LibertarianSlut

I guess I categorize my life differently from Lawrence—there are things I want that I probably can get, and there are things I want that I probably can’t get. This situation felt like the latter to me. It’s one thing to sit around with your bros and bitch that the women might talk about the time he vomited at the roller rink or whatever, but it’s completely different for Lawrence to think he can manipulate a series of conversations between two grown women, short of blackmail. The more we bring the “really embarrassing stuff” to the forefront and say, “can you please not talk about it,” the more likely I think it is to get talked about. I didn’t think the Issa/Lawrence conversation on the street was much more than a scene of Issa and Lawrence together. Lawrence wasn’t businesslike in his approach—he didn’t really make the argument or articulate which discrete parts of his life he didn’t want discussed. He was just vague and it seemed to me he just wanted to see Issa in person so that he could grin endearingly, act shy, and Issa would get the whole picture of what he wanted and what he didn’t want, and execute it perfectly. It was like magical thinking. There really wasn’t a problem, except in Lawrence’s mind. Condola told Lawrence they talked about the fries/mayo thing to break the tension and they were done talking about him. I think having a covert meeting with his ex—which, as other posters have said, is likely going to backfire—it’s like he’s trying to kill a mouse with dynamite. He is such an amateur he didn’t even tell Issa whether it was ok to tell Condola that Issa and Lawrence met. I mean, yes, he worked at Best Buy until more recently than he’d like, but that’s the risk you take when you don’t move every time you get a new girlfriend (that “man, I miss Dallas” line was hysterical)—someone might tell her tidbits about the past. I think if Issa and Condola got into a really grody conversation about something really personal about Lawrence, and then Condola confronted Lawrence about it, she would be the asshole for going out of her way to embarrass him, and he could bring that to her attention. I just think this game is better played on defense than on offense, especially with a laid-back Lawrence personality. What is going to happen first—Tiffany having her baby, or LaToya being found??

I loved this episode. This season seems funnier than past seasons, even though I always forget the jokes too soon. When Issa had the condom stuck inside her vagina and said to her reflection, “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” that was well-delivered. Also, Molly not having a comment at the work meeting and playing it off like she saw a window washer was haha funny in an Elaine from Seinfeld way. Everything about this show feels real to me, like the awkwardness between Molly and Condola with the menus and the dinner invite. You can really feel the friendship between Issa and Molly getting snagged and they keep trying to get past it with a respect that is almost cringeworthy in light of the fact that the season opened in the future with Issa saying she doesn’t fuck with Molly anymore. I thought the men sitting around discussing Lawrence’s Issa/Condola dilemma very funny, except I have no idea what Lawrence’s end game, or hang-up, is. I think the person most vulnerable here is Condola. She’s pursuing a friendship with someone who’s been up close and personal with her new man. What she could likely be afraid of is that he’d fall back in love with Issa and she’d get back together with him, and Condola would have lost her friend and her man. That’s a believable story. But, what is Lawrence’s fear, that they’re going to talk about his dick and stuff? I didn’t think guys cared about that. I don’t even think women care about that stuff anymore. None of y’all are virgins. I don’t think they’re doing a great job writing Andrew. I don’t really see what Molly sees in him. She had more chemistry with the guy who closed the door to her office who was mean to her. They’re writing Andrew like Jim from The Office season nine. It was the last season of the show, and I guess the writers felt like they needed to squeeze some marriage drama in between Jim and Pam, so they made Jim the biggest dick in the world for half the season. It was such poor writing, because it came out of nowhere (and I never really forgave Jim, which the audience was supposed to do). Molly specifically tells Andrew she does not want to go to the concert, that she wants to stay in and chill, and when he comes over he immediately wants to fuck, which, ok, I see now that’s what they’ve been doing, but Molly says again she wants to chill, she tells him the only taste he’ll be getting is of the gumbo, he says “you’re in charge,” and then...as he is enjoying the meal she cooked for him and she’s trying to have polite conversation, Andrew again suggests going to the damn concert? That’s an insult. Then he keeps making passive-aggressive comments toward her until he ultimately leaves? I’d never see him again. Are we supposed to be impressed that he called with a short apology shrouded in an excuse two days later?? Has Andrew heard about polite conversation? Has it not occurred to his thirty something self that a woman he is dating (because they were not just fucking, they had been going on full-blown dates) might ask about his siblings? He doesn’t have a pre-rehearsed line like, “Molly, I’m really enjoying getting to know you, and while I do want to share with you, I’m not comfortable talking about my sister right now, because she’s causing a lot of pain to my family, and I hope you can respect that”? Yet he’s being written as someone who has an intense enough job to get calls at night? How has he ever gotten laid by a real woman, or has it been drunken conquests only? What a rookie. Professional women in their thirties usually want to have a bit of a drink and a conversation before they jump into bed with a guy (unless he’s just a fuckboi, like TSA bae, which Andrew isn’t). He’s not that good looking. I think he’s being written as too much of a jerk. The scene would have been better IMO, if he’d merely suggested going to the concert again, and then they struggled through a painfully awkward, bland evening. I feel like the women are being written better than the men. I have been unable to empathize with Lawrence or Andrew this season, yet with the women are so compelling and complex. I want to be able to see Andrew’s side. I just feel like he’s out of his league here, and he should be dating 20 year olds who work at Hooters, and Molly should move on to someone more interesting.

