The Closer

While Mary largely annoys me, I could at least see at times how others might find her wacky enough to be amused by her antics. However, when she was being an asshat to the person working the event that was it for me. It's one thing for the other housewives to have to deal with one another's antics, but being rude to people just doing their jobs is not okay and not acceptable as "entertainment". If Mary returns next season, I'm out.

The women they interviewed that had married Lloyd seemed like decent people who actually did leave him, one at the expense of losing her sons in the process, so I'm not sure why we need to go on about the problem being the women getting involved with Lloyd or acting like it's so simple to just leave an abusive situation involving children. I thought it was a well told story and was one that fully used the 2 hours to tell. It was heartbreaking to see that Lloyd and Marshall returned to Moore's vehicle and fired more rounds. I love that Moore's wife opened up Book Therapy. Hope she can find the peace and love she deserves.

This episode is exactly what I want from these types of shows. I love that Keith called out the disappearing tears of the murderer, his referencing of the age of the murderer's granddaughter, and calling out the way the murderer was making Brittanee a willing participant (including the voice over that stated she did not like pot.) This is not a trivial thing to me and why I prefer Dateline to many of these other types of shows. Keith never lost sight that there was a real victim here and protected her reputation accordingly rather than leaving it out there and letting the public think, "Hey, Brittanee didn't deserve to get murdered but she was a 17 year old girl doing drugs and looking to party..." as if she had an active role in her own death which is exactly the picture the murderer was trying to paint. I also love that they gave Timothy Taylor what the FBI couldn't - a public acknowledgement that he was innocent and wrongly accused. Tara is a strong friend and I liked that Dateline chose to end with the happy memories between the two. Personally, I am not a fan of commenting on people's appearances in general, but particularly when it's friends or family of a murdered victim.

I thought it was odd the father didn't call 911, but he also lives in a world where crime is a non-event. This is why he initially thinks it might be his son playing a prank - the thought of someone breaking into his home would be that unthinkable. He also didn't have the ability to go back and watch the video and had to rely on what he thought he might have seen for a few seconds so he behaved like a the scientist he is, wanting certainty and proof before jumping to conclusions. There are plenty of people in the world who delay calling 911 because they want to be sure, fearing embarrassment that they panicked and got police involved for something silly. I put him in this category. Whether you feel like the son was overly dramatic or unlikeable, imagine what he saw that day and then follow it up with 11 hours of being brutally interrogated and accused of it. What exactly would be a normal way to respond and does the trauma of it ever actually go away? Deyonte had a long criminal history as a juvenile, but when this murder happened he was around 19. He was no longer going to get the slap on the wrist that the had grown up with in the juvenile system and, prior to the murder, he was arrested for robbery and sentenced to 2 years in jail, obviously serving far less than that. Getting caught committing another felony so soon after would surely have earned him some decent prison time. I don't think he planned to kill anyone but 1) he had been to Justin's room already and had the knives on him 2) he runs into Jill and they are both shocked and a struggle ensues 3) Jill tries to escape and he knocks her out. Let's not act as if he ran out at that point that he wouldn't have done a decade of prison time. Instead, he stabs her many times and leaves behind the son's knife. It almost worked.

I guess I expect more from the people who didn't actually commit the murder? These were people who should be focused on their well-being of their granddaughters who were children at the time. Maybe in the days immediately after the loss of their mother wasn't the time to try and take a stand. Of course they don't entertain another notion. The only person they have left in their lives is their father. Right after the murder, their grandparents put them in a position as children to decide which side they were going to be on by controlling how they talked about what had happened, instead of focusing on just supporting them and letting them come to terms with things on their own timeline. Now they want to guilt them over how they won't be around forever. I get people not feeling sorry for the daughters. The one who got most of the airtime was surly but she's a teenager who had lost her mother and was being questioned about something that would cause her to now lose her father. I find compassion to that the only response for me personally.

