Viewers across the nation have tuned into TV’s most prestigious drama with bated breath every Sunday night, desperately seeking clues for the visceral fallout that would ensue. No, this isn’t about The White Lotus… why do you ask?
The Real Housewives of Atlanta just aired an episode so disturbing and horrific that primetime TV writers across the nation could only dream of cooking up something as dramatic. Kenya Moore has finally gone too far, and no one understands that quite as well as the Bravo editors who depict the nightmarishly awkward, rancid scene that is Kenya’s spa opening in all its fatal glory.
Once the beating heart of Housewives villainy, Kenya Moore has taken herself out by mere incompetence. It’s shocking in almost every way, yet seems entirely inevitable as the end to her saga. The saddest part of all is she’s toppled by a Housewife who could’ve been inconsequential, newbie Brit Eady.
Last week’s episode saw Brit escalate a small tiff with Kenya to the point of ridiculousness, walking out of Angela Reed’s party muttering botched one-liners about owning a gun and other mild threats. It’s the kind of crash out a fan of the Housewives has when unprepared on the national stage, not dissimilar to Real Housewives of Salt Lake City newbie Bronwyn Newport and her ever-bobbing head telling 16 different stories for why she didn’t buy a $4-million dollar necklace.
It was cringe-worthy, embarrassing, and mildly concerning. But only mildly. Anyone who actually thinks Brit was going to grab a gun and shoot up the Kenya Moore hair spa might be mixing a bit too much White Lotus in with their RHOA cocktail.
Yet Kenya rolls up to her event—one that comes after she spent all of Season 15 posting Instagram story after Instagram story about how dismayed she was that her alleged spa wasn’t getting airtime—and makes it all about Brit, giving the newbie the moment she so desperately wanted, and one she never deserved—in more ways than one.
It’s fantastically edited (a real surprise after the tonally lopsided premiere). Clips of the ladies on the red-carpet ominously play as suspense builds, us viewers knowing all-too-well this wouldn’t be a night of vindication for Kenya’s story, but one that cements her as one of the most tragic characters in Bravo’s long-standing lore.
It’s so on the nose that Kenya tells reporters this night is about making her daughter proud all the while knowing she has blow-up posters from her local Staples hiding just off-screen, depicting explicit sex acts she dug up on the deep web to embarrass Brit. Like sure, I bet Kenya’s daughter Brooklyn loves that she put her college savings into a hair salon that no one can prove fully exists, one that was used as the backdrop for a revenge porn plot.
Of course, is it more embarrassing to have a video of you sucking d--- online or that someone would spend her free time digging up such content? I think the answer’s obvious.
The second Kenya brushes Brit off and launches into a rage-filled speech, it’s clear she’s long lost the plot.
“This has been a labor of love for me. I have built this salon for my daughter and I’m really proud of where I am,” she starts, and surely that’s all she said. Everyone went home after that! Cheers to many years of prosperity, Ms. Moore.
Unfortunately for Kenya’s job security and the attendees of the event, that’s only the beginning.
“And I get people trying to bring me down… for no reason. And I’m actually really sick of it,” she continues. “I get situations like the other night, where we were at a dinner and there was a person looking for a moment. And she came for me. Surprises! Surprises. And this person who just came here with these fake flowers, somebody take these and just get ‘em on out of here. Give ‘em to somebody homeless outside. Because it’s fake, and I don’t want fake women around me.”
“But then it escalated, because I was paying her dust, because I’m that b---h, been that b---h, still that b---h. I’m gonna pay you dust,” Kenya says, blowing a dry kiss to the audience, sloppily and with no charisma, as is fitting for this violent display of Housewives derangement syndrome. As we all know, paying someone dust is dedicating your entire event to them and ruining your own life in the process.
It’s a confusing speech, befuddling the event goers who know nothing of what she’s talking about—because it’s not for them. Kenya is entirely wrapped up in the mindset of making TV that she’s scripting out the entire event with the knowledge it will air following Angela’s event (and Brit’s meltdown), caring so little about her own spa or the event itself except for what it can serve to further this narrative. The brainworms have taken over, and rational thought is nowhere to be found.
