RHOD Recap – Episode 1

My ladies from Real Housewives of Dallas are back, and they came to play!  Episode 1 of season 4 feels like a gentle slope up to a pretty freaking dramatic season.  We spend most of the hour getting reacquainted with some old friends and meeting the newest RHOD cast member, Kary. All in all, nothing big happened in Big D this week, but we can see the drama fog rolling in…

Meet Kary

Let’s start with the newest Housewife, Kary, a pretty transparent casting choice and friend of D’Andra’s.  Kary’s role as it appears at this point is to add spice and subtitles to the franchise. She spent a lot of time outlining her feelings about sex (apparently lackluster after 10 years of marriage) and sexiness (needing to tone it down on a beach trip with her teenage daughter). From where I’m standing, it looks like she’s going to give Sexual Chocolate a run for his money.  

Also Kary is still grinding axes with LeeAnne over the RoundUp comment from TWO SEASONS AGO… about the cast member she replaced!!  (By the way, Cary, we miss you.  And we miss Mark’s Molteni.  But mostly missing Cary…) I’m looking VERY forward to Kary’s (with a “K”) interactions with Kameron and LeeAnne this season, and most especially the subtitles. 

Here Comes the bride

We find LeeAnne fretting about her impending nuptials.  She’s going over details with her glitter-farting wedding planner, Steve Kemble, and over-explaining her networking role (the supposed reason she’s getting deep discounts on goodies for her wedding — because I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with being featured on national television.) And listen, I’m not buying all this ‘stressed out bride’ business, and I hope it doesn’t become a central theme. Wedding planning is nothing for a carny kid and former pageant queen; it’s just another day at the office!

The real LeeAnne story is her ongoing feud with D’Andra. And this is a REAL real feud. These ladies haven’t spoken in months, despite their agreeing to see a ‘relationship coach’ at the Season 3 Reunion. (Is that really a thing for friendships?!?) I kind of hate that it’s still going on. More on this in a minute…

Brandi’s Bratty Kid

Brandi is trudging along like the rest of the moms in the universe, trying to keep it together in the midst of chaos. And it appears the chaos with her sweet ginger kids is in full swing. Bruin is walking and couldn’t be cuter. But Brooklyn looks to be driving Brandi to the Jesus-juice. Now, I’m generally opposed to talking crap about other people’s kids, but Brandi uses some pretty unkind language to describe her own daughter (justified from what we see) and practices patience at a level some moms may not see fit to exercise. We’ll see where this one goes. At the very least, I hope someone holds on to this footage to show Brooklyn when she starts complaining about her own pre-pubescent daughters.

The Housewife & The Harvard Man

Stephanie and Travis seem to have gotten their act together, and they’re now officially #couplegoals. We’re a long way from annoying to-do lists and seemingly misogynistic marital behavior. Travis is facing a self-admitted midlife crisis, reinventing himself in anticipation of his 50th birthday. I dare say his self-care regime has been influenced by his time with Harvard co-eds, and I LOLed at Stephanie’s testimonial about his new rituals. I absolutely love this story line and really, really hope we get to see Travis talk D’Andra through her cash flow crisis and Mama D issues.

The Friendtervention

The central theme of episode is the “Friendtervention” staged by Stephanie for LeeAnne and D’Andra over their years-long feud. Kameron and Kary are off on spring break, but Brandi and Stephanie are determined for their friends to mend fences. D’Andra is already fraught with stress over her failing business and mama drama, but she says she wants to try to work things out (sans relationship coach it seems). LeeAnne comes looking for an apology over accusations of Rich’s infidelity. I’m sorry, y’all, but things don’t look good for these two.

I don’t see these former friends clearing the air and laughing all of this off (Brandi’s goal, not mine) any time soon. I’m sure LeeAnne’s amygdala was on overdrive, but she does well keeping it together (eyes darting around for a bowl to bang). D’Andra’s posture was en fuego, and she’s obviously choosing her words very carefully trying not to make things worse. We end the episode with a toast to the future, but what does that mean?!? (Spoiler Alert!) We already know D’Andra didn’t attend LeeAnne’s wedding so where, oh where, do we go from here?

What do YOU think of the new season?

Are you #TeamLeeAnne or #TeamDAndra??

Stay tuned for more drama this season! Subscribe to the BonMot blog for instant RHOD updates straight to your email – or – Follow me on social media @beingbonmot.