Real Housewives, Epic Meltdowns, and Too Much Drama: A Delightful Discussion

If you’re a fan of the Real Housewives franchise, you’re in luck because The Gist podcast has got you covered. In a recent episode, they discussed the latest drama on Real Housewives of New Jersey and Real Housewives of Miami, and let’s just say, it’s juicy.

First off, Danielle from Real Housewives of New Jersey has captured the attention of the podcast host, Chris Vetrano. He’s loving her and waiting patiently for her to have an epic meltdown that rivals Teresa’s infamous table flip. But not everyone is impressed with Danielle, as Jackie is coming off as desperate and attacking her for no reason other than being the new blonde on the cast. Chris is over Jackie and wants her off his screen.

Meanwhile, Real Housewives of Miami aired its finale, and Chris loved the season, but turned on Alexia during the reunion. He thinks she’s unable to apologize for anything and unwilling to hear apologies from anyone else. Adriana even wrote a letter from Marisol’s liver expressing concern over her drinking problem, which was too far and too much.

But the drama doesn’t stop there. Joe Gorga is going around the party getting everyone drunk, but then he and Melissa judge them for being drunk. Jennifer was stumbling around, and Jackie thought it would be a good time for her to make up with Margaret. Chris thinks that’s low down and dirty.

Aside from the Real Housewives drama, the podcast also talked about Lisa Vanderpump’s disappointment in Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz for not opening their restaurant yet, despite having a completed space and staff.

But, the most interesting topic of the episode was Lindsay and Danielle’s relationship. It’s starting to show cracks, with potential codependency and unhealthy dynamics. And let’s not forget, Chris felt that the episode was chaotic and hard to follow, with a lot of yelling and talking over each other. Here’s hoping for more control and resolution in future episodes.

So, if you’re looking for a good laugh and some drama-filled entertainment, The Gist podcast has got you covered with their Real Housewives analysis.

Transcript: Real Housewives Breakdown + Karma Brown on Summer House + Vanderpump Rules

[0:00:19] Chris Vetrano: Hello. It’s Chris Vetrano and you are listening to The Gist, where we break down all of the things that are happening in pop culture. It’s a Monday, so that means that we are covering everything that happened on Bravo last week, I think starting with a couple of hot topics. Winter House is filming currently, so we’ve seen a couple of photos. We know Tom Sandoval, who was originally supposed to be on the series, is obviously not. He’s going through some things. But Tom Schwartz did film. He obviously was back for the Vanderpump Rules reunion back in La. So maybe he’s just on Winter House for a short weekend. But he was there. We also have seen photos of Captain Sandy from below deck filming with the cast. Why? It’s a really good question. I’m not sure. Not sure why we’ve got Sandy crossing over on all these shows now.

[0:01:18] Chris Vetrano: I don’t know if I need that. But we have seen the photos, so we know that she’s going to make an appearance. And then obviously, Ultimate Girls Trip premiered over this last week. We got the first three episodes and I’m obsessed. I think this is potentially one of the better Ultimate Girls trips. I loved season two so much that I really didn’t think that it could be topped. But there’s a lot happening already. Like, these women are really bringing it. I cannot imagine it without Portia. But we’re going to cover all of Ultimate Girls trip in a special episode coming up in about two weeks. I have a special guest. You may know him. He’s a journalist and he covers all things Housewives and Bravo gibson John’s. He will be here to cover all the things Real Housewives Ultimate Girls trip. So we’re going to hold off on covering that.

[0:02:15] Chris Vetrano: But getting into this week’s Bravo episodes, we will start with New Jersey. So I’m just loving Danielle. Guys. She is like potentially my new favorite housewife. And this could be of all the franchises. She’s just good TV. She’s giving drama. I’m waiting for her to flip a table because did you feel her energy this week as she was getting angry? I mean, she had the wherewithal to actually leave the party when she was feeling heated. But I’m kind of surprised that producers didn’t try to push her to stay because had she stayed, we may have had an epic meltdown that rivals Teresa’s table flip. So I think we’ve got some good stuff here. I think we’ve got some good stuff here with Danielle. Speaking of Danielle, Buck, Jackie okay for calling her a clearance aisle snookie. Jackie is just so desperate and she’s coming off so just thirsty this season. And it’s like she’s attacking Danielle for no reason other than that she’s the new blonde on the cast.

