The premiere of Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 15 introduced us to new friends, lovers, and intro photos — new everything. But, unfortunately, it also introduced us to the fact that Shereé Whitfield’s new romance with Martell Holt will drive the drama this season. Between Shereé’s new boyfriend and her newly introduced friend Courtney Rhodes, Shereé has built an army of agitators ready to spice things up this season, for better or worse.
A birthday bashing
Episode 2 picked up right where the premiere left off — at Aaron Ross’ $100,000 40th birthday party. If it weren’t for Sanya Richards-Ross reminding us every two minutes that it’s her husband’s birthday, you might have forgotten why they’re all dressed up in their Harlem Nights attire. There’s so much drama happening at this function that it’s hard to focus.
In one corner, Kandi Burruss is trying her hardest not to headbutt Courtney. In the other corner, Kenya Moore is trying to tell Shereé about the DM she once received from Martell. Kandi had also previously shared a rumor that Martell was dating someone else in Atlanta, putting Shereé’s new relationship entirely on blast. So, Kenya and Shereé assembled all the ladies to sit down and sort through the mess.
The Martell of it all
The real meat of this episode was the conflict between Martell, Shereé, and Kenya. After being accused of sliding into Kenya’s DMs, Martell tried to show his Instagram DMs to prove that not only was it innocent, but it happened back in 2020. No one cared about Martell’s receipts. No one was buying it. So, he got defensive and threw some major shade at Kenya, commenting that she probably accepts every DM request she receives.
You can’t come for the shade assassin like that and just walk away unscathed. So, Kenya immediately started arguing with Martell. She shouted at him, “Once a cheater, always a cheater,” and honestly, she’s not wrong. Either way, Martell fighting with Kenya at the party is probably not how Shereé expected her boyfriend’s RHOA debut to go. She needs to take him off camera and gently remind him that he isn’t competing for a peach. Just go stand in the corner and smoke a cigar with Aaron and Ralph Pittman.
During the fight, Kenya delivers a poignant statement to Shereé regarding Martell’s behavior. She said, “He’s talking to me like he’s eventually going to talk to you.”
That comment should have made Shereé pause. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and at this moment, it became clear that this is one of those Housewives fights that’s just too heavy to be fun.
Later in the episode, Kenya and Shereé meet to discuss what happened at the party. Kenya shares her feeling about Martell. She thinks he was being too aggressive. Kenya does not want to be cussed out by a man, and she’s made that clear several times on this show over the years. Can you blame her? On the other hand, Shereé thinks that Kenya is being reckless with her language by publicly painting a Black man as “aggressive.”
Shereé’s concerns are valid, but Kenya is also one thousand percent correct that she shouldn’t have to be yelled at or berated by this man. It’s a sticky situation, and neither backed down from their stance. There’s no way this plot point isn’t going to rear its ugly head again this season.
Drew makes her debut
After missing the premiere episode, Drew Sidora makes her big Season 15 debut. It turns out Ralph wasn’t completely lying about her whereabouts. She really was dealing with a family crisis. She reveals that she was in Chicago visiting her dad, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He’s living in a nursing home, and that’s putting stress on her entire family back home.
In five minutes, we learned more about Drew than we have in her entire run on the show. She’s traded in her “Drop It with Drew” nonsense and seems to be delivering an honest, vulnerable storyline. She’s also pursuing a music project with Ralph. It’s a little passion project, and seeing Drew being so authentic is refreshing. It’s like she’s finally gotten into the groove of how to be a Real Housewife.
During these scenes, she and Ralph seem to be better than ever. Drew is speaking positively about her marriage. It’s a different vibe than what they showed in the previous seasons when Ralph disappeared to Tampa. We should be happy to see their loving little household, but it’s uncomfortable watching them knowing what we know now about their looming divorce.
Biscuits or bullets
Last week, Todd Tucker was working on writing a script for a movie. This week, he’s back in his restaurants alongside Kandi. Episode 2 brought us to Blaze Steak and Seafood as the dynamic duo sampled some new foods for the menu.
Here we are, thinking this is just another mundane Kandi and Todd restauranteur scene to fill the hour. It seemed like one of those scenes where for a moment, you can focus less on the show and more on refilling your drink and scrolling through Twitter. However, a producer enters the scene out of nowhere, breaking down the fourth wall like a wrecking ball.
“Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?” the producer asked Kandi. What elephant? Oh, the fact that your cousin is sitting here with a massive brace on his arm because he got shot in the restaurant by another employee, and it’s been all over the headlines? Yes, that elephant.
The producer pretty much forced Kandi and Todd to talk about the shooting at Blaze. In their confessional interviews, the Housewives weighed in on the restaurant drama, with Shereé making an iconic quip that we don’t know if we’ll get biscuits or bullets when dining at one of Kandi’s restaurants.
First, Courtney showed up at Aaron’s birthday party, ready to squabble with Kandi. Now, we have producers jumping into the scene to nudge Kandi into talking about the drama at her restaurants. Season 15 has officially made Kandi the longest-running Real Housewife cast member, but they’re going to make her work for that title this season.
TELL US – WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RHOA SEASON 15 EPISODE 2? ARE YOU TEAM KENYA OR TEAM SHEREE? DO YOU THINK KANDI WOULD HAVE TALKED ABOUT THE RESTAURANT SHOOTING IF THE PRODUCER DIDN’T PROMPT HER TO DO IT?