What follows is Kenya first showing pictures of Brit’s physical transformation, then proudly displaying increasingly explicit photos of Brit, including the aforementioned oral sex. The disturbed looks on the crowd’s faces, including those of her own cast members, should’ve been a friendly warning sign to Kenya that this was not an iconic stunt a la “twirl on them haters” or Calling Sheree’s hair a “Mama Joyce wig.”
It was all about making a moment, or being the moment, with no consideration of what happens when that moment ends.
This is the act of someone who’s lost all sight of reality to the point she only sees life events through the perspective of pleasing her parasocial fans. Seriously, this is the opening of your hair salon and you’re here showing posters of some girl the attendees have never met?
Of course, it was good TV—I was thoroughly gripped to the screen in a way I haven’t been for an RHOA episode in years. But what does it say about both Kenya and RHOA that the stunt that finally brought the show back into the zeitgeist is such a nasty escalation of Housewives squabbles that—for the first time in the franchise history—a Housewife was immediately eradicated.
The remnants of Kenya are scattered across the season, Bravo clearly realizing it’s easier to show the fallout than ignore it entirely, but her arc has come to a pathetic end, only cemented by the words of Cynthia Bailey, Kenya’s longest friend on the show.
“I wasn’t there,” Bailey said. “I didn’t see what happened. I’m getting to know Brit, but I know you. I really hate that you let that end this way. I think you’re bigger than this, and I think you’re better than that.”
They’re wise words, no surprise from Cynthia “win a case” Bailey, who has always had great instincts when it comes to friendships in the group. And they’re words Kenya immediately brushes off so she can keep going on a ramble that no one really wants to listen to.
We could spend days, weeks, and months dissecting this moment, but the end result will always be the same. Kenya dismantled her own legacy for a sad scene that will live on in infamy, casting a shadow over every other moment of hers, not dissimilar to Phaedra Parks’ own shocking end. So maybe Kenya will have a renaissance in a few years, too, by that decree.
That seems decidedly unlikely in a world where Kenya’s posting up a storm about how this is all a grand conspiracy and Cynthia is a fake friend, but you never know. Never say never in Bravo’s America. After all, who would’ve expected that Ariana Madix would become the focal point of Vanderpump Rules after a decade on the sidelines? Life is too unpredictable, and viewers are far too fickle, for me to make any long-term definitive statement.
What I will say is Bravo was right to fire Kenya, and I hope she takes her time off to remember what it’s like to be a real human being, not just a character on our screen. Her actions at the event were so foreign to any normal reaction, so visceral and indignant. The “misunderstood villain” role has entirely consumed her to the point she thinks she can do whatever she wants and recontextualize it within that lens, foregoing consequences as long as her Twitter fans are yas queening her with fan camps proclaiming her innocence.
It’s good Bravo showcased as much of the event as they did so people can fully accept how sad this moment is, and how desperately Kenya needs time away from the cameras. The truth is, not all arcs end in a satisfying manner. Some stars burn out in despairing displays, and that’s often the case for our Housewives.
For every “Jeana Keough smiles and nods to somber music in the kitchen” exit, there’s a moment like Nene Leakes shutting her laptop at the RHOA Zoom reunion, never to be seen again. Sometimes, it’s best to just remember the good times, knowing Nene, Bethenny Frankel, and all those other stars are too washed to ever be the person we once loved.
After all, the worst crime you can commit on reality TV (after revenge porn, of course) is becoming so miserable your antics go from funny to downright grating.
Kenya Moore sure got her moment—and so did the show—but what does it mean to be the moment if all it does is put your own desperation on display?
Hopefully, RHOA can find a way to make event TV again without getting a Housewife fired in the process, and hopefully Kenya can heal from this miserable state. Nonetheless, it’s exciting to be eager for the next episode of Atlanta, for the first time in forever. At least there’s that.
