This season of The Real Housewives of Orange County has been an all-out tug of war between the tentpole Housewives. Each has made a compelling case in their campaign for power, and Shannon’s a shoo-in for the popular vote, but she’s up against a forceful coalition who have finally aligned themselves to take her down.
The OC ladies have left sunny California for everyone’s favorite overcast city. Under London’s gloomy embrace, Heather and Tamra have come together with the common goal of ending Shannon’s victim arc once and for all. The only issue is, for once, they have no henchmen to do their dirty work.
Heather and Tamra have a fascinating dynamic, best defined by Seasons 9 and 17 before. The two have all but agreed upon a mutually assured destruction, and attempts to oust the other have always been neutralized. It’s been years since they were aligned in a pursuit—their last foray was the very successful takedown of Vicki and Brooks’ cancer scam—but at long last, they have retaken their throne. Maybe it’s that British energy, but suddenly everyone’s vying to be queen.
It’s funny to think the trip was “planned” by Shannon given it’s such an orchestrated takedown of her. She is the puppet and everyone else is the master, evidently.
Case in point: The ladies split off into three rooms, Jenn, Katie, and Emily shuttered off to one, Shannon forced to room with Gina, and the two evil queens residing in a penthouse where they plan the murder.
(l-r) Tamra Judge, Heather Dubrow, Shannon Storms Beador, Jennifer Pedranti, Gina Kirschenheiter, Emily Simpson, and Katie Ginella.
Sean Gleason/BravoShannon, like all the greats before her, has made a fatal mistake. She went on a radio show, an offense just as ill-fated—if not more—as the podcast faux pas that have sent Bravolebrities spiraling across cities. On Jeff Lewis Live, Shannon let slip a stunning contradiction. Despite telling Heather that she finds it supremely odd that John Jannsen didn’t reach out after the accident—which he seems to have been within earshot of—Shannon offers a more demure answer to Jeff. On the radio, Shannon says she’s never thought of that before.
This is the smoking gun that has finally taken Heather off the fence and aligned her with Tamra’s evil tirade. And, with Heather willing to play ball, Tamra has dropped her phony act so she can resume throwing rocks in Shannon’s face. Heather and Tamra engage in something we in the industry like to call “acting” as they stage a scene in which the radio show just happens to come up, and both ladies are so surprised and annoyed with its existence.
“Wait a minute, did you hear the clip about the loaaaaaan?” Heather says.
“Oh my God, yes!” Tamra responds, slightly less believably. Heather’s That’s Life chops really came in handy here.
It’s kind of like that scene in The Real Housewives of New York City where Dorinda and Sonja randomly went to see The Hustle and then spent five minutes relating it to their lives and talking about how funny that darn Anne Hathaway is. It’s so set up that it turns right around to being funnier than it is offensive.
Sure, it’s an insult to our intelligence, but sometimes you need a good old-fashioned exposition dump. What’s really interesting, too, is that Tamra has a point. In the interview, Shannon basically admits John offered her the money as a loan—a claim that rebuts her insistence that it was never intended as such. It’s a real blunder for her to admit, and Shannon’s lucky that John is such an awful person who has gone about the lawsuit in cartoonishly evil fashion, as it distracts from her inconsistencies.
Here’s the thing: It doesn’t really matter if John loaned Shannon the money. She has offered to pay it back in full, which he declined due to not wanting to sign a non-disparagement agreement. That means he’s a loser. And yes, $75K is a lot, but it’s worth asking why he didn’t first try to get his money back through simple communication, rather than such a public affair. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t actually care about the money. He just wants to torture Shannon.
Still, it’s interesting that Shannon has lost Heather as an ally just weeks after making such a crucial play to get her on her side. It’s an unforced error for Shannon to go back on her campaign promises before she’s even secured the election, especially when her opponent is known for her killer attack ads. You never want to give Tamra a genuine reason to find a grievance with you, given she’s so good at making ones up in her head.
At least Shannon gets to avoid her trial by fire for a little while, instead taking the group on a boat tour around London. The ladies see Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and their lives flashing before their eyes as the boat travels at the speed of light.
(l-r) Tamra Judge, Heather Dubrow, and Katie Ginella.
