Season 9 Episode 6 Recap: Fifty Shaded of Shade

Where do I begin? With each passing week, as promised by the wives on the defense, more information has been revealed. However, there hasn’t been any actual proof of Lisa Vanderpump (LVP) being involved with planning to expose Dorit on camera for allowing Lucy to end in a kill shelter. Yes, it was a kill shelter contrary to Teddi’s blog. 

IN THE BEGINNING

Teddi met Blizzard by her going to Vanderpump Dogs every week with her daughter and by attending/hosting charity events for the centre. It is through this medium that they exchange contact information and started having their casual chats. We know this because she stated this much in the very first episode. When the whole drama with Lucy went down, Blizzard wasted no time in telling Teddi. Like Teddi said before, she wasn’t surprised that Blizzard reached out to her with this information. But why wasn’t she surprised? They aren’t close friends, so why would he tell her? He told her because they had a close enough relationship for him to divulge private information that shouldn’t have left the centre. Teddi also says to Kyle that when she was given this information, she was told to not repeat it to anyone but somehow, her story changed to “they wanted me to tell everyone” like she told Erika in her chapel. LVP needs to fire him. He’s there to build his connections. Though nothing is wrong with building your own network, when you start gossiping about your bosses, their families and the business, you need to be let go. 

BLIZZARD’S NUMBER ONE FAN

After what went down in The Bahamas and with Teddi now realising she played herself, she had to figure out a way to speak to clear herself. As we saw in the previous episode she made her confession in Erika’s chapel but she was still leaving stuff out. She claimed when they filmed at Vanderpump Dogs and seeing LVP’s reaction, she knew right there she was being set up. What she neglected to tell Erika in that moment, was that she was still very much in contact with Blizzard. Literally, the same day. How does this make sense? Remember, she still had not spoken to LVP about any of this. 

Based on the text messages, Blizzard seemed to have been giving Teddi information as soon as he received it. This doesn’t strike me as someone who was bothering Teddi with dog drama. It seemed like she was invested in this gossip especially because Dorit had ignored her a month prior. The texts also reveal that Blizzard felt he was being given mixed messages, as he clearly states LVP kept saying Dorit didn’t want Lucy to end up in a kill shelter. This is what irks me about Teddi’s claim that LVP instructed Blizzard to do her bidding. The gossip literally tells her LVP doesn’t think Dorit did this intentionally but for some reason, she wants us to believe LVP planned to expose Dorit? Oh Baby Doll! Blizzard mentions in the texts that “he’s not as mad as he could be”. Who’s the “he” here? It’s Sessa. LVP was defending Dorit while they filmed with Kyle and Teddi that morning and it seemed that was still the case even after they left. Blizzard intimates that Sessa could have been madder but wasn’t because of LVP’s stance.

DORIT STANDS FOR NOTHING

You’d think that after seeing proof with her own eyes, that Teddi was indeed gossiping with Blizzard, Dorit would be less inclined to believe anything Teddi had to say going forward. Obviously that wasn’t case. Dorit informs Erika about the text messages and Erika seemed genuinely shocked.

Dorit and Erika both agree that someone was trying to hurt her. Dorit, who at this point believed Teddi’s word over LVP, now looks silly for having doubted LVP but Erika is the last person to point out the obvious to her. Teddi was the one with the issue because LVP had always stuck up for Dorit. So Dorit…

IS CAMILLE GRAMMER WISHY WASHY?

Camille met with Rinna to talk about her upcoming birthday party as well as what happened in The Bahamas. Rinna decides to yet again bring up that LVP manipulated her to talk about munchausen. I’m so over her and this false narrative she keeps trying to push since season 6.  This whole #puppygate really reminds me of how Rinna spent weeks writing her blogs and changing the information as each week progressed till we got to the end of the season. She kept this version at the reunion, which tells me this was the truth and she waited, like Kyle had to admit. This is similar to what Teddi has done thus far.

According to Rinna’s blog, then, she and Kyle spoke about munchausen prior to filming at LVP’s home and the conversation was somehow relayed to LVP. It doesn’t take rocket scientist to know who told LVP about it. So why did they want her to take the fall for something she was told?

One of the biggest contentions they had was that LVP went after Rinna as she was leaving her home that day to ask why she hadn’t brought Kyle into the revelation. Then her going to Kyle saying she thought Rinna was going to her into it. I see nothing wrong with what the assertion was. Kyle needed to have been brought into it because she and Rinna talked about it and brought to LVP’s home. Rinna would look like the bad guy and Kyle would have gotten off scot-free (she did). Let it go Rinna, LVP was doing you a favour back then.

This leads Camille to drop a bomb. She claimed that LVP told her to bring up Taylor’s abuse back in season 2 and threw her under the bus. I laughed so hard when I heard what Camille said and with the clip the producers showed. The anti-LVP crowd, who spend more time talking about LVP than they do their favs but claim she brings nothing to the show,  ate this clip up because they felt like this proved what everyone had been saying all along.

