‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ season 13 episode 3 recap

Wedding or no wedding on 10/10/20 for Cynthia? The pandemic complicates Cynthia’s wedding planning.

Sometimes, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” reveals strong differences in the way women and men can view pivotal events.

In this case, it’s about the wedding between Cynthia Bailey and her fiancé, Mike Hill.

For her, a grandiose wedding is a dreamy way to cement her love with Mike before 250 of her closest friends and family. She wants the social acceptance, the communal celebration of their bond.

Mike only cares that he’s married, even if they recited their vows in front of five people. For him, being with Cynthia is all that matters.

During Sunday’s episode, Cynthia and Mike check out the swanky Governors Towne Club in Acworth as the site of their wedding on Oct. 10. There is ample indoor and outdoor space, and it has all the proper flourishes including a winding staircase, a spacious banquet hall and views of a meticulously manicured golf course.

But Mike is concerned about COVID-19 restrictions and the possibility the wedding would have to be scaled back at the last second. They briefly talk about a backup plan, having a much more modest wedding in her backyard. But Cynthia resists. She wants a big wedding. He doesn’t care. This is the same argument they had in episode one.

He says he wants to be married on Oct. 10 no matter what.

“If you marry me, it shouldn’t matter who’s around us,” Mike says.

But for her, a big wedding trumps the date.

“I’m not trying to take that away from you,” he says, relenting a bit.

“All right. Then don’t!” she says, her voice raised. " I want to be excited about getting married!”

“I think you should be excited regardless,” Mike says.

Cynthia is annoyed that her sister, Malorie, seems to on Mike’s side.

“You’re making me feel like a [expletive, expletive],” she says, walking away.

To the Bravo cameras, she says, “I feel like my back is up against the wall. It’s not a good feeling.”

Later, in the car, Mike sums it up thusly: “The prize is you. People don’t talk about weddings. They talk about how is your marriage.”

But Mike realizes how much this means to Cynthia, so he tells her he’s willing to postpone the wedding if they can’t have it at Governors Towne Club. He’s clearly annoyed, but they decide to just end the argument then and there.

As followers of Cynthia know, she did actually have her wedding at Governors Towne Club on Oct. 20. But because of rain, most of the proceedings happened indoors and the Bravo camera crew chose not to film it for safety precautions, according to TMZ.

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Porsha Williams, arrested in Louisville in mid-July during protests in support of Breonna Taylor, returned again in late August and was arrested a second time. This was an echo of her late grandfather, Hosea Williams, who was arrested dozens of times in the name of civil rights justice in the 1950s and 1960s.

“I don’t think people realize the trauma Black people are living through right now,” Porsha says. “Seeing a person just like you being killed, that’s very traumatizing. We’re trying to find a way to make the bleeding stop.”

She has not interacted in person with the other ladies up to this point but does attend a friend’s pool for a party. On the way, she says her relationship with fiancé Dennis McKinley started out OK when the pandemic began, then fell apart. By late summer, they were no longer together.

“Dennis and I had this major argument, and it just kind of sent me over the edge,” she tells RHOA “friend” Tanya Sam and Porsha’s sister Lauren in the car. “I don’t like who I am in the relationship right now. This breakup is something I need for me.”

Later, she admits: “I’m so broken. I’m so weak. I can’t deal with it.”

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Drew Sidora and her husband, Ralph Pittman, got into a big argument during last week’s episode about his three-day sojourn when she had no idea where he was. He did eventually tell her he went to Tampa, but he wasn’t sorry. The couple left the situation unresolved.

“So we go along and get along until the next crazy argument,” Drew says to the cameras.

When Drew’s mom, Jeannette, a pastor, mentions her next sermon is focused on the theme “Bridle Your Tongue,” Ralph bristles, taking offense because he thinks it’s specifically about him.

Drew explains: “Ralph is very argumentative. The way he talks is super straightforward. [My mom] takes that as disrespect.”

Later, they have a discussion about a new 9,000-square-foot house they are buying. He is trying to keep her out of the loop on the details. He says her job is to pack. His job is to close the deal.

“He wants to be the knight in shining armor,” Drew says, which is a nice way of saying he’s controlling. “I see his value, but sometimes I don’t think he sees mine.”

Or as Ralph says to her dismissively when she asks questions about the closing of the house: “You are inserting yourself into things you have no business even touching.”

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LaToya Ali, the new “friend” of the show, pops by to spend time with her fresh BFF Kenya Moore.

They bond like giggly teenagers.

“Why are we like twins?” LaToya exclaims at one point. “We’re like the same!”

LaToya then makes a classic Mean Girl move and starts going after the other newbie in town, disparaging the wig Drew wore when they first met.

She dubbed it a “cat” or a “pet wig.” She then names the wig “Drew-isha.”

“We need to call her out and get her a real wig,” LaToya says almost too gleefully.

Kenya is impressed with LaToya’s petty nastiness.

“I thought I was shady,” Kenya says. “This little one here? I think I have met my match!”

LaToya then insists it’s time for Kenya, who is planning to divorce, to get on dating sites. So she takes pictures of Kenya. Kenya says she wants to keep her wedding ring on. LaToya says, go right ahead, she’s going to edit it out anyway.

We also learn Kenya did not have a pre-nup with her husband Marc Daly, the prideful, dismissive New York restaurateur. Given the interactions we’ve seen between the two of them last season, this is not surprising. She is in some ways cowed by him.

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TEASER FOR THE NEXT EPISODE:

“Real Housewives” will not air a new episode on Dec. 27. Bravo did not say when the next new episode will be, but it will likely be Sunday, Jan. 3, based on how they have scheduled shows in the past.

In the teaser, Kenya throws shade at Porsha for getting arrested twice at Breonna Taylor protests, as if she’s doing this for publicity purposes. Drew’s husband, Ralph, feels emasculated. Cynthia and Kenya get into an undefined argument.