Pop Tart

That's exactly how I've heard it described by recovering alcoholics I know. The most difficult thing for them after they stop drinking is the discovery of how hard it is to feel all the emotions. What the alcohol was doing for them was muting things. When they stopped the alcohol they suddenly had to feel all the feelings and it's very, very scary and painful for many. So while others think that Luann's somewhat frenetic behavior is proof that she's on something, to me it seems more indicative that she really had been 52 days sober as of that filming. Whether she still is, who knows.

I think she was somewhat rushed and scattered in those scenes because she was trying to get a lot of ground covered in terms of "backstory". The news of her being sued and having to go back to rehab was all over the place so it felt to me like she wanted to address that elephant as soon and as quickly as possible. I always thought the lawsuit was more in the nature of a putting the breaks on in a "this is just business" way, then it was the kids really being that mad at their mom longterm. Clearly Victoria and she are fine if Victoria's willing to go on stage with her in one of her shows. And I'm guessing the same is true for her and her son (blanking on his name). I'm trying to give Bethenny the benefit of the doubt in terms of her grieving for Dennis, but there were about one or two too many scenes last night with her as tragic, grieving "widow" and how she doesn't want to talk about it but managed to do so in each of her scenes. Yes, in show time the death is pretty recent, but still it veered too much into exploitative and "this is my story for the season" territory to my mind. Dorinda has really lost me in her insistence that Luann has done her so wrong. Luann pointed out that she turns into a raving she-beast when she's drinking and reaches a certain point. That is a fact borne out by loads of camera footage over several seasons. Yes, it's annoying when someone who is newly sober (or newly quit smoking, or newly lost a lot of weight, etc.) comments on you still doing that behavior, but Dorinda's raging anger about it isn't about Luann being too judge-y, it's about the fact that she knows it to be true. That's what Luann was trying to express to Bethenny and Barbara about Dorinda's hatred really being aimed at her own self. It didn't come across very clearly, but it's a fair point. Sure Luann can get a big head and be an arrogant know it all, but she's completely right about Dorinda's drinking patterns and wasn't trying to be a jerk when she warned Dorinda in Mexico last season that she was on the point of "turning".

I agree that Katie has been pretty bad lately - but it still won't make me happy because what Sandoval is arguing, that it's Katie's fault James got fired, is just wrong. Yes Katie made a complaint about it (as did Brittany which no one seems to remember), but that was completely, 100%, her right. Sandoval has always excused James' bad, misogynistic behavior (mostly because Sandoval is that too, he's just better at masking it most of the time) so I can't be on his side in this situation even as much as I think Katie has been a pill for a lot of the season.

I was so annoyed at the mom’s comments to Lim about how she didn’t blame her for reporting her for abuse because she doesn’t know what love is like she does (because she’s a mom). Irritated by both aspects of that, first that because she’s a mom she loves her baby too much to hurt her (even though mom’s do all the time), and second because I hate that whole “you haven’t loved until you’re a parent”. I know she expanded on that by saying that Lim doesn’t want to give up control and thus can’t love, but still bugged. I so wanted Shaun to say “I’m a surgeon” one more time and then say “and I’ll have my lawyer give you a call” then walk out.

Funny thing about all these people is that as idiotic they all generally are most of the time, they’re pretty good at reading each others’ relationships. Jax is right about how Sandoval and Ariana are not on the same page at all James is totally right about Lala’s arrangement with Rand Stassi and Katie are right about Kristen/Carter dysfunction Everyone is right about being concerned about Jax/Brittany Everyone is right about Scheana and whoever she happens to be claiming to be with Of course what I’ve just said is pretty much true of most of the human race, so they’re not unique.

Reptilian brain is an actual theory of how the most primal part of the brain works. Basically it’s the part of your brain that wants to be in control when you’re under major stress. The reptilian brain has very few responses to stress, Beau’s mom said live or die, I’ve heard fight or flight. When something bad is happening you revert to the most primitive response possible, basically returning to being the lizards we evolved from. Making yourself aware that that is what’s happening is meant to help you work on ways to work through that state of mind into a more controlled, thoughtful stance.

