Six episodes into Season 15 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, we finally had her first group outing with the full cast. Everyone thank newbie Courtney Rhodes. She’s Ralph Pittman’s long-lost cousin, she’s Shereé Whitfield’s good friend, she’s a crisis manager, and now, she’s also the RHOA group activity coordinator. We thank her for her service.
As the newest face in the group, Courtney took it upon herself to plan an escape room outing to help repair the fractured dynamic in the group. The team-building activity was a bigger disaster than Kenya Moore’s Magic City Classic trip. But, on the flip side, this season is finally starting to take us somewhere, even if it took a few filler episodes to get us going.
For the fans complaining that this season has felt disjointed, hopefully, this episode felt better. The complicated story of Marlo Hampton’s negativity toward Kandi Burruss finally came to a head. From previously unseen footage, shifting family dynamics, and Kandi nearly coming to blows with Marlo, a lot is happening in Atlanta right now. Here’s what gagged us this week.
Where was NeNe?
Episode 6 began with a flashback to a bygone era of RHOA to illustrate Marlo and Kandi’s relationship over the years. The flashbacks were crucial to this episode’s storytelling, but a big, distracting detail demanded a quick rewind. Did you catch it? When they flashed a throwback cast photo from 2011, someone was missing from the lineup. That person was NeNe Leakes.
Of course, we know NeNe’s relationship with Bravo is fractured. We closely followed her lawsuit against the network and her accusations of racial discrimination. The case has been dismissed, but is Bravo just going to act like NeNe didn’t carry this show for years? As one of the most prolific reality TV personalities, our girl deserves better. Trying to erase NeNe from RHOA’s legacy wasn’t a good look for a program already struggling to maintain its fanbase.
Marlo and Kandi’s rollercoaster friendship
Although the NeNe erasure was distracting, the actual point of the flashback montage was to illustrate Kandi and Marlo’s relationship over the years. Has it been perfect? No. But the footage showed Kandi has been cordial and friendly with Marlo — especially in recent seasons.
This year, Marlo has been holding a grudge against Kandi for her supposedly cold reaction to the news of Marlo’s nephew’s death. Since Marlo’s nephew was previously an employee at Old Lady Gang, she felt Kandi should have been more supportive after his death. Throughout Season 15, Marlo has argued up and down that Kandi wasn’t there for her. But, previously unseen footage from 2020 proved otherwise.
During the opening of this episode, we got a clip of Marlo visiting Kandi’s house right after the shooting. Not only did Kandi take time to sit with Marlo during the sensitive moment, but she also empathized with Marlo by talking about how she coped with her brother’s death.
Somehow, between now and then, Marlo seemed to forget about Kandi’s empathy. So, when Drew Sidora brought up the unrelated Old Lady Gang shooting and Kandi shut it down, Marlo was brought right back to the pain of 2020 all over again.
It might not make sense to you. It might not make sense to Kandi. But, somewhere deep in the brain, it makes sense to Marlo. So, she’s not backing down from her position that Kandi could have shown more support.
Families grow, families change
Before the ladies suited up for their escape room, we got some really interesting family moments, ranging from cute to cringe. Let’s start with what’s cute: Shereé’s growing family.
Throughout the season, Shereé has joked several times that she’s expecting a baby. It turns out there actually is a new bundle of joy in her life! It just didn’t come from Shereé’s womb. Her son Kairo Whitfield had a baby, which means Shereé is officially a grandma. But don’t call her “Granny.” Call her “GG,” which is short for gorgeous glam-ma.
Whether you call her GG, grandma, or granny, there’s no denying how sweet it was seeing Shereé and Kairo bonding over the new baby. Shereé got teary-eyed in her confessional, discussing how proud she was of her son. She remarked that she didn’t have this kind of support when she had her children. So, seeing her son naturally be such a great father touched her heart.
Now, let’s move on to the cringe family dynamics in Atlanta. Episode 6 brought us back to the Sanya Richards-Ross household, where our favorite Olympian-turned Housewife continues juggling being a boss and a landlord to her extended family.
Between the turnover rate of Sanya’s staff and the fact that her husband wants the extra family members to move out of their house, the energy at Sanya’s house is anything but warm. In a tense moment between Sanya and her family, Sanya’s sister warned that a “gaping hole” will be left in the house once everyone’s gone. Is Sanya ready for that gaping hole?
The evolution of Kenya Moore Haircare
Last week, Kenya was planning a halftime performance for the Magic City Classic. This week, she’s planning to open the Kenya Moore Haircare Spa. Is there anything that Kenya can’t do?
Joined by Akilah Coleman, another friend they’re randomly dropping into the mix this season, Kenya toured the future space of her spa. It looked like a bunch of empty concrete walls at the time of filming. But, Kenya put her hard hat on and was ready to share the vision with us.
For those that say Kenya never has a storyline, you have to give her props for making such big moves for her company. She’s come a long way from filling her prototype Kenya Moore Haircare bottles with water, and seeing her run a spa will be an exciting next step.
Don’t choke
Since the first trailer for this season dropped, they’ve teased us with clips of the explosive confrontation between Kandi and Marlo. When the time arrived, it didn’t disappoint.
The mess went down at Courtney’s Beat the Bomb escape room experience. The moment Kandi walked in, all the energy got sucked out of the room. Everyone could tell by the look on Kandi’s face that she was there to handle some business.
Kandi barely set her purse down before she pressed Marlo about the nephew situation. Marlo was willing to chat with Kandi, and she also pulled Drew into the conversation since she was the first one to meet Marlo’s grief-driven wrath.
The three stepped to the side to talk, but Kandi wasted no time digging into Marlo’s antics. She argued with Marlo, saying, “You’re trying to attach the shooting to me.” In response, Marlo tried to push her point about how it triggered her. She also brought up the fact that the ladies use her criminal past against her.
Marlo’s reasoning for being mad at Kandi is convoluted. Are you mad that Kandi was cold to you after your nephew died a few years ago? Or, are you angry that your criminal past gets brought up on the show?
Either way, Kandi and Marlo’s conversation went from zero to a hundred in less than a minute. Fingers and cuss words flew both ways. Kandi’s voice was shaking, and tears were welling in her eyes. That is always the signal to leave Kandi alone, but Marlo wasn’t backing down. When it seemed like things were about to turn physical, the entire cast rushed to the scene to separate the two.
As Marlo mocked Kandi for crying, Kandi grumbled, “‘The only reason I’m crying right now is because I can’t choke your ass, bitch!” At that moment, you could literally feel the heat from Kandi’s forehead coming through the TV screen.
After the fight, Kandi decided to get out of dodge. Clearly, the escape room wasn’t going to go as planned, so Kenya, Drew, and Monyetta Shaw followed Kandi to the parking lot to help console her and trash-talk Marlo a little bit more. Meanwhile, Shereé, Sanya, and Courtney sided with Marlo. They felt the ladies were being too hard on Marlo and wrongly painted her as the aggressor.
So, with a solid division in the group and no resolution for Marlo and Kandi, where do the ladies go from here? The conversation about Marlo’s nephew is so heavy that it’s hard to bounce back from this. But, whatever happens next, let’s just hope Courtney doesn’t try planning any more escape room outings.
TELL US – DID YOU NOTICE THAT NENE WAS CUT OUT OF THE FLASHBACK? ARE YOU TEAM MARLO OR TEAM KANDI? WERE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW THE OTHER LADIES TOOK SIDES AFTER THE ESCAPE ROOM ARGUMENT?
