Read more of our Real Housewives of Orange County coverage HERE.
And we’re back! After a week off, Real Housewives of Orange County returns with a bang.
First, we have an explosive argument between Shannon and Heather on a restaurant patio, where Shannon is setting up her borderline-offensive “fiesta.” Immediately after that, Shannon and Emily scream at each other over a FaceTime call. (The episode is literally just 45 minutes of Shannon’s sober and drunken rage.) Additionally, she’s so pissed about this gossip over her and John’s relationship that she’s invoking Gina’s DUI from several seasons ago. Let’s dive in!
First, let’s start with this confrontation with Heather first because… wow. This woman has really been fighting for life all season, and now she’s being chewed out by Shannon for a private conversation that most of the cast seemed to participate in and was brought on-camera by Tamra and Emily. So they meet at The Huntington Beach House on an especially windy day, which feels very dramatic. (Although, Shannon’s cheap Party City decorations blowing in the background sort of undercut the seriousness of the scene.) And after exchanging some niceties, things go left pretty fast.
I will say, there was no way for Heather to win this argument, because Shannon is delusional about John and doesn’t remember anything she says when she’s drinking. She also interprets everything Heather says in the worst possible way. When Heather mentions that Shannon told her “specific details'” about her relationship that she would never publicize, Shannon accuses her of implying that these “details” are unspeakably bad, which I don’t think Heather suggested at all. She was literally just ensuring Shannon that she wasn’t spreading all of her business. However, this is the narrative that famous embellisher Tamra has brought back to Shannon, so this is the narrative she’s going with.
So the conversation goes nowhere, and Shannon storms off before ultimately returning to her party set-up to fuss at Emily over the phone. To be honest, it’s hard to tell whether the root of this dispute is about friendship or work, as they’re obviously so intermingled on this show. In the last episode, Emily was upset that Shannon wasn’t allowing her to be a friend and help her through her relationship issues. But in this current discussion, she seems primarily irritated that Shannon won’t share her personal life on-camera while everyone else is forced to be open.
Either way, it’s always fun watching Shannon get into screaming matches, so who cares whether all of this emotion from Emily is genuine or not? Ultimately, Emily hangs up on Shannon after several hilarious, failed attempts. And Shannon starts crying because she can’t handle people being mean to her, even though she was just screaming at Heather. She also can’t believe that Emily doesn’t want to come to her party anymore.
Somehow, Shannon manages to top these outrageous fights by immediately venting to the producers about her and John’s issues, which she was vehemently protective about a second ago. For some reason, she thinks she’s not being filmed, even though there’s a camera pointed directly at her, and she’s mic’d. Without even hesitating, she lists off all her problems with John that she’s discussed with the women, including that they have money issues, that John doesn’t spend enough time with her, and that his son apparently doesn’t like her. She then tells the cameraman that this can’t be recorded. (Girl!)
Then, we get some scenes of Heather and Terry in their new penthouse and find out that they sold their mansion for an impressive $55 million. As with any abrupt move on a Real Housewives show, this will certainly be investigated by the rest of the cast later on. But let’s fast forward to Shannon’s very Caucasian celebration of Mexican culture—which, to this group, is just tequila. The only cast members who show up are Tamra, Taylor, Jenn, and their respective partners. But we still manage to get some fun, boozy scenes out of this intimate gathering.
At the same time, Emily goes to a gala for an organization she’s working with called the California Innocence Project, which provides pro bono legal work for exonerees. Given that Emily gives a speech at one point, it’s clear that she was never planning on going to Shannon’s event—which I honestly appreciate. The juxtaposition of Emily talking to people who had been falsely convicted of murder and the cringy footage of Shannon and other white people shouting “¡Hola!” the way one would say “Opa!” was ridiculous to watch.
Obviously, though, Shannon’s event is a lot more amusing. When Shannon talks about her issues with Heather, Emily, and Gina with the group, she brings up how she basically saved Gina from being arrested when she received a DUI in 2o19 by calling up Orange County’s district attorney. We all know Shannon helped Gina during that incident, but she adds that Gina was going to have her kids taken away from her by Child Protective Services if she didn’t step in.
Whether that’s actually true or just an assumption, who knows? But the allegation is enough to enrage Gina when Jenn tells her about it the next day. No offense to Jenn’s family unit, but for the purposes of this chaotic show, I would like to see more scenes of her being messy than having pleasant conversations with her cute adopted son.
By the end of this wild episode, Emily and Shannon meet for lunch and call a truce. However, things are still looking terrible for Heather, as Shannon is visibly pissed when she mentions her role in this whole John fiasco. Between this drama and the inevitable probe into her housing situation, the rest of the season is looking like an uphill battle for Fancy Pants. At the same time, she’s never made better TV. See you next week!
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