Has anyone ever been institutionalized on any of “The Real Housewives” shows? If not, I think the ideal candidate for that prestigious honor might be Sonja, who puts the batcrap in crazy. While she's always been, shall we say, a colorful character, this week she seems to be living in such a delusional state I'm thinking someone should keep an eye on her, lest she starts thinking the concept of gravity is just negative thinking, and if she burns the right candle and calls to her spirit animal she can fly off the top floor of her townhouse.
Ramona does seem to be delighting in her friend's bad luck, but her “sisterly concern” for Sonja isn't entirely off base. While Sonja is carping at her friends about how they're too stupid to understand her great plans for toaster ovens and lingerie lines and tigers and bears, oh my, she does not seem to understand how entirely nuts she sounds, even on the spectrum of crazy that is this show. Ramona isn't helping matters by running around and telling everyone that Sonja's house is about to be sold out from underneath her, which even LuAnn thinks is the mark of a bad friend. I'm fascinated to learn that these women actually have lines in the sand for what constitutes good and bad behavior. I would think anything that isn't stabbing with a knife was pretty much okay to these ladies.
This week, it's a lot of getting together, drinking, sometimes eating, drinking more, and gossiping all the way. I guess I should say I was shocked that Ramona decided to throw a plate into a pool during a party and, at a designer house showcase, merrily pulled back the peel-and-stick wallpaper in one of the rooms, but I can't. That wasn't even her “bad” behavior for the episode. No, I'd say that was tossing a glass of champagne in Kristen's face during the group's “relaxing” spa day for having the unmitigated gall to have an opinion. The nerve!
Granted, Kristen seems to be working very hard to find something to do now that she's been told she's too old to find modeling work in New York, and pushing Ramona's buttons is a much easier job than going back to school of finding a career. I don't think it pays much, but she can at least take pride in a job well done. This week all she has to do is imply that Ramona is jealous of Sonja's 23-year-old boy toy, and Ramona, furious that the pretty object in a bikini speaks, freaks out. Kristen, to her credit, responds by getting Ramona's hair wet with jacuzzi water. Zing!
I love that Ramona considers Kristen's transgression a far greater crime than her own, as if some wine throwing is sort of okay if the other person deserves it. If no one's written the “Real Housewives” rules of conduct guidebook, I'm totally calling dibs.
It seems Ramona did ask around about boy toy Ben, and that may or may not have caused him to stand up Sonja. I would think Ben was more likely to have been scared off by Ramona's blossoming nervous breakdown, but okay. It was a little sad to watch Sonja calling one of her many interns and asking the unnamed person to eat with her, but only a little, given that she seems to think “intern” is another word for “house slave.”
Carole has big plans to remodel her apartment, which is only notable in that she wants to turn her kitchen into an office. I understand that people eat out most of the time in New York, but when her interior designers come thisclose to telling her she's being an idiot, I can't disagree. Though she says she'll never sell the place, she also says “rumors of the Radziwill fortune are highly exaggerated.” And someday she may actually eat a sandwich. That could happen.
This week's episode was mercifully low on Aviva (though she did try her level best to fan the flames of insanity when Sonja and Ramona started barking about Ben). But even without her, there was more than enough screaming and freaking out to keep things interesting. Not sane, but interesting.
Do you think Carole should keep her kitchen? Do you think Ramona is jealous of Sonja? Do you think Kristen was asking for a glass of champagne in her face, or was Ramona out of line? Do you think Spanx is trying to push Heather out of business?