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Although I generally agree with Denise, she came to Kyle's party looking for trouble. She didn't bring her kids -- which is fine -- but she gave Kyle one reason, and she gave Garcelle another reason and told it to Garcelle in a loud enough voice to be heard by Kyle. That is classic passive aggressive behavior. Denise either should have stuck to her story that the kids had other plans or she should have just told the truth. By handling it this way, Denise provoked the fight. If she had just stuck to her lie, there would have been no fight.

For me, the laugh of the night was when Denise shut the ladies up by leading them to believe that her daughter confronted her about the adult talk the ladies were having. Then Denise refused to answer Erica's question about what her daughter said because -- we learn in flashback -- the daughter said she thought it was funny. It also made me wonder if Denise was being completely truthful with Kyle when she said her daughter picked out the diamond ice sculpture, or if that was just to shut Kyle up (which it did).

It really seems like these women are indulging in controversy just for the sake of controversy. Both of the major areas of "conflict" among the women just don't seem like things they, or anyone else, would argue about . First, who cares if Kyle is closer to Teddy than the other ladies? Why is that a source of conflict? And second, if Denise doesn't want you to have an adult conversation in front of her kids, then don't do it. Why argue about it? Neither one of these two areas of conflict are worth fighting about. I feel like this whole season so far has been much ado about nothing.

This was supposed to be Kyle's first year as queen of RHOBH, and I think Kyle is finding that the crown is, in fact, heavy.

Margaret said she poured water on Danielle because she thought Danielle was going to do something violent. Now, I think Margaret is pretty smart. So I have to wonder -- how, exactly, does Margaret reason that pouring water over Danielle, a woman with anger and impulse control issues, will diffuse a tense, potentially violent situation? Let's face it ... Margaret poured water on Danielle because she was pissed off and Margaret has impulse control problems of her own.

The laugh of the night was Teresa wracking her brain (such as it is) to figure out why she encouraged Danielle to pull Margaret's hair -- as if that sort of behavior is so out of character for Teresa.

Anxiety and shyness can be very disabling and I'm glad to see Geoffrey deal with them, albeit at times he seems to really struggle. I was not annoyed by his emotions in the least.

Margaret can process all she wants, but by the middle of the next season she and Teresa will be reconciled and by the end of the season they will be best friends. That is the way conflict works on these Real Housewives shows. Emotions are ephemeral. In a way it's a cartoon world, where one second someone is dropping a one ton weight on you, and the next second you're good as new.

I wasn't the least bit surprised that Andy Cohen asked Courtney if she planned to get together with Brian after the reunion. Andy Cohen is the most shallow person in the world, and he simply can't relate to people like Courtney who actually have convictions.

That was like watching a football game where the final score was 70-0. At some point you're just rooting for the slaughter to end.

Captain Lee needs to do a better job managing his managers and creating an environment where people feel freer to approach him, especially if they are feeling bullied or threatened.

I'm surprised Nina didn't wrench her neck considering how massively she rolled her eyes when Victoria said she wasn't making excuses for her design right after she made excuses for her design.

I think a lot of women could wear Victoria's blouse. Just off the top of my head Daisy Mae Yokum and Elly Mae Clampett come to mind.

I think most people will agree that Victoria's look was the worst. But at least there was an attempt at a different design element in her look. The worst thing you can do on PR is offer nothing new for the judges to react to -- favorably or unfavorably.

Is there some correlation between sleep deprivation and success as a designer? Otherwise, what is the point of a sleep deprivation challenge? I get that sometimes creative people have to work through exhaustion, but to make that a factor in this competition seems ridiculous.

Whenever a designer says a challenge is in their wheelhouse you can bet dollars to donuts that they'll be in the bottom. For some reason Delvin's tuxedo reminded me of Mary Martin's costume in Peter Pan. He was just missing the little hat.

To me it seemed like a Freudian slip. And, if it is, it is perfectly understandable given the way Joe has been treating her. (Oops. Sorry Baltimore Betty. I didn't see that you had posted the same observation when I posted this.)

With regard to Kevin's cake, I think there is a thin line between erotic and obscene, and I think Kevin crossed that line. That may help explain the reaction.

So Melissa says that Jackie is doing a better job of setting up her kids for the future by not recklessly spending money. And Jennifer somehow interprets that as Melissa saying Jennifer's kids aren't going to be successful. So this whole fight is because Jennifer misunderstands Melissa's point.

For what it's worth, I remember a pizza party I went to as a kid and, believe me, that was a looooooooooong time ago. I remember the fun, the games and the hospitality. And pizza was a real treat for me, and not something I got to eat a lot. So I dispute Jennifer's idea that kids only remember over-the-top fancy parties.

This is a great point. Let's not draw a moral equivalence between being defensive and being aggressively mean.

If anything this season shows why Captain Lee's hands off approach to management doesn't work when you have inexperienced managers like Ashton.The captain needs to be more hands on in supervising his staff who are new to managing people. It's one thing to be a competent deck hand -- quite another to be an effective manager.

Rhylee is a hard worker and she wants to learn. With the right manager I think she could thrive. But it would be hard to find a 25 year old (or thereabouts) bosun with those kind of managerial skills. She would probably do better with a more hands-on captain.

I'm not defending Joe, but to me he came across as a man still trying to be relevant to his family. He's no longer the breadwinner. And he's not around to be a parent. But he doesn't want to be totally sidelined either, so he tries to assert his authority in this clumsy way.

There is a meanness to this show that I just don't like, and I always feel a little tense after watching. That's all I have to say.