I hope you all had a lovely week enjoying football (whether of the American or the World Cup tradition), excessive food, disappointment over annual sales, and cognitive dissonance over the continued celebration of a genocidal colonial tradition under the guise of “family reunions, even with that one auntie who is only going to comment about how much COVID weight you’ve gained.†I have certainly made the most of mine. The cast of Potomac, however, has been under pressure since last week’s episode. Karen has firmly maintained on her YouTube recap channel that both sides are wrong. Mia briefly deactivated on Twitter, but not before someone claiming to be Jacqueline’s niece got in her behind for discarding her longtime friendship and revealing that her mother was nanny to Mia’s children’s — only for Mia to then return and suggest that she might leave the show because “while I was committed to drama and entertainment I must do what’s best for brand & partners.†To which I would reply, What brands? What partners?
Monique also injected herself into the conversation, despite being on a completely different franchise at this point, claiming that she warned Wendy two seasons ago and applauding her for keeping her composure, which Candiace did not take kindly to. Candiace also commented on colorism and Robyn’s behavior on the red carpet of the Soul Train awards, while Robyn locked her Instagram comments from the deluge of insults as she gave Today an exclusive interview, putting her PR background to work and insisting that her real issue with Wendy’s behavior was that she didn’t want Wendy to put her job or professional career at risk.
Robyn’s attempt to spin her behavior as her looking out for Wendy’s best interests is particularly egregious; this week’s episode makes it quite clear that she has no investment whatsoever in supporting Wendy. When Candiace finally arrives at the house after Wendy has left and gotten herself a hotel for the night — one that Charisse was somehow unable to find – Robyn showcases the footage of Wendy losing her composure after Mia threw a drink on her. When she doesn’t get the reaction from Candiace that she expects, Robyn continues to project her experiences with Wendy into rationalizing Mia’s behavior, saying “I’ve been there with her, I’ve wanted to fling a water bottle at her,†while conveniently dismissing the acknowledgement that they all engage in combative wars of words on a reality television program. Like she ultimately admits in the confessional, she is on Mia’s side because she doesn’t like Wendy and for no other reason.
Despite it allegedly being the fault of both parties, most of the group save for Karen, Ashley, and Candiace seem to be relieved at Wendy leaving the house, and barely concern themselves with her well-being. Not only does it not bother them that Wendy’s gone, it actively upsets Mia (and to an extent Robyn, who is smarting over Candiace telling her that she’s acting hypocritical) that the trio are not attempting to ostracize Wendy for the rest of the trip. Mia’s 8:30 a.m. flight back to Potomac was magically unbooked, therefore Wendy was to become persona non grata at all of Karen’s birthday festivities, which she refused to comply with. Mia — who invited Charisse to a trip on Karen’s birthday weekend, and was getting her nails “repaired†the morning of Karen’s birthday without so much as a gesture to the rest of the girls – takes that as a sign of disloyalty, suggesting that Ashley and Candiace should find themselves other accommodations after they return from tending to Wendy, while the rest of the girls get drunk at the Savoy and leer at men young enough to plausibly date some of their children. Somehow, Karen has become the personal steward of everyone’s behavior, from being held to the fire for straddling the fence to being blamed for not de-escalating a situation that Mia was dedicated to bringing to the table the night before. What was she supposed to do, deflate Mia’s lip injections and tell her to shut up?
Mia’s point of contention is that she “doesn’t want [Wendy] to ever think it’s okay to disrespect her husband,†even though (1) that never happened until drinks started flying, (2) this entire fight was about Peter, and 3) they have spent the entire season so far disrespecting Candiace’s husband without so much as a concern. Regardless, by the time the bizarre trio sits with Wendy, who spent the night crying, she reveals that her biggest confusion with the escalation is that Peter told her he didn’t take trips with Mia and G anymore because of Mia’s underhanded behavior with an ex of his (unclear if this was before or after Cynthia). Ashley surmises that Mia doesn’t want any of what Wendy may know to get out and that is why she reacted so harshly. I think she may have just been drunk and reckless, as they were several shots in by that point, but it could be a combination of both.
Fortunately, Candiace decides to take Wendy to meet the icon Trina to bring her spirits up a bit. Trina has certainly been on the receiving end of many a girls trip to Miami gone wrong, and takes the drama in stride; it is also genuinely adorable to witness Wendy be a genuine fan of her friend and sing along to Candiace’s music as it plays in the studio. Candiace has absolutely been working to make something out of her music career while in the public eye, and it has been materializing into something tangible; and she timed the release of the remix with the airing of the episode, which was smart.
Unfortunately, Karen and Ashley return to a fiasco in the house. The women are all day drunk and sloppy, and have clearly abandoned all attempts at humoring Karen’s status as the birthday girl. (Thankfully, Ray Huger sent the Grand Dame some flowers to acknowledge her special day.) Mia uses the excuse that Karen chose to be a good friend and check on Wendy as a premise for completely dismissing any efforts for Karen’s birthday, while Jacqueline pleads for Mia to calm down. Mia drunkenly claims that Karen abandoned her celebrations at the Savoy to go see Wendy, which we all know is a lie because the Savoy had nothing but beach coverings and 20-year-olds on spring break. Just admit that you all got too drunk and you don’t think you can bounce back in time for the all-white dinner; it is more reasonable than trying to blame Karen for something she did not do and you did not plan for.
Next week, we actually engage in Miami Housewives behavior — high-end race-car driving, fancy dinners, illusion mesh, and messy confrontations that don’t result in thrown drinks. Predictably, the tenuous alliance being built by Karen, Ashley, and Candiace will be out the window by this time next week. Until then!
Cherry Blossoms:
• Robyn might be consumed with disgust for Wendy, but not so much that she can’t do some detective work about Mia’s health problems. This is how you can tell that the alliance with Mia is purely one of convenience and not one of actually caring about her as a person.
• Charisse is the stray puppy that is being put in whatever car has room for each group outing. Truly, why is she on this trip???
• Mia’s friendship with Jacqueline is some true adolescent co-dependent nonsense. Jacqueline has to serve as her tantrum interpreter and a buffer for her worst impulses, while Mia makes a point of putting her down and embarrassing her in front of company, nevertheless claiming that “if I’m winning, she winning.†It’s like the only DVD she had growing up was Mean Girls and she committed the character of Regina George to memory as a coping mechanism.
• Loved the cute callback to Wendy’s “slither†by Candiace and Wendy.
• Gizelle’s wigs — is it a bit at this point? Like, it is season seven and she has a whole hairstylist, yet we still can’t get a decent part in her installs? Enough is enough.