PhilMarlowe2

And based on how the season ultimately went, I bet there would have been a huge chance of her getting upgraded to full-time. The show actually needed her, IMO. Or, at the very least, it would have been a Luann situation where she would have been so welcomed by viewers in her role that her stock would have ultimately risen. But I get how you would definitely have to swallow your pride to come back in a limited capacity.

Kind of like how the thing I appreciate most about the mess that is Kelly Dodd in RHoC is that she has amazing table etiquette - she holds her fork and cuts her food in the classic European way!

I am pretty sure Tamra redecorating Eddie's house was part of the show soon after they officially moved in together.

I think in the Housewives sphere, Heather quitting is a technicality - yes, she technically turned down their offer for FOH (just as Brandi did), but it was like a firing because she would have come back if offered a full-time role. I say this because Tamra made comments during the season regarding her lack of communication with Heather along the lines of, "She's really sensitive, and it's hard for her to not be a part of things," which suggests that the entire situation did in fact sting Heather. I think saying that Heather chose to leave the show makes it sound a lot more voluntary than it actually was, but MMV. Ultimately, it's all a matter of language/semantics/and how each individual views it.

And that is why I love Vicki - it made for such great television. That said, I do think she has mellowed out with that kind of stuff. She clearly likes to be a generous grandmother without completely financing their lives.

When did she do that? She said early in the season that all of the women were saying Heather had been demoted and that's what caused Heather to leave.

I don't think Heather chose to leave the show.

Yeah, Tamra has always struck me as someone who lives within her means. The house looks surprisingly cozy and non-McMansiony.

If she is working the ER, they can no doubt afford a housekeeper!

The "ignore" feature is a beautiful thing ;)

I don't usually notice these things, but it looks like he has a huge penis flopping around in there!

On that same episode of WWHL, I did notice that when Leslie Grossman was putting down Vicki, Shannon did not put in her two cents of agreement - she stayed atypically silent. If I had to guess, she is probably in a "wait and see" phase of things with Vicki.

If that is the "big surprise," then it will be the dullest surprise I have ever seen.

It's not about them having a negative opinion of David - it's their behavior as a result. Terry admitted (a year later) that he behaved like "a douche bag." And he did. Calling David a "penis" at dinner, yelling at him when he had already apologized, claiming he had lost months of sleep over it. It was over-the-top and he got a lot of viewer flak for it. That is no one's fault but Terry's fault, IMO.

Watching that clip brings back so many memories of how horrible the left couch was that season. Ugh, Terry Dubrow blaming Vicki of all people for his behavior toward David? And Heather backing it up? They were so awful.

It is interesting to know now that Tamra had already heard rumors of David's infidelity at that point - so those "innocent" comments were clearly meant to be underhanded and vicious. It really is amazing that Shannon has managed to get past all this with her.

Bell, Book & King Candle Collection

I guess I just feel like Peggy doesn't seem interesting or smart enough to play a role for the cameras. Like, she is just kind of dull. Is this really a woman who thinks, "I'll turn it 'on' for the show!" You'd think she be a whole lot more engaging if she were that conscious of playing a part.

I think it's super obvious from the clip that David is insanely attracted to Kelly and trying to mask it with faux-outrage.

I think it involves the threeway hug between Tamra, Shannon and Vicki.

Shannon has always been this way - she gets these fixed ideas in her head of how things are "supposed" to be, what has to happen at all costs, and she puts stock in these symbolic gestures regardless of whether they're actually the best thing for anyone involved. I'm thinking here of how she repeatedly declared, "divorce is NOT an option!" during Season 10, like it was this foregone conclusion that precluded any notion of actually taking the time to get clear on whether the marriage was actually worth saving. And she was similarly preoccupied with the vow renewal. She constantly refers to it as "the best" her marriage ever was, so much so that the she felt grateful for the affair for getting them to that high point; In fact, she is still talking about it at the reunion - "Now I know what's it's like for someone to look at you lovingly..." Shannon seems to think in these huge, swinging extremes - and it always feels very emotionally immature to me. Almost like an adolescent idea of what it means to be in a fairytale romance or relationship. Like, the vow renewal meant everything to her. She was fixated on it. Just like she was fixated on not divorcing. She wanted that vow renewal honeymoon phase to last forever. She attaches so much self-created meaning to things, she clings to them with all of her might. She seems to have no sense of surrender. No sense of things ebbing and flowing. No sense of going with the flow. No sense of meeting life on life's terms. Anyhow, that is what the Sunday dinners feels like to me - "Our family will still have Sunday dinners! We've always done it! We're still a family unit!" I would add to this that we have no idea why David left Hawaii early - something which he is receiving criticism for after the reunion. Maybe they were fighting. Maybe it was as awkward as the quinoa bowl conversation. Maybe Shannon got "roofied" again and was beating down the door to get to him. We're only getting one side of the story here.

There was a whole episode this season about parental alienation, and Tamra's involvement in the movement, which is ostensibly about her fractured relationship with Sidney. It was definitely a plot point.

I've always suspected that was Kelly's own way of re-framing the info. Though we will never know for sure. It just "sounds" like Kelly.

I was actually thinking about how Tamra and Lisa Rinna are very similar in the sense that they are both incredibly compulsive women, who talk first and think later, and are hugely influenced by who is sitting in front of them in the moment and what that person happens to be saying. I think that's why Tamra can fly off the handle so easily, and then forgive so easily. She just gets so caught up in whatever moment that she goes with the flow of that particular moment with no real regard for context, history or even logic. That's why I think that when Tamra is on a trip with Vicki, she is suddenly able to bury the hatchet and move forward; but then, once she is around Eddie again, she wants nothing to do with Vicki again; and certainly Shannon keeps her fire stoked. As counter-intuitive as this may sound given Tamra's outspokenness, I also think she has a low-key desire to please whomever she is with (when she likes them) - to go along with what they're saying - which leads to a lot of her more two-faced behavior. This was her whole excuse for talking shit about Alexis with Gretchen in Season 8 - "I was telling you what you wanted to hear." I think there is some truth to that (not that I think it makes it right). I also think Tamra has a vague awareness of what's good for the show in terms of shifting alliances mixed into all of this.

It was, but since it was directed at Mean Girl, Perpetual Victim Porsha, I didn't mind!