In the world of Real Housewives, it doesn’t matter who’s right and wrong. It matters how convincingly you can lie, deflect, and peddle your broken narratives to the masses. Finally, The Real Housewives of Orange County have mastered this art, a text Tamra Judge wrote many moons ago, and they’re all fighting on even footing.
Facts are fickle in an ecosystem defined by feelings. Even though Tamra published this exact playbook, she and Heather are getting viciously outplayed by the rookies, as the coup laid out by Shannon last week has taken over the cast trip to London, heralded by a surprising general: Jenn.
Last week, Heather made clear she’s on Team Tamra in the War of Orange Aggression, a strategic move that has caused Gina to finally defect from her side. Gone rogue, Gina sits down with Jenn to call out how hypocritical Heather was the first night in London, when she admonished the group for not asking about her mammogram.
Apparently, before the doctor’s visit, Heather informed the group that she has family history that she doesn’t want to discuss on air, which Gina argues absolves her and the others of any wrongdoing. Sure, kind of, except it’s different to say you don’t want to discuss your family’s medical issues than to say you don’t want to discuss your own appointment.
The problem is Gina and Heather aren’t real friends. Both eagerly look for a reason to chastise the other, and now that Gina’s appointed herself spokesperson of Shannon Enterprises, she’s no longer willing to take it. She gleefully tells Jenn that Heather and Tamra called out her choice to wear a $2,000 dress to Shannon’s tea party despite her money troubles.
Gina leaves out the fact Emily was in on that gossip. She also doesn’t note that she herself was critical of Jenn using glam just last episode, pointing out the very same money issues. It’s not about telling the truth, after all. It’s about pushing your perceived narrative. And Gina is fighting to stay afloat by scorching Tamra and Heather while jumping onto the lifeboat.
It’s smart editing that right as this happens, we cut to Tamra telling Katie, “Do you realize that that dress Jenn was wearing was 2,000 dollars? It’s not a good look.” By the way (said with Heather Dubrow condescension), that’s true. She should not be doing that! Even though Heather and Tamra aren’t coming from a place of genuine concern, they’re right.
It’s too bad they’ve lost their standing in the group to the point Gina is able to feign moral superiority. The queen is dead, for real. Gina finally has an underling, and she’s twisting her up to do what Gina never could: win a battle.
After all, just after she sours Jenn on Tamra and Heather, Gina finds herself in tears on a bus tour of London. Since the ladies can’t hear their tour guide, Gina decides to ask Heather why she was so upset about the (lack of) mammogram conversation. This opens a major can of worms, where Heather trots out how little Gina had her back during the paparazzi drama, while Gina’s apparently pissed that Heather didn’t defend her when Andy Cohen assumed she has the cheapest home on the cast.
When Heather was queen bee in her return season, Gina eagerly made herself a willing puppet to the master. When the Tres Amigas ruled the show with an iron first, Gina excitedly dyed her hair a weird shade of yellow and begged to be the fourth amiga. And, now that Shannon has found herself the member of the group with the strongest clout, Gina’s regurgitating all her issues with Heather to justify excising herself from the friendship.
She’s right about Heather in many ways, but it might be more effective for Gina to just go about it directly next time. Push Heather to admit she’s a hypocrite who thinks little of you; it’s not that hard.
Understanding her role in the group, Gina carries her bones to the head of her team: Shannon. It’s a little on the nose that the women are all dressed in royal garb as Shannon sits on a throne and calls out Tamra and Heather’s hypocrisy. She is the queen now, lording over the peasants. Sure, Shannon shines more as the jester—like when she brings Heather and Emily to tears of laughter over her sporadic notes of what she paid for when she was with John—but the forces of monarchy are too strong to resist.
At dinner, the Shannon alliance darts at a weakened Tamra and Heather. When Jenn asks Heather to explain herself for the comments she made about the $2,000 dress, Heather says she was simply concerned for her. Obviously, she wasn’t being a genuine friend, but if you say you’re getting $6,000 a month and you spend a third of that on a dress and you’re not concerned, that’s not great.
Gina thinks she’s caught Heather, but really she’s just further embarrassing Jenn while exposing her lack of strategic prowess. Shannon, like most politicians, is not appointing the best to her cabinet. All this conversation does is show that Jenn is bad with money, has a loser boyfriend, and no real friends in the group.