Camille, like the fans, seem to have forgotten how annoyed she was at the fact that Taylor was telling them all one thing but doing another. She complained that Taylor would spend hours on the phone with her, talking about Russell, then she’d see posts from her acting like everything was normal. I’m not sure how many remember Season 2 Episode 11 – Tempest In A Tea Party, but I do. In fact, I rewatched the episode right after Camille made this comment. If we recall, and like I’ve stated many times before, in season 2 the ladies were already made aware of the fact that their spin offs were rejected and LVP’s, Vanderpump Rules, was picked up. They had numerous talks about her ego that season which was spearheaded by Kyle. Taylor spilled so much tea that episode. LVP and Taylor weren’t best friends but made it know that if she needed her, she’d be there for her. Taylor’s issue was that she thought LVP was going around talking badly about her with the women (she wasn’t), and that she kept telling her that they weren’t friends (she didn’t). Taylor had walked off and the women started talking about her and that she wasn’t being honest.

It was then that LVP brought to the forefront the abuse Taylor was facing. LVP did this first. Was it right? Debatable but she opened the floor for that discussion to happen. This happened before Camille said what she did to Taylor and in that moment, LVP was right there backing her up. So how was Camille manipulated? I like Camille but she was annoyed with Taylor just as much as everyone else was.

Camille then started asking all the questions viewers have been asking since the start of the season. I think she did this because she was with Dorit when Jasmine chased them around the pool in The Bahamas, shouting out that Dorit is a fraud. The old Rinna would have also agreed with Camille and questioned Dorit like she did when she asked her about people doing cocaine in her bathroom, but because she wants to stick it to LVP, she has yet to say anything about anyone’s lawsuits. 

WHO GAVE THE ORDER?

We’re finally at Camille’s party and all the ladies show up except LVP and Kyle because they drove together (maybe Kyle did this so Teddi would talk to Dorit before LVP got there). Just like I said in my last blog Kyle didn’t anticipate LVP would see the texts and she still had not told her that she knew about the texts since they filmed on August 2nd. It also seemed like she didn’t tell Teddi that LVP knew about the texts because at this point, she’s done her duty to keep all attention off her and Mauricio’s issues. 

Dorit informs Teddi that she saw the text messages and you could see the colour disappear from her face. Teddi was caught. They go on the outside to talk about the matter more privately, and Teddi claims the only reason she withheld information was to protect Dorit. How! Didn’t she say she and Dorit weren’t in a good place? Didn’t she say she was in on the plan to expose Dorit? So how is she now claiming she didn’t say everything she could have because she wanted to protect Dorit? It makes no sense. 

LVP arrives with Kyle and they join the women to discuss the issue. LVP lets Teddi know she feels betrayed by her but because Teddi has everyone on her side, she decides to tell LVP that she’s owning her part unlike her because she’s been getting away with stuff like this for a long time. How does Teddi even have the gall to say stuff like that? The whole exchange between them was really eye opening and it shows that Kyle had been feeding Teddi information about LVP because since episode 2, Teddi had been talking about a pattern with LVP. How would she know about any pattern with LVP?

I have to admit that this particular text threw me. On its face, it seems like Ken was talking to Blizzard about telling Teddi and Kyle but wasn’t quite sure how to do it because of the cameras. Theory: Ken called the centre, not Blizzard’s phone, before they filmed the morning of August 2nd at Vanderpump Dogs as it appears Blizzard was texting Teddi in real time. Kyle and Teddi were their friends so they wanted them to know as friends tell each other things about their lives. Ken and LVP at this point had no idea that Blizzard had already planned with Teddi to bring up the situation, which is why Blizzard said “because like obviously it’s going to get out”. 

It’s also funny how Kyle who claimed back in season 2 in the very episode the producers chose to highlight, mentioned she didn’t know whether to believe what Taylor told them or not because she didn’t see any proof but she saw actual proof of Teddi’s plan and not one word from LVP, yet she claims there’s more to the story. #GoodbyeKyle Teddi had no problems reaching out to LVP, asking her to give her brother in hopes he would be on Vanderpump Rules, but somehow didn’t contact her at all during this whole plan?

Though Teddi has commented and said she was making a cheeky comment, this shows that she and Blizzard’s relationship was far more than what she’s claiming. It’s still shocking to me because when has she ever had any negative interaction with LVP? The depth at which Teddi has gone to blame LVP for something she never spoke to her directly about, is mind boggling. (I can’t believe I’m saying this but Erika made a valid point, what kind of person would really go that far in trying to hurt someone else? I’ll tell you who, Teddi Bear Richards.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9pm on Bravo.

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