When the going gets tough, Tara Reid goes crazy. (That’s how the saying goes, right?) On the Friday, July 22, episode of Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars, program directors Jim and Elizabeth Carroll forced the couples to face the pains of their pasts in an effort to help them improve their futures. As is to be expected, some handled the exercise better than others.
Having just returned from court in Atlanta, Memphitz seemed primed to participate. He referred to being away from Toya as an “eye-opener,” and said he was recommitted to making life better for his family. Toya wasn’t happy that he hadn’t called her from the road, but couldn’t contain her happiness when he walked through the door and she realized he hadn’t been sent to jail.
Tara (Probably) Fabricates a Story About a Dead Dog
Memphitz was first up to reveal a devastating incident that had happened in his past. He admitted he was “bitter at the world” because his dad was killed by a KKK member. Toya then confessed that her parents had “given her away” to her uncle because her mother was a drug addict. Adam Friedman recalled being beaten by a teacher, while Lisa D’Amato revealed that she had been molested by her mother’s boyfriend. (In other words, this was heavy stuff.)
Brittish Williams recounted a devastating fight she’d been in with her own mother when she was just a preteen, and Lorenzo Gordon admitted he’d been terrified of his stepfather. In third grade, Cody Sattler had watched as one of his friends accidentally shot himself and died, and Michelle Money revealed that she got pregnant at 15 and had to give her baby away for adoption. Dean May said that when he was a child, the only way he could get his high-powered father to pay attention to him was by acting up. There was hardly a dry eye in the house when Tara finally got up to share her pain.
She got up and told a bizarre, semicoherent story about how she was bullied at school, and her only real friend was her dog Jake that died. (How Jake died was unclear.) No one really seemed to believe her story, which was patchy at best.
“She was just feeding me BS,” Elizabeth said, sighing. “But if I push her, she’ll just close down.”
Tara and Dean Throw a Pool Party — Well, They Think About It
In an effort to lighten the mood in the house, Tara and Dean decided to organize a pool party, complete with special VIP invites. (Since they were throwing it at the pool at the house where everyone was staying, and everyone was invited, it wasn’t clear what was VIP about this, but it was sort of a cute thought regardless.)
When Dean passed out some of the invites without including Tara, however, she got “real confused” by his actions — and really, really angry. “You don’t listen to me!” she screamed as everyone wondered what the problem was. Dean muttered that he “never wanted to come here in the first place.” Instead of dropping it, or at least going behind closed doors to sort it out, Tara went postal, screaming, “I didn’t want to do this because I wanted to stay best friends with you!” As Dean stormed out, she added, “I’m afraid that you’re going to be like everyone else and sell me out!”
Toya said Tara was “overreacting,” and Dean said she was going “crazy.” Watching from a monitor, Jim thought Tara “was becoming paranoid about Dean.” Tara then turned to her housemates and asked, “No offense, but did anyone know who Dean May was before we came into this house?”
Tara Lays Out the “Facts” (According to Tara)
When Michelle tried to intervene, Tara turned on her and attacked her. “Am I missing something?” Michelle asked as she looked around for confirmation that Tara — and not Michelle herself — was being nuts.
“You can’t handle the truth!” Tara screamed before adding, “You’ll never be in one of my movies!” Um. OK. Tara then kept repeating that Michelle had cheated on her husband until Michelle finally stormed off, calling Tara a bitch.
“I’m not a f–king cheater!” Tara yelled after Michelle. “My name is Tara f–king Reid! That’s a fact. You cheated. That’s a fact. You’re judging Lorenzo for cheating — well you did the same f–king thing!”
Michelle reiterated she wasn’t “judging anyone for anything,” and that was that.
Dean Implies Tara Has a Drinking Problem
Later that night, Jim and Elizabeth organized an exercise that involved locking all of the couples in a jail cell in the backyard and refusing to let them out until they made peace with their past. Everyone did a good job — except for (drumroll, please) Tara and Dean. “I want to not be here,” Tara moaned. “It’s like being on trial. It’s f–king wrong.”
When it was Dean’s turn to face someone he was harboring hatred toward, he insisted he “didn’t necessarily hate anyone,” and the directors sent him back into the jail cell to reconsider.
Upon Tara’s turn, she started crying and rambling nonsense. “I don’t want to do this,” she began. “It’s not your fault. It’s my fault for letting all of this ever happen. I did everything I can do to keep people out of trouble.”
Toya asked Dean if Tara was OK, and he sighed and said: “She drinks. She’s the worst on alcohol. She’s train-wrecking.” He then leaned over and shouted at Tara to “wrap it up,” prompting her to storm off. “I just want you to let me go and live my life right now!” Tara cried. “I just want you to leave me alone, and stop f–king picking on me!”
Tell Us: What do you think is going on with Tara?
Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars airs on We TV Fridays at 9 p.m. ET.
