It’s no secret Dubai has struggled to build a fan base. Still, the show has done a decent job of recalibrating in the second season into the OG Housewives model “beautiful ladies who fight about nothing,†and this finale is a perfect example. We had two all-group parties, uninvited guests, a mansion that looks like Baccarat threw up in it, and arguing over British country farmhouses. They have seamlessly transitioned into a group of women who will whip up an argument over word choice, which I prefer to private investigators and federal crimes — Bravo is getting a bit too E! True Hollywood Story these days.
It’s a bit shocking that the final fallout between Lesa and Ayan came over the word “bragging,†but the buildup makes sense in the show’s context, and I think they are both right and wrong here. Lesa clearly resents Ayan’s relationship with Caroline Stanbury — she has made it clear throughout the season that she doesn’t think it will last and does not trust Caroline as far as she can throw her. But unless Stanbury has committed some unforgivable crime that they cannot move on from, she cannot keep punishing Ayan for making connections on the show — that’s the job. Last year, they were two against the rest of the cast, and it is not a sustainable formula.
That said, Ayan’s need to be liked pulls her into really avoidable traps. The voice-note trap is an obvious one, but in this finale, she gets completely turned around by Taleen and Brooks, who tell her that she acts differently when she’s next to Lesa because she gets consumed in defending her. Taleen and Brooks aren’t wrong, but they all do that. Lesa just finished cursing Taleen out for chiming in unnecessarily; Sara was called out for being Brooks’s anger explainer; what is the actual offense of choosing to keep your conflicts with your best friend private? Ayan shouldn’t have fallen into that line of conversation whatsoever.
It set the stage for unnecessary tensions between the women. Now Ayan is trying to have a friendship conversation that Lesa is not interested in doing on-camera because their strategy from the beginning was to present a united front. Lesa spends the whole final party making unnecessary digs at someone who is supposed to be her best friend and then acts shocked that Ayan gets upset. I have come to find that this is Lesa’s M.O.: You have to meet her on her terms or not at all. She won’t stand for disrespect, which is fair. Still, she finds justification for how she dismisses and disrespects others, which comes to light when she refuses to give Taleen an apology for calling her 15 different kinds of bitch. Hypocrisy is the engine that keeps Housewives running, so I still adore Lesa, but it is a plain contradiction.
The core of the friction between Lesa and Caroline Stanbury seems to be about old money and new money. The women gravitate toward Stanbury because she is landed gentry with immense class status, and Lesa finds herself above that. This is all fine, but her back-and-forth with Stanbury about the Cotswolds shows just how out of her depth she is in this conversation. You cannot buy your way into that level of society access — the kind that was responsible for the expansion of the British Empire — and her British husband fully knows that. I was surprised that Stanbury didn’t gently chide her for thinking she could get 100 acres and get established in the area. I’m a bit Industry-pilled right now, but the structure of the class and race hierarchy in the U.K. is firmly regimented in the circles that Lesa is attempting to move into. I think Stanbury did say that Lesa was bragging because she was. Whether or not Ayan wants to admit to that is her prerogative, but I would have appreciated it much more if Lesa just stood ten toes in the fact that she was attempting to flex on Stanbury’s family house and was really out of her depth in that conversation.
All of these events happened over a year ago, so I am curious how these feelings will reemerge on the reunion stage. The girls have not made their stances shy on social media — which is a habit I wish Bravolebrities would stop — but I am curious if there will be any attempt between Lesa and Ayan to reconcile. It would be a shame to let clout from a show break a long-standing friendship, but perhaps they are too entrenched in their positions to move any further.
It is unclear at this point if Dubai will return, but there is plenty to build from this season. We could dive into the nuances of Sara’s life, which seem foggier than ever; Taleen can explore more of the reality of being Armenian in the Emirates and what that looks like; Ayan has actually launched her company and can showcase the realities of being a new-business owner. I am endlessly curious to know the ins and outs of Brooks’s personal life and the opaque circle of men she seems to allude to — lets get into that! And if we are going to keep filming the help staff, let’s bring them into the story, because I’m sure the Downton Abbey–style perspective they could offer would be endlessly fascinating.
Before I wrap up, here are my final scores for the cast this season.
Sara: I found her run this season boring and sloppy. The stories that could have been compelling were abandoned for multiple episodes of her talking about a man that none of us believed for a second would be around long term. I hope her son is doing well after what he experienced, but she should maybe work to integrate other parts of her life into the show. 5/10
Caroline Brooks: Brooks’s TV persona seems impossibly frustrating to get along with, but it is indisputable that she is compelling television. She has a penchant for chaos and disruption and the right cocktail of bravado, delusion, and self-sabotage to pull it off. Brooks has mastered the art of crashing the function and making the story all about her, and I simply have to respect it. 7/10
Saba: I’m sure Saba is a lovely woman, but the only thing of note we really saw her do was beg Sara to leave Akin alone. Beautiful girl, beautiful gowns, but I really don’t need to see her again unless she is planning to break down why all the girlbosses in Dubai call her ex-friend “Sara Al-Fraudani.†3/10
Taleen: I will start with the positive: Taleen came onto the scene as a newbie and immediately made an impact. She was willing to go tit for tat, game to hash things out on-camera, and brought us into her world. That said, she made some rookie mistakes that set her back, the biggest one being immediately jumping ship on the friendship that connected her to the show. It put her on a bad foot and made her look disloyal and inconsistent. 6/10
Caroline Stanbury: Stanbury really stepped it up this season. Sergio needs to be on-camera with us 50 percent less, but I give the girl her kudos for pulling off master Housewifery with the voice-note fiasco. Most of these girls (except for Lesa) seem to be fighting with her because they ultimately want her friendship, which makes her a queen bee by default, even if people don’t like it. 7/10
Ayan: Ayan has been really good about finding ways to open up about her life. My main fear is that her openness can be a little naïve: She wears her emotions on her sleeve in a way that opens her up to take the fall for issues or be easily manipulated by her clear desire to have everyone love her. I understand it mainly comes from a genuine place, but I think she needs to learn how to put a wall up soon, or this reality world will break her. 6/10
Lesa: I will always adore Lesa’s beauty and quick mouth. That said, she was siloed for half of the season with girlboss antics and her mother, which didn’t allow for her to have too much time with the group. If you want to be part of the show, you should participate more. 6/10
Thank you all for joining me on this journey. Enjoy the reunion!
Golden Nuggets
• Lesa’s abuse of TikTok’s bold-glamour filter in that final montage was borderline criminal. The Jamaican doll is a stunning woman; why is she having apps change up her face like this? I hope we never see that again.
• How can Akin and Sara break up when they were never dating in the first place? I can’t believe Sara wasted our time on this ridiculous story and then had the audacity to act like she might still support him after she claimed he disrespected her child. Let’s never do this again.
• Just for shits and giggles, I looked up information about the billionaire host for the finale party, Abu Sabah, because I was curious as to why such a major player would be interested in being on reality television. Lo and behold, since filming, he has been arrested for massive financial fraud. The Bravo-to-fraud pipeline remains undefeated!
• I am legitimately aghast at the infant Brooks brought to the good-bye Dubai dinner as her date. Sharing Doogie Howser with Stanbury’s daughter should be embarrassing to her.
• Sergio and Caroline going with a surrogate to resolve Caroline’s reluctance to have a child is absolute insanity, and I hope they don’t go through with such a doomed solution.