Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Vanderpump Rules Season 4 Episode 4 [Review]

This season may have had a slow start, but it's big "Holy Cow!!" moment is just around the corner. This episode came as a bit of a shock (even after the accusations from last week), and it made for some good TV. Vanderpump Rules finally has it's footing in the right place now, and seems to be ready to make it's way into the limelight as one of Bravo's best reality TV shows out there once again. Don't believe me? Well check out all the craziness below.




This week's "Minor Drama" if you will, revolved around both Jax and Lala, sometimes even Jax and Lala together. For instance, despite the fact that Jax had been toting around Brittany as his girlfriend of the week. He got pretty into Lala, asking her about Mormons (even though she isn't one) and anal sex. Lala knows how to handle herself around a creeps, Jax being the biggest creep at all. Luckily for her, she didn't have to stay on the defensive for too long, because Lisa walked in on Jax flirting it up, and pulled him aside for a chat.

In this chat, Jax brought up his girlfriend and whether she was getting a job at Sur. That was pretty ballsy actually, because he was just caught red-handed with Lala, and Lisa's main concern was that their relationship wasn't going to last. She told him to bring her to Pump later. When he and Brittany showed up, she was dressed skimpily yet again and also had forgotten her resume for the second time. Lisa seemed like she had made her mind up, but after hearing that she worked at Hooters, it became a definite no quickly.

James and Kristen attended therapy in this week's episode. I'm always very skeptical when they show therapy sessions on reality TV because I would assume that the laws would be against that. That made me wonder if this was a real therapist or not, but the advice she dolled out seemed quite appropriate. She mostly told the both of them they had to actually want to not hurt each other, and Kristen was immediately unsure if they would ever get to that point. Ouch.

Pulling Lala back into the equation, the boys of Sur seem to have a lot opinion of her. James, who voiced his the loudest and most drunken, announced to the room that she was a slut. I guess he would know, especially since she flat out told him last week she wasn't into guys with girlfriends, despite flirting extremely heavily so during the conversation.


The marriage proposal storyline from last week between Schwartz and Katie was mentioned briefly during this episode. To be honest, it was played off rather well. I was actually not giving the ordeal much thought because I was simply excited to see Peter around again. Peter has been one of my favorite people on this show for all four seasons, and this year he's gotten very little screen time. The sexy beast has a new girlfriend, and rightfully so. Good for him!

Speaking of the Toms, the two of them decided they were tired of being simple bartenders/models/actors and that they needed more on their resume. The next step? Obviously being salesmen. Yeah. I didn't see the leap there either, but they both felt like they could help Lisa promote and sell her new sangria line to the world. She called them in for a meeting, and the two decided they should dress the part. Unfortunately for them, Lisa has already seen them at their worst and knows exactly the kind of people they are, so slapping on a cheap button up isn't going to help.

It also didn't help that Tom took over most of the talking. I'm not saying he's an idiot, but I'm saying something similar. He kept mentioning that he could market to St. Louis very well. Uhh... Newsflash. Andy Cohen -- your boss's boss -- is from there. I think they have St. Louis cornered. Not only that but Pandora, Lisa's daughter, was already talking about deals in Rome and Australia. Yeah the boys were way out of their league here. Lisa was nice enough to give them an opportunity to write up a plan to prove themselves, though. At least it wasn't a hard no.


Now for the hard part: Shay's return. Scheana felt like Shay would be more comfortable coming home to a group setting than a one on one with her, so she invited Tom, Ariana (in her only real substantial appliance of the week), Katie, and Schwartz. It was kind of weird having everyone around for such a complicated moment, but it made sense once they put into context that Scheana could be a bit overbearing. Things were tense waiting for him to appear, but once he got there, things felt much lighter. After a round of hugs, they were ready to get into the problem and talk it all out.

It was a lot less emotional than I was expecting. Shay told her he felt like he needed his family support system, and she thought she should be his only support system. He explained to her that she intimidated him a lot and that he really wanted to start speaking up for himself. Honestly I think far more came out of this than did the probably expensive therapist session that Kristen and James were in earlier. Shay really seemed to open up and want help. We honestly hadn't seen a lot of Shay as a person on the show, so seeing who he really was helped shape this situation a bit better.

After the confrontation, things in Shceana's household seemed to return to normal for the most part. We saw them cooking together and joking like old times. The only awkward bit was that she said she was going to drug test him occasionally until the trust is built back up. As weird as that sounds, it also makes a bit of sense. It's keeping him responsible for his actions and more in the moment when he has the urge to take pills. As much as I rag on Scheana, she's actually a pretty smart woman. Though this hard situation, I have gained so much more respect for her.


Lisa was nowhere near as pleased with the outcome of the confrontation as I was. She told her point blank that she felt Shay needed to go to rehab. That is a strong statement to make. Lisa has always had strong opinions, but I have to say she is completely wrong here. Scheana is already in a fragile state, and I think that forcing Shay into rehab would destroy not only her emotional state, but also their marriage. It's a bad idea all around.

See what I meant by saying things were heating up? I really feel for everyone on this show in different ways -- except maybe Jax -- and they all have their own struggles being captured on national TV. It takes a strong person to do what Scheana or even Shay did this week, and I think it's something we haven't seen on Bravo in a long time. Vanderpump Rules is making a name for itself as it goes through his (currently) Stassi-less mid-life crisis, and honestly it's doing a damn fine job at it.

I, for one, can't wait to see what happens next!

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