Each year I feel like I may have bitten off more than I can chew, and this year more than ever. But I absolutely could not pass up this show. Vanderpump Rules is my biggest guilty pleasure -- ever. It's got everything I'd ever want from a show and more, and thus it has become a solid part of my lineup for reviews this season. Let's hope it turns out as great as the last few have! Now, onto the review!
The big stir at the beginning of this episode was how practically everyone felt Lisa was favoring her new restaurant Pump over Sur. She wrangled in all of the bartenders to learn Pump's signature drinks from Eric, who had only been with Lisa for a little over a year. This pissed them all off, but nobody was more vocal than Jax. I guess he had a reason to be angry, given the circumstances, but when Ken said he needed to either accept Eric or leave, Jax didn't back down. It was kind of a bad move. She also had the servers retrain with a Pump employee named Richardson, but that went much better, mainly because he was a big flirt.
Lisa made sure to corner Scheana and Katie shortly after to talk about Lala. Lisa did scold Lala for lying, but the cunning young woman covered it up with yet another lie (or maybe I just assume it's a lie because she's a liar) about going home to see her mom because she had a breakdown. Lisa tells the girls they can't bully her like that, but Scheana tells her she has much bigger things to worry about, and that diverges onto her own story that we will get to soon enough. Anyway, it was unclear at this point if Lisa really liked Lala or just felt bad for her, but it was clear that Lala isn't being completely honest with everyone.
This comes into play when we see James and Lala interact for the first time this season. Lala felt like she couldn't trust the women of Sur so she went after the guys. James, who had previously had yet another scene with Kristen where he lied about sleeping with another woman, made sure to flirt his hardest with the new girl in town. It was a bit painful to see, especially since Kristen has grown on me a lot recently. Lala vocally shut him down, claiming she isn't a home wrecker, but her body language suggests she's into him, making for her to be my least favorite yet again. I usually root for the new girl in town, but Lala is treading into dangerous territory, and I don't know if she's woman enough to make it out unscathed.
If one had been paying attention to the season so for, they may have noticed that Scheana has been a bit off her game. She's been avoiding her best friend Ariana, and instead taking comfort in her ex-enemy Katie. It's a weird thing to see, but when she came clean about what all was going on, it began to make sense. Apparently Shay, her hubby she married on screen last season, had vanished to his parents' house and hadn't spoken to her in days. She really started to break down at work in the bathroom and Katie rushed to comfort her. Katie was incredibly shocked that the two of them were having marital problems, because Scheana keeps up the facade so well.
Things progressed quickly with this story, having a lot of people find out rather rapid fire. It's unclear how Tom found out (as he was shown talking about it before Ariana found out, but that could have just been poor editing), but he and Schwartz talked about it on their own, and Scheana invited Ariana over to talk things out. It was good to see the two of them finally have a scene together, as they have been so close to one another up until now. Ariana had the same reaction as everyone else, being completely floored by what she was hearing.
The disturbing part of it all was in one small line that Scheana said to Ariana that wouldn't be explained until the very end of the episode. She used the term "self medicating", which can have a vastly different meaning depending on the context. The context here suggested that she was saying that he was doing prescription drugs as well as drinking. It's a dark path that was only quickly mentioned in the season-long trailer, which, as well all know, can be a misleading thing to go by. Either way, it looks like Shay is not doing too well, and being that the only time he was shown so far this season was getting wasted at a party, I think there is a lot more to this storyline than we know just yet.
In more light hearted news, Schwartz comes forward with his plans to seriously get married. We see him for the first time in a long time at a modeling shoot, where he confessed that he was only doing it to gather together some money to pay for the engagement ring. This only furthers my suspicions that Katie gave him more time than she claimed last season so that they could get engaged on camera. Even as jaded as I am with reality TV, I do have to admit that it was really cute seeing Schwartz talk to the models about his plans and exactly what he wanted to do.
Later in the episode, he enlisted the help of Tom and Scheana to help him pick out a ring for Katie. At first I was confused as to why he asked Schwartz instead of Ariana, but when I was reminded again that Scheana and Katie are friends now (again, I have no idea how/why), it made more sense. Apparently Scheana had a line-item list of everything that Katie wanted from a ring, as a best friend should. I still couldn't help but question why this was all happening now. I guess I'm too cynical to just let things be romantic as they are.
The only real problem that came into question was the price of the ring. Apparently the budget that Schwartz chose was way too low, and he had a hard time defending why he only wanted to spend around four thousand on a ring. After everything was said and done, the ring he had picked out was three thousand over his budget, and we didn't get informed if he chose that ring or not. It would be interesting to see if we are going to get another wedding on the show, and it's even more ironic that the first marriage to come from this show is already falling apart. Maybe they should wait until the off season to get this done right.
Now for the disturbing part. At the end of the episode, Lisa sat down with Scheana to discuss her subpar behavior lately. It was nice to see Lisa still taking a caring interest in her staff, especially when Scheana has said multiple times that she considers Lisa a friend. Scheana told Lisa the same story that she had given everyone else about Shay being gone for four days and how it was becoming harder for her to stay strong. And then the whole issue about medication from earlier came up, but this time she had a bit more to say.
Apparently, by "self medicating" she meant that he was taking at least five Vicodin a day, as well as driving. Not only is that horrifying for a personality trait, it's also incredibly dangerous. She really tried to defend him by saying he had a lot of pain, but Lisa quickly shot that down, boldly claiming that these are habits of drug addicts. It doesn't bode well for Lisa to be so up in arms about a situation. I have a feeling this will come to a head soon.
Overall this episode seemed to serve as a setup for future events. There's the whole Scheana bit that is happening, to which I'm sure Shay will resurface soon to say his piece. There's also James flirting with Lala along with his and Kristen's crumbling relationship. The tension between Jax and the Pump staff may be a recurring point as well. There are lots of people rising to the occasion and finally getting the spotlight this year (James, Scheana, Lala), while others are falling behind into "forgotten" territory (Ariana, Katie), but the season has just begun, and if I know Bravo, there's plenty more insanity hiding around the next corner for us to witness. Hold on, because we have no idea what's coming next.
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