The obvious takeaway from this episode is getting excited about the fight Teresa and Margaret are having on a ropes course in the woods that gave me a poison-ivy rash just as I watched it. It’s the first “To Be Continued” in a long time that’s worth it. However, I will focus on Melissa talking about her daughter, Antonia. Haha. Just for fun. (Melissa says, “Antonia does not want to listen to anything I say.” Yes, sister. Welcome to be the parent of a teenage girl.) What I really remember from this scene is Jen and Margaret’s meeting at the beginning .
After their series of blowups in the first seven episodes, the two sit down at a bakery to hash it out. This is the perfect setting for such a discussion. I know that if I met my mortal enemy, I would like to make sure there are baked goods around. I do not drink coffee, but Margaret orders a black coffee and continues to drown it in the Snickers bar-tasting Coffee-Mate. I did not even know that such a thing existed. I was not aware that this was a possibility. Now that the High Priestess of Healthy Food has trained me, I think I might have to start getting my caffeine and sugar fixes from the same place, and it’s fake taste of fake milk that goes into my ass-mouth.
Their discussion consists of two top-tier Housewives operating at the highest capacity. As Jen explains herself, she tells Margaret, “You said you did not hurt me. I am hurt. I am broken.” Finally, the soft and vulnerable Jennifer we see with her family shows her face to the group, and she actually wins allies, all of which, of course, stem from Margaret taking up Bill’s affair at the first meeting, and after seeing, how hurt Jennifer is, Margaret says she would not have taken it up.Margaret tells her that she thought everyone knew it and that Jennifer would reject it, just as she has removed so much other criticism about herself and her marriage.Margetet was wrong and regrets her choice.
So, instead of being her antagonist, Margaret begins to act as her therapist, pulling Jennifer out and instigating why she’s so hurt by Bill’s affair. What comes out is that Jen never really dealt with these feelings, but now she’s feeling bad about taking it up because she was cool with it for ten years. She says she needs to know that Bill is with her. She wants him to make her feel safe and tell her and the public that he loves her and will not leave her, and she has not.
The most frightening thing to me, something that Bill repeated in the last episode, is what if they go into therapy and realize that their relationship is not worth saving. Uh, that’s why it’s going to a therapist or at least to Dr. Phil at the first possible opportunity. If your relationship is like a sandcastle, ready to topple at the slightest rustle in the wind, then you may not have anything worth saving. That’s the thing with sand castles: The tide will always come in, and from that point of view, Jen is up to her Capri pants in salt water.
This resonates later when she talks to Bill about their relationship and she literally tells him what she wants from him: to tell her that they are good, that he loves her and will stand by her side. Even when she gives him a script, he can not play his role. I can not say whether Bill does not care about Jennifer’s feelings, whether she has assured him of her well-being by being the good and compliant wife for decades, or whether he is just so embarrassed that he does not want to keep doing that. this in public. She wants him to fight for her with the group; his solution is never to see them again. It would work if it did not threaten Jennifer’s livelihood and, I would guess, the thing in this world that is most dear to her, second only to her children. If this marriage is going to get between Jen and the show, then Bill should start looking at affordable townhouses down the street from Dolores right now.
What was amazing about Margaret’s performance is that she does not go into Jen, she does not try to resume their fight. Instead, she works to comfort her. She tells Jen that her marriage was already broken when she was unfaithful to her husband. She tells Jen that if the two want, they can fight for their marriage and get past this. She says she feels horrible about what she did. And I believe in all that.
I have a little harder time believing Jen when she says she will no longer be so evil in her comebacks that she will not hurt people. I would think this bow is about karma, about Jen learning how it felt in all the years she terrorized the other women. I’m hopeful but skeptical that this will really take. I think she meant it at the moment, but real significant changes are difficult, especially with her job on the line.
The other great thing that comes out of this encounter, aside from the introduction of candy-flavored dairy substitute technology, is that Jennifer insinuates that when she sought information about Jackie’s husband, Evan, she did so at Teresa’s instigation. . She does not just come out and say it. It’s like when you go to primary school and you say, “Sally told me I can not say who she likes, but if you guess, then I do not say no. ” It’s shockingly subtle to Jen, something her plastic surgery could never say.