[0:03:31] Chris Vetrano: And Jackie’s feeling jealous because there is absolutely no reason for her to have so much hatred towards this woman. And she doesn’t even know her. And so yeah, I’m over her, Jackie. You can get off my screen now and then I also think that just the fact that Danielle and Rachel are filming on their own, they have their own scenes. That’s huge. A lot of times when we get new housewives, they have to film. With legacy housewives for the first season, you don’t get a lot of airtime. You also don’t get a lot of their family and back stories. And we’re getting a lot of that from both of these women. So I think it speaks volumes about the Rachel, by the way. So they’re at the shore. That’s the main part of this episode. This week was at the Jersey shore and Rachel shorehouse. When they showed people arriving, I thought they were arriving at her actual house. The shorehouse is massive.

[0:04:36] Chris Vetrano: I’m wondering, what does her husband do? Because we know it’s not modeling after his big modeling debut on Law and Order. Or was it law and Order? I guess Law and Order SVU or something. But, yeah, we know it’s not modeling because we also have eyes. But what does he do? Because good for him, man. They’ve clearly got some money because that shorehouse is massive. It didn’t have a ton of furniture, but it was big. Let’s see Marge. Another one where I’m just starting to get over her. It’s like she’s just going after everyone. There’s no one that’s safe from Marge, and she’s on the wrong side. She’s always trying to stir drama, but then also be on everyone’s side. So she’s, like, going after everyone, planting all these bombs, and then trying to pretend like she’s part of everyone’s friend circle and it doesn’t work.

[0:05:38] Chris Vetrano: And then she’s telling Melissa that Marge senior got invited to the wedding. And then they go to a clip where Theresa was kind of put on the spot, and her mom was kind of like, oh, your wedding. And Teresa just said, like, oh, well, you can come with Marge. That happens sometimes when you’re planning big events and someone starts talking about it and you feel bad that you haven’t invited them, and so you sort of throw out, like, a nonchalant invite. We’ve all been there. It wasn’t like Marge senior got an invite in the mail. But of course, Marge has to bring that to Melissa to really stir that pot, given that Melissa’s family wasn’t invited and she’s just trying to throw gasoline everywhere, and I really don’t like that. And she’s saying that she’s made up with Theresa, but really, she’s doing a lot of back end work to kind of continue to sort of just turn things around. I mean, she’s definitely siding on the team, joe and Melissa side of all of this, which I’m also a little worried rachel is starting to do the same thing. And I know Rachel came in as a friend of Melissa, so she has loyalties there. But she could be a good housewife and I’d really like to see her not be so one sided. I do think that she speaks her mind. She’s willing to have a voice of her own. So I think that’s what makes her a good housewife. But I don’t love that she’s so team Joe and Melissa and Marge, and she just seems to kind of be on the wrong side of what this cast is bringing this year.

[0:07:21] Chris Vetrano: And then we’ve got Theresa not inviting Melissa’s family because, of course, they’re going after her on social media. And so we got a little bit more of that. The producer sort of pulled that out of Theresa around, like, why tell us more about why you’re not inviting them to the wedding. And then they actually showed a lot of the social media posts that Melissa’s family had made and saying horrible things about Theresa. So I get it. That would be enough reason for me not to want to invite somebody. So I get that. And I think Louie apologizing to Melissa’s mom, saying, we didn’t want there to be any bad blood in this decision. And he did kind of throw Teresa under the bus in a way that was like, well, it wasn’t my ultimate decision, but he doesn’t know them. I think that that was a nice thing that he did. But then Teresa got a little annoyed with that and was like, well, if you want her there, invite her to the wedding. And then he’s, like, running around the party looking for her to invite her. I thought that was kind of odd. It’s like, you know what? She wasn’t invited.

[0:08:27] Chris Vetrano: Let’s just stick with that, because then that feels just I mean, where I was talking about, like, March Senior getting invited because Teresa was put on the spot, this is kind of another there was already a big issue about you not getting invited now to invite you just feels wrong. So I didn’t love that. And then I think the party was just so wild. Of course, Joe Gorga is just going around the party, getting everyone just totally shit faced. And the irony is that then he and Melissa will talk about how shit faced everyone was and judge them. But Jennifer was she was spinning. That girl could not stand straight. She couldn’t walk a straight line if you paid her, and that girl loves some money. So it was probably not wise of Jackie to see Jennifer sort of stumbling around the party and say, you know what, Jennifer? Now would be the right time to go make up with Margaret. That’s just some low down, dirty bullshit. And again I don’t need Jackie. She is not a favorite this year. I liked her in her first season, and then she really just went downhill for me, so I could do without her. And then, like I said, we got the Jackie’s going around kind of talking about Danielle and the family dynamic of Danielle and her brother, which she’s saying there’s got to be something more than just like this instagram unfollow that has broken this family apart.

