The Real Housewives of Potomac Season 8, Episode 3 was titled, “Heaven Is a Place in Potomac,” and that is so correct. When the RHOP ladies are firing on all cylinders like they were in this episode, it’s truly heavenly. This episode felt like a shady paradise.
Episode 3 picked up right where we left off last week at Ashley Darby’s Seaside in the City housewarming party. Inside of the house, Ashley and Dr. Wendy Osefo were fully engaged in a conversation about the newest Housewife, Nneka Ihim. Outside of the house. Robyn Dixon was once again on the defense talking about her relationship with Juan Dixon. She had to tell the group about the friendtervention Gizelle Bryant staged.
Most of the ladies have been actively trying to repair the relationships in the group. It’s easier said than done. By the end of the episode, we learned that there might be a curse afflicting some of the ladies of RHOP. So, maybe Potomac isn’t so heavenly after all.
The coldest housewarming continues in Real Housewives of Potomac Season 8, Episode 3
After Dr. Wendy and Ashley wrapped up their conversation about Nneka, they went back outside and sat with the rest of the group. Wendy started sharing her plans for launching a “talk show” with the rest of the ladies at the table. She dragged on about how her show would only be suitable for people of a certain intellectual capacity, and for some reason, Mia Thornton hollered at that like a hit dog. She asked Wendy, “Why not uplift me?”
Wendy hit back at Mia and said, “You’re slow. I can’t uplift you. You’re too down low.”
Ouch — what a cringe and cutting thing for a professor to say to someone on TV. But, it’s also pretty on-brand for the way Dr. Wendy talks to her castmates every season. She wields those degrees like weapons.
Meanwhile, Karen Huger pulled Robyn inside the house. They needed to resolve their conflicts from Season 7. They both went below the belt last year. While the two OGs couldn’t agree on who started their fight, they did agree to move past it. Don’t start none, there won’t be none. Karen told Robyn, “I won’t repeat rumors about you. I’ll only repeat facts.”
Before the housewarming ended, Wendy invited Ashley and Karen to celebrate her son’s upcoming First Communion. She deliberately excluded Robyn, Mia, and Gizelle, seemingly as a way to get back at Robyn for excluding her from Season 7’s “family fun day.”
Wendy’s Catholicism is a major focus this season — even though this is the first we’ve heard of it after three seasons. Has she recently been saved by Christ, or is this a convenient way to counter a certain rumor that she and her family are cursed?
Where in the world is Candiace?
Candiace Dillard Bassett has been on the outskirts of the group for ages. This season, it’s more noticeable than ever. She wasn’t invited to Ashley’s housewarming party. She’s not even in Potomac because she’s on a nine-city tour performing “Drive Back” at various City Winery locations. Even Karen noted that it felt like Candiace was being iced out from the group. At this point, Candiace’s only close friend in the cast is Wendy.
In this episode, Candiace and Wendy met up for lunch, and Wendy introduced Candiace (and the world) to Kiearna Stewart. She’s a new “friend of” who was clearly hired to serve as some backup for Wendy and Candiace.
Of course, we’ve already kind of met Kiearna through social media. She’s the woman who got into the brawl with Deborah Williams a few months ago. At the time, we definitely thought her name was Keiana, and so did the rest of the internet. Apparently, we’ve all been spelling it wrong. Whoops!
In her RHOP debut, Kiearna with an R probably said a total of eight words. But, we learned that she’s from Baltimore and owns a medical spa. Welcome to Potomac, Kiearna!
The Grande Dame makes her rounds
Karen spent most of this episode running around Potomac, meeting up with the ladies, and getting filled in on all of the city’s gossip. This is all part of her official duties as the Grande Dame of Potomac.
First, she met up with Mia at her 1500-square-foot apartment. They’re still on a handshake-only level, but the fact that Karen is coming to Mia’s house is a good sign of where their friendship is headed. Mia and Karen gossiped about Ashley’s housewarming party, and Mia revisited the argument that she had with Dr. Wendy.
