouldn’t immediately hop on a plane to co-star in a film that’ll make zero dollars, or why her job offer was unprofessional. Heather explains that there’s a protocol to casting someone in a movie. But of course, she can’t really explain why she turned down the role without bringing up her thespian bona fides and downgrading this utterly sketchy production.

The two ultimately pledge to end the conversation on good terms. But their peace treaty only lasts about two seconds, when Tamra mentions that the producers wanted Heather to audition for the part, which nearly makes Heather’s head pop off. She starts laughing maniacally and talking about Taylor like she’s not inches away from her. Taylor brings up that she and Tamra looked at Heather’s IMDb page, and Heather is realistic enough about her career to immediately assume they were poking fun at her.

Still, she brings up her starring role in the extremely fake-sounding NBC show, That’s Life. She even name-drops her co-stars Paul Sorvino (R.I.P) and Ellen Burstyn to try to earn some credibility. But Taylor reminds Heather and the rest of the group that it only lasted one season. Cue one of Heather’s long-winded rants that makes her sound like a mother grounding their child.

During her angry monologue, Heather does my favorite Housewives thing, which is to turn another Housewife’s personal jab into a slight against all women. Apparently, Taylor mocking her sparse acting career is “anti-female” since Heather put her career on hold to raise a family, “as many women do.” Of course, Heather’s been rich for too long to know that the overwhelming majority of women don’t have the option to not work. At any rate, we end on Heather telling Taylor “fuck you” followed by an unnecessary “To Be Continued…” I couldn't be more excited to watch this extremely low-stakes showbiz drama unfold.

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