‘Vanderpump Rules’ Original Season 10 Finale: Raquel Turns Into a Terrorist
Tonight’s episode of Vanderpump Rules, the fourteenth of its revivifying tenth season, was supposed to be the season finale. Season Ten was supposed to end with Ariana and Katie celebrating the menu of their feminist WeHo sandwich shop Something About Her, followed by Lisa Vanderpump blowing out the candles of her birthday cake at SUR before delivering a heartwarming, made-for-TV speech about how much she loves everyone. But that didn’t happen, because Tom Sandoval (and by extension Raquel) can never not suck all the oxygen out of the room.
Episode 14, titled “There’s Something About Her,” became the penultimate episode of Season Ten when it was revealed in March that Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss, one of the most egregious reality-TV couples since Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian, were carrying on a months-long affair behind the back of Ariana Madix, Sandoval’s partner of a decade and Leviss’s best friend. Bravo sprung into action, resuming filming to capture the fallout of what’s come to be known as “Scandoval,” which will comprise next week’s earth-shaking finale episode.
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“There’s Something About Her” opens with Ariana still in denial over Detective Lala’s reveal last week that Sandoval had prioritized partying with Raquel at a Labor Day BBQ down in Newport over returning to comfort his long-term partner over the loss of her beloved grandmother. (Ariana is going to kick herself when she watches this.) We also have Raquel, in a particularly brazen move, purchasing a gold lightning-bolt necklace for $780 while shopping with Charli that matches the one we’ve seen around Sandoval’s neck. How Charli doesn’t immediately clock this as weird as hell is beyond me, then again Charli is someone who only recently tried pasta for the first time.
Next comes another (probably staged) talk initiated by Schwartz, asking Sandoval if he and Ariana are “doing OK,” prompting Sandoval (yet again) to paint himself as some sort of victim, muttering, “Just my presence… annoys her.” And Schwartz, ever the spineless patsy, replies, “Yeah… it just seems like it speaks to maybe a bigger issue.” In his one-on-one interview, Schwartz expands on this by claiming that Sandoval and Ariana have “devolved into roommates” and are experiencing a “lack of intimacy” — probably because Sandoval is in the throes of a months-long affair with one of her best friends.
Sandoval isn’t close to done with his gaslighting campaign, of course, as he attempts to drill this narrative into our skulls even further, accusing Ariana of laziness and checking out while he is a paragon of virtue because he purchases paper towels, toilet paper, and pens for their home. (They’re gonna need a lot more toilet paper after all this bullshit.) It’s important to note that Ariana is, at this point, in the midst of opening Something About Her with Katie while Sandoval, between prepping his strip-mall hipster-tiki bar Schwartz & Sandy’s and butchering classics with his cover band Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras (and sneaking away with Raquel at any available moment), has been MIA for the better part of a year, though we haven’t seen Ariana try to wring sympathy points from the audience like this. Sandoval is nothing if not an attention whore.
We also know all too well that when Sandoval is in the wrong, he’ll deflect and misdirect to no end. If you question his moves, he’ll throw it back in your face and question yours. If he’s conducting a clandestine affair with his long-term partner’s bestie, he’ll cry victim and also smear his girlfriend as being aloof, distant, and uncaring in the process. It’s textbook narcissism.
Even though Ariana is incredibly understanding given the stream of horseshit coming out of Sandoval’s mouth, Sandoval again takes time to accuse Ariana, this time to her face, of “snapping” at him and “belittling” him. Thankfully, Ariana cuts through the bullshit by saying, “But yet you’re the only person that I’m constantly wanting to hang out with more, and I never get to hang out with you and have it, like, be us. And I’ve said that for months. You peacocking on a night out? Everybody else gets that, and then I get the leftovers.”
She’s not done: “Remember when we would cook dinner and put on The War on Drugs? We don’t do that anymore.” (The War on Drugs is an excellent band, for what it’s worth.) Sandoval sheds some crocodile tears and complains about “having sex four times a year,” even though his ass is never home and out banging Ariana’s best friend. “Well then maybe you need to spend time with me, because I can’t have sex with someone who feels like a stranger,” offers Ariana. Sandoval apparently won’t even watch Love Island with her and somehow invokes Beyoncé in his defense. Please, don’t bring Beyoncé into your nonsense. Have you no shame?