I knew this was going to be a weak finale when they spent three minutes recapping the season so far, a season during which nothing happened. They literally didn’t get to the tag lines until the three ten mark. Cynthia, I don’t tune in to see you speak on the phone, and that wedding date ain’t shit. “10/10/20” is lame. Kim and Kroy getting married on 11/11/11 was actually cool, and it physically pains my fingers to type something good about those assholes. That was a super-subtle allegory about the lunch box, Mother Joyce 🙄. I do think Kandi should put everything in a trust though. Todd seems like he’s growing unstable, and he doesn’t consider family sacred (Kaela), so...better to be safe than sorry. Also, someone needs to spring for Todd to get a little Touch of Grey. When Todd took to the mike at the baby shower to publicly apologize to Kandi and Joyce, it was shades of Dennis apologizing to everyone in Toronto and...I dunno. Whose husband has had to publicly apologize to them at a party? I’ve never seen it or heard of it. So...Wendy Williams, who lives in New Jersey, found out that Kenya was giving an interview In front of a store in Atlanta, and the interview—including the interviewer and the camera used by that network—happened to be caught by the Bravo cameras? Yeah, that doesn’t seem to be plot service so that Nene and Kenya can fight later at all... That conversation between Nene and Porsha about Kenya went on forever! Kenya lied about Shamea calling her after her water broke. The end. More attempts to fill 44 minutes. What happened to Kaela? She seemed strung out and depressed. I guess I have a theory as to why. The idea that I was going to have a half-sister named Banks would have upset me too! Eva was sooooo body-conscious on the red carpet. Having said that, models usually bounce back from a baby better than that. She looked like someone who should have been wearing a flowy Cynthia type dress for the moment. Tanya seeing Eva’s baby and thinking he was so cute that her knees literally hit the concrete while she gripped her ovaries and manically hollered about them is a perfect example of why I don’t like Tanya this season. This season’s Tanya seems desperate and last season’s Tanya was just perky and light. Huge difference to me. Todd gives off such a cold elitist vibe that I can’t describe perfectly, but when Kandi did a TH that “Todd could be a straight-up asshole” I said, “I am calling a shelf-life in this marriage. I am thinking they are going to file around the very end of next season”. (And if I’m anywhere near right, I’m going to be that asshole that quotes myself in the season 13 thread, lol. Of course, if I’m wrong, I’m going own up to it immediately). Todd was definitely missing from the stage on purpose IMO. It’s the type of passive-aggressive behavior he’s shown as soon as they emerged from their courting phase. Cynthia said she is getting a baby cHill and I gagged. Why does she have to get her paws on everything? She’s In her fifties. She has a child. She will have step-children. Is nothing sacred from the reaches of cHill, the way she used to brand every single thing in her life, including her home and the tiny pond its on with “Bailey”? I find that type of trying to get your name everywhere like Bethenny Frankel and Skinny Girl so crass. No one’s outfit stood out to me much in a bad or a good way (which is better than usual, because no one’s breasts were coming out to play, except Eva’s, whose girls needed serious support), except I liked Kenya in red with the sleeves a lot. If I had to pick a team between these two bitches—Kenya and Nene—on this episode, I would be Team Kenya, just because she was like, “I said that,” and Nene flipped out exactly on script, so she’s shown exactly zero growth (nor has Kenya), but Nene’s been on the show longer, so win for bigger asshole goes to Nene. I guess I knew Kandi’s baby was named Blaze, but I never remembered she was a girl, and I think it’s so unfortunate to name a girl Blaze. What were they thinking? Riley and Kaela are such pretty names. Maybe this is what happens when two short people with giant heads get together (that was a reference one of Joyce’s first 200 reasons Todd and Kandi shouldn’t get together, I’m just repeating it, swear). I’m not commenting on their sizes, just their horrible name choice. All I can picture is a horse’s blaze. Ugh. That was a super underwhelming finale. Next week we get Secrets Revealed. I don’t need much of anything revealed, except where anyone’s storyline went over the course of the season. Eva moved and had a baby. Kenya got separated from her controlling husband, someone with whom she was already physically separated when the season started. Did anything else of any consequence happen whatsoever?

I agree that Luann isn’t an alcoholic if she says she’s not an alcoholic. It’s a self-diagnosing “disease,” and it has no clinical definition, so that part doesn’t bother me. I don’t think it was too much of a big deal that she lied and circumnavigated that justice system, because I completely agree that the court system is sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong (I always say she should have just gone to jail for kicking the cop). What does bother me though is that she lied to us for two seasons. She technically started her dishonesty by not letting the divorce info about Tom drop until right after the season nine reunion. After she skipped the season 10 reunion, she should have been put on (another) time-out by Bravo. She should have stayed home to deal with her shit. I saw a video of her drinking at the San Francisco pride parade, and I don’t enjoy being treated like an asshole when she tells the cameras she’s sober. I’m sure she stuck around and lied to the viewers because she needed the money (wasn’t she trying to finance some multi-million dollar house in a manic state?). Ok, fine, have it girl, but don’t expect me, as a viewer, to stand by you as you told me you were sober, but were downing mimosas. Fuck that. I would have said that the arrest was a one-time thing and she’d never get in trouble again...until she got in trouble again (the rehab that made her skip the reunion) and again (the “two mimosas“ that caused her to have to take Antabuse). So now, she doesn’t have the benefit of the doubt from me anymore. I like her, generally, but she has to keep her nose clean and stop lying for 2-3 years for me to look at her the same way again. Even though I take digs at her, I am truly relieved she’s admitting she’s drinking again, because it shows she’s dipping her toes in the truth just a little.

I say this as an adult around Nema’s age who can’t square some of my parents’ decision when raising me: Maybe all he wants is a thorough acknowledgment and an explanation and a conversation. The way I would look at it if I were Nema is that I would want a thorough explanation as to how and why my mom (and my dad, if he’s still alive) were complicit in keeping me away from my sibling our entire childhood. I would want to be heard about how much that hurt me and I would really want to hear what kind of psychological process they went through to justify that. “Traditional culture” only gets one so far. A lot of “traditional cultures” are still performing female genital mutilation. I didn’t think Nema’s mom looked particularly young, but youth is only an explanation for being a bad parent, it’s not an excuse IMO. I have a simple philosophy: don’t become a parent until you’re completely ready to parent. Because I think parents are responsible for every choice they make with regard to their children, in a way that they’re not responsible for the choices they make with regard to other adults, who can just pack up and walk away. I don’t have children, in large part, because I’m not sure how good of a parent I’d be, and I think that’s been informed by my childhood (which was just chaotic, not abusive, no crazy backstory like Nema’s). But I see that neither Nema nor Mona has procreated so far, and Nema is divorced. Maybe their parents messed them up. The least they can do is address it fully. I was born in the 80s, as Nema was. When I used to try to talk to my mom about my childhood and just say, “why? Why did you fail to protect me from [this thing]?” I wouldn’t be angry so much as I would be curious, and my mom would always just shrug and say children don’t come with a manual. For her, that was that, when for me it added insult to injury that, in her 50s and 60s, when she would definitely know better, she still wasn’t copping to it. For me, minimizing it never helped one iota. I finally had to sit my mom down in a therapist’s office and tell her, “there were actually dozens of books on parenting when I was born,” because I was so sick of untruths. If the truth was you just weren’t thinking and you are sorry, that’s at least something. But I never made much headway with my parents, so we just have a different relationship now. I don’t think Mike has any room to urge forgiveness. I think it is extremely hard to forgive someone for something for which they haven’t assumed responsibility. I think forgiveness is wildly overrated and distorted in our society, and I blame Dr Phil for making it sound like you are an asshole if you don’t forgive. Maybe Nema doesn’t forgive! Maybe he still loves his mother and wants to keep her in his life to some degree, but he doesn’t forgive her. That’s how I feel about my parents, and I’m not walking around with hot boiling rage just beneath the surface. I just think, eh, they aren’t evolved enough to admit to their shortcomings, so I’ll put them in this box in my life, as opposed to the box of people with whom I can be completely open and honest. I just have to keep my guard up around them at least a little. Not a big deal. That’s what sucked about the therapist IMO too. It is his job to get Nema to the best place that Nema is capable of getting, not to give him a prescription for how to live his life and feel about people. Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson calls that “stealing the victory from the client.” I just don’t see how it is even appropriate for Nema to be at the forgiveness stage with his mom. She never directly owned up to splitting him up from his damn sister when it’s still really hurting him. That’s a slap in the face. The therapist should at least start by acknowledging that and seeing what Nema’s open to. “Forgive, forgive, forgive” when sometimes you don’t even have the understanding to get your mind around the entire problem or the wrong that’s been visited upon you is awful advice, and for the most part, I would say, show me someone who urges across the board forgiveness, and I’ll show you a hypocrite.

