This week, we pick up right where we left off, at the auditions for Heather’s fake choir, where Jen has just spotted Angie Harrington in “her dollar-store leotard outfit.†Seeing her there feels like a slap in the face to Jen, especially since Heather knows what her family has gone through with the Shahxposed Finsta that Angie’s husband started. Nonetheless, the show must go on, and our auditioners begin performing their renditions of production-approved royalty-free songs.
But next thing you know, our B team is getting into it outside. Angie Katsanevas, fresh off a regional production of The Cher Show, tells Angie H. she doesn’t like the way she’s treated her friend Lisa — specifically regarding the fake Instagram account. Whitney, having wandered over to chaperone, is hearing about this Shahxposed account for the first time. “I feel really icky and silly right now being in a matching costume with Angie,†she says, wanting to disappear under her jazzy top hat.
Jen parades out, megaphone in hand to pump up the “crowd†(four people), at the perfect moment. In a brutal act of Angie-on-Angie crime, Angie K. tells Jen that Angie H. denied having any role in the Shahxposed account. “Angie, you’re full of shit — you know what your husband does,†Jen fires back.
Seeing the drama play out, Heather’s assistant pulls her out of the auditions to join the fun. “Heather, do you know my husband to be a bad guy?†Angie asks her, to which she immediately says, “No,†and tries to tell Jen he’s taken accountability. Jen clarifies that the only reason Chris “owned†his mistake is because he got caught.
Eventually, Heather has to get back to business, and Jen just storms off sobbing. “This is becoming ridiculous,†Heather tells us, “Jen Shah is in a washing machine of turmoil because she’s been indicted on federal charges with a prison sentence looming, not because she’s getting trolled by Chris Harrington on Instagram.â€
As if this choir audition didn’t have enough drama, in walks the last person Heather wants to see: Lisa Barlow, making what she sees as the first step in getting their friendship back on the right track. And what better way to do so than serenading Heather with a gorgeous rendition of “Away in a Manger� This makes me realize one area in which RHOSLC is lacking as a Housewives show: None of our cast members has yet embarked on a music career. Lisa has the chance to rectify this oversight by releasing “Away in a Manger†as a single and putting out a Christmas album called A Very Vida Christmas.
Until then, Heather’s choir will have to do, but as soon as she finishes her audition, she feels the weird tension in the room between all the other women. On one hand, we have Jen sobbing; on the other, we have Angie H. and Whitney performing a choreographed routine to “When the Saints Go Marching In,†triple spin and all. Meanwhile, Jen fills Lisa in on the drama she just missed and the rage she feels at Heather over it. Her anger is understandable, but the degree of it is a bit too much, especially since this is Heather we’re talking about. Heather stood completely by Jen, ready to give her a total free pass for defrauding the elderly. Jen should cut her some slack because you won’t find a better friend than that. Instead, she rages against Heather to Lisa, calling her materialistic and saying she’s only siding with Angie H. because she thinks her “Elf on the Shelf husband†will put her on a yacht. (Inspo for Lisa’s forthcoming Christmas album perhaps).
After auditions, the women gather to clear the air or at least make some attempt to. Jen and Angie seem to be getting somewhere with Angie expressing some kind of apology, at which point Lisa jumps up to storm out. “You can’t just say, ‘Sorry’ — you keep doing the same thing over and over,†she tells Angie. Angie pulls an Uno “Reverse†card out of her magic hat and brings up Lisa’s tweet of Heather’s father’s obituary. Lisa says Heather was the one who used her father’s death to lie about her, so Lisa used her father’s death to tell the truth. Forget the choir; they should just stage this fight as a one-act play and tour it across the country.
After Heather claims that Lisa has no friends left, Lisa decides to take an informal poll: “Who’s not my friend here? Raise your hand.†And we get two raised hands from Heather and Angie H. Heather and Lisa continue to go back and forth about the tweet, but they make no progress. “What the eff was that?†Angie mutters as she leaves the event, speaking for a nation of viewers.
Do you know what we need after going through the turmoil of that chaotic choir audition? A relaxing bubble bath. And lucky for us, Meredith delivers. Unlucky for us, Seth is in there, too. There’s nothing Meredith loves more than a bubble bath (okay, maybe a thesaurus), so much so that I think they should let her do confessionals from one. But for now it’s just the setting for Meredith to fill Seth in on this drama between Heather and Jen. She feels for Heather because, after last year’s Lisa-versus-Mary feud, she knows how hard it is to be caught between two of your friends fighting.
Speaking of Lisa, she and John go out to dinner, where a waiter immediately recommends a Vida cocktail, saying it’s been one of their best sellers. “I don’t think this guy realizes that we own Vida Tequila. And no, he’s not on our payroll,†she says in a confessional before I could even craft the accusation! And I believe her because, if he was hired, we’d see her mouthing along to the waiter’s scripted lines, as she does when she makes her sons do an Instagram Story.
The pair talk about the trouble Lisa’s sister is going through and having to find the balance between caring for her but not taking on all of that emotional weight. Lisa has to make sure she’s taking care of herself first and says one thing that always helped her do that was her relationship with God, which she wants to pay more attention to. “I’m very important to God,†she says, and I believe it. God is famously all-knowing, which means he’s well aware that the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is the best show on television. And now he’s finding himself in the middle of the drama with Lisa forming an alliance with him right as Heather’s writing her Bad Mormon book? Save God a seat at the reunion, Andy.
Over in the Shah house, which one astute TikToker identified as being the house from the Disney Channel Original Movie Johnny Tsunami, Jen tells Sharrieff all about the choir audition from hell and the surprise appearance of Angie Harrington. Sharrieff is the angriest we’ve ever seen him over Shahxposed, saying they don’t know which straw will break the camel’s back and which post could make her do something she can’t come back from. On top of that, Jen is still hurt about how Heather handled it, and even though she sent Jen flowers the next day, she didn’t understand why she couldn’t have stood up for her in the moment.
After a two-on-two basketball game with their sons, Lisa and Whitney have a chat of their own about Heather. For her part, Lisa maintains that she hasn’t done anything to warrant not being her friend and calls the poll over who’s not friends with her “ridiculous†and “childish.†I think Lisa forgot she was the one who took that poll, but the editors are quick to remind us with a flashback. Whitney, meanwhile, values her friendship with Heather and is thus having a hard time navigating this new, weird gray area with her.
But the best way out is always through, so into the bad-weather storm Whitney goes for a one-on-one chat at Heather’s house. Heather has missed her and welcomes this change of weather: “It’s been clear skies for far too long. It’s time for a tornado.†And boy, oh boy, does she get one. Right off the bat, Whitney asks why Heather didn’t call her when Justin was fired, and a shocked Heather says she had no idea he was fired. It’s at this moment we see a shift, and suddenly we’re all aware of the cameras and the show, and Heather sees what Whitney is doing. She’s trying to make her look bad.
“It crushes me that you would take this opportunity to make it look like I have been a bad friend to you and I have ignored you and not been there for you,†Heather tells her. And on top of this, we get some conflict over Whitney’s allegiance to Lisa sprinkled into their fight with Heather finding it offensive that she would try to get her to see Lisa’s side in the obituary-tweet fight. All roads lead to Lisa Barlow.
Heather storms off, essentially pushing Whitney out of her home, while removing and tossing her mic across the room in a perfect re-creation of Lisa’s hot-mic toss from last season. (I told you, all roads.)