She had gotten a text from John about it - think she said they’d been working on projects together and had become friendly. But from everything we’ve heard so far, she did not spread that information to anyone else. It has only come out on the show because Lisa’s employee John had brought the dog out in the store. Even then Teddi did not say anything on camera. But enter Kyle and suddenly John is nudging her and asking Kyle if she recognizes the dog, etc. All while Lisa is sitting right there. If Lisa wanted it shut down she could have done so right then by ordering John to leave the room or shut up. That’s what makes me sure that she wanted it out but did not want to be blamed for it getting out. When she had her one one one with Dorit she made sure to mention that John and Teddi were talking about it, laying the groundwork for the shifting of blame. And next week when Ken brings out John/Teddi texts as some kind of proof of “Teddi gossiping about it” it’s more of the same. From what we know of the timeline those texts will be the ones they exchanged before filming and will only show what Teddi has said. John told her, she told no one, filming starts and it comes out on camera at VPDogs while Teddi and Kyle are there. That is all classic for LVP and how she operates. Rinna did have that right. Just enough truth for plausible deniability and subtly shifting the blame to others is how LVP has always worked things. I do believe LVP is genuinely messed up about her brother at this point in the filming and is off her game. These type of manipulations would have been a bit more subtle in the past. I’ve never liked her because I do think she’s incredibly calculating, but I have admired her reality show skills. For this season I think she should have made the decision to sit it out or be on as a “friend of” for her own sake. But that die has been cast. Oh and some have mentioned that Dorit brought the dog story into the show too because she told Erika all about it. I’m sure that confession/explanation was filmed after the discussion at VPDogs happened and Dorit had been told by producers or Lisa perhaps that the story was going to be out there. Once she knew that Dorit had to be sure to get her side of the story on camera. All this said, still can’t stand Dorit and I 100% believe that she dumped that dog at a shelter herself.

I think she’s going to regret the extreme fitness kick she was on. If you don’t keep up the regimen your body goes to pot pretty quickly, especially at Teresa’s age and I think you can see that in the picture.

I'm still stuck on the shower commentary. Abby thought it was tacky for MM to have a shower with all the stars and if she was going to have one she should be doing so with her childhood friends, not stars. So much wrong with that. First off, description of guests included her closest friends from "teenage years to the present" according to a source. So she did have childhood friends there. But even if she hadn't, so what? And second, many women have multiple baby showers, one with family, one with close friends, one with co-workers - all hosted by someone who decides who to invite (though the mom to be often gets to have input). This is MM's first baby and while she doesn't have material need for help, she is entitled to have fun get togethers with her friends to celebrate the child and her becoming a mom for the first time.

I agree about both of these. LR did say everyone has body issues and I’m sure she has and has had issues through her career. In regards to why she’d urge Amelia into modeling if she had an eating disorder, I’m guessing that Amelia’s issues became much more obvious and perhaps severe at that point and that’s when she admitted to it and LR realized. It’s probable that Amelia has had problems for a while, but it’s also possible that her parents didn’t know how serious it was.

Feels like this was the continuation of the James redemption arc while the producers and cast were working the “Kristen’s crazy” storyline to the max. Yes Kristen was majorly drunk but much of what happened at the tail end of the episode was caused by the others (particularly Katie) getting in her face over and over.

I know a woman who’s in her eighties who did the Ancestry DNA thing and found out she had half-sisters. Her dad had taken off when she was very young and she and her mom never saw him again. 75 years later she does the test and finds a sister. When you do the DNA testing I think there’s an option to have them tell you if there’s a familial match - if the other person has okayed that as well - and that’s just what happened. She took the test and Ancestry told her they’d found a match. She has since met that sister and learned of another who had passed away. So Melissa’s scenario isn’t impossible. Longshot, yes, but possible for sure. No other thoughts about the ep, which I thought very boring. I will say that Jennifer’s party outfit was amazingly cheap and tacky looking considering it was “custom made”.

Pretty sure that Kyle mentioned it being the DM event several times and how she wasn't invited because it was the DM event.

I wonder if this is what leads to the falling out with Lisa and Ken and not puppy-gate? Probably not, but they did show that scene pretty prominently last night and in the fight at the VDP house at the beginning of the show Ken seems even angrier then Lisa. They showed Kyle laughing about the photo and then tacitly okaying the posting of it as Lisa didn't follow her daughter on IG or follow anyone really. As she said it the shot widened and you could see Lisa in the background...dun, dun, dun style. It could be that scene was simply shown to demonstrate that Kyle is a bad friend to Lisa - but maybe? Or perhaps it becomes part and parcel of the larger story of who is going to the press, posting things, etc. I've seen comments about how it seems everyone is gunning for LVP this season, but based on last nights editing and production, I think the person being taken down this year is Kyle. At least as far as the show's storyline is going to go. She was the one to be shown as easily offended last night (though I do think Lisa did set her up), she was the one shown laughing about the photo, she was the one stomping out, etc. Lisa was shown grieving for her brother, dealing politely with Dorit, loving dogs, basically being the grand dame to anyone and everyone. Those are storyline set-ups and it's not looking good for Kyle. The funny thing is I've always disliked Kyle, going back to the beginning, but I'm finding I'm on her side so far. Lisa bringing up the TomTom opening and how Kyle didn't attend was her classic way to wrong-foot Kyle out of the gate. It was a Daily Mail event, not the grand opening, and it seemed pretty clear that Lisa had downplayed and perhaps hadn't even invited Kyle and yet on camera she's beefing up the story as a an example of how Kyle doesn't support her. Kyle was of course upset and probably felt gaslighted and this on top of how Lisa seemed to be brushing off Dorit's offense (which, according to everything we know about Lisa, should have been the thing that made Lisa cut Dorit off) as a simple mistake. Kyle rightly felt that this was unjust in many ways, thus the stomping out. Do I think Kyle is self-centered and self-involved? Yes, but I have never seen her friendship with Lisa as a show friendship. I think Kyle has always seen them as the only "real" friends on the show, but I'm not sure Lisa would agree. As long as someone is of use, even if it's for amusement or show purposes, Lisa keeps you around, but if she becomes done with you, she's done and she'll shed nary a tear about it.