[0:10:07] Chris Vetrano: And Danielle can hear that she’s being talked about, and she’s just getting fiery and worked up. I’m excited to see more of that. I want to see more of where that kind of takes us and see her hold these women accountable, too. If you’re going to talk shit, let’s go. And I love that she’s willing to just call them on that. And then I guess there’s not really a lot else. I think next week, obviously it’s hit the Internet. In the scenes for next week, we see that Joe Gorga and Louie get into it. And Louie talks about wearing Theresa’s fathers, who has passed away his pajamas in order to make the girls at home feel more safe, which a lot of people have reactions about that it’s wrong. I don’t understand it. I do not think that that was a good thing to say. That’s also not going to make Joe Gorga feel very good to hear that you’re wearing his father’s clothing. None of that made sense. So I’m not here for that, for Louie. I’m hoping that that was edited in a weird way and we find out more to that story next week.

[0:11:20] Chris Vetrano: But yeah, that’s too far. And then on the Watch, what happens live episode after this week’s jersey, we had rachel and Jennifer Fessler were the guests. And Jennifer Fessler has had a full like, she has dropped a ton of weight. She’s got a facelift, she’s got a nose job. I mean, she looks like a different person. And when Andy had talked about her losing the weight, she basically admitted that she is on Ozempic. And we all know that obviously Margaret is as well. I mean, she has Ozempic face and she’s lost all of this weight and they’re friends. So I’m sure that that’s just a thing that these women are talking about as friends. But I was surprised to see her be that open with doing that, especially how controversial that’s been, especially in the housewives franchises. That was interesting. And then let’s see what else, I guess in Real Housewives News, we had just the finale of Real Housewives of Miami this week, the final installment of the reunion. And I talked on this podcast for the last few months that Miami was delivering everything about Miami this season. Ten out of ten, really great season. Had a lot of drama, had a lot of real stuff going on.

[0:12:51] Chris Vetrano: I love the ladies. I’m feeling good in the last couple of episodes. And then in this reunion, I’ve really kind of turned on Alexia. And she’s in her kind of villain era where she’s just unable to see be able to well, first of all, she can’t apologize for anything that she’s done and she’s unwilling to hear apologies from anyone else. And that just starts to make a housewife really toxic. And so I felt like that continued. And then I definitely had felt that Adriana, she did this letter that was from Marisol’s friend, and Andy had to read it out loud, and it was like, I’m worried that Marisol is going to kill me. And it was this whole long letter. And then at the end of it, it’s sincerely, Marisol’s Liver. And basically Adriana’s long, dramatic way of telling us that she thinks Marisol has a drinking problem. And that was too far and too much. And even Andy was like, okay, I think we got to leave it there because after that, I don’t know how you guys come back, because that was so crazy. So it was getting so toxic. And really, I don’t have a lot of notes. I think at the beginning, they were talking a lot about Lisa and Lenny, and Lenny having a lot of affairs for years.

[0:14:18] Chris Vetrano: And I thought one of the things that was sad was Lisa mentioned that she looked back on last season and saw that she had had too much filler in her face. And so she was feeling as though Lenny saw that and thought that she looked ugly, and that was part of the reason that led to his affair. And then Kiki ended up only having a short stint on this episode. But I thought that as she was leaving and Andy gave her a burger, which was epic, I love that she’s like, with extra cheese because I love Kiki. She’s so good. But that Julia was like, oh, the burger. It reminds me of something I did to you this season when she uninvited her to Adriana’s party, or I guess to Julia’s party because of Adriana’s video shoot, she acknowledged that it wasn’t the right thing to do and that she wanted to end in peace with Kiki. They had a hug. I thought that was really nice. But, yeah, for the most part, I just didn’t have a lot of notes because I felt like the whole episode, it was just everyone talking at once, and I couldn’t understand what was being said. Andy was screaming, trying to control the women, and it was just like, a lot of yelling, and I didn’t think that that was very enjoyable, and I was not following a lot of what we were actually trying to get across. So I hope that they rein these women in, because they do that often in Miami. I mean, Miami women are fiery, and so they’ve got a lot to say, but it’s like we also need a little bit more control where they can listen as well so that we can get to resolution. We did, in the end, sort of have some peace across the couches, and Andy kind of helped to facilitate some of that. And then Gertie, as she was seeing this bright spot between Adriana and Alexia and Marisol sort of, like, starting to mend their ways gertie steps in to be like, well, and also, let’s try to fix Larsa and Nicole.

