Part one of the Real Housewives of New York City reunion brought us drama, denials, and memory relapses. This is a rather long recap as it involves events from the entire season, so let’s get right to it.
First we see the ladies seated on opposite sides, according to the “teams” they started and ended with this season. Ramona, Bethenny, and Alex are on one couch, with Jill, Kelly, and LuAnn on the other. We start off the show with Alex McCord, who’s tape footage is mostly about her feud with Jill. Asked about being a “different” Alex this season, Alex tells us she’s not really different, but instead chose to “let it out.” Alex’s only regret this season? Not calling the Countess out on her hypocrisy. This is in reference to LuAnn accusing Alex of choosing sides, when she had in fact become Jill’s lapdog. LuAnn lies through her teeth and claims she never chose sides or teams. Must say self awareness is not a strong point for these women.
This brings us to Jill vs Alex, and Jill, who appears to be channeling an 80s porn star with her overly teased hair, immediately goes into victim mode and once again says she is puzzled by Alex’s behavior this season. Jill calls Alex a coward, perhaps rightfully so, for using Bethenny’s message to get out her aggression against her. Alex tries to explain herself and crazy Kelly blurts out “cross your legs.” We see Jill shoot Kelly an odd look, you know, the type of look a mother gives a child who is acting crazy in public. Alex continues and explains she has tried “over and over” to work things out with Jill. Jill’s defense is she and Alex are not friends, and as we all know, anyone who is not Team Jill gets the wrath of Jill.
Alex also explains what I’ve been blogging along all season, which is that her resentment of Jill comes from three years worth of build up. Anyone who has watched the first and second seasons of the show can attest to this. Alex then goes on to give the best quote ever, summing up Jill with these 60 words –
” Every time you feel threatened whether it is by me, or by anyone else, anytime we have something or get something that you want, or you feel wronged by us, you fight back and you fight back dirty. You go to the gossip columns, you plant stories, you back stab, you try to get people not to film with other people.”
We hear Bethenny agree with Alex when she mentioned Jill asking people not to film with others, but oh, we get to hear more of this later!
Jill then tells the biggest lie of all saying she doesn’t “plant anything about anyone.” In these past few months alone, there have been at least three negative stories in the press regarding her castmates that appear to have been planted by Jill. We see Jill try to project deflect by then accusing Alex of trying to plant a story about her and a charity to the press. Jill claims to have “proof.” Let’s all hope she leaks this “proof” to the media soon because I’m simply not buying it, not one bit at all. I highly highly doubt Alex, who has a job and two young kids to take care of, is spending her free time trying to plant negative stories in the press about Jill. That’s all Jill’s MO.
Next up is Ramona, and we get to see the highlights of the ramonacoaster. Ramona gets an interesting viewer question when a viewer wants to know if she is proud of the way she acted on the yacht, you know when she drunkenly kissed a stranger on the lips. Ramona attempts to defend herself saying she told her husband Mario what had happened, and that it was just an innocent kiss. Kelly butts in and actually makes a valid point, when she says she is surprised Mario was “fine” with Ramona kissing another man, to which LuAnn makes a very catty interesting comment – “Why do you think they’ve been married for so long?”
I find LuAnn’s comment interesting because I’ve always suspected Ramona and Mario might have some sort of agreement or open marriage. No proof of this at all and there’s a great chance I’m wrong. I am however just going by my instincts, based on their behaviors going back to season one of the show. If you recall, Ramona also kissed one of her female friends, who happened to be a former Playmate, on the lips back in season one. Anyhoo, Ramona shares that she doesn’t consider a kiss an indiscretion, so we move on.
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Next in the hot seat is Bethenny, and we immediately see Jill overly congratulating Bethenny and overly complimenting her. “It’s not fair, people in America are going to hate you for this,” says Jill as she compliments Bethenny for her post baby body. But the compliments are not over. “She has good genes,” continues Jill, ending the compliment fest with “you look great.”
Bethenny is then accused of being a media whore and she defends herself saying she’s in the press a lot because of her brand. Kelly’s accusation of Bethenny putting her family in the press in then brought up. (By the way, as a blogger who has covered the past 2 seasons of this show, I can say with 100% certainty that Bethenny has never mentioned a word of Kelly’s family to the press. And I can even attest with 200% certainty that absolutely nothing negative about Kelly’s kids or family has been in the press since she joined the show. Kelly is 100% insane and out of touch with reality. NOTHING negative about her kids or family has been in the press. And I searched again last night.)
Now that I’ve gotten that out the way, Bethenny asks Kelly in what way did she put Kelly and her family in the press and we get to hear an interesting exchange between Bethenny and the Kellamity.
