With the Met Gala finally behind us, the season finale of The Kardashians focuses on a totally new fashion adventure: “Couture Fashion Week†in Paris. “Not just Fashion Week. Couture Fashion Week,†says Kim, who will be walking in the Balenciaga show. To mark this fancy occasion, we get a new twist to the show’s confessionals — forgoing their usual pharmaceutical commercial set for the inside of a French hotel room. And more important, we get the long-awaited return of dual confessionals from the days of Keeping Up with Kim and Kris sharing the couch.
They were apparently able to afford North’s appearance fee for this trip, bringing her along and marking her grand return to Paris after her renowned performance at her dad’s fashion show, where she sang, “What are those? They are clothes!†It was and forever will be the song of summer. Kim’s particularly excited that North’s there so she can see her mom hard at work. “I really enjoy what I do, and I want my kids to grow up really loving what they do and finding their passion and figuring out how to make a business out of that,†she says as if any of her kids will have a hard time making a career out of their passions. North’s passion could be twiddling her thumbs, and she’d be able to make millions doing just that.
Taking full advantage of our new dual confessional, Kris reminisces about her and Kim’s first trip to Paris in 2009, when the pair was swarmed by paparazzi while shopping. Kris, wearing a leopard-print top, because it was 2009, tripped on the cobblestone and face-planted in front of the mob of photogs, whom Kim sternly instructed to delete all footage of her mom falling.
Lucky for us, they didn’t listen, and even luckier for us, Hulu graciously tracked down said footage and included it in the show. I’ve said before that one of the biggest downsides to the family making the jump from E! to Hulu was the loss of past footage to flashback when appropriate, so the inclusion of this clip is really scratching that itch. This video of Kris Jenner falling in Paris is what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.
While Kim is getting glam (a perpetual state), North comes in wearing a jacket that you could have told me was from The Children’s Place and just ran half a size too big. But it turns out, as Kim tells us, that the jacket belonged to North’s dad. However, since he’s not one to keep things, Kim found and bought the piece online. Kim’s archivist tendencies, which we’d call hoarding if she weren’t rich, are no surprise to anyone who saw the warehouse of her meticulously catalogued old outfits last season.
And speaking of clothes, while sitting with their friend and designer Olivier Rousteing, Kim tells North that she was actually wearing a blue dress given to her by Olivier the night North was conceived. “So Olivier might have a little something to do with the reason you’re on this planet,†she says as a horrified North silently eats a French fry.
Back in Calabasas, Kourtney and Travis are having a Yours, Mine & Ours moment with a long-overdue blended family dinner with all of their kids (minus Mason, who has seemingly retired from the show). Travis’s son Landon makes an appearance, and you might recognize him, since he’s now dating fellow Hulu reality star Charli D’Amelio (he was incorrectly called “Logan†not once but twice by Tyra Banks on Dancing With the Stars).
Unfortunately, this big group scene isn’t too eventful, since everybody is on their phones — a concept that is utterly perplexing to me. There are television cameras around; shouldn’t all these kids be hamming it up to become big stars? That’s the very principle that this entire show was built on. But then it hit me that they all become stars through their phones now, so these television cameras are useless. The only one putting on a show is Reign, who pretends to drink wine, does prop comedy by putting two cucumbers over his eyes to relax, and even shows off some silly voices — thank God, someone in this family is putting in the work!
Meanwhile, Kylie is in Vegas to support the other Travis at the Billboard Music Awards, wearing a Balmain dress with a bodylike design, which reminds me of those novelty T-shirts that look like a bikini. “I’m not really the star of the night tonight,†she says, and how could she be when the legend herself, Stormi, is there? Just like Reign, Stormi steals the show, particularly when Kylie has her order her own room service. The 4-year-old Stormi proves to be better on the phone than I am — ordering her own meal and even throwing in a hamburger for mom. “I love Vegas,†Stormi says, and how can you not love a place where you can summon chicken tenders and fries at any moment?
We get a phenomenal transition shot from the fake Eiffel Tower in Vegas to the real one in Paris, and just like that, we’re back to Kim, who’s nervously meeting the big boss at Balenciaga, Demna. “It’s just a really big deal when the head designer of a house wants to start a relationship, and you kind of have one shot,†she says.
Demna asks if this is really her first time walking in a show, and Kim clarifies that, technically, her real debut was at a 2006 Ed Hardy show at Los Angeles Fashion Week. Sure, Balenciaga is nice, but wouldn’t it be iconically full circle for Kim to return to the Ed Hardy runway today? I would like to see it.
Before the fashion show, Kris and Cousin Cici make a quick pit stop for some casual champagne and caviar. “I thought about it last night,†Cici says, “how many years I read fashion magazines, and all I wanted to do was sit in the front row. That’s why it’s so crazy.†Kris tells her that Kim knew how much this trip would mean to her and that it’s so fun sharing it with someone who really appreciates the weight of it all. It’s a big “Look at us! Who woulda thought?†kind of moment with Cici giving Kris her flowers for making it all happen for the girls.
Kim’s nervous about the walk, but Demna tells her to walk like she’s at home. Kim decides this means walking like she’s at home with Kendall, not at home with the other non-supermodel sisters. After a lackluster pep talk from a half-asleep Kendall over FaceTime, Kim gets on the subject of her pee anxiety — even going into detail about keeping a pee cup at the ready in her car at all times. But before we could get more details on the pee cup, North saunters in to save us. “There’s a whole crowd for me,†North says of the mob of people and paparazzi outside, and she and Kris go out just for fun to see them all go wild like they’re Sally Field in Soapdish.
Finally, Kim walks the runway, a moment that she says validates her role in the fashion industry, and according to Kris, “North was beaming.â€
But that’s not all; the last thing on their schedule is to see the Jean Paul Gaultier show, and as they get ready, Kris says she’s thinking about wearing her “Sawn Laurawnâ€Â (Saint Laurent) oxfords. “Mom, the way you pronounce names — I can’t,†Kim says. We could run through a whole list of them, but we can never forget the all-time classic: “memwah†(memoir).
The trip to Paris ends on a high with North front row at the Olivier show using the invitation to make a sign that says “Stop†and holding it up to the photographers across from her. We’re seeing an entirely new generation of entertainers emerge in this family in real time.
Khloé, who I thought had taken some well-deserved PTO this episode, reemerges for the birth of her son — placing our timeline at the end of July and officially catching us up to the flashforward in the season premiere. Khloé has Kris, Kourtney, and Kim over to see the new baby, who they say looks just like Rob. And like Rob, he does not appear on-camera, nor do we find out his name (following in Kylie’s footsteps). “How about Rob?†Kris suggests, “How about Rob Kardashian Thompson? And then just call him Rob Kardashian,†she says with a cackle.
This episode proves to be a welcome return to form, refocusing on the real draw of the Kardashians, which is their family dynamic. We get three generations in Paris (Kris, Kim, and North), Travis and Kourtney’s blended family, the always iconic Stormi, and now, the sisters all meeting Khloé’s new, unnamed baby.
While the hustle and bustle that this season focused on seemed interesting on paper, we miss out on two essential elements that make this show work: the family dynamic and the aspirational atmosphere. Because working until 2 a.m. and waking up at 7 a.m. is not aspirational. It’s exhausting to watch. Sitting around a pristine kitchen island and shaking a $40 salad all day? That’s aspirational. Sure, the work they do is fascinating, but it’s not nearly as fascinating as their interpersonal relationships, which we finally got to return to as the season wrapped up, and which we hopefully will spend more time on moving forward.