Last week “Real Housewives of New Jersey” was all about ongoing battles between Teresa and her brother Joe.
This week’s aftermath isn’t quite as heated, but the episode’s drama comes from a surprise source — someone a lot younger than the usual suspects.
Let’s just hope this doesn’t get anyone thinking about a “Real Housewives: The Next Generation” spinoff. We don’t need that. Seriously…
TERESA
Teresa spends the first half of the episode dealing with 10-year-old daughter Gia’s obsession with buying a bra. Teresa isn’t exactly sure how to handle this development — her own parents weren’t very open about sexuality — but Gia is more than aware that her mommy has breast implants, and even astutely suggests her father could use a bra, so Teresa is really just acting more sensitive than she probably needs to.
There’s also an ugly scene between Teresa and her husband discussing the events of last week. Joe is sick of hearing about Teresa’s family drama and demands she stop talking to them, about them, or anything.
CAROLINE
Caroline’s story is really her daughter Lauren’s story — an ongoing effort to lose weight. Otherwise she pretty much only pops up to talk trash about Teresa.
JACQUELINE
Jacqueline takes Lauren shopping and treats her nicer than we’ve seen Caroline treat her so far this season. Also, Jacqueline throws the big get together of the week: “Field Day” when everyone gathers to play carnival games in the family’s yard. And Jacqueline starts to really see another side of Teresa when she discovers Teresa lied to her about Joe Gorga not apologizing after last week’s fight.
MELISSA
Melissa isn’t seen much, she’s mostly dealing with her husband’s attempts to reconcile with Teresa. The sibling squabbling never ends, but Joe keeps trying to make amends and Teresa keeps stirring up drama. Also, Melissa wears very short shorts to Field Day.
KATHY
Beyond participating in Field Day, Kathy does next to nothing the entire episode. Her husband does try to console Joe Gorga at the gym when he’s lamenting last week’s fight with Teresa.
THE DRAMA
The main cause of drama this week: Gia. After her big bra storyline, she incites an incident at Field Day. She’s on the losing team and throws a temper tantrum over Joe Gorga’s “cheating” (he does seem to be bending the rules a bit, but the adults are all clearly having fun).
Gia goes inside Jacqueline’s house to sulk and for some reason Jacqueline and Caroline are the ones trying to console her. Gia isn’t having it, but Jacqueline tries to read her a book about being a poor sport to teach her a lesson.
Once Teresa finally comes inside she gets mad at Jacqueline and Caroline for not calling her in sooner for daring to try to “parent” Gia in any way. Meanwhile everyone makes snarky remarks to the camera about Gia’s behavior being an obvious reflection on Teresa. Teresa gets in her own nasty dig at Jacqueline by saying they have different “values” and maybe Ashlee turned out to be a problem child because of Jacqueline.
All told this takes up less than ten minutes of screen time but is pretty much the major event for the week. It’s not a major blowout, but it does involve a child being pulled into and exploited for the purposes of reality TV drama. I’m not sure who that benefits, but it’s definitely not the viewers.