It’s the season 10 finale of The Real Housewives of Orange County, and while there have been some laughs along the way (Vicki, Tamra and Shannon swimming with their clothes on in Tahiti, for example), the main focus has been on the speculation surrounding Brooks’ cancer. Let’s see if anyone gets the answer they’re looking for at Tamra’s baptism party in “Baptism by Fire.”
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She’s Saved
Tamra’s baptism party is at a hotel with a beautiful view of boats in the harbor.
All the ladies arrive for the party. Meghan’s solo again and she complains that living without Jimmy half of the time is even harder than she thought it would be. Shannon, on the other hand, didn’t think that she and David could be this happy together and she’s glad that their marriage is back on track.
Shannon’s worried about seeing Vicki, though. They used to be pretty tight, even for Housewives standards, but now they haven’t spoken in weeks. But she knows that if Vicki tries to pick a fight with her, she’s not just going to be passive.
Vicki is proud of Tamra for getting baptized. She says that she’s committing herself to the Lord and that’s a big commitment and it’s amazing.
Before getting baptized, Tamra gives a speech. She thanks her guests for coming and for being there for her through the years. She says if she didn’t go through such a hard time last year, she wouldn’t be here right now accepting Jesus. And most important, she forgives her ex for putting her through such hard times, and she prays for him.
The choir sings “Amazing Grace” as Tamra comes out of the water after being baptized. All of the ladies are overcome with emotion. They all congratulate her and tell them how proud they are of her. Tamra feels happy and like she’s lived a lot of her life lost but now she has direction.
Tamra excuses herself to clean up after her dip in the pool. The other ladies are filling the evening with small talk and Vicki is just steering clear of all of them. Shannon says she’s not talking to Vicki either because she’s angry with her and she doesn’t plan on throwing herself into the lion’s den.
Trying Not to Fight
Of all the ladies, Vicki is the most hurt by Shannon. She says she’s been an amazing friend to her, kept her husband’s affair a secret when she asked her to, all to have her turn on her now.
Vicki wants to leave the party before Tamra even comes back down. Her brother, Billy, and Billy’s girlfriend, Ronda, try to comfort her, but she thinks the best move would be to leave.
Heather, Shannon and Meghan talk about Brooks’ cancer once again. Now Heather’s heard a story that Vicki called Terry in the middle of the night because Brooks was in so much pain from chemo and then Terry sent over a colleague to administer an IV drip. The thing is, that never happened. Shannon’s heard that story from Vicki as well, and Heather can’t believe that Vicki would lie about something so provable. Meghan says they need to catch Vicki to clear this tension before she escapes.
Tamra comes down just in time to stop an ambush. Vicki gives Tamra her present and then goes to leave.
But Heather isn’t letting her get away so easy. She confronts her with the story involving Terry, and Vicki denies, denies, denies. But Heather heard the story from Briana, who she believes is pretty credible. Not only that, but Shannon says Vicki told her the same story. And there’s no way Shannon and Briana could be in on it together because Shannon’s never even spoken to Briana.
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No More Mrs. Nice Shannon
Billy tries to talk to Tamra and Shannon about Brooks’ situation. He says he’s seen the paperwork and there’s no doubt that he has cancer. Then when they start telling him all the weird, conflicting stories, he tries to back away.
But one person who doesn’t back away is Billy’s girlfriend, Ronda. She says it’s absurd that Shannon would ask them to see any kind of paperwork on Brooks’ cancer. Then she asks Shannon if Vicki asked to see paperwork when Shannon told her that David was having an affair.
Shannon does not take this well, obviously, but she handles it better than I would have (and by that, I mean she doesn’t throw a drink in Ronda’s face). She tells Ronda that she has some kind of nerve saying that to her. Then she marches right over to the person she’s really angry at: Vicki.
She grabs Vicki by the arm and says, “Thank you, you’re such a great friend for not telling anyone my secrets.” At first, Vicki doesn’t know what happened, but then Lizzie comes over to tell her what Ronda said. Vicki looks more annoyed than anything else. She says that Brooks has cancer and David had an affair; those are facts, not things to fight about.
As they’re leaving, Ronda apologizes to Vicki, saying she should have just kept her mouth shut in front of Shannon. Yeah, Ronda, you should have. But Vicki doesn’t think Ronda was out of line at all. She says Shannon was pushing her buttons and she got what she deserved. Vicki sure does have a nasty side.
Pastor Mike asks Tamra if there’s anything he can do to help. He tries to encourage Vicki to sit down with Shannon and work out their issues. But she’s done “being nailed to the cross like Jesus” after doing nothing wrong. Tamra says she’s not Jesus and she’s not being nailed to the cross, but she might be going to Hell if she’s lying.
Before she leaves, Shannon comes up to try and talk to Vicki again. The two get into a screeching match about who was a better friend to whom. Vicki says she was nice to Shannon when everyone else hated her, which is yet another rude thing of Vicki to bring up. Shannon says she’s done fighting with her and she never wanted to be dragged into this mess anyway.
Tamra tries to tell Vicki not to leave, but she’s already in her limo ready to go. She tells her that Meghan called Brooks’ doctor where he claimed to have the CT scan and the office said they didn’t run those tests there. Finally, Vicki is stumped for a minute. Tamra tells her about Briana’s story too, and Vicki flat-out calls her own daughter a “s***-stirrer” who is just out to ruin Brooks. Wow, the delusion is strong with this one.
And that’s how the season ends, with Vicki running away in her limo and the other ladies enjoying the rest of the party. Since the season ended, Vicki and Brooks broke up, so that will be an interesting story to hear at the reunion — not that anything that Vicki says is true.
Next time, it’s part one of the reunion. Let’s see if Vicki is ready to start talking.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Mondays at 9pm on Bravo.
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
