The Housewives wonder if Angie and Mary’s relationship will ever recover after last week’s blowout fight.
Photo: Bravo

If you thought last week’s exchange between Angie and Mary was painful, buckle up, because this show isn’t giving us a reprieve just yet. This week’s episode kicks off with yet another scene uncomfortable enough to make you crawl out of your skin, in which Bronwyn introduces her fetal boyfriend, Brandon, to her mother, Muzzy, who has no interest in this sit-down whatsoever. And being that she’s Muzzy, she says that outright. Do you think if we banded together, there could be a class action lawsuit against Bravo for emotional distress for making us bear witness to this?

In all honesty, at the beginning of the season, when Muzzy seemed to be changing her ways after dealing with all the backlash she got as last season aired, I sympathized with her, because the ire of the Bravo fandom is no easy burden to bear. But this scene was a great reminder that she is, in fact, a nightmare. Before Brandon even arrives, she’s chiding him and expressing her disdain to Bronwyn at even having to meet him, and things only get worse when he gets there. Somehow she finds a way to blame him for the bad weather, tells him outright that she’s not happy about their relationship because she liked Todd (probably because they could reminisce together about FDR’s fireside chats), and says that she’s only there because she has to give him a chance in order to have a relationship with her daughter. Kudos to Brandon, because I would never be able to forgive or date anybody who would make me spend a single minute with this woman.

And why is this even happening so soon to begin with? Bronwyn notes that her daughter, Gwen, who apparently is the only sensible person in the family, said she won’t meet him until they’ve been dating for at least six months — so why rush to throw Muzzy into the mix? Well, Bronwyn notes in her confessional that she almost wishes the other women were there to see this because it would prove this wasn’t a publicity stunt. Ah, there’s our answer. This cursed meeting is a rebuttal to the PR relationship claims, but doing it on-camera kind of undoes the intended purpose and makes the whole thing seem even more fake. And speaking of falsities, as they leave, Brandon says to Muzzy, “You are such a joy; you are a fun time.” A damning lie that could only have been solicited via a hearty check or Zelle.

Meanwhile, Whitney and Justin have yet another sit-down about the state of their relationship without any real answers. Whitney says that sleeping apart has been an improvement but is still confused as to where she stands with the relationship, whereas Justin is simply standing by, waiting for a verdict. He says he’s very patient, but eventually needs her to make a decision because until then he’s just stuck in this odd marriage limbo. It’s not typical to see a marriage devolve like this on these shows, where there’s no one inciting event or tangible thing to point to, because as far as we’ve been able to tell, things between them are fine. We’re not seeing fighting or infidelity, or even Beador-esque tension. But the dissolution of a relationship doesn’t always come with all of that, and it’s compelling watching Whitney have to navigate and explain the intangible like this — all while planning a shark-themed Sweet Sixteen for her daughter.

Finally, we get to check in with Angie after last week’s blowup. She’s at the park with Heather and Lisa (who remain my favorite duo on this show, may the Good Weather never stop), and they’re both eager to chat with her now that the dust has settled and Angie has been able to process exactly how that fight played out.

“I said something that I will never be able to take back,” she says. “I regret it; I will never forgive myself, and Mary may never forgive me.” She admits to them that she’s been a ticking time bomb, and she now realizes that if she had been acknowledging her feelings rather than burying them, explosions like that wouldn’t have been happening. That was clearly Angie’s big error going into this season; she was hiding the diagnosis (her marital problems) while the symptoms were still on full display, and she repressed those emotions until they were uncontrollable. Learning from that, she’s now telling Lisa about her troubles with Shawn, and Lisa turns out to be the perfect person to confide in because she went through the same thing with John last season, and they ended up bouncing back. It’s not a guarantee that Angie and Shawn will, too, but Lisa is at least proof of that being a possibility.

As for Mary, Angie reached out to apologize, but she’s not responding, which doesn’t come as any big surprise. Mary will cut someone off for life over something as minor as stealing some flowers, so naturally something as big as this is going to be tough — if not impossible — to bounce back from. While Mary naturally deserves all the grace in the world this season, she hasn’t historically been a kind friend to Angie even in the best of times, so at this point I wouldn’t actually mind seeing Angie finally be freed from this roller coaster. They’ve long had this Gretchen Wieners and Regina George dynamic that can’t possibly be healthy for Angie.

We get to hear more from Mary at the tasting Meredith is throwing for her new lounge space, which looks like a desolate parking garage or a parody of an art gallery. If Meredith Marks invited me to an address and I showed up to that abandoned warehouse, I’d be certain she was going to kill me. I spent the entire event waiting for her to press a trap door button or shout, “Release the hounds.” But alas, it was just for caviar, and the event space will be named Perhaps, not to be confused with Premiere, which is Lisa’s event space across the street. All of the other women correctly point out that if this were anybody besides the two of them, these dueling lounges would result in a bloodbath.

Mary says that while she didn’t initially plan to do so, she ended up telling Robert Sr. — her step-grandfather and husband — about what Angie said, and naturally he didn’t take it well. The other women ask if she’s reached out, but Mary says she doesn’t know because she blocked her, which is a great representation of how Mary handles conflict with even the people closest to her. She also says that a big problem was that Angie didn’t realize what she said in the moment after she said it, which is a little confusing, because we did see Angie try to apologize right then and there, but Mary rebuffed it and stormed off. But the most shocking development is Mary saying that she’s now in a space to hear her apology, as long as it’s on her terms and face-to-face.

Quai has to leave early to head over to Bobbie’s birthday party, offending Meredith, who is apparently willing to have beef with a 16-year-old now, but who can blame Quai? Bobbie’s shark party is way cooler … and actually a party. Angie has an awkward encounter with Bronwyn there, but they both agree that it isn’t the time or place to hash things out. Something I do find promising is that Bronwyn isn’t reveling in or stoking the flames of Angie’s problems with Mary, but rather hopes to see the situation resolve. But speaking of awkward encounters, when Angie and Heather are chatting with and complimenting Justin, Angie jokes that he should call them up “if your wife ever dumps ya.” Heather recoils, since she’s the only one who knows that is exactly what’s happening.

Finally, Bobbie arrives, and they all surprise her before Whitney and Justin gift her with a brand-new car. But I don’t get any enjoyment from seeing children be surprised with cars in this (or any) economy, even children who seem totally great like Bobbie. The one exception to this is, of course, when Vicki Gunvalson surprised her daughter Briana with a car and excitedly told her that Briana was the one who was going to be making the payments. That is where this trope peaked, and we can leave it there.

The one positive of these two dueling events is having Quai zip between them like a carrier pigeon and filling in Angie about the conversation that happened over in Meredith’s abandoned garage turned lounge. She tells them all that Mary told Robert Sr. about the comments, that she blocked Angie and thus hasn’t received the apology, and that she rebuffed the suggestion that Angie loves her. The latter is what hurts Angie the most, but the good news comes when Quai informs her that she’s willing to hear her out in person. Normally, Mary is such a stone wall that it wouldn’t have been surprising if we never saw the two of them in the same room ever again, so this points to the potential of rebuilding some kind of connection. Now we just need to get Britani back into the mix.

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