I don't know. The only people I feel sorry for are the daughters. They lived with marital discord, a drug addicted father and a mother with mental health issues. Then they lost their mom. Their dad was convicted for killing their mom. While I don't blame the grandparents at all for wanting justice (and I believe they were right), telling their granddaughter immediately after their mother's death not to say that it was suicide and drawing a hard line on that with them seems like they were more focused on their needs. Sprinkle in the "I pray for reconciliation but our time is limited", while true, is wielding guilt against them. How about just saying, "Our door will always be open to the girls. We love and miss them very much." The girls are going to have a rough life. Hope they can stay strong and find their way.

As someone who hasn't loved when Dateline has made an innocent person a suspect for 50 minutes in order to tell a compelling story, I'm glad they kept the SODDI defense (lmao) to a vague person and focused on the trail the wife left behind. I love a good mystery, but sometimes there isn't one and, focusing on the police work done to uncover the clues in order to build a case, the most compelling aspect of the story.

That was really good police work. It would have been so easy to have just stopped with either the ex-boyfriend or with the friend who found the jacket, but they kept on going until they got the right person. Unpopular opinion, but I like Andrea. I don't care how she does her makeup and I find her good at asking point blank questions to get the emotions out of people. The "fuck you, dude" is a good example of that. I know most people seem bothered by her, though.

I personally don't think Keith Papini had any knowledge of what took place and I think the divorce is legitimate and not just to protect assets. Starting the GoFund Me makes sense because, among other things, he hired a private investigator. If a loved one went missing, I'd try to raise money too in order to be able to do everything possible to get them home again. Once she came home, I don't find it odd that he would spend the left over money on their debt. For all I know, some of that credit card debt may have come from expenses during the time he was looking for Sherri. Either way, though, if Sherri had been telling the truth and had been kidnapped and tortured, I doubt the donators would care that they used the remaining money that way. It would be easy for the detectives to be skeptical. They could even say that they'll never know when Keith found out (only that they didn't have enough to charge him with a crime), but they seem to really believe it wasn't until that interview a few years after the alleged kidnapping. If you're going to file for divorce to protect your assets, there is no real benefit to not ask for shared custody. I do think if your spouse has been talking to other men and lied about being the victim of a horrible crime, you probably would be really apprehensive about leaving your children in the care of that parent. At the very least, I can't tell you that I'm not worried about what Sherri might do if she has time alone with the children while facing serious charges and a very public outlash. I could argue an alternative version for any one of these points, but all together, I just don't think Keith had any clue what was going on and is as much a victim of Sherri as the rest of the people that gave time and resources to her.

I don't like Noella at all, but going through a divorce, reading about the destruction of embryos and losing a parent is a lot. Not being close to the parent who dies can actually make it harder as you have to let go of any dreams of things being different. It's still a loss, just a different kind of one. Maybe Noella's just "thirsty" and I'm falling for it, but I'd rather be a person who is gullible than someone who will be a judgmental ass to someone who lost a parent in order to prove they can't get one over on me. I hated Shannon coming into this season. Congrats, Gina, on making me love her again. You have become insufferable and your "shit happens" response reveals a really ugly side of you I wish I could unsee. You should be ashamed.

Family dynamics can make things weird and make people behave in illogical ways so I cut Kathy & Kyle a lot of slack regarding family interactions. You can be Paris doing her own crazy stuff in public and still not want your mother on this show. You can have a bad mom and still cry about her. It may be that Kathy doesn't cry every time she talks about her mom, but in this setting she's being asked to be a bit reflective which can trigger that. I lost my mom last year and can imagine crying in 20 years if I'm asked to reflect on my childhood. It doesn't matter how great/awful your mom is. Sometimes people just miss their moms regardless of all that. Families are complicated so it makes it a bit hard for me to critique. However, I do judge Kyle and Dorit for being so soft on their response regarding the dinner with PK & Mauricio. In fact, their softness makes me think that when Ericka says she's keeping score, some of it may be that she is a bit more in the know about things that PK & Mauricio have done and that keeps Kyle & Dorit in check. Or maybe Kyle & Dorit just want to be on record that wives don't know what their husbands do so that they can claim their own innocence in the future if necessary. I actually think Andy is doing a good job of asking Ericka very pointed questions. For me, it's all about what he does going forward because if he brings her back, I won't care how great his questioning was here. I will just be done with the show.

