Photo Courtesy of Tommy Garcia, Virginia Sherwood, Jonathan Zizzo & Bravo
So, I’ll admit, when I was younger, I was a Gleek. That’s right. I was a huge “Glee” fan, singing “Loser Like Me” whenever I had that chance. The show spoke to me, but looking back, I’ve realized something. It was a disaster, a disaster that I simply could not look away from.
Well, this week’s episode of “The Real Housewives of Dallas” was a disaster in the best sense. You simply could not look away, especially as tensions between Brandi Redmond and D’Andra Simmons continued to escalate. This is one of the best episodes this season, I say confidently, and it becomes evident that Brandi still has a lot to work through.
Take a look at this week’s recap, and see why the Twitter-sphere is once again turning on Brandi.
Episode 12: “RV Having Fun Yet?”
Get ready, because trip number two of the season is coming up! Stephanie Hollman is planning a camping trip to Broken Bow, Okla., for the ladies. She was born in Oklahoma, and she wants to give the girls a country shindig with all of the fixins’. While planning the trip, she speaks with a man who has spotted Bigfoot, and she asks about what the women should wear for Bigfoot hunting. So bring on the camouflage and bring on the boots, because we’re getting down and dirty soon. “Whether these ladies are ready or not they’re going to become my Okalhomies, and that is a lifelong commitment,” Stephanie says.
Next, it’s time to catch up with our good friend, Tiffany Moon who is celebrating her daughters’ birthday. Chloe and Madison get to have a princess tea party at one of the Moon’s hotels, and they also are getting glitzed and glammed. The twins have their makeup done professionally, just like Tiffany does, and they’re fully ready for the little bitty event, which Tiffany’s mom is attending too. Grace brings the girls their birthday gifts, hóng bāo, and they begin opening the envelopes right in front of their grandma, which they’re not supposed to do. Tiffany chastises the girls, but Grace puts a quick stop to that and says, “It’s all right, they’re just kids.” Tiffany, now annoyed, says to the camera that if Tiffany did that, “a bolt of lightning would strike me, and I would die.”
The party is a princess paradise, full of pink chairs and pretty tiaras. The twin girls arrive via bellhop, and Tiffany says, “I’ll be honest with you, this party is for me.” There are cute finger sandwiches, caviar and glasses of sparkling cider, and Grace says, “Mommy, you have expensive taste.” Tiffany, annoyed by this comment, says to the camera, “No matter what I do, it’s not right.” But uh…she does have expensive taste…caviar isn’t inexpensive…so I simply cannot fault Grace for pointing out a fact.
Meanwhile, D’Andra is video chatting with Brandi, and the two women decide that they should have a conversation after their spat a few days ago. At Tiffany’s luau party, tensions between Brandi and D’Andra came to a head, with a disagreement over D’Andra’s “Medicine Monday.” In short, Brandi thinks it was kinda sorta demonic and that D’Andra is selfish. D’Andra thinks Brandi is two faced for judging her. They both want an apology from the other, which had me going yikes, and you can feel the tension between the two Dallas ladies build.
Kameron Westcott, on the other hand, is leading a lesson in Westcott Academy, showing her son how to make a PB&J. She wants her kids to be well rounded before they go to college, so she spends her time educating her kids on the laundry, food preparation and other household tasks that will serve them well. While this is happening Court, Kameron’s husband, jumps on a call with their realtor. Their house is about to close, and Court has bought Kameron’s $7.5 million dream home. He’s going to surprise her, crossing his fingers that Kameron doesn’t go full Nancy Drew and find out before he can tell her.
While the world is descending into chaos for the other women, Kary Brittingham is making jello shots. Her daughter points out that no one really does jello shots anymore, expect at darties (day parties). Kary is trying to bring the fun to the campsite, because Kary says that “camping for me is like going to a hotel with no room service.”
Catapulting back to Ms. Simmons, D’Andra is making a meal for her husband. The fire alarms are going off because of the smoke, but the food still turns out to be quite yummy, especially since D’Andra made a meal of aphrodisiacs. Yeah, um, D’Andra and Jeremy then jump into the pool, touting their love for the world to see. Congratulations on your love D’Andra. Really, I mean it, as I sit bitterly alone.
After those brief interludes from Kary and D’Andra, we’re back to Kameron, who is heading to the house to do a walkthrough again with Court. Court plays a trick on Kameron, saying that he “just got a text from Kelly, she thinks the buyers are no longer going to be under contract very soon.” Kameron starts to flip out, saying that she wants out of the car and that the situation is “ridiculous,” and once the couple arrives at the new house, Kameron refuses to get out. Court, after much convincing, gets her out of the car, and he gives a cute little speech, revealing that the house is theirs. “I was so annoyed with my husband a second ago, he literally just bought me my dream house. How can I be mad?” Kameron says. “All of a sudden, he’s looking like a prince charming.” We then tour the house, which is beautiful and has an island that’s bigger than Court. The two then have an adorable moment. They promise to always be a team.