^^^ Yes, and I do agree that some of Alex’s other behavior was indefensible. Breaking out into hives and shaking when Jill showed up to St John and saying “there’s been enough drama”?? Baby girl, who are you to say there’s been “enough” drama? If you can’t take the heat, stay the phuck out of the reality TV kitchen. Not even Bethenny went there, and she would have had the best argument against Jill remaining on the property. Speaking of getting unnecessarily upset on an island, I had forgotten that Heather was crying—crying!—that some of her single friends brought men back to the home in Turks & Caicos. I thought she was supposed to be some worldly international businesswoman and she freaks out when someone else is getting some peen? Girl, bye.

Thank God she’s finally not pretending not to drink. Everything else was an insult to people who are sober, people who drink, and just...people who believe in the truth. But speaking of truth, I got one sentence into that article and I gagged and couldn’t read it anymore. Luann has pretended to be sober for two seasons when she wasn’t, she looked into the camera and lied to our faces countless (see what I did there) times and said she was sober when she wasn’t, and we’re supposed to believe she’s moderating now? Get the fuck out of here woman, why should I believe a thing you say now? If you say the sky is blue, I’m looking up to check for myself. In fact the only way I would believe she was doing anything other than swilling booze and swinging from the chandeliers would be if she reported she had been doing exactly that. Because her ability to lie might be the only thing more compelling about her than her taste for the drink.

I couldn’t agree with this more. It should all come out about all of them. I don’t think I can even add to anything you said, because it so accurately reflected my thoughts. I’m not sure if this part is consistent with the above logic though. Just going off the footage of what happened in this episode, I certainly care if she had an affair and lied about it. She’s a married woman, so *if* this is true (I have a strong opinion whether it’s true) it’s a huge deal. And once one of these women lie to the viewing audience, they’re dead to me. It defeats the entire purpose of what we’re trying to achieve here IMO. It wouldn’t have been something that happened to her, like Erin Andrews, it would have been something she chose to do. My advice for anyone who has skeletons in their closet who doesn’t want them aired out? Don’t put yourself in the spotlight. It’s so easy. I’m just not sure why a line of exposure would be drawn on the one hand between Mauricio’s affairs, Erika and Dorit’s lawsuits and marriages, and Lisa’s shady family, but on the other hand Denise’s shady family gets to skate? Wouldn’t it make the most sense to just

I think Jill and Alex were both out over their skis in season three. Luann told the anecdote about one of Alex’s kids climbing up someone’s leg on a pier to Jill. But It was Jill who walked up to Alex at a formal event (with Luann in tow), and it was Jill who told Alex she should address her children’s problems of crawling up a leg in writing, when she didn’t even see it, just to be a bitch. Alex is a better person that I am, because I would have responded, “Make sure that you put a chapter into Secrets of a Jewish Mother about how to pretend that you’re sending your daughter to get treatment for RA on Martha’s Vineyard when it’s really for weight loss. Except in the book, you might want to tell parents not to marvel on TV about how flat their kids’ bellies are and how they lost 11 lbs in a week if it’s not for weight loss.” And I would have spun on my heel and walked away. Jill doesn’t drink, so she wasn’t even tipsy. She shouldn’t come for someone’s kids with something she heard unless was prepared for that person to respond with something about her mothering that they knew. Jill might have actually respected that or might not have, but it would have gotten her to back off. When that season opened, I got the feeling that a lot of stuff had gone on off-camera to make Alex mad at Jill. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, and I think this was one of those times.

I’m surprised Nema didn’t pick up Farsi living in Iran as a child. I can’t believe the letter from Nema’s mom didn’t even address why his parents split up the siblings. It’s easy for Mike to urge forgiveness in this situation when he has no experience with it. The therapist was a knucklehead too. Nema’s smarter than his own therapist. I hate when that happens. Destiney doesn’t trust MJ because Destiney doesn’t think MJ sees that she’s hurt? That sounds nonsensical. She was really grasping at straws. I love MJ sitting everyone down and cutting through the bullshit. This is why she is Queen. Good job of coming clean after the fact about a tiny part of the texting scandal, Adam! Not too little too late at all. He is so passive-aggressive. I can’t stand him. What does he have against MJ? I understand what he’d have against Tommy, but what the hell did MJ do to Adam? That girls’ night out reminded me why this show was moved to Friday night. GG’s braids were the best part of the show. I cannot believe Reza’s gall. He went from the wobbly voice last week to making demands about whose company MJ keeps this week. OMG, MJ wanted Reza in the delivery room? She really holds a candle for him. This is getting strange.

Haha! I hate regional snobbery, especially against the south. I’m not saying anyone definitely did it on the show, but if anyone were to cast aspersions on the fashion of southern women, I would really doubt their intelligence. Southern women are some of the chicest dressers in the country. They slay. If someone wanted to make an urban/rural argument, I would be willing to hear it. I think women from big cities tend to pay more attention to fashion, but that’s not a regional thing, that’s a city/country thing, which kind of brings me to Leah... There’s a big perceived distance between people who are from NYC and people who are from the surrounding areas. The surrounding areas are considered podunk by some (not necessarily me), so... With this in mind, I don’t think Leah gets to say that she’s from Chelsea if she’s from Chelsea and Connecticut (I would consider someone to be “from” anywhere they lived when they were growing up). If she moved to CT at 12, that should have come up when Ramona asked her in the first episode. None of these women, save Aviva, have ever been from Manhattan, so that was a big deal that Leah was from Chelsea, and it turned out to be only partially true (to this day, I’m not entirely sure where Bethenny grew up, but I don’t think she had a Manhattan address from 0-18. Maybe Cindy Barshop was from one of the boroughs. I try not to think about her 😖). Leah could have just said, “I grew up in Chelsea and Connecticut.” That wouldn’t have been hard. Now that she omitted Connecticut with what I consider an agenda, I am looking at everything she says sideways. Wouldn’t it just be easier to embrace the truth?

