Has Bravo ever aired a Real Housewives vacation that didn't feature a fight? (That's a rhetorical question.) Atlanta's Sheree Whitfield and Marlo Hampton memorably hurled petty insults in Africa. ("Everybody at Nieman Marcus talks about how you return stuff!" Marlo seethed.) New York's Kelly Bensimon accused Bethenny Frankel of attempted murder in the Caribbean. ("I feel like you're trying to kill me every night!") And during a group therapy session in Lake George, New York, on last season's RHONJ, Joe Giudice and Joe Gorga came to blows. But this season, it's Jim Marchese who causes trouble in Boca Raton, Florida.
After learning she was cancer-free last week, Amber Marchese decided she and her husband Jim would come on the Florida trip after all. But when they arrive, Jim barely puts down his luggage before he starts in with the snide comments. As Nicole Napolitano and her boyfriend Bobby Ciasulli start talking about their relationship, Jim — Bobby's ex-best friend — implies Bobby should propose. "You love a woman, you respect her, you man up and do what's right," he says. While Nicole loves that he's taking her side, she knows he has an ulterior motive: "Jim is complimenting me to get under Bobby's skin."
When Jim leaves the room with Melissa Gorga to go get champagne, Nicole's sister, Teresa Aprea stirs the pot. "Bobby, he's trying to make you look bad," she says. But Nicole takes Jim's side, which only angers Bobby. He locks himself in a bathroom and tells Nicole, "You're so stupid."
Nicole returns to the living room and tells Dina, Melissa, Jim, Amber, Teresa and Joe Gorga that Bobby is upset. "Bobby needs to grow up," Jim tells Nicole in front of the group. "Bobby changes his car every six months. He sees his kids once every two weeks." He tells Nicole that he needs to "make the commitment" to her.
As Nicole defends Bobby, Jim implies that Bobby once told him secrets about her family. Amber, pissed that her husband is shooting his mouth off, tries to get Jim to stop talking. But as he keeps hinting that he knows something about Nicole's family, even Amber is disgusted. "I'm f—king done!" she yells at him before storming out of the room.
Teresa, who checked on Bobby in the bathroom, comes back to find Nicole upset. "If you mess with my twin, you mess with me," Teresa says, and goes to confront Jim. "What is going on?" she demands. That's when Jim drops a bombshell. "You know when I'm gonna laugh my balls off?" he says to Joe and Melissa, with Teresa in the room, "Is when she finds out that he's f—king some girl in the condo that he's been keeping the whole time he's been dating her sister." Woah.
Melissa, delivering the best line of the night, sums of what everyone's thinking: "This guy's f—ked up."
Tell Us: Should Jim shut his mouth?
