In Season 15, Episode 12 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, the ladies embarked on their final days in Portugal in hopes of reaching a state of healing. By the end of the trip, the jury was still out on whether or not that mission was successful.
Last week, we left off during a late-night altercation where Kandi Burruss and Drew Sidora had a heated exchange over the Isle of Palms cast trip from years ago. Yes, we’re still talking about the Bolo night.
It was Kandi’s last night in Portugal, and she claimed that Drew kissed LaToya Ali during the night of the Bolo sexcapade. Although LaToya admitted to their kiss at the Season 13 reunion, Drew denied having ever kissed a woman. Drew even alleged that Kandi told LaToya to lie about it at the reunion.
Kandi “Speak On It” Burruss was not thrilled about being called a liar during her last hours on the cast trip, and left Portugal with her braids tight and her attitude even tighter.
When the cameras picked back up this week, the ladies were still picking up the pieces from their late-night argument while simultaneously trying to achieve a place of “healing” for their last days in Portugal. Here’s what went down during the last chunk of the Season 15 Portugal trip.
Stuck on South Carolina
It’s hard to believe we’re still discussing the Season 13 cast trip to Isle of Palms, South Carolina. It feels like it’s been a decade since we saw Bolo shake around in his fake Chanel jumpsuit, yet the ladies are still arguing about who kissed who that night.
On Day 3 of the trip, Kenya Moore miraculously recovered from her accident in the previous episode, and she had a lot of catching up to do. Monyetta Shaw arrived and filled her in on all of the drama, which filled the audience in on the drama, too, since most of it happened after production wrapped.
Apparently, Marlo and Monyetta filmed the argument about LaToya and Drew. However, Marlo sent the video to LaToya in a moment of pure messiness. And then LaToya forwarded the footage to Drew.
Playing damage control, Drew spoke to LaToya about whether or not they kissed back in Season 13. LaToya denied it. Did she forget what she said at the Season 13 reunion? The producers sure didn’t, and they rolled those tapes.
Drew’s conspiracy theory on the issue is that Kandi was trying to use this rumor to get her primed and ready for her steamy role in Todd Tucker’s movie. That might be a stretch.
At this point, the whole story is messy. Who cares if Drew kissed LaToya? Drew can kiss whoever she wants. It’s also highly bizarre that a one-and-done “friend of” from two seasons ago has suddenly been thrust into the middle of a feud. Who would ever think LaToya, of all people, would be a driving force behind the drama during the cast trip?
Courtney clocked back in
Let’s talk about Courtney Rhodes. Cousin Courtney clocked in during the last days of the Portugal trip. She’s been a chaos agent since she first came onto our screens. This episode proved that point even further as she found herself in multiple feuds this episode.
While playing catch-up, Monyetta told Kenya about another unusual interaction the night prior after the cameras went down. She explained how Sanya Richards-Ross, Shereé Whitfield, and Marlo Hampton were talking to Courtney about her cousin Drew.
They were talking smack about Drew and how she’s a chronic liar. They also gossiped about Drew’s tendencies to flip-flop on and off camera. Monyetta said she felt like a “collusion” was happening between the Marlo, Sanya, and Shereé clique.
Of course, the word “collusion” makes everyone think of a certain former American President and a tumultuous time in politics. But really, Monyetta has clocked that there is an alliance between Shereé, Marlo, and Sanya. There was collusion.
Later in the episode, they brought that up to Courtney. She deflected and pointed the finger at Monyetta for being messy. Drew later pulled her cousin aside and told her to be careful trusting Marlo. That’s sound advice, especially since we can all see the wedge being driven between the cousins.
Courtney also clocked in during this episode and tried to fight with Kenya. She’s been nipping at her ankles for a few episodes now and telling everyone that Kenya’s fall resulted from karma. Kenya tried not to pay her too much attention during the trip. But in her confessional, she said Courtney was like Pinocchio, being puppeteered by Marlo.
A whole holistic experience
After two full days in Portugal, the ladies finally embarked on their first holistic experience – a sound bath. They went all the way to Portugal to do a sound bath. Surely, they could have done that in Atlanta, but Shereé explained that the stress relief could help her fibroids.
During the sound bath, the editors tried connecting the healing journey to the ongoing solo storylines. Sanya reflected on her family issues. Drew thought about her marriage. Interestingly, the sound bath made Kenya feel even more thankful for having Brooklyn in her life. It also made her itch for the possibility of having another kid.
It was lovely to see the ladies settle down for a bit and finally do the “healing” that Shereé has been talking about nonstop for three episodes. However, the healing energy didn’t last long. After the sound bath, the ladies convened for lunch at a bizarre, U-shaped setup of tables. Although they literally just stepped out of the sound bath, the wine started flowing, and everything went to hell pretty quickly when the LaToya kiss got brought back up.
Marlo and Drew clashed over the secret recording that was sent to LaToya. As things got heated, Drew threatened to flip the table on Marlo, and Marlo replied, “You’re upset cause you lied?”
Then, Drew went on a rampage and read Marlo down into the ground. She said, “Why don’t you worry about getting your case expunged? Focus on them dead hair follicles that you can’t get to grow back.”
Yikes! Marlo clapped back by commenting on Ralph Pittman, his career, and their tax issues. It never takes long for things to go below the belt with these two.
With the insults flying, Shereé made a teary-eyed plea for everyone to stop fighting. Were those tears real? Probably not. But, Shereé said she felt embarrassed that they were having this huge fight just 40 feet away from the sound bath. Maybe they didn’t stay in the sound bath long enough?
A text from Ralph
For the final day in Portugal, the ladies headed to a winery. Is anyone else’s liver hurting from watching this cast trip? It’s unclear if a winery trip will be helpful for the holistic healing journey, but more power to them!
After a few wine samples, Marlo randomly announced to the group, “I just got a text from Ralph!” Ralph, as in Ralph Pittman, as in Drew’s husband. Why in the world is he texting Marlo?
She read the text out loud to the group. He wrote, “Marlo, I understand you’re saying disrespectful things about me on this trip.” He told her to keep his name out of her mouth, which left the ladies flabbergasted. Why would he get involved?
Although this seemed like the catalyst for a huge fight, Kenya convinced the ladies to put the argument on the back burner, so the trip ended on a positive note. The ladies wound up doing the “Cuff It” challenge with a bunch of Portuguese locals. Portuguese wine is apparently the key to keeping the peace, but did anyone feel like any “healing” was achieved during the four-day excursion to Portugal?
Drew said she didn’t think anything was healed but did learn a few geography lessons along the way. Marlo said if anything, everyone is worse off after the healing trip. Sanya was just happy to end on a positive note.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta continues Sundays on Bravo at 8/7c. Next week, the ladies will return to Atlanta to see if any “healing” can carry over into their real lives.
TELL US – DO YOU CARE IF DREW KISSED LATOYA? WAS IT APPROPRIATE FOR RALPH TO TEXT MARLO? DO YOU THINK ANYTHING WAS HEALED DURING THE PORTUGAL TRIP?
