The ‘RHONY’ Reunion Was Odd, Weepy, and Ubah (Too) Hot
I’m still not entirely sure what I just watched. The second and final part of the Real Housewives of New York Season 14 reunion was part therapy session, part narcissistic exhibition, and part verbal boxing match—one where everyone in the ring thought they had signed up for a light, friendly lunch at Panera Bread. That’s not exactly uncommon for a Housewives reunion, but both halves of this season-ending special brought a remarkably strange energy, one that the new group of RHONY Housewives had largely managed to avoid in their reboot thus far.
Last week’s episode filled a significant amount of its runtime with compilations and clip packages that reminded us who these new Housewives are, with little attention paid to what actually happened this season. It was, frankly, a boring way to go about structuring the reunion. Tonight’s finale rectified that, but only marginally; we spent just a few minutes in the weeds of this season’s events before the cast members and Andy Cohen came to a clearing. While I suppose some might say that was a necessary way to organize a reunion for a rebooted franchise, it left much to be desired in terms of compelling character development, concluding a fluid season with a head-scratching standstill.
No one came out of this reunion with their star shining any brighter, but if there’s one thing I’m now completely certain of, it’s that I want 100 more seasons of the Jenna Lyons Show. Sad, considering that Jenna doesn’t seem to feel the same way. Whether or not she returns next season is still up in the air, but I think that regardless of her Housewife status, she cemented herself as a versatile, fascinating woman who has so much insight and wisdom to offer.
I was particularly moved by Jenna’s quasi-psychic transference with Brynn in last week’s episode while discussing her difficult relationship with her mother while growing up. Jenna’s mother’s Aspergers made it impossible for mother and daughter to communicate, much less show affection. “She knew that she couldn’t find it,” Jenna said about her mother’s capacity for tenderness. “She was in pain because she couldn’t connect.” Jenna has such a natural star quality that when she opens up, you cannot take your eyes off of her, and you truly feel what she’s feeling. Brynn had that same response, only magnified, given her own struggle with a lack of love from her parents as a young child.
“A friend’s parent hugged me, and I just broke down,” Brynn said, relating to her costar. “When you feel the love that you didn’t get, it’s almost overwhelming. It’s like, ‘I’ve missed this my whole life, and then you kind of get angry and sad.’” I appreciate when Housewives can use their mutual thrust into the spotlight to be able to heal parts of each other, because those moments affirm that this franchise is not just a trashy reality show, but also a moving, therapeutic chronicle of the lives of real women. Two things can be true at once in that respect.
That sort of sweet, special moment is exactly what made Ubah’s parts of this reunion so jarring. At times, it sometimes seemed as though she was misled about what to do in a reunion, and how to approach different topics. In last week’s episode, it took her no time at all to come out swinging at Jenna—and not once, but twice. First, she randomly accused Jenna of being fake, before adding that Sai, Jessel, and Erin didn’t want Jenna on the show, a comment that wouldn’t be addressed until tonight. It ended up being a nothingburger of a remark, given that it was just a misunderstanding based on that trio’s apprehension about a very public-facing person like Jenna fitting in with the rest of the group. But it was enough to make Ubah come off erratic and rude, which I get the feeling was absolutely not her intention.
Though she had some trouble finding her footing in her first reunion, it was Ubah who managed to bring the one shred of legitimate drama to this two-parter. When discussing their trip to Anguilla, and Erin’s famous middle-aged-mom “pranking,” Andy finally dug into the dirt of an actual fight, instead of skimming the surface of these quarrels. We found out that Erin had taken Ubah’s phone for hours, and not 45 minutes like she originally claimed in her confessional. This makes Ubah’s frustration and worry even more understandable than it already was, and Erin is appropriately apologetic.
This Real Housewife’s Hot Sauce Brought Tears to My Eyes
But Andy is also curious about the footage of Ubah coming over to Jenna’s apartment and being upset when she wasn’t told, prior to arriving, that cameras would be filming that day. I get both Ubah and Jenna’s points here; I don’t really think it’s a shock that cameras are going to be around when you’re on a reality show and you’re showing up to see your costars, but I also would want a heads up regardless. When Jenna tries to explain the way that she discussed this in her confessional, saying “I got a taste of Ubah Hot when she came over,” Ubah once again takes issue with her.
Ubah thinks that Jenna was implying that she was angry, when Ubah would simply like to state that she was being assertive. When she tries to clarify that on the couch, Brynn tries to tell her that she wasn’t being assertive, but rather combative. Ubah responds with another not-so-friendly comment: “Amore, maybe you don’t know how to be loved, or how to stand up for yourself.” It’s here where Brynn cuts her off: “Watch your fucking mouth. I’m not afraid of you. You put people in the hospital, I put people in the funeral home. I’m half-Black and I’m half-Irish, you don’t want to fuck with me.”
Ubah plainly tells Brynn to shut up, and the entire group attempts to clarify the minutiae. What it boils down to is that Ubah doesn’t appreciate being painted as a person with hidden “sides,” and Jenna apologizes for the misunderstanding. It seems that there’s a slight language barrier when it comes to how Ubah processes the events of the season, which briefly overwhelms her to the point of tears. It’s an entirely comprehensible reality of having a multilingual cast member who doesn’t know all of the phrases and idioms of the English language, and I do wish that some of the viewers would have more grace with Ubah in that respect before they fire off their tweets about her, despite the fact that her remarks toward Jenna in last week’s episode were indeed strange and unwarranted.
But it was a bizarre reunion, so ultimately, it fit the bill. All of the season’s drama—at least the few things that were touched on, like Sai refuting Jessel’s stories about her upbringing or Sai and Erin implying Jessel’s husband was cheating on her—are wrapped up with a bow, and we can move forward with the next season. I suppose this quiet, fairly simple reunion is just a result of a season that Bravo wasn’t entirely sure would connect with viewers. But I think it’s safe to say that audiences have enjoyed themselves quite a bit; next time around, let’s let these ladies steer their own ship instead of having too many clip packages to do it for them.
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