“Bless Jenn’s heart. How many times does this girl have to get walloped upside the side of the head before she wears a f---ing helmet or something?” Gina asks in a confessional, oscillating between 12 different accents. This episode is really good for people who want reasons to be annoyed with Gina and really bad for those of us looking to lead with love and not think negative thoughts.
Fresh off Jenn’s relative flop, Shannon addresses her own grievances with Tamra. Here, she mentions the text from Alexis, the smoking gun that proves Shannon wasn’t baseless to think Alexis was involved with the 2018 lawsuit. Tamra, though, says “that’s between you and her,” despite being one of the named plaintiffs in said lawsuit. Yeesh.
Tamra strikes out again by trying to get Shannon for not paying the $75K. Obviously, it’s been well documented by now that Shannon offered to pay and was rebutted because John didn’t want to sign a non-disparagement agreement. I know that. You know that. Random onlookers of this British restaurant know that. But if Tamra says it, maybe it’ll become true. Maybe it’ll stick inside our minds. She did master this method, after all, even if she’s grown rusty.
The dinner ends with the group at the exact same stalemate they were before, and it seems the season has finally crescendoed, Tamra dancing the night away while Shannon sits in a pit of despair. That’s until Jenn gets wound up one last time, grabbing the baton and running far past Shannon’s finish line.
Gina’s attempt was futile. It was child’s play. But now Shannon, dolled up in a cherry pantsuit, is bringing out the big guns. While filming Season 17, Tamra told Shannon she was going to do a background check on Jenn’s boyfriend Ryan.
Upon learning this, Jenn immediately snaps and finally shows genuine anger. It’s a riveting display from a woman who has spent the brunt of her time on the show as a punching bag. Leave it to Tamra Judge to emancipate the woman within through acts of monstrous torture.
Jenn storms into Tamra and Heather’s room while the evil queens are getting their glam done, interrupting a conversation I want to hear more of.
“She goes, ‘Oh, I think they will get married.’ And I go, ‘Listen, you can have two people that, uh, don’t get… Hi?” Tamra says, before halting her gossip to listen to a visibly perturbed Jenn. Finish the story, Tam! Who are we gossiping about? Please, go on Two T’s in a Pod and finish the story for me.
Jenn apparently doesn’t care to hear the tea, as she immediately reams Tamra, becoming the rare Housewife to steamroll this impenetrable force. All Tamra can do is clap like a seal in an attempt to deflect, but it’s futile. Sure, Jenn’s boyfriend is a grifter. People should do background checks on him. It’s something the FBI has done.
It doesn’t matter if Tamra is justified, or if Jenn has a point. She has allowed Tamra to make a fool of her for two seasons and she’s finally releasing all her rage. She, too, has mastered the Tamra playbook. Speak loud, and with conviction, and it won’t matter what you’re actually saying.
And, for what it’s worth, what Jenn says has great merit. Not since Kelly Dodd has someone reamed Tamra out this passionately. And, unlike QAnon Kelly, Jenn isn’t focused on linking Tamra’s evil to the woke left.
“Leave me the f--- alone. I want no part of your f---ing bullshit. You attack everyone. The only reason [Heather’s] your f---ing friend is because she’s in front of you right now,” Jenn shouts. “You talk about everybody behind their back. “I’m a better f---ing person than you will ever be, Tamra. Ever. Bye, f---ing b---h.”
What a thrill. Tamra Judge is one of TV’s best villains, scripted or otherwise, and it’s so amazing to see her biggest adversary come in the form of this former wallflower. On a cast full of nice, normal women, Jenn probably would’ve sunk into the background and Crystal Kung Minkoff-ed her way to two semi-forgettable seasons.
Here, she’s become the protagonist amid an inextinguishable wildfire. The Real Housewives of Orange County has flirted with its former glory all season, and it’s finally achieving it now that Jenn has bloomed. We’re in the end stretch now, a Bahamas engagement, FBI inquiry, and subsequent fallout all awaiting us. Orange County is back in a big way.
Shannon’s the new queen, but Jenn is something even more important. She’s the people’s princess. Don’t you forget it.
