The Real Housewives of Orange County are at war, one so vicious and brutal that no one’s going to come out unscathed. Somehow, the center of that all is Katie Ginella, whose contributions to last season were coining the term “the NFL of tea” and a C-tier feud with Heather.
Katie swears to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but her truth. That’s Real Housewives for “I’m about to lie so hard, your head’s going to spin.” From the second she said she missed hanging out with Gina, it was clear: Katie loves to lie—and she won’t stop until the entire cast have lost trust in her.
The episode begins with the fallout of Katie’s hotpot dinner, in which Tamra and Gretchen reunited after 12 long years, not skipping a beat in the process. Tamra said some things (Gretchen’s evil, her longterm boyfriend is a deadbeat dad whose ex-wife had to start a GoFundMe to support his late son’s funeral funds, so on and so forth). Gretchen did her best to lob it back while wearing the first-ever permanent Instagram filter, and now the two are back where they began.
So, that feud has gone on ice for now, and Tamra has resumed her regularly scheduled activities: hazing Jenn Pedranti. The latest blow comes from liaison Heather Dubrow, who’s throwing a birthday party six weeks after her big day, because Heather Dubrow can do anything (and everything) she wants. When you live your life in HD, rules cease to exist. Unfortunately for Jenn, she can only afford standard definition, which means she has to play by one major rule: Keep Ryan away from Tamra.
That’s the advice of Tamra’s legal counsel, who I would quite like to see on screen sometime. From the makers of “Tamra talks autism at therapy” comes “Tamra learns not to make false claims that the FBI raided your co-worker’s house.” She’s learning so much about the world this season—including how to get others to fight her battles.
Heather sits down for a drink with Jenn and Shannon, where she gently tells Jenn she’s struggling with including both Tamra and Ryan at the same event. Here, Jenn goes full Oklahoma and delivers a monologue from August: Osage County.
“That’s my husband, who did nothing. I had to sit there and argue that my kids lived in a f---ing safe house that was never raided by the FBI. I had to pay attorney fees that I do not have the f---ing money for because your f---ing friend said we were raided by the FBI. That f---ing woman caused so much pain, so if she doesn’t want to come and be around Ryan, f--- her,” she cries, before begging Heather just to uninvite her instead.
Jenn truly embodies that old school OC desperation that makes her every moment so captivating. Her ability to hold her own with both Heather and Tamra proves Jenn’s an all-star, as does her haunting solo footage. This week, we find out her 18-year old son, who’s going into the Marines, co-signed her other son’s student loans by request of Jenn’s ex-husband. Oh, Jenn, we’re rooting for you.
As for the real feud of the night (somehow), Katie vs. Shannon has kicked into full-gear. Now that Ms. Storms Beador has had time to process the events of last week, Shannon is angrier than we’ve ever seen her—and that’s saying a lot. She has steam coming out every end, p---ed beyond belief that Katie would record her cast photo meltdown, despite Katie’s insistence she only played the audio for her husband.
Katie’s “truth” in this instance is more like two truths and a lie. Despite texting Shannon that no one else heard the recording, Katie tells Gina that she shared the audio with Alexis and Jenn at lunch, something the off-screen omen of Alexis corroborates. She may be fired, but Jesus Jugs still haunts the narrative, having been mentioned in all three episodes so far. God is her savior, John Jannsen’s her king, and her impact? It’s undeniable.
Jenn, however, has no recollection of this lunch. These girls need to get their lies in order, because the rag-tag duo of Katie and Jenn is falling apart at the seams. How is Jenn, of all people, the better strategist? She moves in the shadows, yet everywhere she goes, Katie’s right there with a big old bullhorn.
Shannon, the fallen member of that rag-tag team, has dipped into her own multiverse, introducing not one, but two men of Love Hotel fame to the Orange County mix this week. It turns out she left that show on great terms with just about everyone… except Joel Kim Booster!
Tonight, Phil—a Gizelle Bryant love-interest on the romance show—makes his debut as “man on Shannon’s shoulder while she has a meltdown.” Luckily, the gig comes with quite the ambience, as Heather goes all out for her birthday, hosting it in the remnants of some gorgeous mega-church. What’s with Housewives throwing events in former churches this week? When it rains, it pours, evidently.
The event truly has it all: a gong, caviar bumps, and the biggest Shannon screaming match since she threw her plate in The Quiet Woman. It’s a good thing Katie’s so stoic in the face of absolute pummelings, as this one’s a doozy.
Katie rolls right up to the event with a gorgeous blowout, not even a little fazed that Heather barely tolerates her, Shannon wants to throw her into a woodchipper, and Tamra just tossed her under a bus. Look, she may have lost the ladies, but she still has the bloggers. As long as you have real friends by your side, nothing else matters.
Fearless as ever, Katie asks Shannon for a quick chat. It’s a surprisingly visceral scene, one where Shannon activates so lucidly that she cuts Katie right to the core. First, she dismantles Katie’s faux-apology (an “apology but,” as Shannon claims) for being riddled with excuses. Then, she tosses out some Reporting Basics 101, informing Katie her recording was illegal given California is a two-party consent state.
Katie remains unfazed, though, actually introducing a new lie to the mix. Apparently, she was on a Zoom call with an “important investor” when Shannon had her cast photo meltdown—something that contradicts her hotpot dinner claim that she’d been on the phone with her husband. As Shannon says, if that call were so important, why would she hang up to record Shannon? I suppose it would make sense if the “important investor” were one of those bloggers, to be fair. Talk about an exclusive.
Finally, Shannon goes in for the kill: “Nothing you say adds up, ever. I’ve gone to the bottom of the barrel with these women in this group. Never once has anyone recorded me behind my back.”
“Katie, no apology will ever measure up to how much you violated me” she adds. “Let me make this clear, Katie Ginella. I will never, ever speak to you again. You are the most evil… evil person I have ever met. […] This girl, worse than Alexis Bellino! Worse than Tamra Judge! We’re done.”
Whew. Given things have escalated beyond the point of repair by Episode 3, who knows where we’ll be by the season’s end. I’m in slight shock Shannon went that hard, that fast—and even more surprised she eviscerated Katie so expertly. I’m most surprised, though, by the fact Katie simply shakes this all off, unrepentant in her villain journey. Trust and believe, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