[0:16:20] Chris Vetrano: We did end up in probably a healthier state than where the majority of this reunion was. So that was a great season. I think I’ve said it on the podcast before, but in just a couple of weeks, cameras are being picked back up to start filming the third installment of this new rebooted, Real Housewives of Miami. And no word on casting quite yet, but we assume that most of these women are going to make it back on screen in some capacity, given how short of a time it’s been. We’ve got to wrap up some storyline there. So that’s our Real Housewives for this week. And then on Summer House, I thought it was actually, like, a pretty enjoyable episode. Summer House is kind of in its flop era this season. There’s just a lot where I just am not loving it. I’m finding it a little bit boring. But this one had some fun back in it. I think primarily Sierra was the reason for that as Karma Brown. Bam. The amount of times that she said Bam in her Studio 50 Forest outfit was incredible. And by the way, she looks incredible.

[0:17:41] Chris Vetrano: Her body is, like, so flawless, but her outfit was so great. And just her like she took on that persona in such a way that I hope that we see more Karma Brown. We need her at the reunion. We need her in more episodes. I mean, let’s cast her next season because I could use some more Karma Brown in our lives. And then Paige was back. And I know this last week I mentioned on the podcast that Paige is I’m kind of forgetting that she’s there. She’s kind of boring. I feel like all she does is sleep. She did sort of wake up this episode, which was good. But if Paige comes back next season, I think they just need to remove all the beds from the house because if there’s a bed around, Paige will be in it. And so we need to take the beds away because when the is on and present, she’s good. And so she was stirring things up this episode, and I think that that helped. Carl and Kyle had their kind of, like, awkward sort of makeup, but I think that they both made good points. I think that ultimately they recognize that this is like a fight between both of their partners, and it’s not really a fight between them.

[0:18:58] Chris Vetrano: They’ve got some stuff that they need to work through from a professional setting. And so I think that they ended in a good way. And then when Carl said when he tried to kind of recap for Lindsay, yeah, I think Kyle and I are in a good place, but I think it would be great if you and Amanda could also get to a good place. And Lindsay was like, don’t come for me or something. And Carl responds with, oh, you’ll know, if I’m coming for you. I was like, you saw Lindsay’s face ace go to that. Like, how many sandwiches have you made for me place. But she controlled herself. That’s growth. She did not pop off. But there’s also something a little bit strange about how quickly she can recover from stuff with Carl. She’s really holding on to this relationship, and that’s either a really good thing or a really unhealthy thing, which is, I think, what the women on the show are really kind of poking at. And it seems like we’re going to get there more. Next episode is that Lindsay is not being herself. Because, obviously when all of the cast, or a lot of the cast is going to go to Montauk, to a party and it’s clear that Lindsay wants to go, like, desperately wants to go, and Carl, who’s sober, doesn’t.

[0:20:24] Chris Vetrano: Want to go to a party at 11:00 at night or whatever time it was and go to a house party where it’s just going to be probably like a lot of drugs and drinking. And so she then felt conflicted and she ended up staying. And that can get really unhealthy, too, because it becomes codependent, and then you get resentment, and so it’s only a problem because it was clear that Lindsay really wanted to go. We’ll see how that plays out. I do like Gabby, too, by the way. I think she’s been a good addition. I think there’s a lot of talk when there’s new cast members on these shows that they’re not given a chance and that the community doesn’t really embrace them and bring the in, because I have said things that I’m not really vibing with. Chris the new guy on the house. And honestly, I kind of feel the same about Sam. I don’t think that she is really great TV. I think that she seems perfectly fine, perfectly nice, but I don’t get a lot from her that I feel like I want to watch and invest more time in her. Gabby, on the other hand, is someone that I could invest more time in. I think that she’s got some good TV, she’s got some good moments. But I did think that three outfit changes at her own party was a bit excessive. It was like she was never present at her party because she was just constantly changing into something else.

[0:21:58] Chris Vetrano: But I do like her. I think that she’s a good addition to this group. And then I think that I’m just trying to think if there’s anything else. I guess Danielle and the Lindsay conversation, we’re starting to see the cracks in their relationship. We’re starting to see kind of like Paige stirred up some of that in the beginning, and then Lindsay and Danielle were able to kind of have some heart to heart about it. But I think it’s starting to reveal these red flags that I mentioned around some of the codependency and some of the things that potentially are happening that aren’t so healthy in the relationship. And as I said, next week we’re going to get it looks like a girl’s night dinner where Lindsay is like, there’s absolutely no reason that I should go to a party when my boyfriend’s at home. And Danielle was like, I take offense to that because the reason would be to hang out with what I thought was your best friend. So it seems like this is where we’re going to start getting into their big fallout. And so that’s coming. And then Lindsay, at the end of the episode, because Carl asked her to, went up to Amanda and said, do you want to get together? It was a very awkward invite. And Amanda was really clearly taken aback from the whole thing. She was like, we haven’t hung out in three plus years, and this is going to be kind of awkward, but I’m assuming that cameras will be there for that and we’ll see that next week. So that’s how that episode ended.

