![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4a2d82f26ae7fa952de9133bce7a68a44c-inthecity-ep4.rsquare.w400.png\")
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In The City<\/a><\/p>\n Sparks Fly<\/p>\n \n Season 1<\/p>\n Episode 4\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 2 stars<\/p>\n **\n <\/p>\n \n Photo: Bravo\n <\/p>\n Ever hear a word so many times in quick succession that it fails to retain any meaning whatsoever? That\u2019s how I feel about the word \u201cmurky\u201d after watching this episode. It was the word of the day on PeeWee\u2019s Playhouse, and, yes, we did shout after every time we heard it. After the 197th time, it didn\u2019t have any definition, any correlation to the real world; it was just a collection of syllables thrown around by a collection of people like a poisoned ping pong ball being swatted about a rooftop bar.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll come back to Kenny, Whitney, and the second-grade vocab word that shall not be named in a minute, but let\u2019s start talking about our favorite subject: the slow dissolution of Kymanda. Lindsay, her adorable baby Gemma, and Amanda\u2019s childhood best friend Katie all gather to help Amanda pack her hoard of baggy jeans, scrunchies, paper towel holders, and IKEA bowls so that she can move into her own apartment for a year. When Lindsay arrives, Amanda tells her she couldn\u2019t find a sublet, but she found her own place that is unfurnished with a one-year lease, and the look on Lindsay\u2019s face is the same as that on all of our faces. It is a look that says, \u201cOh, you are moving out out.\u201d When Amanda tells Katie she has the same exact expression of surprise, confusion, and a little bit of happiness that this is all ending.<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost impossible to see how the end isn\u2019t happening right now. This move seems to be more definitive than what Amanda and Kyle are making it out to be. It\u2019s a sort of half step. It\u2019s like a dude saying that he\u2019s bisexual, but three months later, he\u2019s in a mesh top making out with a marketing executive named Matt in the front row of a Slayyyter concert. We can all see what\u2019s happening here; don\u2019t try to hide it from us.<\/p>\n Kyle seems just as skeptical when the two have burgers at an outdoor cafe and Amanda is laying out the rules of their new arrangement: they have to continue therapy, they should be spending at least two nights a week at each other\u2019s houses, they\u2019re both still single, Kyle does not get a key to Amanda\u2019s new place, Amanda must call before going to Kyle\u2019s in case it is the two (2) minutes a day he\u2019s jerking it in the bathroom. The conversation does seem the lightest we\u2019ve seen from them in years, where they\u2019re actually laughing with each other, but it\u2019s Kyle laughing when he says that he still loves Amanda, and her telling him to stop laughing because she knows that he\u2019s lying. Amanda says that her biggest fear is losing Kyle, but I don\u2019t know. Doesn\u2019t he seem gone already? Does she know that it\u2019s over? Maybe we\u2019re looking at it from a place where the relationship is so completely destroyed, so atomized by this bomb or her moving out (and sleeping with their friend and lying about it to an entire nation), that we can tell it\u2019s not worth saving?<\/p>\n In other relationship news, Lindsay is both trying to convince Andrea and Lexi to have a baby and going out with a sexy country singer who is not the sexy country singer that Rachel Zoe went to see in the Hamptons on this season of <\/a>Real Housewives of Beverly Hills<\/a>, and, I\u2019m sorry, but you can\u2019t convince me these are two different men. Also, Danielle gets a grocery delivery and talks about how she doesn\u2019t like the way Amanda goes about things, and, with that one sentence, wins back the hearts of an entire fandom. Danielle is pissy that people are talking about her relationship, but based on the preview of next week\u2019s episode, it\u2019s going to turn into a big old fight, so let\u2019s just save it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because we need to move on to talk about the words \u201cmurky,\u201d \u201cspark,\u201d and \u201csemantics.\u201d Though no one uttered the final word, that is what it all boils down to, and it is something that Kenny has yet to master. The episode starts where the last one left off, with Whitney and Kenny\u2019s anniversary dinner, where Whitney is grilling him about what Lexi told her: that Kenny doesn\u2019t think their relationship has a \u201cspark\u201d and that he thinks the future for their relationship is \u201cmurky.\u201d<\/p>\n Here is how Kenny explains himself: \u201cThe conversation I had with Kyle, the point I made to him, I used to be more in this storybook mindset, and now I feel like I\u2019m in this place where I think about life-long commitment, I have a hard time getting excited about it where that spark isn\u2019t there.