The Valley is a game of suburban Minesweeper. Every move you make, you risk at least a few explosions. That’s why it’s Bravo’s psychological thriller, a show so sordid it’s a shock Jax Taylor still sits comfortably atop the villain throne.
Walking an ever-fragile tightrope, Jax has waddled his way back into the group with a renewed perspective, the kind a 30-day stay in a rehab with 24/7 access to your phone and ex-wife’s home security system can give you.
Seriously, you know it’s dire when I’m worried for Jesse’s safety in a scene with Jax. Jesse! The thought of picking Jax up from his fake facility and bringing him back to Brittany’s home is actually horrifying to me. Even an American Psycho stand-in like Jesse shouldn’t have to do that.
Jax Taylor is flailing, falling apart at the seams—in part because he knows that “his show” has been subleased out for the past 30 days without falling apart, leading to the question: Does Bravo still need its biggest villain?
The answer is a bit more complicated than it seems.
The beauty of villainy is not rooting for their healing, despite Jax’s repeated insistence he’s on a journey akin to Whitney Wild Rose. This isn’t Salt Lake City, after all. He’s nowhere near traveling first class, settling for Jesse’s bumpy passenger seat.
“It’s safe to say that these are no longer the best days of our lives,” Jax closes out his return episode, one he surely hoped would be a triumphant return and redemption, even as editors whack him at every corner.
Look beyond his words and you’ll see that Bravo is well-aware of the clown show they’re presenting, juxtaposing scenes of Jax “earnestly” announcing his new era of accountability with admissions he stalked Brittany throughout his facility stay, while fuming at the prospect of Zach taking over “his show.”
That territorial delusion is part of what makes Jax Taylor the perfect villain, terrorizing audiences for the better part of 15 years with an unrepentant confidence and a mustache snatched straight from Waluigi.
In so many ways, The Vanderpump Rules universe is synonymous with Jax Taylor, for better or for worse. From day one, the cheating, lying, borderline (and then full-on) abuse has been what Bravo fans came to know, even in the faux-girl power final season of the OG series.
Still, all good things must come to an end. It’s not hard to argue they already ended many moons ago, really.
The case for firing Jax is really quite easy. From stalking Brittany to flipping tables in her presence, he’s gone well-beyond the villain threshold to display a truly vile show of abuse, one that puts her at risk each week.
It’s easy to meme Brittany’s countryfied lines like “Jayuxxxx, you scære meigh!,” but that doesn’t make her plight any less real. Like most humans, Brittany’s an imperfect victim, one that reality fans often lose their sympathy for due to her committing the worst crime a woman on TV can do: be earnestly annoying.
Just look at the Love Island fanbase, a cacophony of “girl’s girls” who eagerly rip apart the women on that show for making embarrassing dating mistakes, as though romance isn’t the most inherently vulnerable plane of our existence—and as though we don’t watch these shows to watch people make mistakes.
In fact, you don’t even need to leave the Vanderpump universe to see this misogyny at play. Whether it’s VPR fans crucifying Scheana Shay while cosplaying feminism in the name of Ariana Madix or The Valley fans unironically classifying Janet as a threat worse than the true abusers, Bravo fans are no stranger to letting the worst men coast on by while holding women to unrealistic standards.
The pushback against Jax begs an even more nuanced question: Do we want Jax off our screens so we can stop feeling guilty for enjoying his villainy? Gluttons for reality junk, maybe we just want Bravo to remove our temptations because we aren’t strong enough to do so ourselves.
This is reality TV, after all. Whether or not Bravo fires Jax, he won’t be vanquished from existence. He’ll still twiddle his thumbs and terrorize the better half of Los Angeles County, all the while pretending he’s turning a new leaf. Brittany’s no more safe with him off the show. In fact, it’s easy to argue she’s safer, if anything, with cameras documenting his every move. It’s certainly good ammo for any legal action she’d like to take, even if reality TV footage is taken with a judicious grain of salt.
Putting that aside, though, the real issue with Jax’s return to the group might be the simplest: He’s starting to stick out like a sore thumb. Having spent half a season behind the fictional bars of his enclosure, Jax missed the arrival of several feuds, from Janet vs. Danny and Nia to a revived Kristen vs. Janet (okay, maybe Janet is the real workhorse, here).
He’s no longer the arbiter of chaos, surrounded by an absolutely deranged cast whose only goal is to one-up their own psychopathy week-after-week.
Jax’s return to the mix immediately sidelines all other drama, as he’s such an albatross around the show’s neck it’s hard to focus on anything else. He’s kind of that friend the group naturally grew apart from, trying to rejoin conversations he knows nothing about with an insecure laugh: Oh yeah, Darkside Danny, I totally know what that’s all about! I’m still in the loop on everything and haven’t missed a beat! Good to see the group’s going so strong! Hah.
As The Valley cast work so hard to stake their own claim in the Bravoverse, building their own history removed from the context of Jax, his presence has become less important than ever.
Janet has shot at every single cast member, tossing out allegations of alcoholism like it’s just another day while coining “crazy Kristen” in hopes of sending Ms. Doute into a facility of her own. Nia and Danny’s picture perfect life acting as a facade to their clear struggles is suburban melodrama at its finest. Watching Zach and Brittany’s rags-to-riches southern hostility brew is exciting long-form storytelling, as is the continued pivot of Kristen from cast “crazy” to Mother!
Jax may bring with him a tornado of trouble, but at what cost? Does his mere presence stifle the rest of the cast’s ability to do their dirtiest work, knowing they can rest on their laurels while he wreaks havoc at every corner?
Jax filming Season 2 of The Valley is an absolute good for the show, a wonderful showcase of what happens when the world falls apart around a certified narcissist. His so-called “sympathy arc” has been anything but, clearly displayed through scenes of him faking hospitalization for attention and pretending to be healed only to immediately blame Brittany for all his issues.
His downfall is delicious to watch, as is his stilted return to the group. The Valley is no longer Jax’s show, and maybe it never was. After all, we’re in a world where Scheana Shay is classified as “Janet’s friend” despite her VPR antics birthing this entire universe in the first place.
Maybe Jax can continue on as a thorn in the cast’s side, and maybe he can sneak his way back into the group dynamic. These stars certainly know how to forgive rancid men, even at their most abusive.
Maybe a humbled Jax, acting as second fiddle to the woman he brought into the group and the cast members he grandfathered in, would be the tastiest humble pie imaginable.
But maybe, just maybe, the ship has sailed on the Jax journey—for now. Given the Palm Springs pandemonium, it’s hard to say with a straight face this show needs Jax to survive. Maybe what The Valley really needs is a clean break from Jax, once and for all.