I don’t doubt it. You know, this is the person who looked two of her co-stars dead in the eye and said she was born and raised in Chelsea, New York, aka a very hip part of downtown Manhattan, when it turns out she spent at least part of her childhood in Connecticut, so she is definitely trying to cultivate an image of some sort. I wonder when she’s going to start slinging the “motherfuckers” at people like Heather did for a minute (although it’s my opinion that chewing gum is probably worse than saying “motherfucker” lol). I just want to get her story straight because it keeps changing—so after high school when she was living in Connecticut, she went to rehab for three months and was still deemed too too disruptive to her siblings, so she got sent to halfway house. That’s not your standard fare. That and the arrest, wow. If she’s a convicted felon, that might have had something to do with her starting her own business. It would hard to get hired by someone with that track record. Yes, and FWIW, Ramona’s home is also on a body of water—a pond—so Luann doesn’t even have superiority in that aspect. Luann needs to stop looking down her nose at her living quarters, or her punishment should be that she has to go back to living in Jill’s interior guest bedroom in her tiny apartment with no windows, which is where she stayed when filming in the city for season three, because she didn’t have a home in the city before the show (the townhouse was purchased so that Luann could become a TV personality), and who has any idea what kind of pied a tierre (French for ‘studio’) she’s renting now. For someone who couldn’t spell out “pedophile” in a text to Carole a few seasons back, Luann likes to write some really long, convoluted shit to people about how they discarded her feelings. I would place money on the idea that she had been in the cups when she wrote those texts at 2 am (she mentioned, in bitch-fest number 343, that Ramona had a refrigerator fully stocked with alcohol on the lower level. Quelle horreur). For a countess, she really loves that phrase “dog piss” doesn’t she? I don’t think Luann leaving in the middle of the night warranted Dorinda waking Ramona up in the morning, unless it was to get Ramona riled up, because riling people up is what Dorinda does. I think Dorinda was positively salivating over the idea that Luann leaving could have started a war between Luann and Ramona. She wanted that message Ramona left to Luann to be awful, so that L’s and R’s relationship could become a clusterfuck, and Dorinda could swoop in to “make it nice”. That backfired, and the message probably brought Ramona and Luann closer together, because Ramona loves to kiss ass and Luann loves to be a pompous one. I don’t believe for a second she is sober with Victoria right now. I have every confidence that they are downing wine by the bottle between taking bong hits and Luann reminiscing about the good old days in Switzerland and cabaret (“can you believe it girls”) until Victoria goes insane and makes a run for it.

That’s definitely true, that Sonja was entertaining, but what bothered me is that Sonja went to the party under a failed premise. If she had been raring to go and just showed up and arrived and acted like that, I would have had to give her some sort of strange acknowledgement for being real and nuts. But Sonja said she didn’t want to go to the “fancy shmancy party” with the “boring small talk” and apparently it wasn’t a real house if it didn’t have gin (but a townhouse with brown ice cubes should command $32k a month of rent in Sonja world). So she didn’t want to go, she walked in with a bitchy, jealous attitude, and then her drunkenness felt like it was for social compensation and competition, not a spirit of joie de vivre, and it was foul. Last season, Dorinda stayed back at Ramona’s house when Ramona and the others went to Barbara’s clam bake, so if Sonja wanted to stay home, there would have been no problem, and she should’ve—since this is so ridiculous to her, and not worth her time and all. But what did Ramona do to Sonja for Sonja to not let her sit with her at the party and tell Ramona at full volume to “sit with your friends with the diamond bracelets” and to say “I’m not impressed with your rich friends” and “I have more money in the bank than anyone”? Has she heard of overkill? What did Elyse do to Sonja? By the time Elyse said an unkind word to Sonja, Sonja was already holding her hand, invading her personal space and telling her how it was embarrassing how many clothes Sonja’s ex used to make her buy. Is it really an inappropriate response at that point to say, “you were his accessory”? Could Sonja be threatened because Elyse has gorgeous skin and is beautiful, not unlike Jules Wainstein? And I swear I don’t get these women and their ever-rotating definitions of how it is ok to treat someone—Dorinda can say Elyse is “a girl about town,” (which sounds a bit like ‘prostitute’ to me), but God forbid someone throws around the phrase “trophy wife,” which I just took as an offshoot of “hot wife,” and if that is the definition, Tinsley was a trophy wife. Now that I know that Tinsley doesn’t know how to use “touché” properly, I’m probably not going to look to her for definitions anytime soon. I just think if these women were going to turn this party into a defensive mechanism and use it to put people down and say how much better they are, then they weren’t enjoying the experience and they shouldn't have partook. No bowling if the house doesn’t work for your ego. Rather than bowling in heels, which is not “taking it easy” on her neck, contrary to the “chiropractor’s” instructions, why didn’t Luann round up all the “girls” who weren’t happy and bring them back home to sing cabaret? I mean, that party was so beneath them that I would have thought it would have been an embarrassment to stay, no? Where is Bethenny to throw a S’mores and Whores party when you need her? I thought it was funny that the young guy in the maroon sweater who wasn’t into Sonja at all seemed very impressed by Luann. I thought Dorinda putting down not just the house, but the house tour, as too American (because in London they only show you the kitchen and the loo) was the more sober desperate and insecure cousin to Sonja’s drunkenness. Leah’s take on the party was interesting. It’s “full of weird white people.” She also said at one point that “men don’t have pressure.” Glad she’s keeping an open mind. And WTF was she saying that men can be short and unattractive and have women come after them if they have money as if that were some brand new observation? Guess what Leah, the reverse is true too—a woman can have not a penny to her name, but be a gorgeous face she can get anywhere in life, so it all evens out in the end. It’s like everyone had to compartmentalize as to why this party was too low brow for them in order to hang onto their sanity that they were in an amazing house, and Ramona brought them there. Ramona, bring me next time. I won’t complain about that shit for a second. For people who didn’t want to come, and were snarking in the car on the way over, and weren’t having much fun, it was pretty hard for Ramona to wrangle Luann and Tinsley out of that terrible party. I just feel like Ramona can’t win in this situation. I don’t think she’s looking to build strong, lasting relationships with these people the way she’s not looking to build strong, lasting relationships with her co-stars. If she introduces her co-stars to the new people she’s met, she is called out for social climbing. If she tries to creat discreet and separate worlds between her social friends and her co-stars, which she did (poorly) last year...she’s social climbing. Ramona is well into her sixties and has a good eight years on the next youngest woman, and that can be scary. What is the harm in shaking things up a little and having fun, new experiences? She is looking to do things differently. She said these people elevate her. That’s great. I don’t think she’s taking it all that seriously; she’s just playing the cards she’s been dealt of having no close family and a personality that is quirky to the point that it is off putting to many. I just don’t see what Tinsley sees is so wrong with Ramona elevating herself. What is Tinsley’s prescription for the way Ramona is supposed to go live her life now that it’s sort of beginning to resemble Sonja’s old life as Tinsley experienced it? Should Ramona move to Queens, get a perm, smoke discount cigarettes and hang out at the bodega in an effort to differentiate herself from Sonja Morgan circa 2000 or something? If Sonja was rich and hobnobbing 20+ years ago, should the rest of them just throw in the towel? Because that was the logic that Tinsley was using. I think a lot of this is Tinsley having reservations about Ramona just going for it. Maybe she is beginning to feel a little bit regretful that she dismissed Joe Farrell and his 31,000 square foot home because—God forbid—he took her to a basketball game. I would bet a lot of money those seats were either court side or in a sky box. She complains he didn’t feed her. I strongly suspect that what happened was that Joe was fully prepared to take Tinsley out to dinner, but she found out he doesn’t drink and bailed, because she likes to go on dates and get really drunk and make out with the guy, as one who is not capable of real intimacy may do. Tinsley gets so wrapped up in these guys that she loses herself—Fanjul, Scott, now Bruce. Maybe she should focus more on being sober, having conversations, and ascertaining whether they’ll respect her more than the superficial bullshit of who is hot enough to make out with on date one if she’s looking for a real partner. Oh my God, this doesn’t have to do with anything, but there was a point that Dorinda said “it is no one’s business to pass judgment on who and what role we played in our husband or partner’s lives.” (!!). So, in other words, Tinsley just needs to tell Dorinda every single thing about her life, where she got her shoes, how she is paying her hotel bill, and she is supposed to rest assured that Dorinda is just going to sit there like Pope Pious III and not gossip or ‘judge’ it? I think there’s a better chance that Sonja will rediscover her dignity than that happening. This episode was so good, partially because it brutally exposed just how ragingly insecure most of them are.