Erika announcing she wants a big d is essentially a good indication that her money woes are getting too uncomfortable. Sex is the only thing she has to offer up at this point, and I'm sure she feels if she can get a man in bed she might be able to convert it to a relationship that is advantageous to her finances. She's probably scrolling through her DMs now. This is hand-in-hand with Andy giving her credit for showing up at the reunion and not walking out no matter what was asked. That, Andy, is because she needs the paycheck it's providing and she already knows the fan base is calling for her to be fired. The only shot she has to stay on the show is to offer up her life to you. Perhaps not overly popular, but I don't think they need to dump the majority of women on this even though everyone but Garcelle and Sutton annoyed me. I think if they got rid of Rinna and Erika and brought in someone new (or brought back someone old), the rest would be more tolerable. I felt like Erika's issues derailed the season entirely. Rinna is just performing and not at all real which makes her disposable.

Kyle used to be my favorite - really, her whole family was as I liked Mauricio too and their kids seemed like pretty good kids. I can't imagine how awful she must seem to those who never cared for her to begin with. I feel like I just broke up with a friend. haha Sutton in the interviews is a different woman. She looks fabulous in red and is far more confident than we've ever seen her. She should definitely be brought back. She intrigues me. Side note: I absolutely loved how she never turned her foot issue a big pity party. This episode was the worst episode in the worst season of this series. Turning it into the Ericka Jayne Show was okay for a couple of episodes but for an entire season? It was a snoozefest. Please, Andy, no more of her, ok?

It's understandable. I prioritize food over friendships too! Kyle used to be my favorite of all housewives but she has become so unlikeable. I always thought Kyle was supporting Ericka in order to avoid being the target and just threw Sutton under the bus. After this episode, it makes me wonder if Kyle is thinking about things Mauricio has done over the years and how if those ever blew up in his face, she'd want to be in the clear of those accusations. Maybe what we're seeing is her fear of one day being in similar shoes and wanting the public to believe that wives don't know what their husbands are doing. Sutton looks great in the interviews where she's wearing red. Love her strength and confidence in those, calling out Ericka, mocking the other women blindly supporting Ericka, talking about how she'd be grumpy too if she lost all her money, lmao. A confident, strong Sutton is far greater than a weepy, insecure one that's for sure. Oh, one last thing. After watching this, I'm really positive if Ericka comes back again, I will stop watching. Andy can feel what he feels about her, but no way will she get any more of my time, attention, or money as a result of continued viewership.

Sometimes I really struggle liking Dateline because, in their need to keep the story compelling, it means they need to present it in a way that invariably smears others. You end up with viewers believing others are murderers based on the show’s portrayal of evidence and defending convicted murderers. That gives me pause about supporting shows like this as it must really suck for those who lost loved ones or those who now have the public thinking they got away with murder because a TV show presented evidence to make the show more interesting. There are two takeaways for me in that regards. The military guy who was prosecuting the court martial of Kit believed Cal was going to testify against him. I trust that he’d have a good take on Cal as a witness. I don’t buy that he was going to support Kit. The jury heard the actual case, saw the evidence presented - not a tv show’s version of evidence- and it took only several hours to convict him for murder. The evidence must have been pretty compelling to them. Can juries get it wrong? Sure, but then let’s save those episodes for cases that have been vetted by the Innocence Project. Dateline, please do better. The story here was fascinating enough without you slanting it to keep us guessing and it’s kinda gross.