There’s been a lot of drama that has gone on during the course of season 4 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. But everything exploded in last night’s season finale. Let’s break down exactly what happened to try and make sense of it all.
The Scene
All of the ladies gathered for Kim D’s annual Posche fashion show, sans husbands, at a New York City restaurant. It should be noted here that the Posche fashion show has been the scene of many a RHONJ dramatic outburst, and that has even ended in the cops being called.
The Players
The cast of RHONJ, but mostly Teresa Giudice, her sister-in-law Melissa Gorga and then later Jacqueline Laurita (with, of course, Caroline Manzo so wisely giving her opinion out like it was gift-wrapped). Outside of the cast: Angelo, the bald-headed former strip club owner, the infamous sh*t stirrer Kim D. herself and Joe Gorga, Melissa’s husband and Teresa’s brother.
Team Teresa
Teresa was first approached by Baldy at the salon before the event. She was visibly uncomfortable when he started to tell her that her sister-in-law used to work for him as a stripper, and so she removed herself from the situation while Kim D. was really amused and continued to try to get the dirt from Angelo the Baldy.
At the event, Teresa didn’t bring up her encounter to Melissa, and again seemed visibly surprised and uneasy when he approached their table.
After Angelo’s visit to the ladies’ table, Teresa pulled Melissa aside, instead of making a scene in front of the other women, and told Melissa about what Angelo had told her at the salon. At no point did Teresa accuse Melissa of being a stripper. She was merely telling her what was going on and doing what she thought was right.
What would Melissa have thought if Teresa hadn’t told her about his accusations at all? Would she have thought Teresa was betraying her? How could Teresa have handled the situation in a manner that Melissa would have approved of? Again, at no point was Teresa feeding into the story; she merely removed herself from the situation and informed Melissa.
Team Melissa
The fact that Teresa and Melissa have a past here really falls down into the Team Melissa category. Teresa has accused Melissa in the past of being a stripper, as well as doing other things that tried to hurt Melissa’s reputation. And to Melissa’s credit, although she was upset about the rumors and Teresa not doing anything to stop them, she wasn’t angry with Teresa to start with.
It wasn’t until Jacqueline and Caroline got in Melissa’s ear about a set-up that things started to turn ugly between Melissa and Teresa. They started to show text messages received by a mutual friend that there had been a plan to set Melissa up for two weeks prior to the event. Add Joe Gorga’s bad temper to the mix, and things got really ugly really fast.
While it’s easy to see how information about a “set-up” would get everyone worked up at the moment of the event (and no one stopped to think that it was maybe Kim D’s set-up or even the Bravo producers and not Teresa), it’s hard to understand how this is something that has caused the Gorgas and the Giudices not to speak for a whole year until the reunion.
Which team are you on, Teresa or Melissa? Tell us why in the comments.
Gina Pusateri
Contributing Writer
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