Every so often, someone nails the dark cloud that was LVP as a part of the franchise, and what you wrote here was poetry in motion. She never would have survived this episode. She’s 59 going on 79, and I couldn’t see her keeping pace or letting her guard down enough to roll with some of the shenanigans and tomfoolery that happens with this cast without Mother’s Evil Eye peering down at them. I think requiring a glam squad pales in comparison to requiring an entourage to lug your ego everywhere you go (as if she wouldn’t have brought Ken or John Sessa or both with her if she was forced to take this trip). I get why she might be liked if she hadn’t been on VanderPump Rules for eight seasons, making impossible demands, talking down to people, mixing messages, playing games with people’s emotions and faking her way through a reality show. She’s a liar, and a grudge-holder and she sets up scenes—basically everything that one wouldn’t want on the cast of a reality show—and when she is called out for it, she takes her toys and goes home to pout to the tune of a $300,000 kitchen. She doesn’t practice what she preaches. She quit the show, when she had some very negative words about Adrienne when she quit the show for a better reasons. LVP failed to appear at the reunion without giving notice. Apparently the crown was far too heavy for her. I really wish she would take her angry little troll husband and their 22 dogs and step out of the reality TV spotlight for good. Beverly Hills is a good place to start. She’s operating way past her shelf life. Yes, I think unfortunately you’re correct in your assessment. This is where I wish they would just break the fourth wall and one of the players (I picture it being Rinna) would say to the crew, “ok, you guys got us here doing this? We good as far as our contract with Bubbies and Suds? Let’s roll on back to New York.” Would that shock or scandalize anyone who has been watching reality TV for the past 10 years? I doubt it. But it wouldn’t treat the viewer like an imbecile, which I would appreciate.

Apparently so does Laura Ashley.

I don’t think anyone accused Sonja of being current arm candy or a current trophy wife, but no one has ever lost money on betting that Sonja would hear something other than what is being said, have they? She looks like hell. She was just as bad as she was in Miami last year! Getting in a person’s face, then kissing them...so out of control. Who cares if someone said you used to be arm candy? Isn’t that kind of a compliment? Screaming about an unshaven pussy is about as embarrassing, if not as destructive, as Dorinda at her worst. Speaking of Miami, payback is a bitch, Sonja. Last season she told the hired help, Tej, that he had a little bit of a belly, apropos of nothing, which is abuse of the staff as far as I’m concerned. She also has pointed out Ramona’s belly in the past with no justification or context. Now she is flailing around a party making a drunken ass of herself with her own giant belly and I think it’s exactly what she deserves. Does anyone remember the rumor that Luann got drunk at a party in the Hamptons and was grabbing crotches while her husband was there, and it was pretty much universally believed because it had such a ring of truth to it? That happened before the show even started, and it’s still a thing. This is on TV. Good luck trying to land another Morgan or even another decent man ever, Sonja. There is now a pattern with Luann: she gets upset that people aren’t kissing her ass for being quote unquote sober, and she lashes out. This is just like the “fuck you” salute she gave to Bethenny last year when Bethenny had the better room at Blue Stone Manor. She really does think life is a cabaret, starring her, and anything short of that makes her that pompous and haughty countess of 10+ years ago. It’s ugly and immature. In a courtroom, an issue generally cannot be preserved for an appeal unless the moving party objected at the trial. The same goes for rooms. Did Lu make any attempt to get moved out of her own private wing at Ramona’s home? If not, shut up, you entitled bitch! Ramona FTW for leaving Luann a kind voice message. Anything else would have been replayed throughout the entire season, with Luann putting a giant hand to her chest, speaking in low tones about how hurt she is. This has also become her MO. She loves being the victim. Dorinda let her play that card for two seasons, and I am so glad Ramona isn’t giving her the opportunity. This episode was amazing. It was up there with the best RHNYC has ever been and I could watch it over and over again. Had The Jaw of Life remained on the cast, she would have brought it down by hustling Sonja out of there and screaming at her to “go to sleep!” Who knew they could survive (and thrive) without The Mouth? 🙋‍♀️