Tiffany, meanwhile, decides to pay Dee a visit. She brings drinks and dog toys, including a “Chewy Vuitton” purse. They chat about Tiffany’s life, and Tiffany says, “Dee Simmons is like my other mother. She gets who I am and what my goals are. So, she always gives me advice with regards to that. Like, she gives it to me straight.” Dee and Tiffany discuss Tiffany’s mother, Grace, and Tiffany points out that her mom pretended to be more supportive than she probably really is because there were other people around. “She had always said that when I had children, she was going to retire and help me raise my kids,” Tiffany says. Long story short, her mom didn’t retire because Tiffany had twins and one wasn’t a boy. Dee points out that Tiffany needs to solve her problems with her mother before she can fully move on, even if it may hurt their relationship for a little bit. “However she is, honey, it’s worth it,” Dee says.
Okay, and this is where things really start to hit the fan. Brandi, who has been dealing with a controversy throughout the season regarding a racist video she posted, is poised to head over to D’Andra’s to talk their problems out. However, right before she leaves, a news notification pops up, saying that D’Andra spoke to Page Six. D’Andra said that this current season would address Brandi’s racist remarks. Brandi is livid that D’Andra chose to comment, and she texts D’Andra saying, “I saw that you were talking about me in the press about my ‘racist video’ and I’m very disgusted right now and not in a space where I want to get together today. See you on the trip.”
Okay, pause, because I have to interject with some commentary, because this made me livid. First of all, the fact that Brandi put “racist video” in quotation is really questionable, and then the fact that D’Andra is now becoming the bad guy is beyond me. D’Andra agrees, as we go to D’Andra reading the text. “All I said was positive things about you, but that’s fine. It doesn’t surprise me that you didn’t take it the right way,” D’Andra says. “Since when is talking about somebody’s racist video worse than making a racist video? She offended an entire race of people, all of a sudden, the oweness is on me, how does this happen?” D’Andra is clearly livid, avoiding the RHOD producers, saying that she doesn’t want to do this anymore. “She’s acting like a baby,” D’Andra says. “Every single girl in that room is going to have her back.”
So, it’s now time for the camping trip, with tensions on the rise. Tiffany mentions that she was excited, but is less excited now after seeing the news. The other women also feel this way too. When Brandi shows up to Stephanie’s (in full “bus driver” garb that looks more like a police officer’s outfit) for the trip, Brandi says that she needs to address the situation with D’Andra. The other women begin to show up, with different levels of excitement, discussing how Brandi will be driving the RV for the trip, Kameron also is scared to go to Oklahoma, with her husband saying, “if you see tigers or octopuses, run zig zag.” Kameron is scared to go to Oklahoma because of snakes.
Anyway, D’Andra is the last one to show, and Brandi gets to it right away. When asked if she’s ready to drive, Brandi says that she was watching a video on how to drive an RV when she got a Google alert. “And?” D’Andra says, all of the women looking incredibly uncomfortable. “And, it was about you talking about me in the press,” Brandi says. D’Andra points out that the article was about her, but Brandi says that it used her as a headline so it was. “If you do an interview, do you at the end of the interview say to the interviewer, hey I think you should use this as a headline?” D’Andra says, which is so incredibly spot on. As a writer, I have to support D’Andra here, as rarely interviewees do not get to choose the headline.
D’Andra then points out that she was trying to have Brandi’s back, because if she said that they didn’t, that would look bad. Brandi still thinks that it was unfair and that she shouldn’t have commented. “You took that away from me D’Andra, I was headlined that there was this racist video out there,” Brandi says. “Do you know that I became clickbait once again and I started getting hate once again?” D’Andra starts laughing, which was not the right thing to do apparently. “I’m glad you think it’s funny, because to me, it’s not funny. You mentioned me to help promote yourself and allow grace and forgiveness, that’s what I wanted and then you took this away from me and put this out there,” Brandi says.
Meanwhile, the camera is panning to all of the other women, who look incredibly lost and confused. Kary then interjects, saying “Take accountability D’Andra, say ‘I’m sorry!’” D’Andra does apologize, but Brandi points out that this is a prime example of D’Andra being selfish. D’Andra then looks at Kary and Brandi and says, “You think I’m selfish, you think I’m selfish. That’s fine, It’ doesn’t really bother me that you think I’m selfish to be honest with you, because I’ve heard it so many times. What you think about me is your opinion.” Kary comes back and says, “So you don’t mind that all of your friends think that you are selfish?” “Not really, I don’t because, I know I’m not in my heart,” D’Andra says. “I feel judged a lot in this group of girls.”
Kary points out that maybe she should listen to her friends, and D’Andra says that she feels like everyone is ganging up on her, and if they want, she can go.
Then, we get the dreaded “to be continued” with no preview for next week’s episode.
I have to say, I don’t really know what D’Andra did wrong, so will we find out next week? Will anyone support D’Andra? Will the girls have fun on the camping trip and find Bigfoot? Well, we’ll have to wait and see.
“The Real Housewives of Dallas” airs Tuesdays on Bravo at 8 p.m. CST.