Kelly – What are you doing right now? (asks Kelly who perhaps doesn’t realize where she’s at the point of a reunion show)
Bethenny – ( Appearing puzzled) I’m doing… I’m responding to something that you said, you can’t just say things about people and have them not response… you moron! (okay I admit I added the moron part in there.)
The smart Alex then butts in, saying she never heard anything about Kelly’s family in the press. Bethenny agrees saying “I haven’t either.” We then see a mini confrontation with Alex and Kelly, and something about the tone Kelly used towards Alex stood out to me. It seemed like a rather vicious tone considering Alex and Kelly never had any major disagreements or arguments during the season. Something tells me Jill might have something to do with Kelly’s newly found angst against Alex.
A viewer asks Bethenny a valid question, which is where does she draw the line with the cameras? This was in reference with the TMI scene showing Bethenny sitting on a toilet during the season. Must say I agree with the viewer, it was too much and Bethenny should have closed that door. Countess LuAnn agrees with the viewer as well and proudly lets us know, in her ever condescending tone, that her bathroom is off limits to the cameras. This brings us to another great Kelly moment when she makes the following statement –
“If you’re going to pee on a stick on camera, you should actually have the door open and be peeing on a stick.”
Yeah, I’m not sure what she meant by that either so I will move along. The second best part of the night (the best is yet to come) is when a viewer asks Bethenny why does she feel the need to bring the heavy artillery when dealing with Kelly. “It’s like using an AK-47 to kill a fly,” says the viewer. The real message behind the question completely goes over Kelly’s head who then responds with “Thank you, I am a fly.”
Kelly fails to understand what was really meant by the viewer’s comment. The viewer is pretty much saying Bethenny you are sane, so why even bother with Kelly, who is obviously not sane and unstable. And I must say I actually disagree with this viewer, I thought Bethenny and the other ladies treated Kelly well, especially during the St. John trip. Kelly has spent this entire season being confrontational and antagonistic. While I had some sympathy for Kelly last season and thought she was mistreated by Bethenny a bit, I must say this season has been much different as evident by the events that took place on the trip.
LuAnn briefly brings up the trip and Kelly’s immediate reaction was very interesting. She immediately looks down and appears uncomfortable. Perhaps she realizes her behavior on the trip is a non laughing matter? One can only hope.
It’s now time for the big smackdown showdown and we get to re-live the Jill vs. Bethenny feud once more. Before the footage stops rolling, victim Jill, who had 4 media consultants sleep over her house the night before to coach her for the reunion show, immediately turns on the waterworks saying she doesn’t want to re-live the events anymore. Translation – I don’t want to be held accountable for my actions anymore.
Must say watching the footage of how Jill treated Bethenny brings it all together again. But what really bothers me the most about Jill isn’t even her behavior on the show, but rather her vile behavior off the show. This woman will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She’s a very vindictive and manipulative human being. Her off the show behavior makes the TV Jill look like a saint.
Jill continues with the tears and the excuses. After giving us about a million excuses, she ironically says “there are no excuses.” She tells Bethenny, “I love you.” Be sure to keep that “I love you” in mind when you later read what Jill had to say about her loved one Bethenny on twitter last night. Also keep in mind that this reunion show was just filmed two weeks ago.
Jill finishes rambling and Bethenny is ready to tell it like it is, and boy o boy did she tell it! Bethenny said things that even I as a blogger, who covers the show, did not know. “I’m going to give it to you straight,” says Bethenny.
“This show and this fame thing took you over. The glam, the hair, the make up. You used to be like a nice girl from Long Island.” Ouch! And I must say I disagree with Bethenny, I don’t believe Jill was ever a “nice girl.” I believe this mean girl we’re seeing is the real Jill, and has always been. Bethenny then accuses Jill of not being happy for her when good things happened in her life. Jill’s excuse is that she wasn’t happy for Bethenny because she wanted to do those things with her. Which must explain why Jill called up the Today Show the day Bethenny was set to host it, asking why she wasn’t asked to host instead.
Another point that I’ve wanted to touch on all season is Jill’s claims that she housed Bethenny or put a roof over Bethenny’s head, wanting viewers to think Bethenny was homeless at some point. Nothing but pure BS. Jill simply allowed Bethenny to stay at her Hampton home during one summer and that was it. Another BS claim by Jill was that she “”put” Bethenny on the show. Did Jill recommend Bethenny to the show producers? Yes, but the people involved with the show ultimately had to decide who got on the show, and Bethenny was not an exception. When the producers want to start a housewives franchise, it is common practice that they find one or two women and then ask them to recommend other housewives. For example, Nene Leakes was the one who recommended Kim Zolciak for the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Another rumor is that Jill and her hubby are responsible for getting Bethenny on the Today show. Absolutely false as well.