I thought that was all setup to prove how important James’s dj’ing is (like they’re going to go under without him) and was meant to once again make James the oh so talented underdog. The producers are working overtime on the James reclamation story. Bringing his mother on to show how sad James is and now a brother and a chorus of oh the tragedy of losing his dj skills.

I think Lisa is truly petty, but she's also driven by the almighty dollar and as one of the producers of the show, she's also thinking in terms of ratings. I think as long as Kristin remains a draw for fans of the show she stays, as soon as she's past that point she's gone. Not a matter of other cast begging her to allow her to stay or her working or not-working at SUR (clearly). It's all about her popularity with fans (even if they're hate-watching her). And yes, she was PO'd that Stassi had been invited, but she didn't insist that she be disinvited at the last minute as happened with Kristin. What I've always thought about Lisa is that to her all these people are just the court jesters in her fabulous life. They're not people to her. They're here to amuse her and when she tires of them and they're no longer useful, they're out. She's done the same with other people on RHOBH. The first season she had some guy who lived with her and Ken and he was an amusing accessory for her. When he pissed her off, he was out. Same went for Brandy. And a couple of others I've forgotten. I think she likes Katie and the Toms more then most and James too because of her family history with him, but she'd drop them in a hot minute if they truly did something that displeased her.

My problem with Lisa's behavior towards Kristin is that she's punching down in a major way. Lisa is the owner of SUR and other restaurants and is not only the most powerful cast member but is also a producer. So the power-imbalance is pretty major here. So to me Lisa just comes across as incredibly petty and nasty in her behavior towards Kristin. Granted I've always rooted for Kristin, who is generally her own worst enemy, and disliked Lisa (on this show and on RHOBH), but Lisa singles out Kristin for behavior that they've all done at some point or another. And she singles her out personally - as opposed to treating James behavior as a work issue (which it was). She's personally petty to her and passive aggressive and pleased when something bad happens to her. Punching down. It seems only big enough to actually be just a bar. The only sit down tables I thought I saw were all outside on the patio. There was perhaps an alcove off to the side with tables? But to me it seems more like a bar that serves some food, than it is a restaurant with a bar.

Agreed, felt the same way. Then I turned on WWHL and there she was, along with James and Raquel.

Things that made me laugh at the grand opening: The Toms touching all their body parts with jalapeño juice on their hands. Schwatz scrubbing the toilets and opining thatthat will be his main job - to which I was nodding my head in agreement The Toms in their matching purple suits with orange shoes (truly the pan down to their shoes as they strutted out made me laugh out loud) Schwartz on quest to find aquafava (like wth?) and then on the floor in the kitchen opening cans of chickpeas and reassuring everyone (who didn’t seem to care one whit) that he’d brought more aquafava and all is well James sitting on toilet paper in a closet with occasional breaks to fix the fan and wave his hands in the window while all below completely ignored him That the sign on the outside lit in neon, looks like the name of the restaurant is TT. There are probably a few others that I’m forgetting. Oh and on another note: Who’s going to tell Billie that she’s not been invited on Lala’s GIRLS TRIP?

I'm feeling a combination of both of these. I really enjoy moments of the show and some of the interactions between characters and the dialogue (especially between Wayne and Roland) is stellar and often powerful, but the jumps in time are just too frequent and are starting to make me resentful. I get the need for dramatic tension, but it's not even that the jumps interrupt the mystery, it's that they're interrupting my emotional connection to the characters. And this is exacerbated for me with Amelia and Wayne by the fact that I don't think she's been very well-developed. I get that much of what we know of her is colored by Wayne's memories, but the scenes are just too brief for me to get a true handle on her. And truly if there was not another scene of Wayne with his family (outside of his interactions with his adult son, don't mind those), but instead all the rest were work-based, I'd be fine with that. Whether it's Wayne with Roland or Wayne interviewing people, that's all good. In fact Julie's mom is the most interesting female character on the show and really she's only had a handful of scenes. Of course now that I'm mulling it, I realize there are only like 4 women on the cast who have any kind of continuing roles: the mom, Roland's girlfriend Lori, Amelia and the documentary maker woman.

