On this week’s episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, NeNe’s party ends with a bang when Kandi loses her cool. All the girls have different recollections of the night’s events, causing even more strife. And Kandi gathers the girls together to make amends.
Things pick up right where they left off at the end of the last episode: in complete and utter chaos, made that much more ugly by the fact that all of the participants are wearing their pajamas. Thank goodness the boys chose to dress more conservatively than the ladies, otherwise we’d be looking at some blurry twigs and berries.
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It Happened One Night
While NeNe is holding Kenya accountable for jumping out of her seat, Kenya believes it’s NeNe’s vulgarity and negativity, and for once, I’d say Kenya is right. NeNe was determined to torture Kenya for being late and went out of her way to single her out. Truthfully, the whole thing seems pretty orchestrated, whether it be by NeNe or the show’s producers.
After a brief respite from the violence, Apollo goes back for seconds. This time, he’s unable to make contact, and Brandon is spared an even more embarrassing beating. Too bad Brandon lacks the good sense to find a safe place to hide until Phaedra gets her husband out the door.
Porsha, disgusted by the whole display, quickly takes her leave. NeNe seems aghast that the woman would want to distance herself from such a spectacle.
Christopher explains to NeNe, and the group at large, that he was not down with the things that Kenya said to Natalie. Kandi decides to speak her mind regarding the less-than-flattering comments that Natalie has had to say about Todd. Natalie throws Cynthia under the bus to justify her remarks. She says Cynthia brought it up because of Momma Joyce’s concerns.
Natalie keeps bringing up Todd’s relationship with her friend, but Kandi makes it clear that isn’t the issue. She doesn’t like that Natalie implied that Todd is an opportunist. Now, Natalie will say she didn’t use that exact word, but hustler is pretty close. When Natalie tries to defend herself, she just digs the hole deeper because she’s focusing on the semantics when the sentiment is the same regardless.
Cynthia, who made matters worse by telling some of the ladies about Natalie’s comments on the way to the winery, now says that Natalie also had a lot of wonderful things to say about Todd, and Kandi’s focusing too much on the negative. Kandi’s heated, which is uncommon. She’s usually pretty good at keeping her cool. Peter steps up, and while I admire his determination to have his lady’s back, he only makes a tense situation erupt (with the aid of Cynthia’s sister). Both Kandi and Todd have to be restrained.
Todd and Peter start to work things out, but Kandi’s over it. Her philosophy is “Don’t start none, won’t be none.” But once the s**t hits the fan, she will finish it. Todd’s determined to get things straight with Peter and Cynthia, so while Kandi’s taking five in the powder room, the other three manage to squash it. Or at least that’s how it seems.
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About Last Night
The next day, Todd’s in good spirits, and Kandi’s feeling out of sorts. Now calm and thinking rationally, she realizes she acted crazy. Todd is able to bring a smile to her face by pointing out that, had she thrown down, one of her t***ies would have most definitely fallen out of her lingerie.
Carmon, her long-suffering and allegedly boyfriend-stealing friend and assistant, asks for the 411. Kandi gives a play-by-play starting with Kenya charging Natalie. No need to hash it out all over again. I’m guessing this night will be the topic of many conversations to come in this episode and the reunion at the very least.
NeNe and Gregg go to see Cynthia and Peter, and NeNe is feeling real low. The fact that she’s surprised, given her role as instigator, is hard to swallow. NeNe is still holding Kenya accountable for starting the fisticuffs as well as her friend Brandon.
At Kenya’s, Brandon is sporting a shiner and a variety of other bruises, cuts and scrapes. Kenya feels responsible, as any sane person would, because she took him as her plus one. Both claim to have no idea of what happened to trigger all the fighting. Brandon must suffer from rage blackouts because there’s no doubt he started posturing like a rooster before a cock fight. Problem is, he didn’t count on Apollo calling his bluff.
Brandon considers going litigious since Apollo cracked his rib, and that’s considered a felony. He really lays it on thick when he tells Kenya that if Phaedra and Apollo didn’t have kids, he’d haul them straight to court. More likely, he doesn’t have the money to pursue a case or his “attorney” told him he didn’t have much of one. The only thing he’s really guilt of is not being able to back up his big mouth.