\u201d Okay, so while he thinks he has a spark with Whitney specifically, he doesn\u2019t think that he has the spark for marriage or long-term commitment in general. Got it. The only problem is, this woman just moved across the country for him. If he doesn\u2019t want a long-term commitment or marriage, why did he get her to make a long-term committed choice to be with him? Kenny seems upset that people don\u2019t think that he and Whitney have a spark, but I think this is worse. He\u2019s saying that he likes Whitney, but he\u2019s not going to commit to anyone. If I were Whitney\u2019s friend, I would be at Kenny\u2019s place repacking that U-Haul and plotting a course across Route 66.<\/p>\n At dinner, Kenny tells her that he wants a big family, that he wants kids. Sure, but how are you going to get that when you don\u2019t have the \u201cspark\u201d for long-term commitment? This man is talking out of both sides of his mouth. Are the signals a male-female tennis doubles team because, honey, they are mixed? Considering this man wants to be with Whitney but also doesn\u2019t want a long-term commitment, doesn\u2019t it seem like their future is\u2026 what is the word for it? Murky? Yeah, that seems pretty spot on.<\/p>\n Kenny gets into two different arguments about this word. He says that by Kyle telling Andrea, Andrea telling Lexi, and Lexi telling Whitney, the \u201clevel of drama and nonsense is baffling.\u201d Isn\u2019t this a mess of his own making, though? He says that his words were taken out of context, but he is the one who used the word \u201cspark,\u201d and the context seems to be there. No one is saying he doesn\u2019t like Whitney; they\u2019re all saying that he doesn\u2019t see the \u201cspark\u201d of the future and that the future is uncertain. Dude, that seems like they got all the context. What seems to upset Kenny is that Whitney has been spooked by these people talking about it. Know what would make Whitney less spooked? Giving her a bit more commitment when she had just decided to move across the country for him. Lindsay was right: Why wasn\u2019t there a ring involved? Kenny is mad that people are talking, but what he should be mad about are his own feelings, because those are what are, quite rightfully, spooking Whitney.<\/p>\n At the rooftop party, Kenny gets upset with Andrea because he used the word \u201cmurky,\u201d which is something Kenny never said and something that Andrea agrees he never said. Okay, fine. But the situation that Kenny described to Kyle and the way he described it to Whitney is filled with murk. It\u2019s murk all the way down. It\u2019s like peering into a sewer grate and not knowing what you see, but none of it is good, and all of it is sloppy. How would you describe that? Murky! So, yes, he didn\u2019t use the word, but Andrea just took his argument and distilled it. Kenny shouldn\u2019t blame Andrea for the word; he should blame himself for the sentiment. But he\u2019s hung up on the term and keeps hammering away about it until Andrea, usually the guy in the corner observing the \u201cDRA-ma,\u201d becomes the one in the middle of it.<\/p>\n On the rooftop, Gavin has his boy Kenny\u2019s back the whole time. However, the next day, when he meets with Kenny and Whitney at his bar, Bandit\u2019s, it gets a little twisted. Kenny admits to Gavin that he did say that thing about the spark, and then Gavin says that maybe Kenny is missing something with Whitney. Gavin theorizes that maybe everything is a little too nice, a little too boring, and Kenny wants some more passion in his relationship. Kenny says that he\u2019s sick of defending his relationship and that Gavin should know him well enough not to question it. But I don\u2019t think that people are questioning his relationship. They all seem to think that he loves Whitney and Whitney loves him. What they\u2019re questioning is his commitment, and, seriously, that\u2019s all based on his behavior and how he talks about their relationship. If that\u2019s what Kenny is mad about, he has no one to be upset with but himself. (Or the nature of being on a reality show, which is when everyone sits around and talks about each other and their relationships, even when it might not be flattering.)<\/p>\n What no one is asking is how Whitney feels about any of this. In the very opening of the episode, she says that she wants Kenny to be less afraid of their future together, but they are his issues, and she sees him working through it, so she\u2019s not nearly as concerned as everyone else. This right here is what we needed, what they all needed. Instead of Kenny running around playing language police, he just needed Whitney to speak up a little bit more. If she sees nothing wrong with it, if she doesn\u2019t care what he said about \u201csparks\u201d and whether he did or did not say \u201cmurky,\u201d then what does Kenny have to get all worked up about? Nothing. But his fighting, his struggling, his insistence that everyone else is wronging him when he is the one that started this whole situation it makes his connection to Whitney seem, oh you know I\u2019m going to say it, murky.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Housewives Institute Bulletin<\/p>\n Dame Brian Moylan breaks down all the gossip and drama, on- and off-screen, for dedicated students of the Reality Television Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n