The Real Housewives of Orange County took a somber turn during the July 6 episode, as an innocent game night transformed into a devastating evening when Vicki Gunvalson called home and learned her mother had passed away. How did her fellow Housewives react to the shocking news?
Nothing to Prove!
Last week, Shannon Beador dealt with the horror of being taken off the guest list for Meghan King Edmonds' wine party for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This week, Beador had every opportunity to ice Edmonds out by excluding her from her Bunco bash, but Beador thought she could offer an olive branch by inviting her anyway.
It turned out to be easier said than done for Beador, as the phone call invitation became messy quickly. Edmonds had her walls up from the beginning. First, she made jabbing comments about how weird it was for Beador to ring her when they had that nasty fight about her phone call from weeks before. Then, she almost declined the invitation by saying that she wanted Beador to prove to her that she could be sane during a social function.
Originally, Beador agreed that she could act reasonably and ended the call. However, minutes later, Beador realized what she had done and called Edmonds back to say she didn't have to prove anything to her at all (but she was still invited). Beador wasn't going to let a 30-year-old boss her around!
While Beador and Edmonds got contentious over game night, Tamra Barney and Vicki Gunvalson got sentimental over grandkids. Barney was excited because she was about to become a grandmother any day, and Gunvalson was happy to toast to her good fortune and give her advice. Gunvalson lovingly talked about how being a grandmother changes you for the better, and expressed her excitement at seeing Barney "soften up" when her grandchild was born.
That was days away, though, and for the moment, Barney was still ready to get a little crazy with Gunvalson. This time around it involved a weird spa treatment that required spraying marshmallow liquid all over the body before wrapping it up in cellophane. As the women laughed their way through the treatment, Barney remarked, "In Orange County, you never want to get old. If this keeps me young, of course I am going to try it!"
The Husbands Cause Trouble
When Heather Dubrow was at Carnegie Mellon acting school, her teacher told her that people get into the business to either be actors or to be stars. Dubrow insisted that she is an actress, but a visit to her husband, Dr. Terry Dubrow, on the set of Botched proved that he wanted to be a star. Heather visited the show to film a brief bit about her husband taking a mole off of her hand. And even though Dr. Dubrow had some juvenile jokes up his sleeve, the real star of the segment turned out to be his anesthesiologist, Dr. Mest, who provided the camera with a wonderful eye roll and grimace when he saw what the Dubrows were up to.
As Dubrow dealt with her outside physical imperfections, Gunvalson dealt with the physical imperfections plaguing her boyfriend, Brooks Ayers, on the inside as his cancer raged on. He had just finished his third round of chemo, but he and Gunvalson wanted to keep trying everything in their power to make Ayers' cancer go away.
This week, the duo called a health expert over to give them advice on detoxifying their bodies. The expert suggested that they starve out the cancer, and created a simple diet devoid of any and all chemicals that would distract the body. Gunvalson acknowledged that the diet seemed like a miserable prospect, but she was willing to suffer through it to keep Ayers healthy.
Meanwhile, Beador was still reeling in the wake of her husband's affair. She was still paranoid about her husband's activities, and had taken to following him around whenever she could. She was desperate to know that he wouldn't talk to his mistress again, but nothing he said or did really reassured her.
A Game Night Filled With Grief
Beador's Bunco party started off on the right foot as Edmonds showed up with a peace offering card saying that she wanted to forget their rocky past and focus on being friendly in the future. However, Beador confessed in an interview that she believed the offer was less sincere and more flimsy posturing to make Edmonds feel good about herself. Edmonds too was unhappy about the olive branch bottle of wine Beador seemed to be offering, as she felt that the charitable offering was more of put-down than a real peacemaking donation.
Thankfully, Edmonds had better luck with the game than she did with Beador, as she quickly proved herself to have all the Bunco luck. "We should take you to Vegas with us," former OC Housewife Jeana Keough remarked as Edmonds dominated the game.
As everyone continued to play Bunco, Gunvalson asked Beador whether she could borrow her landline to make a quick call home. That simple phone call was anything but, as Gunvalson learned that her mother had died. In one of the realest moments of any Housewives franchise, a devastated Gunvalson crumpled to the floor and started sobbing about the death of her best friend. Her fellow Housewives rallied around to comfort her, as Gunvalson repeatedly wondered, "Who's going to worry about me now?"
Dubrow called Gunvalson's boyfriend to take her home from the festivities, while the other Housewives stood by in support. 'We have our fights," Dubrow remarked, 'but we're friends. And when push comes to shove we're there for each other." Even for the fabulously wealthy women of Orange County sometimes need a little help from the friends, and it was good to see the ladies put aside their differences to support one another during a difficult night.
At the end of the episode, a teary Gunvalson reminisced about her late mother. "She's the whooping it up lady, even at 83. I know I get that from her," she said. May her whooping it up spirit live on.
