We’re titularly off to the races, folks! Literally, to a NASCAR race, and figuratively, because I think we finally have a damn show on our hands.
This week’s ride on the Southern Hospitality Tilt-A-Whirl introduces a fun new wrinkle to the mess: technically, Maddi — the show’s clear female protagonist — is at least one rung up on the management ladder than the rest of Republic’s gaggle of lunatics. This means she is not only friends with the circus folk but also, to some degree, a ringleader, meaning she can invoke the Charleston Hospitality Code (I made this up, but the point stands) to demand people show up to work. Should people already be showing up to work? To sum up the feelings of labor magnate Kim Kardashian in a word: absolutely. But it’s also a fascinating reality-show dynamic to see someone the same age as her co-workers have the ability to wield that power. Think about how it’d feel if Vanderpump Rules OG Kristen Doute had somehow, between bad decisions and even worse decisions, ascended to a management role at SUR, gaining the ability to literally boss Stassi or Scheana or Katie around … small-screen good as gold! Southern Hospitality producers, hear me out: More of this dynamic, please.
Following last week’s tea party from purgatory, Mikel tells Maddi he won’t be at work that night, putting Maddi in a difficult position and demonstrating this cast’s perfect-for-reality-TV immaturity. Mikel, it’s been established, is in hot water with Leva for promoting a party at a competing nightclub in town. Similarly, Juhlilly continues to harp on how brave she’s being for working a shift on her birthday, leaving me asking, Is this a thing? Do young people complain about working on their birthday? It really does seem as if nobody wants to work these days!
People on such thin ice at work should simply not be admitting on camera that they are going to skip a shift. Do you know how many times co-workers have made my head explode so severely that I couldn’t imagine looking at them, let alone breathing the same air? If I had a Charleston nickel (which is what Shep thinks a carton of eggs costs) for every time I’ve wanted to skip work because of a co-worker I hated, I’d be rich enough to buy Leva’s apartment on King Street.
Surprise, surprise, though: Both Juhlilly and Mikel show up, the latter three minutes late to his shift, which is (if you’re my current or former boss: Don’t read this) extremely my energy, so I take back what I said. This cast is sublime, and Mikel is self-producing the hell out of his story lines.
This week, Southern Hospitality continued delving into some of its more compelling characters, including Mia and Lucia, who share lunch while discussing the men in their lives. It becomes a conversation about real-life hurdles in relationships from effective communication to partners’ differing financial statuses. It feels very authentic, deepens the cast’s connections, and makes me care about both women. Good job, producers!
Beautiful blonde Emmy takes her beautiful blonde mother and sisters to Republic for a bottle of champagne, and once again I must insist to all young people: Stop showing up to your place of paycheck for fun! Do not give your hard(…)-earned paycheck back to your paycheck givers! In this house, we support and demand healthy boundaries between work and personal hours. Emmy does win some points back for having a heavenly reply when asked about her dad’s “financial services†job: “He … finances your services.â€
At long last, we’re finally taking an all-cast trip! It’s an RV excursion to a NASCAR race in Charlotte thrown by Maddi and attended by her ex-turned-current boyfriend, Trevor — that frat guy who used to hit on you at parties and still unironically goes to the campus bar to “reminisce†— who we learn cheated on her the last time she went to Charlotte. Joe Bradley (obligatory Joe Bradley mention! Great name, gorgeous face, “Go girl, give us nothing†energy!), still pining for Maddi, pouts. Also in attendance? Mikel, in full turnup mode, is coming face to face with most of the cast for the first time since last week’s drink toss. To the pressure cooker, we go!
Maddi kicks off things with a bang, doing what they do on the Discovery Channel with Trevor in the RV approximately four and a half feet from the rest of the cast (save Emmy and Will, who had the good foresight to drive their own car). “Hearing them fuck four feet away … I think they might be going steady,†says Joe Bradley (look at you, Joe Bradley: Two Joe Bradley mentions this week!) with as much deadpan as he can muster.
The RV arrives at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. As a gay person, the only drag racing I care to watch comes courtesy of the fine people at World of Wonder and, starting January 6, MTV — though as a child, I did own a NASCAR video game (it came with my GameCube), which I played to exclusively drive my car backward on the track and cause massive, fiery wrecks, so I suppose I can appreciate a little race-car action on my television screen.
Thanks to Maddi’s family hookups, the gang gets to meet Ross Chastain, who is neither Ross Mathews nor Jessica Chastain, though a quick search does show he’s a NASCAR driver with nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram, so mazel to him. Also good luck to him on and off the course (?) because Juhlilly, a shake-and-go wig from Ricky’s NYC, throws herself at him upon learning he’s single. “I’m your No. 1 fan,†she gushes mere seconds after admitting she’s never been to a NASCAR race before. Love wins, baby.
As for the rest of the episode: Cars go vroom, following which, the roughly 50-strong crew hunkers down at a four-bedroom house on Lake Norman, which Google claims is “the largest man-made body of fresh water in North Carolina.†They kiki around an outdoor firepit and genuinely connect over their own self-admitted flaws and insecurities.
A perfect episode? Not by any means, but it’s one that brims with promise of what’s to come in the back half of Southern Hospitality’s freshman run. We’re finally getting a clear, compelling look at how all our players are connected — who’s a friend, who’s a foe, and who lives somewhere between the two. I believe most of these people are friends or started to become friends during the course of filming. I’m starting to see sparks fly. And this week, I’m right there sitting by the firepit with the Republic gang, cozying up to what’s quickly becoming yet another Bravo show I’m happy to have on the airwaves.
Leva Leftovers
• At this point, I believe that Juhlilly, a HitClips player whose battery is fading, thinks she’s giving Goldie Hawn when she’s actually barely giving Bratz. And if I have to hear “Let’s get wavy, baby!†again or her referring to herself in the third person, I think I might pull out a fingernail. Just some constructive feedback!
• “Five, ten years down the road, I wanna be DJ-ing. I wanna be playing every club. I wanna have real influence in the music industry. So missing a DJ set — it matters to me!†declares Maddi in what I’m now calling my “Aw… Sweetie! Moment of the Week.â€Â Maybe this show will get picked up for a second season, so maybe she’ll be able to DJ a BravoCon mixer, which I actually think is the true pinnacle of a Bravoleb’s music career. Keep hustling!
• Side note: I love watching people DJ on Bravo because we can’t legally hear a lick of what they’re “playing,†so instead we get them spinning some truly Muzak-ass “bangers.â€
• “In the words of the great Britney Spears: I came to work, bitch†and “I pray that you hoes stay un-hoe-ish†— both come courtesy of Mikel, who is one of the only people on this cast who knows how to give solid reads and good talking head.
• My MVP of the week goes to the RV driver, whose sideways glance from the passenger seat is so imbued with instant heartbreak at the thought of being saddled with these cartoon characters that it broke my heart too.
• Third place for MVP this week goes to Joe Bradley (third mention! Hat trick!) for sweet-talking Maddi’s parents with his guns out (those arms are this episode’s MVP runner-up) while Trevor guzzles straight from a bottle of Tito’s and fails to impress his potential future in-laws.
• We get a super-trailer for the back half of the season! It looks like a mess but a good mess I finally care about. Thank you, Bravo!