Sean Gleason/BravoWith their bodies realigned by this spiritual journey, the group is perfectly healed in time for a lovely, peaceful dinner. Obviously, that’s not actually the case, as the dinner exists in the context of all Real Housewives dinners: a state of utter chaos in which the food is just for looks.
Immediately, Tamra kicks off the dinner with some skills from her and Heather’s acting troupe. For no particular reason at all, Tamra wants to hear about the mammograms the women got before London—Heather’s specifically. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Heather is perturbed no one asked about hers, or maybe they’re in cahoots.
Heather feels like no one cares about her and they all just want her to die. It’s well-documented that Heather is extremely sensitive, but she’s also caged off in such a way that only snowballs these feelings. Even when the group is finally apologizing, Heather says she doesn’t want to belabor the subject. But like, here’s your moment! Belabor it.
Instead, Katie segways into how, unlike Heather, she has no medical history at all due to being adopted. Katie has planned a trip to Korea to meet her birth mother, and the group are all so happy for her—especially Heather.
“I’m excited for you. That’s great. Can’t wait to hear about it,” Heather lies. In her confessional, Heather admits, “I asked about Katie’s history because it’s really, it’s interesting. Too bad she’s not.” Welp.
Next, Tamra offers up a new subject: Shannon’s lawsuit. Subtlety no longer exists. Tamra’s just reading off her cue cards making sure she hits all the bullet points before clocking out for the season. Shannon’s not so keen to discuss it, though, which leads Tamra to the point she’s been wanting to reach all along. If Shannon doesn’t like talking about it, why did she do an hour-long interview about it?
At dinner, Shannon also lets slip that John sent her a promissory note after giving her the money, which does lend credence to him always seeing it as a loan. Shannon should probably stop discussing this lawsuit given she keeps giving John (and Tamra) ammo, although it’s more entertaining when she does.
Heather piggybacks off the conversation to harken back to Sonoma, when Shannon spoke a much different tale than she did to Jeff Lewis. There’s a possibility Shannon didn’t want to invoke John’s wrath by theorizing about him on the radio show, but her conversation with Heather was on camera, just the same.
Heather has lost trust in Shannon, and Shannon feels the same. The two have gone through a lot, but they always seem to end up in the same place. They just don’t quite like each other, and their animosity outweighs any possible alliance they could form. Whereas Heather often gives Tamra the benefit of the doubt, that’s something she never affords Shannon.
But—and I say this knowing full-well that it’s an unpopular opinion—I have to agree with Tamra. Shannon isn’t always the victim, and storming off in tears is tiresome. Tamra’s raw villainy is at its best when it’s directed towards a tangible target, and her evil snicker as Shannon cries is a great character note.
“I mean, clearly Shannon’s running towards the bar,” Tamra says in a confessional (correctly, as evidenced by the footage). When Tamra’s bad, she’s so good.
What’s interesting, though, is catching Shannon in a lie amounts to very little. Heather and Tamra don’t have the cache they once did in the group, and the rest of the Housewives refusing to play ball leaves things effectively neutral. Even Emily, who has historically aligned herself against Shannon and is cozy with Tamra, stays out of it.
And, just as it seems Shannon’s lost her upper hand, she comes back stronger than ever. Belvedere soda in hand, Shannon reveals to Gina that she’s found proof that Alexis initiated the lawsuit filed by her ex-husband Jim in 2018. It’s damning to the point it repaints all of Alexis’ actions up to this point.
Her best defense has always been that she’s incompetent, too ditzy to be devious. But Alexis blatantly lied, knowing full well her own involvement in that lawsuit. She’s a more formidable foe than I thought. That also pokes holes in the already calculated alliance between Tamra and Alexis, giving Shannon unique proof of Tamra’s hypocrisy.
The London trip has devolved into utter chaos. Shannon’s staging a shockingly effective coup against the show’s tentpole Housewives, and she just might emerge with the throne. If Shannon can regain her composure enough to actually fight in person, she can end Tamra’s reign of terror once and for all.
Next week, the drama continues to heat up as Heather finally launches an attack against Gina and Tamra reveals to Shannon that it doesn’t matter what proof she finds, she’ll continue hating her. The evil queens are fully embracing their villain arcs. It’s wonderful.
