The more things change, the more they stay the same. After all, life in the suburbs can grow redundant after a while. Go to the store, trim the hedges, accuse some women of life-ruining rumors. Rinse and repeat.
That’s why The Real Housewives of Orange County are destined to fight the same feuds for all of eternity. It’s their sisyphean task. Ours just might be watching these same fights for 10, 20, hopefully 30-something years, with the full realization we are watching the greatest show on air (until Salt Lake City returns, that is).
Tamra Judge is on the outs with her castmates, having walked away from a group dinner and cast trip after her latest scheme failed, an all-too-familiar position for television’s most complex anti-hero. This time, it’s the culmination of all that came before—Naked Wasted, Bali, the first firing, and now.
Here the ladies sit in New Orleans, having just witnessed Tamra’s biggest, boldest exit yet, yet there’s almost an air of que será, será. They know Tamra will be back (a cat has nine lives, and she’s only on her third, anyway), and they know they have to make a show in the meanwhile.
And that’s just what they do.
In the absence of Tamra, the Orange County Housewives can’t run, and they can’t hide. The mystery of whether Gretchen told Katie she was roofied (and whether Katie took that information to a blogger) still looms large, ultimately. So, what really is the truth? That’s what our bright-eyed Housewives spend the whole episode trying to uncover (or cover up, in the case of some).
Gina, super sleuth to the stars, calls up the journalist at hand, who confirms Tamra’s version of the story. Turns out media literacy is alive and well, for some. But only for some. Gretchen decries this fake news, while Katie co-signs her. This is when things get really convoluted, and that’s because… they’re lying. A lot. Probably!
All Gretchen and Katie have in common, aside from conspiring against Tamra, is a propensity to lie while deflecting like a deer in headlights, evidently.
Apparently Gretchen did say something about feeling sick and going to the ER after the night of the Season 4 episode where cast members pledged to get her “naked wasted.” And she told this to Katie and Jenn a year prior, who handled the information exactly as they would. Jenn, for her part, buried it away, not quite willing to handle those ramifications. She’d much prefer to pretend everything’s hunky dory. Katie, of course, did what she does: She hit up a blogger, and she spread the salacious story.
That’s something Katie spends the entire episode denying, denying, denying, until it dawns on her: Sometimes, you actually can tell the truth, or more accurately, “your truth.” Excited to set herself free, Katie finally tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but her truth.
Katie admits in a confessional that the blonde bambi has been begging her to corroborate her story, all the while telling her and Jenn doctors found drugs in her system the next morning. Gretchen, for her part, tells Tamra she did go to the hospital, while she tells producers she never did in her newest confessional look, styled by Miami maven Stephanie Shojaee.
Katie is so vindicated! Oh… wait, that actually has nothing to do with whether or not she told a blogger this information, which… well… that’s the real issue, isn’t it? Is it? What even matters, anymore? We’re pulling on a thread on a sweater, and everything’s going to unravel.
Now, the anti-Tamra brigade have to contend with the fact they don’t actually like each other more than they love projecting, deflecting, and lying. Realizing it’s every liar for themselves, Katie grabs a life jacket and jumps ship, immediately shifting the focus to Jenn and Gretchen’s lack of friendship. Katie may be a sloppy strategist, but she’s learned from the Tamra Judge school of deflection, twisting the entire situation around with sociopathic ease.
“We feel scared, because the concern is, and we’ve talked about this and been honest about this, it’s that… what happens next?” Heather proposes, before the ladies leave New Orleans.
The answer is an OC civil war, with every man for themselves. And that’s what truly sets this version of events apart from Bali. Sure, the women are doomed to repeat history, to make the same choices over and over, but they’ve learned from the past, each a bit more guarded than before.
For Shannon, that means distancing herself from Tamra, despite their earlier reunion. This time around, she’s not willing to start back at zero, a sharp contrast from the Shannon of yesteryears. Really, it’s most similar to the Shannon we met in Season 9, who orchestrated the entire Bali takedown and begged the women to hold the line.
Back then, that plan was foiled by Heather, who offered Tamra an olive branch in a desperate time of need. You can kill all the ants you want, put out bait and poison the colony, but if just one slithers free, soon, they’ll multiply beyond their original strength. Tamra used that lifeline to return to the group, demote Lizzie to a friend-of, and turn the tides against Vicki.
This time, she’s not as lucky. While a post-trip therapy session goes unchecked, Tamra’s sympathy tour hits an immediate snag when she sits down with Mother Dubrow. Dressed in a gorgeous, dark fur, Heather embodies such a bold, menacing energy that she didn’t back when she left the Tamra takedown in tears all those years ago. Nowadays, she lives her life in HD: sharp, bright, and more focused than ever.
“I feel like I’m on an island by myself, and I can’t—” Tamra cries, before Heather shoots back, “Who the f— am I? Really!? I was worried about you!”
Heather loves to scold, and she’s truly so good at it. There’s a mutually assured destruction between Tamra and Heather, and it’s so intriguing whenever the veneer cracks. They’ve been so solid for a season and a half you almost forget they ended Season 17 at total war, but the post-New Orleans conversation makes it very clear Heather never forgets.
It’s almost as though their dynamic has entirely flipped. Once a lapdog, Heather’s calling the shots in her life now… and she has good aim. I’m sorry, I truly can’t stop referencing taglines. RHOC has so many good ones!
The two leave the conversation mostly in a good place, giggling over how hot the waiter is (something I, too, was distracted by, but would never have mentioned as a true professional. Gotta keep it classy.)
Heather and Tamra are coming together on #RHOC. An all-new episode arrives TOMORROW. pic.twitter.com/nvQvNEKPl3
— Bravo (@BravoTV) August 20, 2025
With Tamra back in the fold, the conversation shifts once again to the roofie rumor. Gretchen and Katie have told upwards of 10 different versions of events, so it’s helpless to deduce the actual truth. The important thing to remember to be a Real Housewife is to have a slanted version of reality, and to take sides in the upcoming dumb and dumber feud is, well, it’s not smart.
Katie’s refusal to call illustrious blogger and woman whose name has been said 20,000 times, Kiki Monique, after saying she’d love to (and would even love to film with her) shows she’s bold-faced lying. She did the same exact thing with that other blogger in the season premiere, and she admitted to that lie in Episode 2. Big whoop. She’s a liar-face. So is Gretchen, clearly, and so am I, probably.
What’s interesting isn’t the question of who’s lying and who’s telling the truth. It’s how quickly the women start to turn on each other. There’s a Katie vs. Gretchen and Jenn bloodbath in the making, and Tamra gets to sit back and watch. Even when she’s off her game, she can still whack-a-mole. Voodoo works in mysterious ways.
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