Here, the B-plots kick in. DJ James Kennedy is nervous about introducing his new squeeze, Ally, an aspiring astrologist who seems delightful, to Lisa Vanderpump. Any future visits to Villa Rosa, he reasons, hang in the balance, and who wouldn’t want to spend the day with baby horses and swans? Ally suggests DJJK go to therapy, only to have DJJK boldly declare, “I don’t have childhood trauma,” even though virtually every interaction with his mother, and his teary-eyed confession that he was relentlessly bullied to the point where schoolkids twisted his leg until it broke, strongly suggest otherwise. Schwartz has been accused by a gossip blogger of making out all night with Raquel (this was probably Sandoval, like the Coachella incident), the news of which has rightfully enraged Katie. Something About Her has a little friends-and-family party, and the cutely-packaged sandwiches look bangin’. Can’t wait to try ‘em, ladies.
They all congregate at SUR for an even bigger sandwich-tasting session, and are joined by Ken, Raquel, and a host of others. Katie’s mom Teri gives Schwartz an earful for kissing Raquel in Mexico, hoping to talk some sense into him (I’m not sure this is possible), Lala ponders whether she can find the love of her life in her early thirties (you can, get ‘em Lala) and is contemplating using a sperm donor to give Ocean another sibling, and there’s another yikes interaction between Ariana and Raquel, wherein Ariana calls her “a sweet person” and Raquel pries about the state of Ariana and Sandoval’s relationship — asking them how they’re doing and inquiring about their sex life. “I feel like in a relationship you should want to, like, have sex,” Raquel tells Ariana, before asking, “Do you feel like you’re sexually attracted to him?” Ariana replies, “Oh my god, I think he’s so fucking hot,” and shares that sometimes she doesn’t feel attractive (probably because of how little attention Sandoval gives her). It appears as though Raquel is either pumping Ariana for information or rather selfishly pushing her to break up with Sandoval so she can have him all to herself. Raquel tears up and says, “Now that I’m single, I think sex is a very, very important part of a relationship.” The fact that she is saying this to Ariana, whose boyfriend she’s been having sex with for months, makes this entire exchange feel sociopathic.
Raquel then proceeds to seek out Katie, who is locked in a fun convo with her friends about “eating ass,” to confront her about why it should technically be OK that she’s allegedly (but not really) been making out with Schwartz. She chooses to do this at Katie’s own event honoring her passion project, which is wild. Katie sees through this unhinged ambush and replies, “Why are you talking to me about this right now?” Katie’s mom chimes in, only for Raquel to brush her off with a groaning, “Oh my god,” which, rightfully, sets Katie off: “You’re a little fucking cunt is what you are!” She reads her while the coward Schwartz hides behind some plants, and when Katie and Schwartz try to have a private convo in the alley behind SUR, Raquel materializes again to stir up drama, even though all the stuff between her and Schwartz is, we now know, a giant red herring.
Lala cuts through the crap better than anyone: “I don’t even know why Katie is wasting her time arguing with this buffoon of a person. Come on! We’ve known her a long time! Where you think you’re gonna go?! You’re gonna get nowhere!”
Sandoval and his whiny, nasally voice chime in to interrupt Katie’s mom and defend Raquel/his lover, and then in his one-on-one interview brands Katie “tacky” for “having your mom fighting your battles for you,” as though Teri doesn’t have a mind of her own and he didn’t just butt in to defend his paramour, as he’s been doing non-stop of late. There is no bottom when it comes to this guy. Not a shred of shame. All of this commotion disturbs poor Ariana, who feels torn between Katie and Raquel, so she cries on Lisa Vanderpump’s shoulder. The episode closes with Lisa giving her birthday toast, declaring her love for the group, blissfully unaware of the chaos to come.
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