City mouse, country mouse! Claudia Jordan gets settled into her high-rise corner unit apartment in Atlanta with the help of her old friend Kenya Moore. Claudia has all the makings of a bachelorette pad (including a cat, Shelly!) — except for furniture. The girls still manage to make do and sit on Claudia’s living room rug with red Solo cups of wine (classy!). Kenya tells Claudia about her tearful conversation with Kandi last week — and how the girls are still skeptical about Apollo Nida’s recent revelation about his relationship with her.
“Two things you’re not: You’re not a liar, and you’re not a whore,” Claudia assures Kenya. “A little cray cray, yes. Occasionally ashy, yes.” Beauty queens — bonded by booze and a bare, unfurnished condo.
Kandi Burruss and Todd Tucker visit Kandi’s old home that they were planning on leasing, and they discover the house is in shambles. Mama Joyce was originally supposed to move in, until she decided she wanted a house in her own name. Joyce’s boyfriend tried his hand with the property afterwards…and unapologetically left it a wreck.
“It looks like it’s tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage, and definitely a month away or more from selling,” Kandi gripes.
Kandi’s pissed, but not enough for Todd.
“When do you get fed up?” Todd asks, bringing up Kandi’s destroyed home and Mama Joyce’s less-than-warm attitude towards his mother, Miss Sharon (Mama Joyce called her a whore!). “There’s no consequences to any actions…that’s why she doesn’t stop any of the actions.”
Kandi assures Todd that Mama Joyce says she’ll fix it, and that she’ll hold her to her word. Get a strong grip, Kandi!
Cynthia Bailey’s mom and sister Malorie come to town for the weekend, and Cynthia expresses her frustrations about friend-turned-nemesis NeNe Leakes…again. Cynthia found tweets and blog posts from NeNe about their feud and wishes that she was “woman enough to have the conversation [with her] and move on.”
Cynthia says that the two drifted apart after Kenya’s disastrous charity masquerade ball last season — you know, the one held in NeNe’s honor that NeNe didn’t know about — where NeNe gave the world’s shadiest acceptance speech for an award (“It’s amazing how many good friends I have and don’t know about,” she infamously chided).
Peter attributes their unraveling to NeNe calling him a “bitch” for getting involved in Housewife drama. Cynthia admits that while she was upset about that, the breaking point was a culmination of all the above…and her getting “fed up with the self-centered shine of NeNe Leakes.”
Olé! Kandi stops by Phaedra Parks’ house for homemade guacamole and, naturally, some gossip. Phaedra admits that living with husband Apollo in his final days of freedom has been strained and that “being around someone who has this fate makes him act a little crazy as well.” He’s acting like nothing has changed, “partying and having a good time,” she complains. Apollo still hasn’t talked to Phaedra regarding his recent admission to Kenya — and although the two are estranged, Phaedra is still skeptical about Kenya’s place in it all.
“Like she paid Walter [her season 5 boyfriend]…like she tried to rent the African man…she’ll pay Apollo to clean up her character. I don’t believe it for one minute,” Phaedra speculates.
And while Kandi counters in her confessional that it’s probably easier for Phaedra to believe Kenya than Apollo, Phaedra says that “it wouldn’t be believable if she didn’t have such bad behavior.” Kandi proposes a “nice, peaceful” meal so that the whole group can make amends and surprisingly, Phaedra accepts. Hide the knives!
Back to Booty Boot Camp! Claudia and Kenya hit the gym to work on their glutes and get to know each other better during the process. Claudia tells Kenya about her struggles of growing up biracial as well as being the product of a broken marriage.
“It becomes ‘you’re not black enough’ or ‘you’re a white girl,’” Claudia says. “When I get attacked, I go from zero to 60. It’s that self-defense thing kicking in.”
Claudia mentions that her relationship with her caucasian, Italian mother is strained because of this — and that her mother’s never said ‘I love you.’ Kenya, who was abandoned by her mom, can relate.
“It’s a form of rejection, and it’s unfortunate. But it creates a bond between us because we have something in common,” Kenya says.
Kandi, Phaedra, Cynthia, Kenya, NeNe and Porsha Williams finally meet for dinner. Before the rest of the Housewives arrive, Phaedra leads a prayer with Kandi for protection against the whores — “you gotta cast that jezebel spirit down!” she laughs. Wonder who she’s talking about? And that sets the tone for the generally shady night.
The first matter at hand, surprisingly, isn’t the huge fistfight between Porsha and Kenya. “That’s done,” Porsha assures. Instead, they address Apollo-gate. Kenya and Phaedra try to get to the root of their discourse, which stems from a workout video that they tried to produce together. Kenya says that Phaedra started the beef — “accusing me of being an alcoholic and bipolar…those things started from Phaedra. I never drew the first blood,” Kenya says. Phaedra doesn’t necessarily deny it.
“I’ll say it loud and clear: I called you a whore and I called you a slut, because if it looks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, if it’s yellow and it swims in a pond, then it’s a duck,” Phaedra tells Kenya — to which Kenya responds, “if you’re dumb…that is what it is.”
Kenya asks that the girls stop persecuting her for Apollo’s lie and wants the girls to give her the benefit of a doubt. She apologizes for the negative things she’s said about Phaedra “in reaction to the negative things [Phaedra] has said about her.” Though Phaedra doesn’t necessarily apologize, she agrees to clean the slate when Kenya suggests doing so.
Kandi then tries to address Cynthia and NeNe’s now-frosty relationship.
“Our issue has nothing to do with you guys,” NeNe replies — but she doesn’t stay tight-lipped for long. NeNe, obviously hurt by the loss of her close friend, admits that she isn’t sure how the rift between her and Cynthia began.
“I never knew we had a falling out until we all gathered together, and that’s when she said we fell out,” NeNe says in her confessional.
“Why didn’t you call me and say, ‘hey, friend…let’s talk about this issue?’” NeNe asks.
Cynthia’s memory is a little bit sharper. “After the whole charity event…you sent me a text and felt like Peter and I were supporting Kenya.”
NeNe, disgusted by Cynthia’s “innocent” guise, retorts that she’s “the one that’s dumb, because I thought you were a real-ass friend. I had your back, when no one else had your f—king back. Recall that. And I loved you like a f—ing sister.”
Yikes — is it time for dessert yet?
