It’s finally time to get all the ladies together on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. And I mean all the ladies. After all, we’re seven episodes into the season and we’ve only had the entire cast in the same place at a single event. That was the charity event where caterer-gate took place. (Because Mary Cosby refused to go ice fishing, remember?) So Whitney Rose is planning a casual day trip to go snow tubing. All every single ‘Wife is invited. Plus some add-ons. But first, we have some polygamy business to revisit.
A few days after storming off into the snow, Jennie Nguyen is ready to sit down with Duy Nguyen again. But only because it’s their weekly date night at Market Street Grill and Oyster Bar in Cottonwood Heights. But before they’ve even sampled the seafood, Jennie broaches the subject they’ve been avoiding since their fight: having another child. And suddenly, Jennie’s ready to talk about the whole sister wife of it all. Duy sees bringing on a sister wife as some sort of twisted solution to the couple’s “problem.” He even claims it was legalized in Utah back in 2019. (That’s not technically true — the state legislature merely lowered the penalty from a felony to an infraction.)
However, what’s most confusing about this is why Jennie is taking part in this conversation at all. She claims she’s trying to be “open-minded” about the whole idea. But if it’s such a non-starter and she’s personally offended by the idea of sharing her husband with another woman, why doesn’t she shut it down? Why is she giving this any airtime at all? Put your foot down, Jennie! If your husband is more close-minded to the idea of going to therapy than he wants you to be about bringing a sister wife into the family, there’s a serious problem here.
Remember last season when Heather Gay threw a baby shower for all her employees expecting boys at the same time? Well it’s officially been a year since then, and now she’s throwing the a joint first birthday party for all five Beauty Lab babies. Of the ‘Wives, only Whitney and Jen Shah are invited. Oh, and look who’s back. It’s Angie Harrington! (Seriously, why didn’t Bravo just make her an official Friend this season?) So naturally this party is the perfect excuse for Whitney to recount her disastrous double date with Lisa Barlow to the other women. Apparently Angie’s been reaching out to Lisa since the catering accusations, but she’s been met with nothing but icy silence. As Heather points out, Angie’s chances at saving that friendship (or holding a snowflake) seem to have sailed… Once you cross Lisa, there’s no coming back.
It’s time for snow tubing! Which in Utah is very much a thing. Except Mary‘s not too thrilled that Whitney planned the excursion all the way out in Soldier Hollow. So she’s arranged for a limo to take everyone in style . (She also claims the snow tubing mountain is two hours away from Salt Lake but…it’s not. It’s in Midway, which is about an hour’s drive. But we all know time may pass differently in Mary’s world.) Lisa is less than amused to see that Whitney’s invited Angie, but she’s determined not to give her ex-friend the time of day. Like Lauren Conrad before her, Lisa’s a proponent of forgiving and forgetting. And sometimes that just means she forgets you exist.
Instead, she’s about to get blindsided by a fight with Mary. On the drive, a comment Mary made last season comes up about how carbonation allegedly… hardens your ovaries? Like many of her more unbelievable assertions, the women laugh the memory off and Lisa off-handedly says she’ll have to Google it. For some reason, this sets Mary off. And she goes on the attack, asking if the reason Lisa needs to Google what she says is because she’s Black. Via confessional, she asks if she should Google everything Lisa says because she’s usually lying. If there’s one thing we can always count on Mary for, it’s to be completely unpredictable in who she decides to feud with on a given day. And while Angie can’t seem to get far enough away from her in their shared limo seat, Heather is more than happy to sit back and watch the fireworks.
By the time the ‘Wives arrive at the mountain, there’s still tension in the limo. And it immediately bleeds out into the parking lot as Lisa tries to squash whatever this beef is that’s suddenly sprung up. She assures Mary she didn’t mean her comment in any kind of negative way, but also doubles down that if Mary tries to paint her as a racist, they’ll be having “another conversation.” Naturally, this does absolutely nothing to stop the bickering. Finally, Jennie pops off, telling Mary to zip it with a well-placed f-word. Well, Mary doesn’t like that kind of language and suddenly, she and the newbie are at each other’s throats. Jennie’s puffing her chest and ready for a fight, and after the week she’s had with her husband, she doesn’t want to be tested.
The women (temporarily) put all the fighting aside once they reach the mountain. And everyone’s more than happy to go snow tubing. Except Mary, who enjoys it about as much as she did the entire concept of ice fishing. Even with a conveyor belt taking her straight up to the top of the hill, she only tries it once before refusing to go again. Instead, she’s left to be the judge as the other ‘Wives and their pals split into teams to race down the mountain. The two teams employ entirely different strategies, but it feels telling to Lisa that Jen basically ignores her and would rather be on a team with Heather, Whitney, and Angie. Hmm…not exactly aligning yourself with your bestie’s number one fans there, are you Jen? Too bad that team ends up losing the race.
At lunch, the drama once again rears its head, even with the losing team wearing terrible wigs brought by Whitney. Jen asks if Mary and Lisa talked through their problems. Mary chalks the whole thing up to a misunderstanding, but she’s clearly still bothered about something. However, for Lisa the conflict hit the recurring trigger of everyone in the group always thinking the worst of her. But the two ‘Wives call a truce, so for now, they’re all good.
Angie sees an opening and attempts to confront Lisa. But the tequila queen’s not interested in hearing what her former friend has to say unless it starts with an apology. Lisa once again doubles down that she had nothing to do with the caterers backing out of Angie’s charity event. And she questions why anyone would think that she’d want to sabotage a fundraiser for the LGBTQ+ community when the cause is so close to her heart. (Lisa’s grandfather was gay, as she tearfully reminds the women during the scene.)
Furthermore, she’s just had it with all the other women constantly second guessing her every move, word and intention. And promptly pulls a classic move from the Bethenny Frankel playbook by sending a clear message: everyone get off her jock back. Though, at the same time, she can’t help but notice that neither Meredith nor Jen are speaking up to defend her as her two closest friends in the group. In fact, out of the whole cast, Heather is surprisingly the one to ask questions that give Lisa the floor to stand up for herself. Eventually, she and Angie do hug it out, but something tells me this friendship may still be too far gone to salvage…
Finally, Jennie turns the attention back to her spat with Mary. She shares that it just so happens to be the anniversary of her daughter’s death, which is really why she was so on edge with Mary earlier. However, Mary’s more annoyed with the fact that Jennie won’t even look her way when explaining why she went on the attack. Via confessional, Lisa questions why her pal would dare be so vulnerable with this group. Especially when someone’s bound to turn around and use it against you at first chance. But the episode ends on a tender moment, despite Mary’s face betraying that she may be less than moved by her new frenemy’s tears…
TELL US – WERE YOU SURPRISED TO SEE MARY GO UP AGAINST LISA? WAS JENNIE TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT WITH MARY OR DEFEND HER FRIEND? WILL LISA AND ANGIE EVER BE FRIENDS AGAIN? WHOSE SIDE WERE YOU ON IN EACH SNOW TUBING SCUFFLE?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
