RHOBH Rundown: S11 EP10

After finishing her fourteen day quarantine for testing positive for Covid antibodies, Kyle is having all the ladies to her gorgeous home in Palm Springs, well actually La Quinta, which is a suburb of Palm Desert about 25 miles south of Palm Springs. I only mention this because me and mine discovered this the hard way many years ago while vacationing in the area (it’s a long story). Now mind you, this is not the Goddamn house she stole from Kim (that was the old house); this is the new house that she bought with the spoils from stealing Kim's house. BTW, I never understood why L.A. society is always clamoring to get to Palm Springs, because it’s just leaving the desert near the ocean to travel to the desert that is even further away from the ocean. I guess they just enjoy looking up at baron brown mountains, and socializing with old rich gay men.

As all the women pile into Kyle’s house, they catch up on the latest drama unfolding with Erika, who will arrive later because she’s busy closing up her Kunty's Klubhouse; aka the place where she and Gleb, Scooter, and Armie had their secret rendezvous. It’s an expense she can no longer afford. Watching Erika vacate her clubhouse was a poignant scene that really illustrates her new life, and later on she shares a little story with Rinna about how she used to take money for granted. She uses heating her new pool as an example; telling Rinna that for 20 years, she heated the pool at the old house and never saw the bill, but how very different life is when you’re actually looking at (and paying) the bills! I’m sure plenty of viewers were like “Bitch please, cry me a river”, and her little joke about spending the money owed to “widows and orphans.” (which Andy Cohen mentioned later on WWHL) didn’t help matters. I can totally see that, but I still don’t think she knew where the money was coming from.

While we’re on this topic, many fans are becoming increasingly disgusted that Erika hasn’t apologized to the “widows and orphans”, but anyone with half a brain should realize that for legal reasons, she CANNOT talk about the ongoing case(s) at all. Apparently some people have never heard of “Anything you say can and will be used against you (in a court of law)”. However, Erika did come awfully close to commenting on the case(s) when she said, “For 20 years, I was called a gold digging bimbo trophy wife, but now I’m supposed to be this mastermind at hiding assets”. But IMO, Erika is more than making up for it by talking and talking and talking about what is going on with she and Tom personally. While Erika was busy handing over the keys to her clubhouse, Tom was in court having his assets frozen.

Back in La Quinta, in a rare moment of genuine transparency, Dorit talks about how scary it was when HER assets were frozen, and then the scene quickly changes to her helping (a helpless) Kathy Hilton “lug” her bags up the stairs. Is this why it’s called “luggage”? All the women have arrived except for Garcelle who is busy taping her dumb daytime talk show, The Real Talking View, so she will arrive later. Speaking of, Kyle tells us that because Garcelle is “uncomfortable” staying in a house (huh?), and Erika needs some privacy, and Crystal requires a LOCKED door, the three of them will be staying as a nearby hotel. Of course the real reason is there aren't enough bedrooms, and none of these pampered rich women are going to share a room.

As the ladies lounge around, Kyle struggles to construct her famous lasagna dinner as Kathy razzes her. While we're on this subject, am I the only one who finds the banter between Kyle and Kathy awkward and weird? I'm not sure if it's Kathy's ever present (pulled) resting bitch face or Kyle's annoying fake laughter, but for me, their repartee seems as forced as Teresa and Melissa Gorga's. I sense tension, and suspect they never really recovered from whatever it was they were fighting about. I never bought that it was over American Woman.

Erika finally arrives, and once again all the women gather around her to offer their support, but all I'm concerned about is where is Tiago, whom she brought with her. Does her hotel offer a dog sitting service? Struggling to keep it together (but with no mascara stained cheeks this time), Erika tells the ladies that this is also on this day, Tom’s lawyer requested a test of his mental capacity because she doesn’t think he can stand trial. We then find out that even before this ~~defense strategy~~, Erika told Kyle that Tom was deteriorating faster than Joe Biden, but refused to help himself. She believes that this is what led to some of his anger towards her and why he started to treat her badly. Crystal Cunt Foo chimes in an cooroborates Erika's theory by sharing that her father was an ornery SOB when he got Alzheimer's too.

Erika then shares the real deets on the car accident that Tom had a few years ago, telling he ladies that it was far worse than she let on. Erika confesses that Tom didn’t just break his ankle (in a minor accident); he actually drove off a cliff behind their mansion and was thrown from the car which left him in a coma for 12 hours … and she found him! I have to say, this shit is getting good. Erika is kind of all over the place which could have been due to too many pre-dinner cocktails, or production’s shady editing, but nevertheless, some of the ladies (Sutton in particular) are confused, thus offering us a glimpse of the bitchery that is to come (when RHOBH returns in two weeks).

Again, as Rinna forewarned us, Erika is talking honey! She tells her (mesmerized) cast mates that when Tom didn’t call her, which was often, she just assumed he was off with other women (as in plural). Erika then adds that after Yolanda Hadid-Foster-Hadid’s marriage crumbled, she decided to check out Tom’s phone. BTW, this left me wondering; did Erika realize that she just basically accused David Foster of cheating? Anyway, she found tons of evidence on Tom’s phone that he was indeed cheating, some of the affairs lasting several years. To make matters worse, Tom didn’t even deny it. Erika was just stuck dealing with this knowledge. Producer Kyle then asks "What will happen with Erika Jayne?". Erika tells her she has no idea, but in a (perhaps telling) talk head, she says "Everything comes to an end", which this viewer took as EJ is dunzo. Kyle isn't done grilling Kunty; in fact, she's just getting started. Kyle asks, “Why didn’t you leave? You’re a beautiful woman.”, and in a completely defeated and quite voice, Erika responds, “Where am I going ... (long pause, then repeats) ... where am I going?".

This got me thinking. On one hand, Kyle is suggesting that Erika’s only worth is that she’s beautiful, and she could have surely found another rich old geezer to take care of her. But on the other hand, Kunty is basically admitting that she married Tom for financial support and didn’t want to leave it ... so I'm rather torn.

Kathy Hilton then chimes in, pointing out that in situations like these, women often believe that they can’t do any better, and that Tom had trained Erika to think that she couldn’t survive on her own. Kathy then makes another very interesting point about how many marriages that work are built on trust, adding that if Rick Hilton told her to sign a 50-page document she would just sign it without reading it. Surely millions of wives would co-sign that (no pun intended). But still, many viewers are having a hard time believing that as a trusting wife, did just that, despite not having the full story yet.

In a private moment, Sutton shares with Erika the pain of celebrating Christmas during tragedy, telling the story about her father, who killed himself two days before Christmas. Even though he struggled for years, no one saw it coming. We are then shown previously unseen footage of a still grieving Sutton discussing her father's death with her mother at her boutique opening (which her mother did not attend). A sobbing Sutton asks her mother if she misses her father at all, and she (coldly) says no, adding that relationship between man and wife is very different between that of father and daughter. Fair enough.

As mentioned, RHOBH is taking a week off, but this episode left us with a LOT to digest. I tihnk it's shaping up to be one of RHOBH's most memorable and important seasons; right up there with Kim’s addiction and Russell Armstrong’s suicide, and as a result, the ratings are through the roof. As reported, the same cannot be said for the other two franchises in the series which are currently airing.