Originally posted Sunday, November 17, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
NeNe Leakes was curiously absent from the first two episodes of "Real Housewives of Atlanta" season 12.
She is on the outs with pretty much everybody on the show save for Marlo Hampton, who isn't even a regular. (And now there's a tease for episode four where she walks out on Marlo!)
There was a promo last week where NeNe finally "meets up" with former bestie Cynthia Bailey on the Bravo float at New York Pride parade.
What is super irritating about this episode is it only leads up to that same point at the end of the hour. So we still don't know what happens. My gut tells me that it's not fisticuffs or anything all that exciting. I suspect the lead up is far more ominous than the actual result.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
Finally! NeNe makes her first real appearance (minus flashbacks and teases) on the show one third through episode three.
She and her husband Gregg are still together after his cancer treatment. He is now cancer free. But she said she is still healing from the cancer journey. She said they were already in a rocky place before he got cancer and being a caregiver really made NeNe ornery with him and the women on the cast last season.
NeNe said she now has a “spiritual advisor” who helps her with her marriage and her approach toward people in general. We’ll see if that actually allows her to be more vulnerable and stop getting peeved over stuff that doesn’t matter.
An attempt at “reconciliation” a couple months earlier with Cynthia fell flat because it came off as accusatory. NeNe read aloud what she wrote: “You’re so sad, the things you are saying. You are truly are never friend. Try to clear your name. #Sad.”
That is hardly conciliatory. “I blocked her,” Cynthia said.
“I know I’ve been petty,” NeNe tells Gregg. “But I’m in a different head space.”
NeNe is now an ambassador for the American Cancer Society, which is headquartered in Atlanta.
They tape an infomercial for ACS about her issues. She felt alone while taking care of Gregg. “It almost destroyed us,” he said.
Eva and Cynthia bond: Last season, Eva Marcille got a little under Cynthia's skin by mocking her age (lightly), then spreading a (false) rumor that Cynthia and Mike Hill were not legit.
But Eva apologized and Cynthia accepted it. They are now close enough that Cynthia joins Eva on a house-hunting trip for Eva.
Cynthia says what makes it hard for her to get back into NeNe’s good graces is the fact NeNe refuses to own up to her own mistakes in the relationship.
“She will never have accountability,” Cynthia says. “She is never wrong.”
Eva has moved from residence to residence, she says, in part because of Kevin McCall, who has a child with her. Eva has accused him of domestic violence and stalking. She thinks so little of him that she simple calls him "donor" on "RHOA." She finds NeNe annoying because NeNe has expressed doubt about her explanation. Yet last week, McCall was arrested after getting into a scuffle with a police officer for shooting video in the Fulton County courthouse before a custody hearing. So that just bolstered Eva's credibility about this dude.
NeNe disses Cynthia: On a video interview with the Morning Hustle, NeNe described Cynthia as "definitely weak... she looks really desperate."
Cynthia, while watching the video, says, "She throws everybody under the bus. She is the bus!"
NeNe is mad that Cynthia has talked about their broken relationship with the media. But the sample bits Bravo show are hardly nasty. “She is not a healthy person for me to be around” Cynthia said. “It’s not good for my spirit and I deserve better.” She said NeNe always makes things about her - again, hardly a verbal grenade, relatively speaking.
NeNe considered Cynthia’s complaints the equivalent of someone shooting a “b****.”
Marc Daly gets the “jerk” edit:
Marc spends most of his time in New York with his restaurant. So the times they are together are precious. Unfortunately for wifey Kenya Moore, he places his focus on their seven-month-old daughter Brooklyn, not her.
He won’t let go of Brooklyn at all when they are together and Kenya is feeling ignored and admittedly a little jealous. The physical distance isn’t helping matters.
(Conventional wisdom for a strong marriage with kids, of course, is to cultivate a strong relationship between the spouses first and foremost. If that isn't nourished, the marriage is likely doomed.)
And from what little Bravo has shown so far, Marc comes across as an arrogant jerk. He threw belittling comments at Kenya for no good reason last week via video phone.
Daly for the first time shows up on camera at Kenya home with their daughter Brooklyn. Although he clearly loves his daughter, he struts around in a way that is not palatable. He is genuinely upset that Kenya doesn’t have eggs to make him breakfast. (If he wants eggs so badly, he should get them himself!) And when she hands him a nicely garnished pancake with bacon and fruit, he isn’t remotely grateful.
“I love when you’re here. We can relax and be with family,” Kenya says.
“And have a breakfast with no eggs?” he says, as if that isa capital offense.
When she asks him about celebrating his upcoming birthday with just the two of them, he quickly balks. “Brooklyn rolls with me!” he said. “You’re No. 1”
“I’m supposed to be No. 1,” Kenya protests to no avail.
As news reports note, the two of them are soon destined for separation and likely divorce.
Surrogacy is weird: Both Kandi Burruss and Todd Tucker marvel over how strange the entire surrogacy journey has been. Kandi is getting a baby but isn't pregnant so she is having a difficult time wrapping her head around it all. But the weirder moment came when Todd noted that he took his 23-year-old daughter to a strip club because he'd rather be there than for her to go with others. (Huh? Kandi is not a fan of this either.)
