First of all, can we talk about the title of RHoA 7×07, “Nice to Metria”? It took me – well, let’s just say “a while” – to understand it, but the fact that this episode debuts new housewife Demetria McKinney should clear everything up. Now, on with the recap.
Burruss family values
Kandi‘s tag line in the opening credits is “I’m not about the drama – don’t start none, won’t be none,” but her family seems to always ensure that there’s a cloud of it swirling around her. Take RHoA 7×07 as an example. She’s barely touched down back in Georgia after a stress-filled trip to the Bronx that involved defending her mother against husband Todd‘s mother Sharon, and she’s already facing the wrath of Momma Joyce. It appears Joyce is peeved that Kandi told her aunts about the less than stellar state in which Joyce’s boyfriend left her old house. Kandi decides to let the situation rest for the time being, but her aunt insists she talk to her mother. Kandi and Joyce don’t really reach a resolution but decide to let it go because they’re tired of arguing. (We’ll see how long that lasts.)
Meanwhile, over at the Bailey Agency, actress and singer Demetria McKinney drops by to say hi to her old friend Cynthia and go over the model requirements for her new music video. Demetria reveals that after eight years of hiding her relationship with her manager, Roger, she’s ready for everything to come out in the open – a recipe for drama if ever I heard one. Cynthia hopes their professional partnership will blossom into “a very prosperous and profitable relationship” – but given that this is The Real Housewives of Atlanta, we can undoubtedly expect some bumps in the road. The first of these comes sooner rather than later, when Demetria invites Cynthia to her video premiere party, Cynthia says she’ll bring Claudia and Kenya, and Demetria promptly balks. Turns out Kenya was photographed with Roger at an event, fueling speculation on “the blogs” about the nature of their relationship that Demetria felt Kenya did nothing to dissuade. Uh-oh.
Cut to a conversation between Kenya, Cynthia and Claudia during which Roger’s name just so happens to come up. When Kenya suggests that Claudia pursue him romantically, Cynthia hastily breaks the news about his relationship with Demetria and tells Kenya about Blog-Gate. Kenya counters by claiming that in the five years she’s known Roger, he’s dated numerous women who weren’t Demetria, and she bristles at Demetria’s annoyance that she didn’t shoot down the rumors.
Grand dames and southern belles
No episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta is complete until NeNe Leakes graces the screen, and RHoA 7×07 is no exception. This week, the RHoA grand dame is in Florida preparing to launch her new fashion line on HSN – provided she can stay up until midnight, that is. “I’ve got to sell thousands of pieces and stay awake at the same time,” she declares in her personal interview. The struggle is truly real.
If NeNe’s the grand dame of RHoA, then Phaedra is surely the southern belle. Ms. Parks takes a break from the tenseness of living with a man who’s preparing for imminent incarceration to visit with Kandi, whose cousin Melvin just so happens to also be hanging out in Kandi Land. Melvin’s father went to prison when he was young, and he tells Phaedra to be honest with her sons rather than lying to protect them from reality. Phaedra isn’t on board with taking her boys to visit Apollo behind bars for fear of condoning the illegal acts that put her husband there in the first place, and hearing that Melvin visited his father then got in trouble with the law himself later on only deepens her concern.
RHoA 7×07 is beginning to be defined as an episode of not-so-coincidental coincidences, because oh, look, Kenya just so happens to have a meeting with Roger about getting back into acting, and she just so happens to bring up Demetria. Roger admits the two are together and promptly invites Kenya to the video release party. Who else senses an epic blowout will happen at this gathering?
Zero hour
The event starts off well enough, with Demetria and Cynthia talking shoes and Cynthia’s husband Peter making his escape to the bar while they talk about “girl stuff.” Demetria finally encounters Kenya, but after Kenya assures her that she has no interest in Roger beyond how he can help her further her career, Demetria backs down – and Kenya even admits in her personal interview that the other woman “seems like a cool girl.” …Well, that was disappointing.
Meanwhile, in her personal interview, Phaedra mentions how nice it is for her to have a night out with the ladies and away from Apollo… except, of course, Apollo shows up shortly thereafter. There might be some fireworks at this event after all. Phaedra unwillingly kisses her husband, and the ladies make a series of awkward faces. When Apollo asks her to sit next to him, she just as unwillingly complies. Kandi’s reaction is much like mine:
Phaedra has already told me that she hasn’t really been communicating well with Apollo. I’m sure that the middle of a crowded nightclub is not the place where she wants to start communicating with him.
Evidently, though, the middle of a crowded nightclub strikes Apollo as the perfect place to broach the subject of getting a divorce. “If two people are unhappy, it’s one solution,” he tells her. She remains uncharacteristically quiet, explaining in her personal interview that she has nothing further to say to him.
Kenya, as always, has a catty comment for the occasion: “Who needs Demetria’s video when I can watch this episode of Lockdown?” It’s good that she’s finding ways to stay entertained, because first there are technical difficulties with the video, then it plays – but without sound.
Quote of the week: “I wouldn’t do anything without having a gay on my team. I believe that gays are very special people.” – NeNe Leakes
Tune in to Bravo next Sunday at 8/7c for RHoA 7×08, dubiously titled “Tea With a Side of Squashed Beef.”
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