[0:23:40] Chris Vetrano: But yeah, that was Summer House this week. And then vanderpump rules. Last week we released our Vanderpump Rules episode that we dedicated to the midseason trailer. And my predictions, my top ten predictions, or I guess more my dreams of the things that I hoped happened at the reunion because the episode came out the day that they were filming. We haven’t gotten a ton from the reunion. We do know the seating chart. We know that Tom and Raquel are sitting together. We know that Ariana is sitting across from them. Tom Schwartz is sitting next to Tom Sandoval. We know that Raquel and Sheena did not film together due to the restraining order, but they were both on set. And then they played musical chairs, essentially. And while the other person was backstage, they got to watch. And I’m sure that we’re going to see them react to what was being said from the dressing room. So that’s how they’ve dealt with the restraining order. So we know some of those things that came to be.

[0:24:49] Chris Vetrano: But we also learned Lala had kind of posted like a pre her getting glammed for the reunion on her stories and mentioned that producers were taking phones from all the cast members because that there was somebody that was leaking information. And so I wonder who that could be. But yeah, so they took all of the cast phones and so we didn’t end up getting a ton, although we did end up with some paparazzi shots of Tom Sandoval and Raquel in the parking lot during kind of like a break. Apparently Tom smoking cigarettes and yelling at producers and Raquel vaping with someone needs to tell her to turn that down because, my God, the cloud of smoke that came out of her little body. Wow. But she probably needed a big old inhale of that after what she had gone through. So we see them together. It is ironic because I mentioned this last week, but the day before the reunion filmed, there was all these paparazzi shots and paparazzi video where Raquel did an interview in like a dirty strip mall. Well, it was a company that is famously known for celebrities that hire them to come sell stuff to TMZ. So everyone is of the assumption that Raquel had hired these folks so that she could kind of start building her own narrative ahead of the reunion. And then this is the same company that just happened to get photos of them in the parking lot during their break. And there are no other photos of the cast during the filming of reunion that we have seen from paparazzi. So we’ll let everyone sort of just put the pieces of that puzzle together and connect the dots there. But, yeah, that’s really all that we have as of now that’s really come out of the reunion. But for this week’s episode, we start off with the continuation of Guys Night where Raquel and Charlie show up.

[0:27:05] Chris Vetrano: And I’m sorry it had to have been happening at that point. The way that Tom Sandoval kept looking at Raquel, it was creepy. And again, Andy swears they’re not recutting these episodes. And the fact that we have this footage, it is really creepy in the way that he is watching her and defending her and talking to her. Something had to have been going on if there wasn’t already P and the V. Tom wanted that at that point. That’s when he knew that’s what he wanted. So it was really wild to see all of that. And also, James was invited and James was like, I have to go because Raquel’s here. And true, Guys Nights should be like, well, actually, we should just ask Raquel to go because it’s supposed to be a Guy’s Night and we invited you. But instead that didn’t happen. And later, James mentions that he feels like he’s being edged out and Raquel is taking over his spot in the group, which is like, maybe a little sad just because I could see how he would feel that way. And the back in the girls trip, we see Lala just getting juicy and wet over the sky. Wow. I didn’t need to know as much detail as we got about her bedsheets the next morning, but Lala is horny and she just was spraying all over this episode.

[0:28:48] Chris Vetrano: That’s all. I’ll say sorry to everyone that was listening because I’m sure that you all just cringed, but it was she even said it. It was insane. I was like, okay, Lala is too much. This episode, she just like, she needs some D. She needs to get something back in the regular because she is out of her mind. Then we get the sit down with the two Toms and Lisa. And Lisa, again, is like, why isn’t your restaurant open. I don’t understand it either, really. I get there’s intricacies and things of opening these types of businesses, but they did this big Daily Mail party. I think it was Daily Mail and we saw it. So they’ve got food, they’ve got drinks, they’ve got staff, they’ve got a restaurant that looks done. I really don’t understand why it’s not open either. So Lisa is really pressuring them and saying they’ve got to get it open, and they’re both kind of making excuses as to why it’s not. Oh, we got Sheena’s wedding, we’ve got this thing.

[0:29:56] Chris Vetrano: And I’m thinking maybe if both of these guys.