After coming to the realization Rachel is “purposefully not talking” to him, Sandoval tries to make amends with his costars — especially James Kennedy — on an awkward, Ariana-less trip to Tahoe.
With Ariana Madix out of the picture during a trip to Lake Tahoe, Tom Sandoval appeared to make some headway smoothing things over with the rest of the Vanderpump Rules cast.
Lisa Vanderpump previously suggested to Tom Schwartz that he invite everyone to Tahoe to check out her new restaurant, something everyone other than Ariana and Katie Maloney took him up on. LVP thought it could be a way for Schwartz to get tensions to cool between Sandoval and the gang … and she may have been right.
Before the trip, the Toms chatted about Rachel Leviss — after Schwartz was texted some headlines about her reverting back to her old name and her getting out of a mental health facility. While Sandoval knew both things were happening, he hadn’t heard from her.
“I went to send her a text message and instead of it coming up green, it went through blue. That means her phone was turned back on,” he said. “I said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if ur out yet but I just wanted u to know I’m thinking of u, and I hope ur doing ok.”
He got no response, adding in a confessional that after he didn’t hear from her on his birthday, “I started to think something was going on and she was purposefully not talking to me.”
The boys thought the Tahoe trip would be a good opportunity to “start healing and move on” and hoped they could all have fun, despite all the drama.
Talking to LVP on the phone after they landed, Sandoval got emotional as he said Scheana Shay — who he previously had a pretty bad falling out with over the affair — said hello to him at the airport. “It was very surprising,” he said, as Schwartz added, “A little humanity from the gang. You haven’t gotten much of that. Just to get a hello by people who are disgusted by your essence is nice.”
Sandy started to cry, saying the interaction left him a little more optimistic about the future — and adding in a confessional, “Scheana saying hi to me at the airport like that, it felt like a hint of acceptance.”
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Things were still a little awkward, however, once they all got to their shared rental for the getaway. In the house were both Toms, Scheana and Brock Davies, Lala Kent, James Kennedy and his girlfriend Ally.
Right off the bat, Brock didn’t hold back — telling Sandoval he “put everyone’s friendships in a really difficult position” thanks to the scandal.
“What I did was horrible. But neither Raquel nor I did that with any malicious intent,” he said, before adding that they both felt they were treated by the cast “with very specific malicious intent” after everything came to light.
“Your feelings are valid, but you have to understand there are other people involved. We’re not your enemy, we’re just very hurt friends,” Brock told him.
In a confessional, Tom expressed his frustration at the situation — which, of course, his actions caused — saying the group was “failing to acknowledge the way they came after me” following the scandal. “Talking s–t about me on social media, selling merch, hardcore pushing conspiracy theories on podcasts. This isn’t just about them forgiving me, this is something we need to mutually move on from together,” he added.
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During a group meal later in the hour, Lisa put James on the spot and asked him to share something positive about Sandoval. “That felt awkward, Lisa,” said Tom, as Kennedy simply said it was “nice” that they were all able to sit at a table together without it all going to hell.
Tom also spilled about his dealings with Ariana as they ate, saying that he gave her an offer to buy her out of their home — but had not actually spoken with her since they filmed the reunion. “If she wants to talk to me, I would totally talk to her. If it’s just gonna enrage her, I don’t want to do that,” he added.
After dinner, the group went out for drinks together sans LVP, with Sandoval asking James if they could go for a walk to clear the air between them after Kennedy went off on him at his birthday party earlier this season.
“I don’t want to cause any problems, I don’t want to create hostility. I just want to coexist. When it went down, I was scared to talk to you. It was so overwhelming,” he said. “I never, nor did she, mean to hurt anybody.”
That, said James, still didn’t give him an excuse to “deceive and betray.”
“Nobody wants to hurt anybody, but you knew it would,” Kennedy told him. “You don’t think if you were smart enough, you could have ended things with Ariana and made things work out with Raquel, without things blowing up the way they did?”
“If you really wanted to, you walk out the door, say what you wanted to say, look her in the eye, bye bye, shut the f–king door,” he continued. “It just comes down to not being able to man up and leave the relationship.”
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When asked by James whether he thought he and Rachel would be together now that she was out of treatment, Sandoval said he wasn’t sure. He also wasn’t sure whether the affair was worth all the drama it caused everyone.
“It wasn’t just about being with Rachel, it was also getting out of a relationship that I knew wasn’t suiting my life” he added in a confessional, saying, “The path that I was on, was not a good path. It needed to change.”
Tom went on to apologize to James for “discounting” everything they had been through, as one of the few people Kennedy actually trusted in this world.
“I can’t take back what I’ve done and I have to accept what I did and basically embrace it and be like, ‘Yo, don’t ever do that s–t again, you idiot,” he said, before telling James, “I’m sorry.”
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“Damn, I just gotta take this all in. I miss it all, Tom, I miss the whole thing. All the good times. I miss all of that,” Kennedy told Sandoval. “You know what breaks my heart, bro? You were like a big bro to me, you really were. I f–king mean that. And then it’s like, nothing will ever be the same. That’s why I’ve been so angry. That’s why I say betrayal.”
Tom said they could “work through this” at James’ pace, before promising to listen to him more in the future. The episode ended with the two walking back to the group together, with James calling it a “good chat.”
While the two look like they’re in a better place, Tahoe won’t be all rainbows for Sandoval — as a preview for next week showed him and Lala going at it hard during a boat outing with the group.
Stay tuned … new episodes of Vanderpump Rules air Tuesdays on Bravo.
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