The dynamic between Karen and Gizelle has borne such memorable fruit — iconic moments of shade, back-and-forth barbs, and running bits galore have kept the Potomac viewership fed over the last few years. Their repartee is rooted in an actual history of socializing together, which gives their zingers a bit more zest than those of cast members that came to know each other through Bravo. No matter whether they’re feuding or at an uneasy détente, the tension keeps both women sharp, making them witty, absurd, and unpredictable scene partners as they switch off serving as the other’s foil. As a case study in an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, it’s a dream pairing.
This is a great season to review this dynamic between the two OG cast members. While Karen and Gizelle are in a more amicable space, they are of two different minds when it comes to the direction of the show. Both are attempting to control the narrative thrust of the back half of the season but from entirely different perspectives: Karen has been trying to steer the Potomac ship back toward a standard conflict-discussion-resolution arc (with plenty of gimmicks in between) while Gizelle is attempting to establish seniority and authority by dictating who she will and won’t film with. This power struggle, among other failings, has led to stilted storytelling and disjointed episodes, but it provides an interesting lens through which to view the remaining events of the season.
Take Karen’s big event this episode, a day trip to her lovely family estate in Surry County, Virginia, which she plans on turning into a B&B of some sort. (This is what I imagine Lady Huger truly means every time she uses the word “resort” or “spa.”) It is a quick trip to give Karen’s business interests some shine and highlight her family roots in Virginia, but the Grand Dame also attempts to use it to engage in some good ol’ conflict resolution. Her initial intended group — Karen, Ashley, Gizelle, Wendy, Candiace — was curated with intention by her own admission. (Insert complicated gimmick of her pre-filling a bowl with the names she wanted to bring, coupled with an absolutely inspired excuse of not letting the whole cast come for vague insurance liability reasons.) The clear aim is to trap people who have lingering tensions on a four-hour Sprinter-van ride to southeast Virginia; if either Candace or Wendy can make even the most marginal headway with Gizelle as a result, this cast will be making remarkable strides toward enjoyable television.
Gizelle, however, is uninterested in reconciliation and declines the invitation. She has laid her cards down: Being around Candiace is a safety risk for her because of the dangerous things she has said in seasons past, and she feels targeted for being confronted by fans over how colorism has seeped into the show dynamics. The flashbacks continue to show the single clip of Candiace letting her emotions take control and speaking really poorly on this (which wasn’t even her ugliest comment to Gizelle that reunion), but if the intent is to showcase sincerity in Gizelle’s discomfort, it truly isn’t resonating. What comes through loud and clear is that Gizelle has decided that she will not film with Candiace outside of all-cast events and is not interested in giving her a means to continue publicly humiliating her one-on-one, closing the book on anything resembling resolution of last season’s tensions. While Karen is trying her best to bring Wendy and Candiace back ashore as they remain adrift from the cast, Gizelle is the immovable object preventing them from doing so.
Without Gizelle — and desperately needing a quota of cast members to increase the odds that this airs on television — Karen extends the invite to the whole group, claiming that her insurance liability has been magically increased. Almost all of the women decline a second-round invite – bonus points to Mia, who swoops into the group chat with “I can’t get over original invite,” only to be dismissed by Karen with a breezy “you need to” — save for Nneka, meaning that the major conflict that will be rehashed on the Grande Dame’s family porch is Nneka, Wendy, and my deep sigh as we continue to circle the drain.
While on the trip, Nneka does extend an olive branch, inviting everyone, including Wendy, to her new home, which the professor cattily rebuffs. The silent treatment in a Sprinter van is an unbelievably immature tactic, made all the more silly by Wendy’s struggle to relax on-camera. It would have been more interesting for Wendy to confront Nneka on why she would invite someone whose family she claims submitted hers to a shrine; that would amount to willingly inviting malevolent forces. Instead, we get a stilted exchange over a reheated lunch in which Wendy begins to launch into this clearly rehearsed lecture on how she is not interested in resolving this issue with Nneka, a stance that only hurts her. For better or worse, Nneka is aiming to build all of her own relationships with the cast; smoothing this situation over is in Wendy’s best interest as both she and Candiace have lost Robyn as an ally.
It is certainly Wendy’s right to stand firm in the position that Nneka maligned her family, but it is an unproductive stance when Wendy is losing solid footing on the show. More and more of her scenes are one-offs promoting her and Eddie’s rotating business interests in a continued attempt to fill out her presence in the cast, but her ventures as a serial entrepreneur are not insightful, stimulating, or rewarding. Whether or not she realizes it, she is attempting to replicate the same tactic that Gizelle is rightfully being held to task for by many viewers: refusing to engage with Nneka in hopes that with time or seniority, the issue will disappear. Wendy, however, is not Gizelle: Not enough relationships, story lines, or connections run through her for her to wield power in this dynamic, so she has to suck it up and film. It is a shame that instead of stepping up to the plate, we just get eye rolls, silent treatments, and intractability. Not only does it reinforce the climate of ostracism on Potomac, but it makes for a viewing experience that is about as enjoyable as getting a tattoo lasered off. The entire cast needs to accept their roles in participating in an unproductive ecosystem before they find themselves out of a job.
Until next week!
• Every time Ray is on-camera, he looks like he would rather be napping or anywhere else besides fulfilling his marital duty. Karen needs to let that old man live out his days in Florida like he said he wanted to.
• Giselle and Ashley starting an athleisure line that they describe as “Lululemon meets Fenty Savage” sounds like a Mad Libs headline one of those troll Bravo accounts comes up with, and yet here we are looking at AliExpress’s best rhinestoned, lace, and mesh activewear. Who is the target market for this?
• Latest Robyn-Juan misery update: They don’t go to couples therapy. In fact, Juan’s unemployment has somehow brought them even closer together, even if no one besides them believes that.
• Karen producing the saved photo that she had of the Dixon family on her phone is perhaps the most bizarre revelation we’ve had this season. More than likely just a gossip-related screenshot she forgot (or doesn’t know how) to delete, but bizarre nonetheless!
• Nneka’s house looks lovely, and we are getting more sides of her personality and sense of humor. It’s unfortunate it took so long into this season to get a picture of her that is outside of the fracas with Wendy.