The Real Housewives of Potomac Recap: Hostile Takeover

The Real Housewives of Potomac
The Rocky Road to Sisterhood
Season 10 Episode 15
Editor’s Rating ★★★
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At the moment, my favorite non-reality television series is HBO’s Industry. I love it for all the reasons that everyone else does, but beyond that, I am enthralled by the premise of a show heralded by a woman who we know from day one is committed to making her life better at the world’s expense, and is willing to claw her way to the top by hook or by crook alongside the caravan of Machiavellian schemers she calls colleagues and mentors. Without a doubt, Harper Stern is my favorite evil Black woman on television right now. When she peers down in slight aggravation as a client strokes out in front of her, I can only gasp in awe at her and her boho braids of doom.

While Harper is the example of Machiavellian plotting wielded for maximum enjoyment, Potomac’s Gizelle Bryant shows how that same kind of scheming, executed poorly, just amounts to misery for all parties involved. It is a wonder of wonders how she can take an incident that rightfully infuriates her — subpar accommodations from the host — and somehow be so insufferable about it that I still find her in the wrong. Still, her ultimate problem is that her lack of tact or consideration propels her to escalate something way beyond any reasonable measure. Is it appropriate to be frustrated with Angel about the subpar accommodations and hosting failures? Absolutely. Is it worthwhile, entertaining, or productive to sit in a private jet and berate Angel for over 30 minutes about the issue, without giving a word in edgewise? Not as far as I am concerned.

Therein lies the conundrum of the show — Gizelle is the most propulsive member of the cast and its anchoring force, and without Karen in play to really keep her in check, the vibe and tenor of the cast accommodates her whims. Multiple women later sheepishly admit that the pile-on of Angel while she was trying to show them the Aspen experience was overkill, but it was almost entirely in the confessionals, not in person. Angel was left to endure the barrage that she was clearly attempting to apologize for on her own, while Wendy leapt to get in unnecessary jabs in edgewise. Not only was this remarkably unpleasant to watch, but it further cements Gizelle as the cast’s gravitational nucleus for the foreseeable future. 

Angel undoubtedly made numerous unforced errors that created this issue, but at this point, she is fully backed into a corner and fighting for her life. She’s being penalized for not being open about her marriage, when they refuse to accept any remarks she gives about her family life as fact; she’s held to the fire over having alliances and friendships, which they all do; caviar bumps (which are a known trend) are unhygienic and classless. She’s berated for assuming that the workers were telling her the truth when they reported the water was back, and for not hearing anything to the contrary from the women, which is a hosting failure but not the most egregious transgression in the world. 

All of this ire would be way more understandable to me if Potomac had a reputation for glamorous cast trips, but we all know that is far from the truth, which is why they continue to recycle the same footage from Cannes and Nevis when Gizelle insists that her standard is the Four Seasons, a hotel chain that we haven’t seen her in once in the last 10 years. Now we have to humor her delusions about hosting top-tier trips, all because the women are afraid to tell her that she has beaten the dead horse already and is now just spouting delusions. It’s in moments like this where it becomes more obvious than ever why Karen is a necessary oppositional force to cut things like this at the quick. 

It’s a shame, because the day that Angel put together was quite lovely: a private jet to Aspen and private whiskey tasting, a shopping trip to Kemo Sabe and private catered lounge, and an extended linkup with Mo where all the women contemplated how much they valued a friendship with Kyle Richards over a night with Aspen’s most eligible mid-life crisis. In concept, the effort should have helped put the women in better spirits, but the women have committed to critiquing every part of this experience, from Monique demanding that Angel answer for her marriage in their second meeting ever to Gizelle blatantly looking past Angel in disgust when she finally breaks down in tears. Nothing about this is entertaining, and by the time they finally go on the shopping trip, I am ready for them to wrap this all up and head back to Potomac. Angel is audibly contemplating whether she should end her journey with these women in Colorado and save herself the headache. 

By the time things wind down and Angel starts to lay out the itinerary for the next day, Gizelle makes her final coup and announces that not only will the girls be going to the Four Seasons, but they will be heading back to Maryland after brunch, and puts the plan up to a vote. It’s a shameless power play, and an unmerited one by any definition. If Gizelle didn’t leave Miami when Mia got drunk and assaulted Wendy, and stayed in Austin while Ashley had them literally dancing with chicken shit while staying in a souped-up Hampton Inn, there is no way she can reasonably convince me that she cannot endure one more day of activities. But left unchecked, the power that Gizelle has over the cast and the show has the potential to corrupt her absolutely. While most of the season has been an entertaining success, this episode showcased the downside of Gizelle’s dominance, creating fertile ground for Karen’s inevitable return. The trip comes to a miserable end next week. See you all then! 

Cherry Blossoms

• Even on an episode that doesn’t center on Stacey, she manages to steal the show. Accidentally eating her contacts? I have been wearing glasses and contacts since the ‘90s, and that is absolutely a singular experience, although I will be saying “20/20 bootyhole” to myself for quite some time. 

• Did we always know that Ashley met her ex-husband, Jack Skellington, at a “membership lounge”? For a second there I thought she was trying to bring Mia back into the group. 

• I get that Jassi really wants a moment to shine on the show, but every time she tries to bring up her marriage as a reference point for anything on the show, I cringe in secondhand embarrassment. There’s no way in this universe or the next that she genuinely believes that her wrangling babysitters for her husband’s harem of co-parents is in any way akin to a breastfeeding mother needing to figure out how to adjust childcare plans for the night. 

• I’ve tried to ignore commenting on this because, for the most part, she has been pulling off the looks, but after the stiletto boots, enough is enough. Why is Wendy trying to put on a fashion show to go to Colorado? Go to Designer Shoe Warehouse, get a sensible heel, and keep it pushing. 

• A short chartered flight is a lot less expensive than I thought. I’m not saying I’m about to fly to the Hamptons every weekend, but it’s definitely more attainable than expected.