Previously on Total Divas, Ronda Rousey was weird and awkward, everyone suspected Carmella had a secret relationship, and Nia Jax was mean.
But enough living in the past, let’s look at the biggest matches in Season 9 Episode 2 of Total Divas:
Carmella Versus A World Of Trouble
Carmella’s feud with Nia Jax from last episode isn’t actually over, it just stops mattering very much in this episode, because her life kind of explodes. It starts out kind of cute, with Mella confiding in Sonya at Natalya’s party that she’s in love with a guy, but she can’t tell who. Then they meet up in a hotel later and she admits that it’s Corey Graves, which of course we all knew.
She explains to Sonya that he’s going through a divorce, but he and his wife have been separated for a long time, and she wants to make clear that she’s doing her best to do the right thing, but she’s totally into him.
Unfortunately, the next thing that happens is something you might remember, which is Corey’s ex-wife going on social media and calling Carmella a homewrecker, accusing her of stealing Corey and ruining their family. Carmella is understandably distraught and also furious. Sonya does her best to be there for her, but there’s not much anybody can do.
The timing of how all this happens obviously wasn’t planned, and not to downplay how unfortunate it was for Carmella’s actual life, but it’s unfortunate for the series as well. Corey doesn’t make a great first impression when dealing with this disaster, and this is the very first time we see him onscreen as Carmella’s boyfriend. It’s hard to blame him for that, considering he’s also blindsided and obviously furious at his ex.
Still, he doesn’t give much consideration to how Carmella’s concern about her own reputation is affected by gender, something Carmella spells out quite well for us. She understands that she’s the one who will be judged harshly by the public for this, not him. Fortunately, he did ultimately step up and make the truth known, which he was in a better position to do than Carmella for similar reasons, although we don’t see that happening on this episode.
Meanwhile, Nia is still causing problems for Carmella, including laughing about the Corey reveal, but she’s barely in this episode, so I imagine that feud will be more prominently dealt with in a future episode.
Winner: I can’t say Carmella really wins this fight by the end of this episode, but the match is still going and she seems like she’s just about to rally.
Sonya Deville Versus The Slings And Arrows
Sonya is the other main character for most of this episode, but her storyline is a lot more scattered. She starts things out on Valentine’s Day, reconciling with her ex-girlfriend Arianna. It’s a weird scene, because she shows up with roses, and Arianna has roses for her too, and then they go on a dinner date where they officially decide to get back together. But what did these plans look like when they made them? “We’re not together anymore, but let’s go out on Valentine’s Day and see about changing that!” No shade, I’m just saying I think the big decision may actually have been made earlier than we saw.
Arianna is a bit of an enigma by the way. She’s very pretty and glamorous, and seems nice, but so far we don’t know what she does for a living or what she’s into besides Sonya. She lives in what looks to be a very big house with her Mom, who is equally blonde and glamorous:
So that’s interesting. It actually makes me wonder if the money is her Mom’s and Arianna’s an idle child of wealth. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of them seem to be gay these days (again, no shade).
Sonya also gets word in this episode that she has a float in the Ft. Lauderdale Pride Parade, and she and the girls go to check out their float options. Then she injures her shoulder at Elimination Chamber, and all her friends have to decorate the float without her. The episode ends before Pride actually happens, but I guess we’ll get that next week.
Winner: Sonya Deville. She may be hurt, but we know it’s ultimately not too serious, plus she’s got Arianna back and she’s about to be the King of Pride.
Natalya Versus Ronda Rousey’s Disinterest In Being On This Show, And Also Reality
You can always count on Nattie to create a dramatic storyline for an episode out of whatever’s going on in her own head, without anybody else’s help. This week that story is about how she doesn’t have anything to do at Elimination Chamber, and that makes her worry about her place in the WWE, which I’m pretty sure she worries about at least once a season on this show.
She and the producers really want Ronda to be the secondary character in this story, but Ronda just wants to hang out with her husband and enjoy how he smells when he doesn’t wear deodorant (a real conversation they have). See, the big thing going on at Elimination Chamber is the match for the Women’s Tag Team Championship, and Nattie is quick to remind us that her tag team partner for the last year has been Ronda Rousey. But now Rousey’s involved in the singles picture again, and all the other women she knows are already paired up.
So Nattie talks to Ronda about this backstage at work, and Ronda’s like “it’s fine, you can’t be on every single PPV.” Then, later, Ronda is back at the farm hanging out with Jessamyn Duke, Marina Shafir, and Marina’s tiny son, and talking to Travis about how their going to have lots of babies of their own, when Nattie calls. And by the way, here’s what Nattie looks like when she’s talking on the phone on camera:
And here’s a shot of Ronda Rousey carrying on the other side of that same conversation:
She literally huddles in corners and hides her face the entire time, even though this was clearly a phone call intended for TV. I’ve begun to wonder if Ronda has a special contract that allows her to not take direction, or if everybody’s just afraid to direct her. It’s just weird is all I’m saying.
Anyway, Ronda thinks that Nattie’s desire to never stop working is related to her father’s death, and tells a long story (not to Nattie, but to her husband and her actual friends) about how her own father’s tragic death inspired her to take up judo and become Ronda Rousey, which seems to make the opposite point from the one she was making with regard to Nattie, which is fine because we know that ultimately Nattie is fine.
Nattie watches Elimination Chamber with her Mom, who also comforts her. It was her mom whose birthday Nattie hosted a huge party for at the beginning of the episode, by the way. A party Ronda Rousey was neither at nor made excuses for not attending. It’s fine. This is a perfectly cohesive season of Total Divas. It’s fine.
That’s all for now, Total Divas fans, but join me next week for more outside-the-ring drama, when Nattie gets sent to Ronda’s farm since Ronda won’t go anywhere else.
