Friendships often shift like quicksand on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
Allies can become enemies with one wrong word, one missed invitation, one snub. Forgiveness can happen but can be fleeting.
Marlo Hampton, as a recurring “friend” of the show for many years, was super close to NeNe Leakes for much of that time and for a good period of time was also an enemy of Kenya Moore. There was a time they were friendly, but it was many years ago.
With NeNe gone from the show, Marlo remains on good terms with most of the other ladies and had a deepening friendship with Porsha Williams. But Cynthia Bailey during the beach trip helped Kenya and Marlo patch things up, and Marlo suddenly found herself in the middle of two people who truly dislike each other.
Porsha and Kenya are now bitter enemies who only tolerate each other for a paycheck.
So, Porsha feels a certain way when she sees Marlo buddying up to Kenya. At that time, Kenya was on the warpath trying to suss out who had slept with the male stripper. The gossip columns later pointed out that Porsha was one of the ladies.
Marlo’s unexpected allegiance to Kenya gives Porsha pause. For a month, both women avoid each other until the most recent episode of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
While on a girls trip to New Orleans, after a zydeco dance class, Porsha takes Marlo aside to try to clear the air, feeling that they were not being 100% real around each other due to Kenya.
The conversation is brief and tense. Marlo says she feels Porsha can’t trust her being friends with Kenya.
Porsha feels the timing of Marlo’s reconciliation with Kenya is suspect: “You are my friend, and she wanted to pull you on her side... When you get back out, remember the people who were there. That’s it.”
“And I want you to be a real friend and real sis and be there to pick me up if you do,” Marlo says.
Porsha insists to Marlo that she doesn’t “give a [expective] if you are her friend, but it’s how you operate with me.”
Marlo: “I want to ask you: everything [Kenya] said, was it false?”
Porsha: “Yes!” [This is a little vague. What part was false? Did she sleep with the stripper or not? Did they just fool around?]
Porsha; “She threw it to you because she knew she could manipulate you!”
Marlo says she believes Porsha, and if Kenya brings Stripper Gate up again, she will set Kenya straight.
They eventually get to a centered space and hug.
But this heart-to-heart is emotionally taxing for Marlo, and when she returns to the bus, she looks upset. Kenya asks her what’s going on and she says she’ll need two cocktails before she spills the tea.
GET ME A SUITE, TOUT SUITE!
Drew Sidora, who is seeking acting jobs in New Orleans flies there for work and decides to turn it into a girls trip. She transports most of the women on a private jet and invites all the ladies to bring their kids if they want to.
“This is the way a host is supposed to host a vacation,” Drew says. “Luxury!’
Drew’s moves are deliberately shady references to Kenya’s girls trip to Charleston when Kenya only took LaToya Ali with her to the beach via private jet while everyone else took a van. She also brought her young daughter Brooklyn without giving the others the option to do the same with their children.
In the end, Kenya is the only one who brings her child. (As a mom with no close family or spouse nearby, her child-care options are far more limited than the other ladies.)
The start of the trip begins oddly when the ladies arrive at Hotel Indigo. Drew rewards Cynthia with the best suite because Drew couldn’t sing at Cynthia’s wedding.
Drew then asks the ladies do their best “booty bounce” to see who gets the best remaining rooms. Kenya, now the Queen of Propriety, declines, saying she doesn’t want to “degrade herself.” Drew has the band she hired to start playing music, not taking Kenya seriously. But Kenya, holding her daughter, starts raising her voice seeking a hotel room key immediately.
Drew is perplexed: “I don’t understand the anger.”
But Kenya isn’t playing. She takes the key, goes inside and tells the Hotel Indigo concierge: “Are there any other suites in the hotel? I’ll pay for it.”
“The nerve of them to try to give me a regular room,” Kenya huffs, with as much “Housewife” snobbery as she could muster.
Kenya later says it is “foul” that Drew gave her the smallest room knowing she had her daughter with her. In the end, she upgraded to a nice suite on her own dime.
DRINKING PROBLEM? NOT ME!
LaToya, former BFF of Kenya and a new “friend” of the show, decides not to drink one night.
Drew takes undue interest in LaToya’s alcohol abstinence and asks her why in front of everybody at the dinner table.
LaToya simply says she doesn’t feel like it. Drew notes that LaToya can get aggressive when she’s drunk.
In response, LaToya childishly starts chanting, “I just don’t feel like it” over and over and at one point adds the dreaded b-word, clearly directed at Drew.
Drew says her interest in LaToya’s drinking stems from the fact a driver friend of hers convinced LaToya to attend Drew’s church. They ran into each other, and Drew was pleasantly surprised.
“You said you wanted to fast and detox,” Drew says. “I was supportive of you. But the next time I saw you, you were drinking.”
LaToya: “I feel like you feel like I have a problem.”
Drew: “I’m going off what you said.”
LaToya says the other ‘Housewives” drink a lot, and she was only trying to keep up. Her conclusion: “I don’t have a problem, honey.”
Drew: “Would you ever apologize” for her past nasty comments while drunk?
LaToya: “No. ‘Cause I said what I said, and I meant what I said.”
Drew: “You’re impossible.”
Later, Kenya tells Cynthia she sees Drew as a “bully... She completely bullied LaToya.”
Cynthia finds it odd that Drew even cares about LaToya and her drinking issues because they aren’t friends. She says it was like Drew was holding onto a bone and wouldn’t let go.
TRAILER FOR NEXT WEEK
The New Orleans trip is hampered by a hurricane. Marlo finds herself caught in the middle of the Kenya/Porsha imbroglio, and she’s having a hard time dealing with it.
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