Could the whole Apollo/Kenya story line be more tired?
Yet here we go again. Did Apollo Nida and Kenya Moore flirt last season (or was it the season before?) Yes. Did they hook up in L.A.? That apparently is the debate.
Given that Apollo is going to prison for eight years, we do get a denouement. Finally.
At a party for Cynthia Bailey's featured story in Ebony, Apollo arrives without his wife Phaedra Parks and goes to Kenya to apologize.
Kenya - or shall we nickname her Perpetual Victim - sees him, then goes outside, saying she feels awkward around him because he spread lies about her.
As she's readying to leave Peter Thomas' Bar One in Grant Park ( now closed), Apollo comes out to make amends to Kenya before he goes behind bars.
"I didn't want to leave knowing I could have possibly hurt someone," he said. "That's not who I am as a person."
But we soon find out that he is truly a big fat liar.
Kenya wants him to apologize for specifically claiming they had hooked up in L.A. when they never did.
He oddly apologizes for lying about something even more salacious: that Kenya had wanted to have oral sex with him, an allegation that I had never heard before on the show. But then he hedged on whether they had met in Los Angeles. She doesn't accept his apology because he wasn't being specific enough.
Cynthia Bailey, overhearing this, was aghast and quickly tells Kandi Burruss inside about this.
Peter, Kandi and her hubby Todd Tucker confront Apollo about his lie regarding the fellatio offer. He admits he made that up because he was angry at her for spreading what he considered lies about him flirting with her via text. (He says the texts were purely business.)
Todd says he can't support what Apollo did to Kenya's reputation. Kandi says she won't be able to look at Apollo the same way.
So Apollo comes back to Kenya and is more contrite and more specific. He acknowledges on camera that he lied about Los Angeles. Kenya, who refuses to apologize about Textgate, is finally mollified. "I wish you well," she says, finally softening.
Now she awaits an apology from Phaedra Parks for assuming the worst and thinking Kenya was a husband-stealing whore. Will that come?
***
In other story lines:
New home for Mama Joyce!: Kandi finds a seven-bedroom, four-bath home with a basketball court for her mom. Mama Joyce likes it and it's down the street from Kandi's home. Kandi says she's trying to have a baby after a year's try. Mama Joyce thinks Todd had a vasectomy, which is why they can't conceive. How does she know? Because she dreamed it. She still hasn't forgiven Todd's mom for calling her the b-word but says she's willing to now because Todd's mom "escaped a good butt whoopin' " Mama Joyce and Kenya are two sides of the same coin, aren't they? Neither likes to apologize for anything. It's always someone else's fault!
Awkward tension: Apollo stops by the dentist appointment for his oldest son Ayden. Phaedra acts standoffish."We're spiraling downhill," Apollo says later. Phaedra, he tells folks at Cynthia's party, "wears a Jordan on one foot and a Louboutin on the other."
More awkward tension: Mama Joyce comes by to see Kandi and Kandi leaves her mom alone with Todd. They have the most awkward patter ever. He asks her about decorating her new house. She refuses to engage. She then asks him if he plans to buy his mom a house. Todd, knowing she was shading him with the question, is diplomatic and says his mom likes it in New York. Then silence before Kandi returns. Kandi thinks this is progress.
Party time: Kandi is the only other housewife who shows up at the party at the now-closed Bar One. (Peter recently vented to me about the neighbors at Grant Park not liking his business particularly much and pulling the race card out, to boot.) Cynthia looks smashing at age 47 but she didn't invite NeNe. "It is what it is," she says. "I can't hold on to that energy. It's too exhausting." Kandi mentions that nobody is even going to see NeNe in Vegas, which is telling.
Debut of Claudia Jordan: Claudia arrives at the party as a friend of Kenya and identifies herself as someone who just moved from New York. "We always have a really good time," Kenya says. When Kandi mentions that Porsha works at the same place as Claudia (The Rickey Smiley Show), Claudia sloughs it off, noting that Claudia does the radio part and Porsha does the TV part. "I've hung out with her," she says. "We're cool." At this stage of shooting, it's clear they are just testing Claudia out to see if she'll work out. Clearly, she does.
NeNe's Zumanity hosting gig: It goes off without an apparent hitch. And now that Porsha is no longer a regular, she makes zero appearances this episode but will be back next week.
Brandon speaks truth: Kenya keeps kvetching about getting hit by Porsha. Her friend Brandon brings perspective: "You be the queen that you are and walk away. Gift wrap it and give it to God," he says. She says she misses being an actress, model, producer, director, writer. She needs to get back to that. Brandon doesn't want to go to Cynthia's party because Apollo will be there and he was attacked by Apollo but has moved on. "He joked about being attacked," she says. "I hope one day I can do the same."
Disagreement: Kandi thinks Kenya calling the cops on Porsha was excessive. "I draw the line on violence," Kenya said during "Watch What Happens Live" after the show aired.
Ratings: The show opened at 3.8 million last week, the best overnight showing for a season debut ever. The show averaged 3.8 million overnight viewers last season and far more if you include repeats and DVR usage.
Where's yo money? During the reunions, Kenya and NeNe got into a tiff where somehow they both promised to donate $20,000 to the Detroit Public Schools Foundation. NeNe on Andy's show last week said she decided not to do it, saying there was a "statue of limitations." Kenya was not impressed and mocked her for saying "statue" instead of "statute" and noted correctly that this was not "applicable" to the situation. Boop!
Who? Me? Victim? Of course, Kenya denied playing victim. "I play my truth," she says during WWHL. "I am nobody's victim... I play my own reality."
Is she still trying to get pregnant? "No comment," she teases Andy.
Next week: Porsha and Cynthia argue.
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