Before we get to the consequences of what Jen says, let’s examine some of the other story lines in this episode, because it’s package. Dolores’ mother is still in the hospital and her ex, David, who is a doctor, has to visit her every day. He even looks past Frank’s office to chat with him, but he does not speak to Dolores. She finally talks to him and she says it went badly. I do not understand why a guy who so clearly wants her back can not say that he will finally change and give her the kind of relationship she wants. I think she would go for it, but he plays those crazy games instead. Even though we just hear about it and do not need to see it, I have a serious case of heebers-bajeebers.
Jackie hears from the eating disorder clinic and they want her admitted. Sister, if the experts tell you to check into that hospital, pack the sweat in your suitcase and call an Uber. She says no to that, so they say she has to do three evenings a week three hours a night. Yes, it is intensive, but if you have suffered from this condition for 20 years, it will not go away because you see a therapist on your own timeline. Jen says, “I know what I need.” Uh no, you do not. If you did, you would have already done it. But you do not. Listen to the experts. Eating disorders are so often about control, and here she is trying to control the whole situation.
Her husband, Evan, proves once again why he is a gay crush object, handles the situation perfectly and tells her that her health is the most important thing and that the family will find a way to function while she gets better. Still, she does not take it. I know Jackie is on a tough journey and I’m impressed that she has the courage to share it with the public. But, girl, I never wanted to pack a housewife in a car and send her to rehab, as much as I would like with Jackie at this moment.
Uh, now we have to move on to the part of the summary where I just hate Teresa in hundreds of words, while the whole of Twitter praises and praises her as if she is St. Patrick, and she’s just banished all the drunk ex-frat boys from Murray Hill. Traci invites everyone to an afternoon on a rope course, which makes sense, for what are these women, if not colleagues, who are forced to spend a disproportionate amount of time together working for a corporate boss who earns much more than them and spends all his time. money on yacht trips with twinks. Before they even get there, Teresa is angry because she heard Margaret asked questions about Luis and that Tiki took him to boys’ night because he said his wife has questions.
Here’s what I hate about Teresa. She says, “True friends, they do not ask anyone.” No. That’s not how it works. Blind loyalty is not how a friend should function. Yes, you want your friends to have your back, but sometimes it means telling yourself that you’re making a mistake or asking yourself questions to make sure you’re doing the right thing. She also says that Luis does not have to prove himself to anyone. He does not have to prove himself to the public or the audience, but he has to prove himself to her friends and brother. That’s what all our partners need to do at the beginning of a relationship, to prove they’re good enough. Luis has apparently not yet reached that threshold, and demanding nothing but blind loyalty from people is what makes you end up in the next season of Dirty John.
Dolores warns everyone on the cable car that Teresa is getting hot, and she’s already showing up, making passive-aggressive strokes against people. Jackie might be upset that people say it’s Teresa’s show, but let’s face it, it’s at this point. She has been enabled to think of this by the producers, the suit on Bravo and her co-stars, who appreciate her idiotic whims and needs. So when she shows up and just decides she’s not doing the group activity, no one can even tell her she’s wrong. No one can make her do anything because they all know that there will be absolutely no consequences.
That’s what ultimately makes her boring to watch. Nothing will stick. Nothing anyone can do will get through to her, and her reasons for not having to behave like the other women are more flimsy than the walls of one of Joe Giudice’s flip houses. Margaret tells all the women what Jen insinuated about Teresa digging for dirt on Evan, and she says she apparently called Serena from Tenafly, and she said Jen said it was Teresa who wanted to know. If you’re confused about that phrase, you should be, because there’s no reason we have not seen Serena from Tenafly (who sounds like someone asking annoying questions at the reunion). We’ve seen more of Cookie Lady than we did of Serena, and she’s an integral part of this season’s plot.
Margaret is angry, not just that Teresa was digging, but that she left Jennifer to dry when all the women came after her to make Teresa’s bid. Jennifer says, “Maybe Teresa does not go to bat for me as I go to bat for her, but I like her company … There is a certain comfort that comes with being around her.” Do you know what comfort is? Job security! And until they take it away from Teresa and her flunkies, this show has lost all its danger.
The fight starts when Teresa finds Dolores and Jackie talking about Jennifer and she starts going hard for Margaret and Traci. She says of Traci: “I do not even know you. Why are you antagonizing my girlfriend?” It’s official. “Antagonizing” is the most complicated word that Teresa knows. and yes, as good as this episode is, I think the next one will be even better.