In the finale of The Real Housewives of Atlanta season 6 reunion, NeNe and Kenya argue about who’s the bigger star. Phaedra and Apollo double team Kenya. Everybody rehashes Pillow Gate. And the men join in on the fun.
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Mr. Hyde Has Nothing on NayNay
If Kenya thought her problems were solved when Porsha was booted from the reunion, she was mistaken. NeNe is a far more formidable opponent, and she doesn’t have to resort to hair pulling.
Kenya accuses NeNe of trying to control everyone around her and says NeNe has a history of being a dictator. Kenya reads a text from NeNe to Marlo that indeed shows the senior cast member throwing her weight around. NeNe made it clear to Marlo that if she wanted to share face time with Kenya, their friendship, as it were, was over.
NeNe says that Kenya is not the catalyst for the demise of her friendship with Marlo, but that Kenya wants to be the reason. Cynthia is a witness for the prosecution and the defense. She confirms that the relationship between NeNe and Marlo was strained before Kenya entered the picture. How could it not be? But NeNe doesn’t come off looking great when Cynthia also reveals that NeNe told Marlo that if she shoots with Kenya, she doesn’t shoot with NeNe.
Host Andy Cohen questions if pot stirrer Kenya was hanging out with Marlo just to get under NeNe’s skin, which she vehemently denies. NeNe claims that she was genuinely friends with Marlo and went out of her way to help her. I wonder if by “help” she means letting Marlo have a co-starring role on her spin-off.
A pattern of behavior emerges with NeNe pretty quickly; she acknowledges what she chooses, when she chooses and for how long she chooses. Once she’s had her say, girl bye! This is the case when Kandi confronts her for going after Momma Joyce on her blog and when it comes to her behavior at Kenya’s masquerade ball. She’s either so sure she’s right or not going to give anyone else a chance to prover her wrong.
NeNe also gets called out by Kenya for the comment she made to Peter, in front of Cynthia, after leaving Kenya’s function: “None of these b**ches here are on the level that I’m on, and I will never argue with any of them.”
Phaedra wasn’t in attendance, so she doesn’t feel NeNe was talking about her, but Cynthia points out that she found it to be a very arrogant statement. We all know Kandi could buy and sell Miss NeNe several times over.
Kandi tries to point out that NeNe has a tendency to make herself seem more accomplished than her castmates, and in some cases that may be true and others not so much. Everybody has long resumes (except Porsha, but she’s on her way).
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Apollo vs. Kenya, Round 2
Despite a rocky season and separation rumors, Apollo and Phaedra present a united front at the reunion. While they may be together, the honeymoon is definitely over. They are in marriage counseling, and the tension between them is so thick, a blind man could sense it.
They approach how much to let hang out regarding their marriage very differently. Phaedra says that what goes on between a husband and wife is TV fodder or fodder for the public. Apollo says they need to be as authentic as possible. In Apollo’s eyes, in order for their marriage to thrive, he’s got to be himself.
Apollo doesn’t shed much light on his legal troubles other than he’s just going to have to let it play out. Then out of the clear blue sky, he starts on Kenya. Am I having deja vu? Didn’t these two just bury the hatchet over last season’s reunion?
Apollo says, in a very threatening manner, that Kenya better hope he doesn’t wind up pounding rocks, or Kenya could be out of a job. In his eyes, her entire storyline revolves around him. He’s sustained her career for two years; he built her.
For the first time, Kenya doesn’t have much to say. Even when Andy questions her assertion on Bethenny Frankel’s talk show that Apollo would be going to jail, she’s all “No comment.”
Kenya Moore “Whore”
Atlanta’s most famous threesome, Phaedra, Apollo and Kenya, take each other to task. Phaedra says she made it clear that she did not want the former beauty queen talking to Apollo out of her presence, but Kenya continued her pursuit. She also says that anyone who thinks she hasn’t held Apollo accountable for his actions is mistaken.
Apollo reveals that Kenya texted him just a week or two ago (at the time the reunion filmed). She says he’s a criminal and can make up anything. Next, she starts questioning if security is present, as if he’s going to beat her down on national television. No need, Porsha already took care of that.
Even fans seem to feel that Kenya is the one constantly initiating conversations between herself and Apollo. One cites the cigar-smoking incident in Mexico as an example. Phaedra chalks it up as Kenya’s attempt to stay relevant, otherwise she’s got no storyline. All the events in question — did they or didn’t they meet in LA? — took place in 2012.
Whatever is going on behind closed doors between Phaedra and Apollo is moot because she has his back right now. She believes her husband because from the day the three met, Phaedra accused Kenya of hitting on her man. Kenya decides to check her phone and check out of the conversation.
Time to bring out the boys, and first on the hot seat is Peter or “Patricia.” A fan calls out Cynthia for not keeping her man in check, but Cynthia says he’s entitled to an opinion, and why would she travel with him or take him anywhere if he had to censor himself?
Peter pulls no punches. He says he will always have an opinion when you put him in the room, and he’s going to speak his mind. What? Just because he doesn’t have a vag, he doesn’t get to weigh in?
He also makes it known that he has four baby mamas and five kids, and not once has he called any of them b**ches. Now that, RHOA fans, is a real man. Well, maybe not all those baby mamas, but having the respect not to resort to name calling. He’s still smarting from NeNe’s remark, especially since she has the biggest mouth in the room.
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Pillow Brawl
Kenya finally gets some payback when it comes to her claim that Christopher grabbed her arm as she headed towards Natalie. None of the other women saw it, but viewers did. Phaedra says Christopher was just trying to protect his wife. Kenya says that her only purpose in closing in on Natalie was to have a conversation instead of screaming at one another across the room. Todd says if anyone, male or female, was heading towards Kandi, he would react the same way.
Kenya’s bottom line is that, aggressive or not, no man should put his hands on a woman, especially if it’s not his woman.
Peter says that if any of the “real men” in the room had felt Kenya was being mistreated by Christopher, they would have put him in check. This gets misconstrued to mean that Peter is questioning Brandon’s manhood because he’s gay. Kenya says the only real man in that room was the one (Brandon) who stood up for his friend (her).
Now, if anyone was flinging around gay slurs when it came to Brandon, it was NeNe. Her digs were impossible to miss. NeNe lost some fan base with her homophobic vocabulary and demeanor. Even Andy doesn’t give her a free pass on this one. NeNe says if she offended him, or anyone else in the gay community, she apologizes.
Peter keeps his cool and clarifies that if the guys in that room saw a problem, they would have stopped it and not just stood around to watch.
Some viewers think NeNe set the stage for a pop-off, but she denies it. Kenya argues that NeNe was in full-on diva mode by the time she arrived. Kenya states NeNe was screaming at the producers and accusing them of having Kenya arrive late so she could steal the show. Too bad nobody’s corroborating her story. But Andy airs some unaired footage, and Kenya’s accusations aren’t unfounded.
Todd gets the chance to address Natalie and Christopher’s accusations that he was on the “come up” and an opportunist. He thinks it was simply a ploy to get on the show. He does speak in their defense when he says that they never really said opportunist; they were led into it. Todd says he’s seen Chris since then, and he still won’t come clean that they were throwing some shade Todd’s way.
The ladies wrap things up with some final thoughts. NeNe claims that the show has changed a lot over the years and sometimes she enjoys her involvement, while other times not as much. Phaedra says that the cast inspires for the good and the worst, but at the end of the day, people are looking into their very private moments and that can be difficult. It was a stressful year for Kandi, but she is proud that she and Todd came together on A Mother’s Love and proved they could work together to produce something successful.
So, after three nights and three and a half hours, another season of RHOA comes to an end.
(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.
