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‘The Real Housewives of Orange County’ Recap: Newbie Kelly Dodd Quickly Makes Enemies by Defending Vicki Gunvalson

Blood is thicker than champagne! On the Monday, June 27, episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County, the women dealt with their families in the best ways they knew how. From their kids’ failing relationships to their concerns in their own marriages, they handled a lot of pretty relatable things — along with a surprising feud-in-the-making, thanks to a new cast member.

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Mending Fences

The episode picked up from last week’s, with Heather Dubrow considering Vicki Gunvalson’s request for the two of them to be friends again. Vicki continued to insist that she hadn’t helped Brooks Ayers lie about his cancer diagnosis.

The brunette awkwardly told Vicki to have individual conversations with all the Housewives and seek forgiveness, but she didn’t exactly tell the OG that she’d forgiven her …

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Heather didn’t have a lot of time to feel bad for Vicki, though, because she was planning a vacation to Turks and Caicos so that her husband, Terry Dubrow, could finally spend some time with the kids. Unfortunately, the Vicki situation just wouldn’t leave her alone. Tamra Judge called the actress as she was packing to ask what they had talked about at the boat party, and Heather was forced to rehash the whole uncomfortable conversation.

Tamra’s own personal relationships weren’t faring too well, either. Back at her house, her son Ryan Vieth was venting about his child’s mother, Sarah Rodriguez. Tamra was trying to give advice to her son, who was once arrested on domestic abuse charges after an altercation with Sarah, but her guilt over being a single mom with Ryan was holding her back.

Shannon Beador and husband David Beador went out to eat for Valentine’s Day, further proving their commitment to rebuilding their relationship after David’s cheating. He got her a necklace that she really didn’t love, but she leaned in and kissed him anyway.

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“My goal is to one day say, ‘I’m happy that my husband had an affair because look where our marriage was able to go,’” she gushed. “I’m not there yet, but I’m over it.”

Know what she’s not over? Vicki’s lies. She went off on her former friend over dinner, comparing forgiving Vicki to a parent forgiving a child who turned out to be a murderer. Dang, Shannon, tell Us how you really feel!

Newbie Kelly Dodd, on the other hand, was going out of her way to be kind to Vicki. She called up the disgraced Housewife and told her she wanted to take her out for lunch the next day. In a confessional, Kelly said she hadn’t liked how mean the other women had been to Vicki at the boat party.

Kelly’s friend Meghan King Edmonds had asked her not to be friends with Vicki, but as Kelly put it, “It’s not Meghan’s world!”

All in the Family

Vicki went to a networking event for her company, telling the camera that with all the Brooks drama last year, she had let work fall by the wayside. She is determined to leave her business as her legacy and wants to make it perfect for when her son, Michael Wolfsmith, takes it over. As she explained that she wants to give him opportunities she never had and make him proud of her by building up the insurance company, it was clear that both he and her business mean a lot to her and that she was ready to make up for lost time.

Conversely, Heather was doing the very opposite of hard work. She and her family had begun their vacation, and Terry told her that he was glad to finally spend some time with the kids … at first. Later, when he and Heather were eating a private lunch with their own butler (as you do), he admitted that he felt guilty about how guilty he didn’t feel to be spending time away from them with his wife.

Tamra and her husband, Eddie Judge, were having a very different problem. They had a long talk about Ryan, and while Tamra wasn’t too worried about her son paying back the money he owed them from the house they procured for him and Sarah, Eddie refused to accept the possibility that Ryan might not pay up. Eddie also told her that she needed to spend less time getting in Ryan and Sarah’s business and to back off of him, reminding her that her son is an adult.

In a confessional, Tamra explained her theory that Eddie doesn’t put family first because he was adopted. Whatever you say, Tamra.

Kelly Dodd, Shannon Beador, Vicki Gunvalson, Tamra Barney, Heather Dubrow, and Meghan King Edmonds on The Real Housewives Of Orange County.
Kelly Dodd, Shannon Beador, Vicki Gunvalson, Tamra Barney, Heather Dubrow, and Meghan King Edmonds on The Real Housewives Of Orange County.

An Icky, Sticky, Vicki Situation

At lunch, Kelly and Vicki had a good time. Vicki told the camera she has a “whoop-it-up radar” and could just tell that Kelly was a fun girl.

Together, they practiced saying, “Whoop it up!” and bonded over their shoe sizes. Then, Vicki opened up about how hard it is for her to be single after having her heart broken by Brooks.

The next day, Kelly, Shannon and Tamra went over to Meghan’s to help with the renovations on her kitchen. They took turns smashing the wall with a hammer and sawing through it, but it might have gone better if they hadn’t been drinking champagne!

During a break, Kelly told the women that she had noticed them being mean to Vicki, and they were not happy to hear it. Tamra asked, “How?” while Shannon simply said, “Wow.”

In a confessional, Meghan sighed over Kelly not using the opportunity she gave her to win over Shannon and Tamra, saying, “You don’t talk about politics, you don’t talk about religion, and you don’t talk about Vicki!”

Kelly was on a roll, though, and told Shannon that she, in particular, had been aloof and unkind.

The other women tried to tell Kelly about their issues with Vicki, but she wasn’t interested in hearing it. Kelly sympathized with their problems, but wouldn’t stop defending her new friend.

When Tamra started to cry over not having seen her own daughter in two years, Kelly felt guilty and started to share details from her own life to even the playing field. First, she revealed that she had tried to get divorced from her husband, but he wouldn’t allow it to go through, so while the papers floated in legal limbo, she got engaged to someone else and then had to call it off!

In a confessional, Shannon said, “That’s just … wacko.”

Then, Kelly shared that her husband has narcissistic personality disorder. If she was hoping that would make the women like her more, she was clearly mistaken, because in confessionals, they went off about how crazy they found it that she would stay with a man who had that diagnosis.

She really couldn’t win.

Tell Us: Did Kelly make a mistake by befriending Vicki?

The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.

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