Twice In One Episode? Really??

We’ve finally had our last episode of Real Housewives of New York, and similar to the one before, it seemed to be relatively low on the drama. I’m sure that these last two episodes were kept semi-calm to prepare the viewers for the explosion that will be the reunion shows. That’s right, two of them. I love that it will be drawn out into two hours. On to the recap…

We kick off episode 14 with Ramona’s final preparations for her vow renewal. She and Avery go to the salon to have their hair done for the event. I thought this was a sweet moment for the two of them. You can tell that Avery is in that stage where she can’t decide if she thinks her mom is totally un-cool or not. By the way, their hair ended up looking great. I haven’t really been a fan of Ramona’s short cut all season, but it was nice to be able to see how it’s supposed to look all fixed. I know better than anyone that you can never get your hair to look like it did when you left the salon.

The next scene takes us to Jill’s and Bethenny’s “reconciliation” lunch. This was the part I was waiting for, because I just couldn’t wait to see how Jill would approach this. When Bethenny enters the restaurant, Jill hops up and greets her with what, to me, seemed to be an overly friendly welcome for someone you have been in a year-long argument with. Oh, and by overly friendly, I mean fake and forced. I found Bethenny’s response to be appropriate, with a standoffish hug and quick answers to Jill’s many questions. I know that I am very anti-Jill, but hey, I never claimed to be an objective journalist. I’m just a blogger with strong opinions, as I’m sure many of you also have. Back to the lunch, Jill begins by telling Bethenny how happy she is for her pregnancy and marriage. I do believe that she is sincere about this, but it seems to be a too little/too late situation. I think that the whole reason Jill wants to reconcile is because she is jealous that the other ladies get to be a part of this time in Bethenny’s life. She simply feels left out. She wasn’t too interested in a make-up when she was surrounded by Kelly and LuAnn and felt like Bethenny was all alone. As Jill begins to explain that she feels her only apology should be “not being ready” to make-up when Bethenny earlier tried, I really admire Bethenny’s honesty. She tells Jill that she has a lot of changing to do, to which Jill says she cannot change. They go on to compare the ending of their friendship to a divorce. Bethenny says that Jill was not there for her during the most monumental events in her life and that she has accepted that their friendship is over. Side note: we all know how this is. Sometimes a friendship has simply endured too much to rebound. Jill obviously did not hear any of that, because she goes on to ask her several times if she wants to rebuild the friendship. When Bethenny all but tells her there’s not a snowball’s chance, she still acts as if it is a possibility. I do believe that her tears were real, but only because she is finally realizing that her instigating ways have cost her. I also wanted to mention how Jill accused Alex of being a toxic person right after saying that she has realized the err of her ways. I love that Bethenny pointed out that Jill also called her toxic at one point. The lunch ends with civil goodbyes and what seems to be closure for Bethenny.

I’ll give a short mention to LuAnn’s album release party. The only thing to be said here is “WTH???” Let’s be honest, I’m no Celine Dion or Jennifer Lopez, but you don’t see me trying sing and dance in front of a full room of people either. I’m going to be mean for a second. This song is terrible. Her dance moves are more terrible. Those snakeskin, sequin pants are just plain wrong. It’s funny to me that Kelly says she doesn’t talk about people, but she talked bad about LuAnn’s “boyfriend” the second she met him. Jill once again initiates some drama by joking as if Ramona was ridiculous for asking her to leave the Virgin Islands vacation. I think it was very respectful of Sonja to interject and state that Ramons was completely justified in asking Jill to leave.

There is a very sweet scene with Ramona and Avery getting ready for the ceremony. I must say that I loved Ramona’s dress and thought that Avery looked like a beautiful young lady. I love that even though she was never the biggest fan of the renewal, she had such sweet things to say to her mom right before. Jill shows up to be the center of attention again! Ok, maybe she was just trying to be sweet to Ramona before her big event. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

As the ladies start arriving at the ceremony, the cattiness begins. Kelly, who never talks about anyone mind you, arrives and starts talking about how “manufactured” she thinks it is and how 17 years isn’t really a reason to celebrate. I mean, if you don’t share in the happiness, why even come?? Oh yeah, you need some air time where you’re not completely out of your mind. I’m sure she had some lollipops and jelly beans tucked away somewhere in that dress. I think it’s extremely rude to talk about someone at their own event, which is why I wanted to slap Jill (who by the way, just had a moment with Ramona where she claimed to be extremely happy for her; benefit of the doubt out of the window!) and Jen (she’s such a random anyway) when they were talking about how tacky it was not to have food before the ceremony. Jen also made that really rude comment about the event planner and had to be forced to even speak to her. Who do you think you are? That was plain tacky in my book, and I really hope they’re not setting her up to be a new character next season.

The ceremony begins and the venue is absolutely beautiful. (Question for my blog readers: Was that Bethenny’s dog that was in the ceremony??) I thought that the personal vows were very sweet and sincere. Ramona’s signature crazy eyes did not go without being noticed, but that’s what makes her funny to me. Mario and Ramona are announced renewed, and the reception kicks off. I thought it was a completely unnecessary gesture for Ramona to ask LuAnn to entertain with her song. In fact, it could be considered torture to her guests. I, for one, thought it was a little mean of Bravo to make the viewers endure that twice in one episode. I definitely could have gone my whole life without even hearing it once. The episode ends with a small blurb about what’s going on in the lives of all of the women. I loved Kelly’s. Clearly even the producers realize that she’s insane.

I can’t wait for the reunion, and I will definitely be blogging with all the details that I can remember. I will probably have to watch them two or three times to collect my thoughts and jot down all of my opinions. Until then, satchels of gold!!

I will leave you with a picture from Bethenny Getting Married?, which I am very excited about.