Tinsley, this is why you’re single—you won’t accept a man who is short or a man who doesn’t drink. Ramona, take note. These women are so goddamn picky, except a wandering prick doesn’t seem to bother them all that much. I get the feeling they wouldn’t date outside their race or certain ethnicities. It’s just a feeling I get. I have no evidence. Sonja is getting on Ramona’s case for bragging about someone who has a yacht and fancy friends? The irony is rich! Anyone remember P.Diddy saying “baby girl is confused” when Andy asked him whether he’d partied with Sonja in St. Tropez? At least Ramona has some scintilla of evidence that she knows these people. Tinsley looked 55 if she was a day at that party. She could have been one of Ramona’s cocktail party friends with the tight face and the overdone dark eye makeup. Luann’s flowered housedress was awful. Just totally missed the mark in a way I haven’t seen on anyone on this show in a long time. It looks exactly like the dress in which she got arrested! Tinsely exhibited the Tinsley that I hate when she freaked out about the way Ramona was acting and exclaiming that Ramona is pretending to be the person that Sonja, I guess, used to be. She gets really mean about stupid, kind of snobby shit every so often. Sure, they didn’t have gin and there weren’t a ton of people there. So what? When Ramona brings her friends to a $38 million mansion, why can’t they take it at face value and laugh and smile and maybe give an eye roll or two behind her back at worst? Why get up in arms about it, as if anyone in the continental United States thinks Ramona is a part of high society and Tinsley has to set them straight? Just let her have it. And the house is too “tacky” and “American” for Dorinda? I am dead over this hypocritical bullshit. The only thing I agree with the women on is that Ramona should definitely try to date this man. She probably fashions him too old, though, which is hilarious.

I disagree with Leah’s assessment that it’s normal to expect Luann to lie about going to a winery because Luann is “struggling with sobriety.” People who are “struggling with sobriety” are supposed to tell the truth. What would have been wrong with Luann texting that a winery wasn’t her scene? Luann will never “get” sobriety. It’s time to end the charade. Her relationship with the truth is rather tarnished as well. Tinsley finally opens up, and Leah interrupts a million times to tell Tinsley’s story? Ugh, Leah keeps reminding me of the obnoxious parts of Heather Thomson’s personality, with some Bethenny sprinkled in. Notice how Tinsley, Leah, and Dorinda had to give real info with tangible details in order to be considered “opened up”, and Ramona, who started the “game,” got to skate with some esoteric bullshit about her dead mother and music playing? That’s some 12 seasons of reality TV right there. Sonja is just a babbling mess, always has been. Only now her feelings appear more bloated.

OMG, that is so photoshopped/filtered/edited!! No human person has that Jessica Rabbit cartoon body. I can break down photos all day. The most obvious part is the area just below the bottom bikini string—there is this mound of tanned, rock hard huge geometrically rounded camel hump above her leg. It’s like the top of her thigh connects directly onto an ass, which is somehow in the front. That’s not even mildly real. Especially on a body with a tummy that flat, unless she got ass implants in her abdomen, which I wouldn’t put past this family at this point. Kim also posts fake pictures on Instagram. That’s why everyone is always so surprised when she’s caught at an unflattering angle on TV, and there are rolls and flab all over the place. They fake their way through everything in life. It’s catching up to them.

Yeah, I think it’s common knowledge that Jill Zarin is Jewish. In fact, earlier in the scene that I was describing, Jill was telling Luann that it was the Jewish week of atonement and reflection. Then Luann affirmed to Jill that Jacques was Jewish and the Count would just die if he found out, and they both engaged in faux-stifled laughter. I don’t see how one fact would negate or counterbalance the other.

It was Luann conveying her ex-husband’s anti-semitism to Jill, and they were both giggling about it. Neither of them put forth any new anti-Jewish ideas; they were just perpetuating an anti-Jewish sentiment and embracing it as sort of old world and charming. I’m not trying to change the course of human nature, but if Luann was so private that she wouldn’t allow the camera to film her bedroom or her bathroom, I would think she could keep the count’s anti-Semitism off the air, at least for the sake of their children (at least one of whom followed in his prejudiced footsteps). Aside from the public/private disparity (I don’t care what people say in private), Andy’s selective outrage causes me to point out his hypocrisy every single time.

I have been waiting for this!! I like starting off with a trip. That hasn’t been done before, that I know of. I hate Kyle’s bangs. Whoever did that to her is not her friend. She couldn’t have just worn a wig for the Halloween thing?!? I see some things haven’t changed—Denise is bored by fashion, and still allegedly having sex with Aaron every day. So two thousand and who cares. She’s so naive not to have a lawyer. It’s not just about her, it’s about her kids, and if she doesn’t show up for her court date, they should get a guardian at litem or something. I bet dollars to doughnuts that was the proper tequila at the restaurant. How in the world would she know if she hadn’t tasted it? Was she just doing that rich person thing where you are mad about someone said about you in the media, so you take it out on the waitstaff? That would be dreadful. I love Erika’s narrative about moving to NYC at 18, as if there was no baby involved. I thought the visit to the bikini bar in NJ was an odd placement. Nothing came out of it. I also love that Dorit says the judge presiding over her lawsuit is “stressing a resolution.” Yeah...in whose favor? She forgot to mention that part. I love Rinna’s look in her TH. I love the hair, the pink shirt, the pink and purple and blue eye makeup—it’s so over the top that it works for me. I liked the Dolce outfit in the same spirit. It was just campy and fun, not super chic or anything. I was predisposed to liking Garcelle when my husband told me she played Ophelia Love in Arrested Development. Her backstory was interesting. The vibrator stuff was a little new. I think it’s better to use a vibrator all day than to be a single mom running around with fuck buddies, so there’s that. Kyle and Mauricio call each other “love bean”? I just threw up in my mouth. He’s getting stoned now? I thought the pot was a one-time thing at Camille’s wedding. Oh my God, I loved Sutton being snobby and bitchy about fashion and labels. Some of these women really need to be called out, and even if the person doing it (especially if the person doing it!) lives in a glass house, I’ll take it. That was a great line that God could come down and do a line with Tom Ford and she wouldn’t care. I also loved Sutton’s tough love idea of “let them cry” with regard to babies. Teddi, are you listening? If you don’t coddle your next kid the way you coddled Cruz, maybe she won’t have embarrassing tantrums In front of your friends when you leave for the Boy George concert. Kyle should have hired one project manager that she really trusted, and let that person run everything. Because she was clearly out of her element and making people uncomfortable. I had completely forgotten about Paris Hilton. Thanks Kyle! I don’t love the idea of putting amateurs in a runway show. It should be the one place where you cannot social media climb into it. You should have the dimensions to make the clothes look good, and the aesthetic that the designer wants. I don’t love how democratized high fashion has become in the past 10 years. I know that Yolanda Hadid doesn’t agree with me. I’m good with that. Denise is sort of a pig. She shouldn’t let the camera flash blind her on the way out.

