Portae

I love my potatoes, but I totally got what Shannon was saying here. My husband is also one of those who thinks that a meal isn't complete without some kind of starch, and it can be frustrating to try to get him to see that a protein with two vegetables isn't the equivalent of a deprivation diet. That being said, I absoloutely do think that Shannon meant "thinner" when she said "younger," but I'm not going to get too worked up about a woman having some issues with food and weight, which puts her in line with about 90% of the female population, in my opinion. Of course, it becomes problematic when it comes to the unhealthy attitudes that she's passing along to her girls. But again, her issues are just so commonplace that it's hard for me to feel too angry about it.

I thought that Selita's guess that Brogan was pregnant was more about the implication that Brogan had been hiding something pretty major from Bianca, and had possibly been in another relationship while leading Bianca on.

I generally like Selita Ebanks, but I thought that her tone was off for the episode. She was a little too jokey and giddy for my taste. Granted, she didn't bring that into her meetings with Bianca or Tia, but there were times when I just felt that she seemed a bit too excited about being along for the ride and needed to reign it in.

I disagree with this part. I thought that Selita was trying to get Tia to understand that Bianca was dealing with some serious homophobia and racism on a day-to-day basis (her mother referenced this), and that she was therefore particularly vulnerable to the promise of someone who would accept her as she is. I thought that Tia was trying to downplay the severity of what she had done, or at least act as if she and Bianca were on equal grounds with regards to their feelings of not fitting in, and Selita was explaining precisely why that premise was incorrect.

I think that it's her default, because Kandi also mentioned that Joyce tends to have these problems with the guys that she dates. I'm not saying that Kandi should have stayed with AJ, but my point is that Kandi actually had no agency over what happened in that relationship. AJ dumped her because he was sick of Joyce's meddling. It should have been Kandi's decision. But since Joyce's methods have proven effective, why wouldn't she use them again with Todd? And I don't think that Joyce was "right" about AJ, because I think that her concerns were coming from the same place that they are with Todd: a desire to remain the central figure in her daughter's life. But you know what they say: even a broken clock is right twice a day. Joyce's default is "he's not the right one for you..." and then she uses specific details as evidence.

I caught an old reunion the other day, where Kandi talked about her breakup with AJ. Kandi said that after one particularly big blowup between AJ and Joyce, he told Kandi that it was too much and that he couldn't do it anymore. Now, I'm not saying that AJ was a catch, but Kandi has already lost one relationship because of her inability to establish boundaries between her mom and her significant other. She really should think about that at some point.

Personally, I think that it's easier to fake looking happy in still photos.

I don't think that the "walk of shame/victory lap" was a set up. I think that Sonja had scheduled shooting at her house for the next morning, which is why the production crew and Satako were there. When she realized that she wouldn't be home before Kristen, she probably called ahead and told the crew to go ahead and start filming and she would join in when she got there. I know that there is little that happens organically on this show, but I don't think that it is 100% scripted, either -- more like "improvised." It would take way too much effort and energy to choreograph every single detail.

I just think that Sonja likes attention and is also competitive with other women.

No, Carole wasn't pretending to be a manicurist. The idea is that Satako recognized herself as the gossipy manicurist from The Women. I don't think that Carole went to Satako to verify whether or not Russ and Sonja had slept together. I think that Carole already knew that it wasn't true, but wanted to get to the bottom of how the rumor got started and continued to circulate. So when she went to Satako, who confirmed that Sonja was the source of the rumor and knew that it would be revealed on camera, Carole realized that Sonja was an attention seeker who cared more about coming off as sexually desirable than the feelings of her friends.

Re. References to "The Women": Maybe the women talked about it around the time that they filmed? If so, it would make sense for it to come up in their blogs later.

Somebody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Aviva said that Cody asked if Nana could spend the night, and then Aviva told Cody that it was fine and to put her in Harrison's room. In other words, Aviva was going off of the last communication that she had with Cody, not on any firsthand interactions with Nana. Assuming that Cody simply didn't bother to update Aviva on the fact that Nana left directly from the party, and given what George said in response to Aviva's questions about where she was, Aviva might not actually be intentionally lying. Also, call me a pervert, but am the only one slightly suspicious about Nana's responses? Girl had some answers at the ready, and never even asked Ramona why she was asking for all of those details. I'm not saying that she hooked up with George, but maybe she hooked up with Cody and George watched or something? I'll go bleach my brain now.

I'm annoyed that Shanna seems to have dropped out of the situation altogether. If she felt that Jessica's texts were offensive, then why wasn't she at the sit down as well? Why is it only on the women of color to call out the racism? Of course, that would be presuming that Shanna actually cares and wasn't just using Jessica's texts as a way to oust Jessica and ingratiate herself with the other ladies.