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It took three major holidays, a multiple-week hiatus, and a whole new year, but we have finally freed ourselves from the shackles of chickenshit bingo and returned our ladies of Potomac back to where they belong. The trip was miserable to watch and a visibly taxing experience for the cast — in their return round-robin package to friends and family, they can only muster up generic platitudes like “Oh yeah, the food was good” in between deep sighs. The women arrived in Texas in two clear camps and left with those lines even further cemented. They didn’t even stop for a good barbecue, a true failure all around.
Despite the cast’s resistance to committing to their jobs, Mia and Karen really step up this episode by trying to deliver compelling stories and interactions with their colleagues across the board. My major complaint this season has been an unwillingness to flesh out conflict on camera as well as an obsession over marital strife at the expense of understanding other parts of the women’s lives; in this episode, both Mia and Karen delivered well on both accounts, working to move the dialogue forward amongst the cast as well as expand on significant parts of the women’s personal stories for a well-balanced story that gives a peek at what some of the best of Potomac could be.
Mia has been a bit of a controversial figure since her arrival on the show. Still, her upside has always been high: she is a bit delusional, engages in absurdities, thinks quickly on her feet, and isn’t one to linger on conflict after addressing it. There have definitely been blights — her beef with Wendy was shameful and her fallout with Jacqueline was both uncomfortable and incoherent — but this episode showcases her potential as a north star for the franchise moving forward. She has been nurturing a budding relationship (see: alliance) with Robyn this season, but that doesn’t preclude her from getting her jabs in on Juan and her now-estranged husband during a couples’ cooking class.
Mia executed her task with precision not shown on either of the couple’s kitchen counters. She begins by casually reminding us of their financial struggles — mentioning that they don’t have a nanny who helps with cooking anymore — before segueing into her prolonged frustration with how Gordon handles their ongoing issues. Poor Gordon seems not to see the blow coming as Mia intentionally lays the breadcrumbs and intentional public distance in her transition to her next relationship, and it’s fascinating to watch this happen in real-time. In between pasta dough kneads, Mia then casually asks Juan with the casualness of someone asking about the day’s commute: “You really put your credit card down? … you couldn’t do that over the phone?” Juan responds with a mush-mouthed version of the same incoherent and unbelievable hotel story he’s told eight different times — which, as Mia pointed out, sounds rehearsed at this point — but Mia disarmed him, and he took it in stride and spoke his own words on camera, instead of forcing Robyn to address the situation on her own. Perhaps he was too busy thinking about all the other job hunt calls he could have been taking while still miked; Robyn and Juan were trying to ensure we knew he was actively seeking employment. Maybe he can run Robyn’s new Glo30 franchise while he’s waiting for those calls to get returned; men get facials, too!
Later, we see more of Mia’s softer side in a very emotional and revealing scene. It’s no secret that Mia has had a rough upbringing, but, as I mentioned earlier, one of her shortcomings is that the show struggles to show the quirks of her personality, good or bad. For example, the fallout with her best friend Jacqueline escalated very quickly, and most of what was captured clearly amounted to “lingering and deep best friend issues that we have no real insight into that are being filtered through minor squabbles.” Through the luncheon, Karen pulls together for PAVE, the nonprofit for sexual violence that the Grand Dame supports, we find out that not only has Mia survived sexual violence, but that she was originally with Jacqueline the night it happened and has subconsciously punished Jacqueline for leaving Mia behind. As she admitted, that doesn’t make it right, but it is an honest revelation of her coping mechanisms over the years.
The PAVE event was beautifully done. All the women put their conflicts aside to not only support Karen and survivors of sexual violence but also to support one another, and they looked beautiful while doing so. It is genuinely stirring to see the women in this cast come forward with their stories of experiencing sexual violence and using their platform to remove the shame of healing from it as Black women; it is equally heartbreaking that so many of them had stories to share. Gizelle’s concern for her daughter’s protection, as she sends her off to college in Florida, feels palpable and real and not merely a concern for the camera. Karen has done an admirable job of keeping this conversation alive in this circle, and while I do not advocate for trauma being the main point of connection between people, it does showcase how all of these women are humans who have lived full, complicated lives beyond the viral clips that are endlessly dissected on social media by housewives fans.
Unfortunately, the power and impact of these moments are undercut by a need to continue exploring the Wendy/Nneka divide. Wendy finally brings her mom on camera to address the conflict, and either they did not properly prep to film what they had agreed to discuss, or the editing team did Wendy no favors because half the time, it seemed like Wendy was trying to lead her mother to the answer they had agreed to say. It is legitimately confusing to add all of these complications about Lebe being like a daughter and her not knowing Nneka while she drinks wine out of a straw and alludes to unclear complications from an “elective surgery.” I don’t think this is nearly as deep as they keep blowing it up to be, but Wendy should have easily handled this and kept flubbing at every step, making this drag out even longer than it needs.
Meanwhile, Candiace is trying to explore a relationship with Nneka and see if the two Nigerian castmates can move forward. It’s a solid no on the latter front, but the two do seem to have a bit in common beyond their peculiar taste in fashion, and that is their family-planning journeys and affluent backgrounds. Candiace attempts to give her advice on not escalating conflict, which the editors rightfully call out since it’s coming from the queen of the “your mother” retort. It’s a tragedy that litigating an offhand “L.A. Crackhead comment” is in the same episode as the women coming together to share their experiences with sexual violence and provide resources for other women, but those small glimpses of the highs this show can offer will hopefully give the production team a path to continue to go down in the episodes to come. Until next week!
• This season (and last) seems to have a lingering acknowledgment of health concerns: Karen’s cardiac health and Candiace and her mammograms and fertility conversations. I think this is something the women are doing a great job of talking more about, considering public conversations around healthcare gaps for Black women.
• Shout out to the cameos of the episode: Jason, Charrisse, and Eddie. We love you even if we hardly saw you!
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