Earlier this season, I was going to say that Jill’s redeeming quality is that she liked to help others, but then I thought that couldn’t possibly be a redeeming quality if she keeps count of what she does and expects payback for it. Jill is definitely one of those people that will always hold something over your head.
Now back to the show. “It’s just a fact, it’s not like I wanted credit for it,” claimed Jill when Bethenny told her she exaggerated the whole “housing” Bethenny comments. And yes Jill, you do want credit for it, otherwise you wouldn’t mention it over and over and over and over….
“The cameras went up and it was let me slay this girl. You told people not to film with me…” said a fired up Bethenny. Alex and Ramona immediately chime in and agree with Bethenny, and both confirm that Jill did indeed tell them not to film with Bethenny. Jill’s response was simply that she did not remember. What a convenient memory lapse. LuAnn attempts to stick up for her master Jill, but Alex makes it clear that Jill did indeed call her and tell her not to film with Bethenny in an attempt to sabotage her spin-off show. Funny how life works as Bethenny’s show premiered 11 minutes later, with a cameo appearance from Alex to boot.
Bethenny then echoes what most of us suspected, which is that Jill is only sorry because of the backlash. “When sh*t hit the fan for you and your plan didn’t work for you. That’s when you started to be really sympathetic,” said Bethenny.
Jill then brings up the fact that the reason she didn’t want to make up with Bethenny was because she did not want to do it on camera. Can someone please inform Jill that she is on a reality show? Jill accuses Bethenny of denying this when she appeared on Watch What Happens, and I’m 97.898% certain Bethenny did indeed admit on the show that Jill wanted to make up with her off camera. Perhaps someone can find a transcript or footage of this.
Bethenny then makes an excellent point when she says Jill is okay with putting her husband’s cancer and her daughter gong to “fat camp” on television but not okay with making up with a friend. This statement by Bethenny caused victim Jill to then take to her twitter last night and accuse Bethenny of “hurting” her daughter. Here’s what Jill tweeted –
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RT @Bethenny is crossing the line right now… don’t take blows at @JillZarin’s husband and daughter.
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B admitted I wanted to talk off camera to make up. Don’t you get it. I wanted to TALK TO MY FRIEND. It was real.
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Now B doesn’t remember? She told @bravoandy I never said I wanted to talk off camera? She is deflecting. And now hurting my ally?
Wow, so according to Jill, Bethenny is now attacking her husband and daughter? Just when you think this woman has hit her rock bottom, she proves us wrong and hits a new low. Trying to accuse Bethenny of “hurting” your teenage daughter Jill? So not cool. And what Bethenny was referring to was the first season of the show, when Jill spent an entire episode talking about her daughter’s weight, sending her daughter off to a wellness/detox camp of some sort for the sole purpose of weight loss. Jill also bragged about her daughter’s weight loss when she returned home from the camp. So why is Jill now accusing Bethenny of hurting her daughter when she was the one who told millions of people about Ally’s personal weight issues?
Jill’s manipulation seemed to work and some fans tweeted last night that Bethenny did indeed attack Ally. Now remember just two weeks ago, Jill was telling Bethenny how much she loved her. Must say I am terrified to see how Jill treats the people she doesn’t “love.”
After beating the crap out of Jill, deservedly so, with words. Bethenny then realizes using an AK 47 on a fly isn’t a fair fight, and decides the never ending argument is getting catty. Jill claims she is now a “changed” woman, but Bethenny isn’t so certain. Bethenny tells Jill she wishes her the best but isn’t quite sure she has a place for Jill in her life.
And then the slamdunk of the night came when Bethenny tells Jill even sweet and nice Jason doesn’t like her. The crybaby turns on the waterworks and runs away, stomping her feet, perhaps following the advice of one of her four media consultants. Kelly makes some asinine comments and Ramona’s makes the final comment of the night, “She can dish it out, but she can’t take it.” And with that great quote, the first part is over.
Watch What Happens – It was okay with Bethenny last night. Bethenny got a lot of Jill questions and took the high road on pretty much all of them saying Jill had been beat up enough in the press. Ah, if only Bethenny could have seen Jill’s tweets from the previous hour.
Bethenny’s Getting Married? – I watched and I must say I’m not a fan. It was a good show but not for me. I was under the assumption it would be a 30 minute series and not an hour. I realized last night that I don’t want to watch Bethenny without the other NYC housewives, and I don’t want to watch the NYC housewives without Bethenny. So here’s to hoping Bethenny will return for a fourth season. My guess is she will be back.
TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RECAP AND REUNION? DOES JILL DESERVE A BREAK?