Kenya’s convinced the catalyst was Christopher grabbing her arm. I agree, he had no business touching her, but I don’t think his intent was to harm her. It looked as if he just wanted to keep Kenya from possibly hurting his wife.
One thing is clear in the aftermath of NeNe’s party: Cynthia and Peter are not feeling the love for Kandi and vice versa. Cynthia does a very unflattering imitation of Kandi in the heat of the moment, and Kandi’s impersonation of Cynthia isn’t much better. Peter accuses Kandi of acting ghetto. Carmon tells Kandi like mother like daughter.
Cynthia is not accustomed to seeing Kandi riled, and it’s left a bad taste in her mouth. Kandi isn’t clueless as to how her behavior might have been construed, and Todd suggests she might want to call a few people to make amends. Carmon says Kandi needs to apologize to everyone for making such a big scene. She should just give lots of free samples of her sex toys, and it will all be good.
Right Doesn’t Do Nobody Wrong
By far, one of the biggest offenders of the evening is Phaedra’s husband getting off scot-free everywhere but at home. He’s downplaying his violent outburst and makes it sound as if he did whatever was necessary to calm a foaming-at-the-mouth Brandon. Phaedra is a force to be reckoned with when she’s mad because instead of pitching a fit, she remains very quiet with an occasional “uh huh” or “mmm” thrown in for punctuation.
Phaedra isn’t condoning her husband’s behavior, but she’s all too happy to blame Kenya for getting up out of her seat in the first place. Maybe NeNe should have handed out a written code of conduct so everyone would know when and how they could/should behave. Anyone with one ounce of sense could have seen something coming down the pike when this group gets together.
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Tea and No Sympathy
Kandi calls all the girls together for a peace summit. What’s more conducive to forgiveness than hanging at the spa and getting massages? Kenya’s going into the situation with a bad attitude. She’s not looking forward to see “Shadedra” since neither Phaedra or Apollo called to apologize to Brandon. Like Phaedra, a lawyer, is going to encourage her husband to admit liability.
Cynthia is also still holding a grudge — against Kandi. NeNe’s uneasy and not looking forward to hanging with any of the girls since nobody called to apologize to her. BTW, if any ladies are interested in getting a herbal/mint vaginal cleanse, apparently there’s a place in Atlanta you can go.
Over cups of green tea, Kandi apologizes for her behavior, saying it was out of character (something us fans already know). Kenya wants the deets since she wasn’t there, but Kandi isn’t eager to relive every moment because it just makes her look bad. NeNe decides to take the opportunity to point out that Kandi wasn’t the only girl who behaved badly. She calls out Kenya, but before the two can start sparring, Cynthia acknowledges she might have gotten too much into Kandi’s personal space because she saw a side of Kandi she’d never seen before.
Even though Kandi admitted earlier that was a large part of what triggered her meltdown, now she’s getting defensive. She says the reason she lost it was because Cynthia’s sister put her hands on her. Cynthia says Malorie would have no reason to do any such thing. Next, Kandi says it was Peter puffing up his chest at her that caused the situation to escalate. This whole episode just reinforces the belief that there are three sides to every story, only in this case, it’s more like six or seven. Apologies are given from both sides but noticeably not accepted.
Phaedra brings up Apollo’s involvement and says that Brandon has acted up before (last season at Kenya’s costume party) and he got what he had coming. Kenya argues that nobody deserves to get beat down like they’re in the midst of a prison riot. She’ll use any excuse to bring up Apollo’s past, and she’s got to be really enjoying his current predicament.
NeNe tells Kenya that she started the whole domino effect. She also calls Brandon a “queen” and accuses him of not knowing how to act. The crux of Kenya’s entire defense, that Christopher grabbed her, crumbles because NeNe argues that he didn’t. Can someone roll the tape please? Anyone … Andy Cohen?
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays at 8pm on Bravo.
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Jennifer has worked as a freelance writer in the entertainment field since 2012. In addition to currently writing feature articles for Screen Rant, Jennifer has contributed content ranging from recaps to listicles to reviews for BuddyTV, PopMatters, TVRage, TVOvermind, and Tell-Tale TV. Links to some of Jennifer’s reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