^^^ Oh, I was referring to a municipal bus. That was a major source of transportation for my friends and me when we were too young to drive, and I didn’t come from an urban area or anything. Buses are everywhere. Sometimes, if the bus wasn’t running on schedule, we might have to pool for a taxi out of allowance money or something, but we got around. As far as a school bus, where I’m from, and also where my husband is from, the public school has to provide a school bus (and textbooks) to private school students, as long as the school is within a 15 mile radius, regardless of the size of the school. But if this school district doesn’t provide a bus for some reason, I think that’s her parents’ responsibility to get her to school, whether it’s by them, a carpool arrangement, or paying someone to do it. My sister is older than I am, so she got her license first, and there was never a whiff from my parents that she should ever drive me around. It was her car, her license. If we went somewhere together, she would drive, but I’m sure we made arrangements about compensation. I wasn’t getting her petrol for free, and when I got my license, she still voluntarily drove me around for some reason. Maybe because I wasn’t a pain in the ass about it, I didn’t feel entitled, and my parents never put any pressure on her.

I just re-watched season three (Scary Island season, although I thought it was a lot more than that) to see if I would see it differently in light of the way things are now. Someone pointed out that the seasons used to be shorter which made them easier to get through, and I couldn’t agree more. Let’s get 15 episodes and a two-part reunion and be done. This was perhaps the best season of reality TV I’ve ever seen. It moved so well, there was so much action and interaction and drama and complexity that I was never bored, except I thought Ramona’s vow renewal was bullshit. I hate vow renewals. But, watching the vow renewal, I couldn’t help but wonder how great it would have been in some ways if the show had ended right there. Everyone was so happy—Ramona and Mario, Bethenny and Jason, Luann and Jacques, Jill and Bobby, Alex and Simon stateside and Sonja...well, she’d still be single, but she’d have some shroud of respectability. I wanted to see if I had anything new to say about the season and this is what I came away with: Bethenny was extremely likable and Jill was extremely unlike able this particular season. It wasn’t “old seasons” vs “new seasons” for me, because I thought they were about even season one. Bethenny just really hit her stride in season three specifically, and, boy was she good. I felt like, for much of the season, she was a human amalgamation of the best comments made on Primetimer, and it was so awesome. She was really good at making a point, and she was so funny. Commenting that “Luann lost her husband and grew a penis” was so funny because it was said once over the course of the whole season. Taking that and running with it and talking about sex and vaginas constantly eight and nine years later was an example of too much of a good thing. Ramona looked amazing that season. I do think the “Cameron Diaz” hair would have gotten old if she’d worn it for more than a season, but her body was so good. I never would have thought it was that good if it hadn’t been proven to me. Kelly was like that stopped clock that’s right twice a day. When Kelly called Bethenny a ho-bag, that was what reverberated 1,500 miles north to New York, but no one mentioned that Sonja and Bethenny were kind of shaming Kelly for not having had a one-night stand, which is gross. Sonja was just openly mocking Kelly and Bethenny was holding up a Hooters calendar and saying, “See all these girls? They’re from Michigan and they’ve had one-night stands,” in response to Kelly saying she is from the Midwest, and she has different values, which is a totally defensible position. I don’t think Kelly should have said Bethenny was a ho-bag, but I think it would have been fine if she’d have said, “sorry I’m not a ho-bag” after she’d been shamed for her sex life. There were a few times that I felt that Kelly got baited like that, but something really not normal happened on Scary Island, there’s no denying that I never had a taste for Sonja, even in the beginning. I had forgotten about that. I would also really like to see her in person and ask her what her tag line means (“I have a taste for luxury, and luxury has a taste for me”). How does luxury have a taste for someone??? (All of their tag lines were flagrantly self-aggrandizing that season, but at least the majority made sense). Anyway, I didn’t realize how early into the season Sonja came on, and I didn’t realize how much I was dreading it. I never saw her appeal. I thought it was redundant to have her on the show with Ramona—they were way more similar than any of the other cast members were to each other. And I just wasn’t interested in her. She had this perma-Mona Lisa smile that I found—to use Kelly’s word—creepy, I could tell she wasn’t telling her full story, she got along with everyone, she didn’t have a family to show, and she was just constantly talking about sex and making sexy puns that I could have lived without. I found her townhouse dirty and depressing from the jump. I’m just not sure why they chose that point in time to bring in a seventh cast member. I think it was totally unnecessary. The only time I thought she played an important role was when the truth about Scary Island started to become obscured at Luann’s CD party 😊 and Sonja yelled at them that they weren’t there and she set the record straight. I also thought Sonja completely redefined a “one-night stand” at the reunion, and that always bothered me. She made the point—several times—that one-night stands could “happen” to anyone, because the guy could just disappear. No Sonja, if a woman has a boyfriend or a husband and they have sex and he disappears, that is not a one-night stand. I think what happened was that Sonja realized by the reunion that she had been talking too much about promiscuous sex during the season, and the Morgans probably didn’t like it, so she walked it back and implied she only has “a date” one night a week, on Thursdays. Sure, Sonj. Jill just became very much more of her worst characteristics that season. She always had a chit list and was always keeping score and promoting who she wanted to promote and cutting down the people she didn’t like. I don’t think she grew much. I don’t think she changed her ways. I think she was withholding the make-up with Bethenny, and only when Bethenny’s circumstances changed did Jill change her position. I don’t give her the benefit of the doubt on this one, and I was watching with a very sympathetic eye to Jill. There is this really funny scene in episode one or two where Luann gave a talking head about Kelly, “please tell me you didn’t get arrested again!” Oh, Countess. Luann was awful, but I loved Money Can’t Buy You Class, when that was still a novel thing for a Housewife to do. Luann was both worse than I remember her being in the form her haughtiness took, and she was better than I remember in that she had a good moment here or there. What was completely clear to me for the first time is that she really is not quick on her feet, which came to my attention for the first time last season. I always assumed that because she was tall and she spoke in a deep, commanding voice with confidence, that she was smart and she’s...kind of an airhead. Kelly was wrong in the head in a way that Luann wasn’t, but I think Kelly was possibly more intelligent than Luann. Jill really didn’t like Kelly as much as it I thought she did. She was trying to build alliances all season, but even with that mindset, she was often creating distance between herself and Kelly, until the real end when Jill realized that she had to have Kelly on her team by default. In the beginning of the season, there was so much more jockeying for position than I remembered. Bethenny and Jill were on the outs, but everyone else was up for grabs—Alex, Ramona and Kelly were very malleable between the two groups in a way that didn’t solidify until the end. I don’t blame Jill at all for saving Bethenny’s extremely caustic voice message and playing it for Luann. I think being that bitchy in that voice message—and it was a doozy—was Bethenny’s one misstep in an otherwise perfectly played offensive and defensive game against Jill, and Bethenny was embarrassed that it was played on TV. Where Jill went wrong was to put Bethenny and Ramona on speakerphone, but I can’t blame her for playing the Bethenny voice message for Luann. If my dear friend left me a message like that, even if we were squabbling, I would play it for a third party to be like, “um...what the fuck is this?” I didn’t think that was out of the bounds of fair play. I thought Alex was going to annoy the bejesus out of me, but she was cooler and funnier than what I was expecting, because I was expecting the worst. She was a really good friend to Bethenny. She had a lot to say, you can tell her mind was always going, but she really settled in and sat back and listened, which is like a lost art form on this show, so I can forgive the clunky “delivering of the message” and the “when you are being a mean girl, I am in Brooklyn.” The only thing I hated about the mean girl/Brooklyn showdown was that Alex and Jill made the awesome spontaneous toast to not being friends, and then Alex got the hell out of there. It was a very small, intimate gathering at Jennifer Gilbert’s house, and I have no idea why Alex didn’t stay and interject herself into every single conversation Jill was having for the rest of the night. That was such a wasted opportunity. Speaking of Jennifer Gilbert—oh, fuck Jennifer Gilbert! (and I know that’s probably the first time anyone’s said that), but she was actually a serious snob. She saw Courte and labeled him “a short man with bad hair,” when I thought he was perfectly nice and pleasant and interesting. Who gives a shit about his height or if he prefers to bleach his hair? Then Raging Horse Face was saying that Ramona’s vow renewal violated Jennifer’s own rule of not serving champagne before the ceremony (which I think is a horrible rule, and I would never hire her), and then as Ramona’s party planner—who was about 100 lbs overweight—walked over, Jennifer immediately turned to Luann and stage-whispered, “would you hire this person to plan your party?” right before graciously greeting her, as if being fat was so scandalous. Jill was mostly acting out of a place of hurt and immaturity, whereas Jennifer was just being a c-word in both instances. After she got cut from the show she complained that Bravo was clearly not interested in low-drama people who ran successful businesses. Nah, bitch, maybe you just didn’t fit in because you were even more of a snob than these women, which is difficult to pull off. Wow, that moment of anti-semitism where Luann and Jill are walking through Central Park and Luann is laughing that Jacques is Jewish and how the Count would just diiiieeee if he knew dahhhling, and Jill laughing with her...yi yi yi. I think it is so interesting this only got the merest mention at the reunion, and Luann was able to shrug it off (somehow it came up in the season four reunion again and even stupid Cindy was like, “what’s with the Jewish?”), but Andy didn’t feel the need to hammer on it. He really picks and chooses what’s going to offend him, which is odd and unfair. This was such a great season overall though. The only regret I have is that I think this was the jumping-off point for Bravo and the three-part reunion (which was warranted in this case) and now it’s the standard length of a reunion when two, or even one, part would suit other shows just fine. ETA: I totally forgot my favorite Kelly-ism from really early in the season—saying she was “like Rapunzel” raising two kids in the city and the Hamptons. I don’t think it got any funnier or stranger than that!