Mia explained to Karen just how much Wendy’s “slow” comment hurt her. She explained that her son is part of a specialized learning program and is in therapy for a speech impediment. Bullies at school have called him “slow,” so Mia felt particularly sensitive to having that word hurled at her in a petty Housewives argument. Make note of this, because we certainly haven’t heard the last of this back-and-forth with Mia and Wendy.
Later in the episode, Karen met up with Ashley to shop for yellow outfits to wear to the First Communion party. Once again, Karen arrived at the scene and got her tea cup filled up with Potomac’s hottest. Ashley told her about the Osu conversation she had with Dr. Wendy, but she admitted that she may have “misremembered” some of the details. Once Ashley sobered up from the party, she realized she had some regrets about sabotaging Nneka’s intro to the group.
Ashley knew she created a mess between Nneka and Wendy, and after talking with Karen, she recognized that it needed to be cleaned up ASAP.
A First Communion to remember
Honestly, nothing says “First Communion” like a boozy brunch with The Real Housewives of Potomac. After Wendy’s kids swallowed their Christ crackers for the first time, Wendy’s family and friends gathered for food, cocktails, and gossip.
During the brunch, Wendy thanked the ladies for showing up for such a special moment for her kids. She was especially thankful for Ashley and Candiace for setting aside their multi-year feud. In a sweet moment, they both agreed that they could be cordial with one another in group settings — especially when there are kids involved! Call that progress.
With such good vibes in the air, Ashley also used the First Communion brunch to apologize to Dr. Wendy for the way she instigated drama between her and Nneka. Was it damage control? Absolutely. But, we know Ashley genuinely felt bad about what she did.
“I think I may have implied that she said that about you being Osu, but she didn’t,” Ashley explained to Wendy. “I misrepresented that.”
You have to give props to Ashley for recognizing that she messed up and then completely apologizing for it. However, that’s not going to stop the drama between Nneka and Wendy because elsewhere in Potomac, there was some serious gossip brewing about the two of them.
Praying for you or praying against you?
Episode 3 ended with Nneka and Robyn meeting up for their first one-on-one, and Nneka dropped a major bomb about Wendy. She told Robyn that she was surprised by how Wendy greeted her at Ashley’s housewarming party. They acted like it was their first time meeting, but Nneka was expecting her to be more aggressive.
She explained, “The past three weeks, [Wendy’s] family has been really aggressive towards me.”
Buckle up, because this is a little confusing. Nneka said that Wendy’s sister Ivy had been contacting her cousin-in-law and saying that Wendy was upset that Nneka name-dropped her when trying to get into the RHOP group. She said that Nneka was a “clout chaser” who needed a restraining order. Then, Wendy’s mom got involved.
Allegedly, Wendy’s mom called Nneka’s cousin and said that it’s a sin to use other people’s names the way Nneka did. She said that she has a shrine where she puts people’s names whom she “prays against.” Clearly, this isn’t a list that any of us want to be on, and from there, Nneka felt convinced that Wendy’s mom did some type of witchcraft on her.
“This woman put a hex on me,” Nneka proclaimed to a “freaked out” Robyn.
Robyn then wondered if maybe she was on the hex list too. Maybe that’s how Juan ended up in that laundromat, in that hotel room, and in that nail salon. Either way, we now have a full-on witchcraft storyline unfolding this season. That’s why there’s truly no place like Potomac.
Real Housewives of Potomac continues Sunday nights on Bravo at 8/7c.
TELL US – WHO WAS YOUR MVP OF REAL HOUSEWIVES OF POTOMAC SEASON 8, EPISODE 3? DOES IT SEEM LIKE CANDIACE IS BEING ICED OUT OF THE GROUP? WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ASHLEY’S APOLOGY TO WENDY? DO YOU BELIEVE NNEKA’S STORY ABOUT WENDY’S MOM?
