After any big event on real Housewives, there’s always an episode in which all the cast members meet in various small groups in purchase to talk about what happened, how everyone acted and who the new enemies are. typically theses episodes are a little dull, but because of the magnitude of the Glamis crash and its fallout, last night clipped along at a stable pace and offered plenty to discuss.
The first place this episode went was back to the end of last week’s drama to reestablish all the brand new battle lines that the crash and its fallout have drawn. That involved viewing Tamra get wheeled out of the medical facility in a daze and then cutting directly to Meghan, Shannon and their attendant spouses indulging in the time-honored nouveau riche tradition of playing golf poorly while wearing silly pastel clothes.
While the foursome was on the golf course, Heather and Kelly tried their luck again to get Meghan or Shannon to make the 45-minute trip to check out Vicki at the nearby medical facility to which she had been airlifted. A scuffle between the parties ensued over who was actually closer, and because I don’t know a single relevant thing about southern California geography, it’s hard for me to weigh in with a personal opinion about who was being a weasel. By the end of the episode, though, it seemed like everyone agreed Meghan didn’t know how to use MapQuest, so I’m betting that Heather was right.
Real Housewives all do their fair shares of scheming and back-stabbing, but many of them at least know to keep their games faces on in front of the video camera so they don’t alienate themselves from fans or encourage the wrong kind of villain edit from producers. For some reason, Meghan completely dropped the ball on that over the past two episodes: she looked petty and mean, which is normal and acceptable reality star behavior when someone is impolite at a dinner party but just seems cruel when contrasted with the potentially horrible consequences of a major accident.
Meghan’s outright refusal to check out Vicki in the medical facility looked doubly bad because of each cast member’s individual life circumstances. Vicki, the only OG Housewife left standing, might be annoying, narcissistic and incapable of conducting interpersonal relationships like an adult, but at this point in the game, she mostly just seems lonely, sad and like she’s doing her best to muddle her way into the next stage of her life with her inadequate emotional tools and a dermatologist who’s not looking out for her best interests.
One the other hand, Meghan is young and impossibly fit and on her first husband, and although her marriage leaves a lot to be desired, she’s certainly got much more opportunity in front of her than Vicki. That, I think, is why her repeated refusal to go to the medical facility seemed especially nasty; after all, even if you’re not a Vicki’s most significant fan, there’s no valor in kicking her while she’s down, and Vicki’s position was particularly vulnerable. and didn’t the two of them bury the hatchet last week, or did Meghan just swing by Vicki’s party because that was the only way she’d ever get inside the Merv griffin estate?
After pushback from Tamra, Heather and Kelly, it seemed like Meghan realized she might have screwed up, so she headed over to Vicki’s to get in front of the narrative. She did so by bringing Vicki one of her own branded candles, which is one of those tiny reality television details that you might miss in the middle of a real Housewives stupor, but then you stop and think about it like a normal human and realize that plugging your own merch is certainly not the appropriate way to comfort someone who’s just been in a major automobile accident.
Once she had presented poor, pathetic, neck-braced Vicki with her totally free candle, Meghan set about the task of steering the narrative away from her own behavior and onto Tamra. because Meghan wasn’t there when the accident happened and was still feigning ignorance about its details and severity at this point, I’m not sure why she felt qualified to assign blame and cry crocodile tears on behalf of her injured cast mates, but being completely uninvolved certainly did not stop her from weighing in.
Naturally, news of Meghan’s not-particularly-deft maneuvering right away made it to Tamra who, despite her newfound fitness and relationship with Jesus, is still prepared to pop off at the mouth if correctly motivated. In this case, Meghan’s decision to try and divert attention from her own bad behavior by rallying the troops to blame Tamra for what was certainly just an accident seems well worth a few strong words, and based on the rest of the episode, I doubt that’s the last we’ll hear of it. Meghan may have later sat down and smoothed things over with Heather, but I doubt Tamra will be as prepared to let her off the hook.
Shannon got off a little easier, and probably for good reason. Her relationship with Vicki is worse than Meghan’s to begin with, and the girls at Glamis didn’t directly notify her of the accident; she only found out through Meghan, and much after the initial call. She had dinner with Tamra and Heather and mostly patched things up, despite an initial level of defensiveness that everyone ought to already know never looks good when edited into a TV segment.
Perhaps the most unlikely turn of events in the wake of the crash, though, was Kelly’s warm and seemingly genuine apology to Heather for their past scuffles. A big midseason event on real Housewives always tends to reorganize cast alliances, and that seems particularly true in this case. Meghan and Shannon have isolated themselves a bit, which likely isn’t the best relocation for two people who don’t seem to have a ton of charisma or fan enthusiasm to begin with. Not only that, but their treatment of Vicki has managed to rally support around her when that seemed impossible just a few episodes ago. I guess getting sent home from the medical facility by yourself in a paper gown and with only an Uber chauffeur for comfort is enough to garner sympathy from practically anyone.