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Florence, Italy gets bombarded by The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Dorit and Amanda are still dancing around their issues and Kathy‘s peacemaker ways take a turn. While Sutton tries her hardest to make Amanda feel comfortable within the group, Rachel is left reeling when her ex messes with the family dynamic in a big way.
As group one settles in, group two makes their way to the villa. Dorit is bursting to bust out her Italian and reminds us any chance she can that she speaks it fluently. When they arrive to the villa, Erika eloquently refers to it as “movie sh*t” and Rachel feels as though this is the setting of a romance film.
Jennifer Tilly and Kathy land in Italy (after much ado). Jennifer talks about taking some thirst trap pictures in the nude as Kathy comments on, of all things, the bushes at the villa. Typical.
Rachel is happy to hear that her kids seem to be doing okay with their dad and Sutton struggles to get dressed for the evening, considering her bags are stuck in Germany. Kyle wonders how Sutton’s roommate situation is going, since Sutton opted to stay with Amanda. Kyle thinks that Sutton is doing the most to try and make an uncomfortable situation better.
The women trickle into dinner and Rachel is amazed by Jennifer’s commitment to fashion, in the best way. Not that anyone is surprised, but Dorit is late to dinner, once again. Erika takes it upon herself to prod Dorit along, since there is a special treat waiting for the women that cannot start until Dorit’s arrival.
Amanda is just fine with Dorit running late. Amanda has not seen Dorit since she’s come back from the Hamptons, so to be honest, she is totally fine with Dorit never showing up!
Much to Amanda’s chagrin, Dorit arrives and they are whisked away to the in-house theater for the grand surprise. Erika is ready to start Erika Jayne-ing; however, another performance is scheduled. An opera ensues and all but Amanda seem to be engaged.
After the opera, Amanda feels the urge to speak with Dorit, who brushes her off. Amanda needs to show Dorit that she cares and that she wants to fix this relationship. Until then, Dorit keeps shutting her down because of Amanda’s “weenie” tactics.
Rachel is loving this al fresco dinner and claims she belongs in Europe full time. The dinner is smooth until Kyle calls Dorit out for being out to dinner with PK. Erika is aghast that Dorit did not share this, since she considered them close friends. Dorit purposely omitted this tidbit because there are certain people she feels safe talking to. It’s almost like Dorit is punishing Erika because Erika did not tell her about her new romance. Tit for tat?
At the end of the day, the dinner with PK had everything to do with the kids and the creation of a consistent schedule. She feels some relief after the PK dinner and Kyle is hopeful that now Dorit will be in a better place mentally.
Erika points out her shock that Sutton and Amanda are sharing a room, considering how things went at Amanda’s house. Sutton shares that she chose to share a room in an effort to help Amanda. Sutton does point out that it’s ok for Amanda to have an opinion, but she should have said it to Dorit first.
Dorit chimes in and reminds Amanda that she does not know her well enough to form said opinion and she felt like Amanda instead put all the blame on Kyle. Rachel asks Amanda her actual opinion and Amanda points out that almost everyone shares the opinion that Dorit talking badly about PK is a bad move (once again taking the blame off of her).
Dorit explains that if a friend is coming from a good place, it’s one thing. But if they keep talking to others about it, it doesn’t feel like they are much of a friend. Kathy warns Amanda that when you do not know someone well, you “read the room and know your place.” This is amazing considering Kathy is usually the peace maker.
Amanda lets the group know that she actually made an informed decision. She saw many parents talk badly about their partner in front of children during therapy sessions, but that’s not the issue since Dorit never said anything bad about PK to her kids… Amanda is directed to be in the friendship box, not the therapeutic box.
Dorit lets Kyle know that she needs nothing from Amanda. Amanda wants to know why Dorit went back 357 blog posts to dig up her cult past. Kathy, on fire, pipes in and says, “If I was annoyed with somebody, I’d do a deep dive.”
Dorit claims she simply Googled Amanda and of course Amanda denies this information is readily available, wondering if Dorit was merely trying to find dirt. Dorit probes to hear the highlight reel of Amanda’s cult past. Amanda, seemingly bored, states that she was recruited by her youth pastors (along with others) to come with them for a church internship. Things quickly turned controlling and isolating. Amanda was able to escape in the middle of the night and filed a complaint about the lead pastor.
Erika and Kyle realize how impressionable Amanda must’ve been in her young twenties. A cult can be a tightly controlled environment, not just a Manson compound. Amanda smugly lets Dorit know that she is grateful Dorit dug this up, since now she has her next book idea ready to go. And, in case you forgot, Amanda CAN write a book, she’s “proven that.”
Sutton is trying her hardest to make sure Amanda feels comfortable and the next morning, they head to breakfast together. Amanda is literally walking around with her laptop, live-writing her book in Florence, which seems a little much.
Amanda believes the energy the night before felt hostile whereas she tries to speak from a calm place. Sutton freely tells Amanda that she would go crazy if someone took something from her past and judged it, the way Dorit did to Amanda. Kyle points out that if Dorit had such an issue with Amanda judging her marriage, then how dare she judge Amanda for being in a cult?
In the meantime, Rachel gets a text that takes her breath away. Her older son tells her his dad sat him down to talk about the girlfriend. A month ago, the girlfriend showed up to the airport when the kids were leaving to go to camp, but now when the boys hear about an official girlfriend, it becomes more real. Her ex knows Rachel is away and sharing this news with her kids now was absolutely done on purpose. The disrespect for the family dynamic is next level and all Rachel wants to do is go home because she just wants to be with her kids…
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RHOBH EPISODE?