Missed on the first viewing how poor Rhylee went to bring Cam (I think) tea at the behest of one of the other guests and was told she was in the master. Then we see Rhylee ducking back out of the room being berated by the primary about never coming in her room, get out, etc. Sure, if Rhylee didn’t knock (and perhaps she did and it wasn’t heard) that was dumb, but hectoring, demeaning tone from the primary was just beyond. That primary was horribly nasty when drunk, but also nasty and condescending when sober, so the “I was drunk” excuse is not going to fly. Immature and insecure are great descriptors for Adrian. Though it was more evident later in the season, I noticed early on that when he does not get his way he gets passive aggressive, pouty and mean. Oh and I’m surprised to say I liked Ashton best by the end of the season ( after Josiah) of the guys. Tyler’s behavior towards Rhylee, big turn-off and Ross now dating Khrystal? Blech.

Ha! Thanks for the correction. I knew Mallory was not right as I was typing it, but I didn't feel like looking it up. And I've only watched the Atlanta season intermittently this year so I couldn't tell if Marlo had made it onto the cast or not (she seems to be on allllllllll the time).

I thought that at first too, but then I figured that the confessional must have been recorded after all the discussions had already happened. So Tom gossips to the guys about the event, Jax tells Brittany and Lala (who denies it happened), then at the skating party she confirms with Ariana that she (Ariana) was letting everyone know it was true, and she tells Ariana that she would have kept lying about it if Ariana was doing so as well. After all of that is when I think the confessional had to have been recorded. So if Ariana had denied it happened, Lala would have continued to do so too and not have said what she did in her confessional. That's how I'd guess the timeline went. I do think Lala had some concern about the story for her own self-preservation in that she'd just been outed as cheating on "My Man" with Ariana, but once the cat was fully out of the bag and Ariana was copping to it all, then Lala knew it was a moot point and declared it so in her talking head. With the whole Billie thing - which is beyond tiring at this point - I think the true reason that she was not included in the planning is because the other women don't see her as a full cast member and probably barely gave her a second thought (not to invite her to help nor to make her feel unincluded) and that's what really sticks in Billie's craw. Billie is clearly determined to get on the show (hey it worked for Mallory on RHOA, so worth a shot) as a full-time cast member and you can just see her in every single scene striving to be as relevant and interesting as possible. But like Sheana I'm not sure it will be possible. The original core group is tight with each other - they've had their ups and downs (like to the nth degree sometimes) but they always circle back to being the group that is: the Toms, Katie, Ariana, Kristin, Stassy and Jax (and their partners whoever they may be in the moment). When I watched the behind the scenes of the first season this was the group - with perhaps different partners at the time. Scheana was brought into the cast as a spoiler, but while she's had ups and downs and ebbs and flows with the group, she's never quite made it in. Nor has Racquel. And I don't see it happening for Billie either. James and Lala are kind of outliers in this breakdown - but I think that's because they're meant to be the court jesters/dramatic catalysts driving story for the core group.

She has said things. When he made the “meat” comment (so gross), yes she laughed uncomfortably, but she also said she doesn’t like that shit. And in the flashback, can’t remember what he says but she there too tells him to stop or that what he said wasn’t cool or the like. Has she said something every time, doesn’t seem so, but she has expressed dislike for the comments more than once. And harassment is in how the harassed person feels, not in what the harasser intended or whether they were told to stop or not. i thought Rhylee looked really pretty for her date and though it was clear she was unhappy with Tyler’s jerkishness, she recovered pretty nicely. I was happy that she was able to have a conversation with him the next day telling him that she wasn’t trying to get too into his life. Of course she wants something more serious, but she at least kept her cool. I did find it interesting that Kate was kind of pulling for her a bit - even if it was just for her own amusement. I know she’s not well liked, but Rhylee’s the kind of reality show character that I always find myself rooting for. She’s often her own worst enemy and many of her mistakes have stemmed from insecurity, at least by my read. She’s overeager and charges into things instead of holding back to get the lay of the land. All things I get. So each time she succeeds a little part of me cheers for her. That last primary came on board wasted and seemed to remain so for that entire day. And clearly she’s an angry drunk.

The second quote answers the first one for me. The reason I was wishing and hoping that Randall would lose is because I'm not interested in seeing play Captain Save a Poor Person - it would reinforce some of what I like least about Randall. When he said something to his family or maybe it was maybe just Beth about a "great person" being not so great for their family vs. a "good person" who is, that was the kernel I wanted him to really absorb. So called "great" people often leave their families in the dust as they spend all their energy being great for everyone else. And what I have always loved most about Randall is his role as husband and father, not his role as savior to the world. So for me it makes him far less interesting. Oh and the actual pull-from-behind was just too silly. That too.