Although I think this is one of the more solid reality shows, I dislike both parents intensely. I think Trent is worse actually. They’re a little better this season. Two daughters have boyfriends, and not a lecture on the moral failings that accompany having a boyfriend to be heard! Even though one is “average height” (I can’t stand when they say “average height” when they mean “normal height.” An American man is only “average height” if he’s 5’8”. If he’s not 5’8”, he’s not “average height,” no matter how comfortable that expression may make some people feel—it’s erroneous). I never thought Jonah should have had to drive Anna around. I always thought that was really unfair, unless he’s getting paid, or if it’s an explicit quid pro quo for free room and board, and any of the other children, including Anna, would have to do something comparable for her own room and board the day they turned 18. I am not a fan of parents assigning parenting tasks to their elder children. Why should a kid have more responsibilities than another kid in the same family just because they had the bad fortune to be born first? Parents should only have enough children that they can care for, or compensate others for same. I think that a lot of kids want to help, and that is awesome. But it should never be compulsory. They’re kids, not parents. If Anna was old enough to drive, but couldn’t, or wouldn’t, why wasn’t she taking the bus? Or making mutually beneficial side deals with her brother privately? How does it fall to Jonah as a general family responsibility? He seemed really angry about that, and I don’t blame him. He’s not a third parent. I really, really like Emma, and I hope she gets out of this unscathed. I used to like Alex, but he really needs to grow up. His parents should perhaps focus on him more than Jonah. That doesn’t mean they get to be mean to him though! These parents are way too punitive. I get the impression that they are overwhelmed and they think the best way to discipline is to crack the whip, and that’s not what works best. I thought the therapist was missing the point a little bit in the beginning when he asked Jonah if he couldn’t just put “Anna and mom and dad over here and focus on Jonah.” That would be fine advice if Jonah were 30 and living alone, and he couldn’t get over his anger toward them after having cut ties for five years. But they are coming into his life, making demands on him, so that is totally inappropriate advice. How can Jonah ignore Anna if she’s bothering him to carry out her demands with their parents’ support? Was the doctor even listening to Jonah? I know there’s editing, but he says, “tell me about your personality in five minutes” and then immediately interrupts him several time to ask about his birthing experience. If it were me in therapy, I would be like, “doc, do you want me to tell you about my life in five minutes or are you guiding me with questions? Because your directions were confusing, and I’m growing frustrated with the purpose of this exercise.” I can’t stand it when people defer to the infinite wisdom of doctors. They are not gods, and I find they can be really bossy and flawed, and sometimes it’s fun just to call them out on their bullshit because of how much it surprises them. My doctor had been keeping me waiting for 20 minutes or more on a regular basis at one point, and I very calmly and evenly told her that I felt like my time wasn’t being valued, and we would have to revamp something about the scheduling so that it could meet both of our needs and then I silently made eye contact with her while she made excuses. But now that we did that, not only has the time problem been minimized, I feel much more emboldened in having a voice in my treatment. So I wish Jonah would have said something about the therapist’s confusing instructions, even if it was just to put him on notice that he’s not going to be able to manipulate him with psychobabble. I worked with a bunch of practicing psychologists for awhile when I was younger, and even the good ones can be enormously unprofessional and arrogant. Sometimes a few choice words make them see that the patient is a person to be valued and respected. <Sorry, rant over, soap box stepped off, but I think this is a problem that needs to be addressed early and often> And the doctor did get Trent and Amber to back off Jonah, which is a miracle in and of itself, unless they saw what jerks they had been, and were planning to change anyway.