Tonight's episode is proof that when a dispute does not involve Kenya Moore, said dispute can get awfully petty and awfully boring.
Thus, we get Cynthia Bailey getting mildly annoyed because Porsha Stewart isn't doing what little work Cynthia assigned her for Cynthia's upcoming pageant. Porsha is supposed to get information about her grandfather's charity Hosea Feed the Hungry and a logo to Cynthia. Porsha said the marketing director was supposed to send it to Cynthia. But Cynthia didn't get it in a timely fashion.
Cynthia also gets aggravated because Porsha wouldn't allow Cynthia and her two male employees of the Bailey Agency to meet at Porsha's house. Why? When Porsha's husband Kordell Stewart is not there, she can't have "strange" men at the home - even if it's obviously a business call. The guys also find this odd. When Porsha shows up at the Bailey Agency, she senses their annoyance and feels uncomfortable. Then she takes a personal call from her cleaners in the middle of the meeting, giving Cynthia another reason to think of Porsha as flaky.
Later, when Porsha conveys this awkward meeting to her husband Kordell, he gets bowed up. He tells her to "check it" with Cynthia, that Porsha needs to tell Cynthia that Porsha needs to be treated with more respect since she is taking up her valuable volunteer time to help Cynthia.
Porsha fails to do that. Instead, Cynthia later tells Porsha that she has been relieved of her volunteer duties. Cynthia told the cameras that she had already given Porsha purposely modest assignments and Porsha "dropped the ball." The show has shown her not doing much of anything besides shop so this isn't exactly a shocker. In her defense, Porsha claims she had already done a lot of work for Cynthia's pageant. What work? A couple of phone calls? Her indignation is a bit weak because honestly, she didn't really do much work. Porsha's feelings are simply hurt.
If this were two different people (say, Kim and NeNe in their heyday), Cynthia and Porsha would get into a heated argument at Porsha's "Harlem Renaissance" party for Kordell's 40th birthday near the end of the hour.
Instead, they act like all is good face to face. Then Kordell corners Cynthia and tries to lecture her about the situation in weird vagaries. Cynthia responds in equally frustrating vagaries. And when Porsha sthows up? The whole "confrontation" peters out after Kordell says he's "irritated" by the two women. Where's crazy Kenya or Marlo Hampton to turn this into a ridiculous, name-calling situation?
Porsha never tells Cynthia how she really feels. Cynthia, who did tell Porsha how she felt earlier, decided to show up to the party to be classy. Bottom line: Cynthia won't be asking for Porsha's help anymore.
Porsha is simply relieved Kordell "cleaned up" after her mess. "I'm glad Kordell brought it up. I forgive her. But I won't forget how she made me feel."
While we've known since episode one that Porsha isn't all that bright, we now learn she cedes control to her husband far more than the other married ladies do with their men.
In other housewives news:
- NeNe Leakes only gets a 45-second segmen twith her ex-hubby Gregg that is sweet but proof positive she's mostly out of the picture 3,000 miles west.
- Kandi Burruss is a little distracted now that she's in love with Todd. She hasn't been recording music lately but her manager Don Juan pushes her to do something. Despite skeptics in the studio, she wants to try some gospel music and has hooked up with gospel star Marvin Sapp, who we'll meet next week.
- Kenya finds lumps in her breasts. She worries it's cancer. She gets them checked. During her moment of uncertainty, she feels life is too important to care so much about what the other housewives think. In the end, the cysts are benign. Phew! But will this false alarm change her? We shall find out. Plus, her faux former beaux Walter Jackson pops up at Kordell's birthday party and tells the guys he's free and clear. Peter and Kordell promise they'll remain friends with him. Porsha chose not to invite Kenya to said party for obvious reasons. So Kenya interacts with none of the ladies this week.
- Early on, Phaedra Parks pooh-poohs Kenya's ridiculous mockery of Phaedra at NeNe's charity party in last week's episode. Kandi thinks she was upset but has decided not to push the drama forward. She even claims she has no issue with Kenya, that she was flattered by the attention. Somehow, she comes off unconvincing. She just doesn't want to dive into the muck. Will the producers find a way to keep the Phaedra-Kenya tension going?
QUOTES
"Those were Victoria's Secret free coupon panties." - Phaedra, commenting on Kenya's outfit the previous week while Kenya was mocking her.
"Guilty until proven guilty." - Porsha, showing off her knowledge of legal principles.
"Guilty until proven innocent?" - Porsha, showing her knowledge of principles in a fascist regime.
"I'm still pretty perturred with Cynthia and it makes me wonder what our friendship is really like." - Porsha, mispronouncing the word "perturb" by missing the "b."(Yes, Cynthia Bailey is Stephen Hawking compared to Porsha.)
"Kordell will have to let Porsha be a big girl and fight her own battles. It's coming off as a little controlling." - Cynthia, on Kordell's meddling in their business.
RATINGS
As noted in an earlier blog entry, episode 13 two weeks ago broke a series record for viewers, broaching 4 million for the first time. The show is now ahead of season four's average viewers to date.
TRAILER
Next week, Cynthia's pageant does not go off without a few hitches. And Kandi is working gospel after dabbling in country last season.
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