Part two of The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City reunion highlights Mary‘s cult, er, I mean church, and Lisa‘s infamous hot mic moment. Can the 10-year friendship between Lisa and Meredith be saved or is it too far gone?
The reunion picks up right where we left off. Lisa is trying to explain that she loves Jen Shah, “as controversial as it is,” and yep, that sets Jen right off. She is tired of Lisa and her addendums. We hear more about the Fresh Wolf guest list that Lisa’s sons apparently created, and Lisa explains she added Whitney onto the guest list, but Jen still didn’t make the cut. Meredith makes it clear that she had Lisa’s back throughout this whole ordeal, building her case that she *always* was there for Lisa, despite what Lisa thinks.
Andy wants to know why Jennie didn’t defend Lisa throughout the season if she is Lisa’s friend AND the reason she was brought into this group. Jennie makes it clear that she did stand up for Lisa. Andy also wants to know why Lisa pinned the whole Mary saga on Whitney. Lisa begins her very long-winded explanation, and Andy wonders why Lisa would have all these important conversations off-camera.
The date of Meredith’s father’s memorial gets brought up. In case you forgot, Lisa claimed Meredith was attending it during that legendary call from the Sprinter Van right after Jen was arrested. Meredith makes a great point: “Why would I answer the phone if I was at my father’s memorial?” Meredith reminds us that she was physically in Vail and her dad was buried in Aspen. Talk about a major misunderstanding. Meredith claims she was attacked for being at her father’s memorial, and Andy tells Meredith that if she only clearly stated the date of the memorial, then many of the issues would not have erupted.
When there’s a break for lunch, Lisa tries to make things better with Meredith, but Meredith isn’t having it. Lisa storms off and has a freak out in her trailer, yelling at production. Heather calls this reunion “the twilight zone,” and Jen touches base with Coach. She explains about Meredith’s apology and how she found it sincere whilst wearing her Gucci robe — totally something that I would be wearing if I was accused of stealing money from the elderly.
After the lunch break, we learn that almost everyone has received mean texts from Mary (minus Jennie — cuz let’s face it, Mary doesn’t even care enough about Jennie to harass her), but no one got it worse than Whitney. Mary really went into her HARD. Even Meredith got a few mean words from Mary. After Jennie threw the glass, Mary was angry that Meredith did not stand up for her.
Mary’s name comes up an awful lot for a lady who is not even there in person. Andy questions Mary’s church and wonders if it is really a cult. Meredith makes it clear that when she attended Mary’s church, she saw nothing that made it cult-like. Whitney says she did not see anything wrong with her church at first, but now she questions it, and Jen says that all churches have the potential to be a cult.
Lisa wants to remove Cameron from the conversation altogether, and we hear more about the friendship Lisa had with him. We learn that Cameron died of a brain tumor and Lisa is devastated he is no longer here. Cameron was apparently an acting member of the foster care board, according to Lisa, but the rest of the women believe that Lisa introduced Cameron to the group so that they could learn more about Mary’s church. Meredith questions if Cameron really gave Mary $300,000, and when Lisa answers, Meredith calls her RIGHT out. She outs Lisa, and she says that off-camera, Lisa flat out told her that never happened and let everyone else believe it, even if Lisa didn’t get all the details correct.
Whitney decided to reach out to Cameron directly to get some true answers. Whitney wanted to hear information and learned that Mary’s congregation thought Mary was God. Whitney shares that Cameron had a “relationship” with Mary when he was younger, and he felt taken advantage of. Sure wish Cameron and Mary were there to answer for themselves…
There’s a cute little segment on the house kids, and it’s nice to see other children focused on besides Brooks, because, you know there is more than just the aspiring fashion designer. Many people believe that Heather is living vicariously through her college-aged daughter. Heather doesn’t even deny this and has hopes that her daughter learns the balance between work and fun.
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Jen believes that Lisa and Meredith’s relationship has a whole lotta tension. Lisa claims she was never hurt by Meredith’s relationship with Mary, but everyone calls BS. Lisa states what hurt HER feelings is that Meredith never had her back. Meredith reminds Lisa that everyone is entitled to their own feelings, and all day long, Meredith has been showing different “exhibits” of Meredith having Lisa’s back throughout the season.
Meredith finds it “incomprehensible” that anything she could have said or done would have triggered that “tirade” from Lisa during that hot mic moment. Meredith gets emotional trying to explain her point, and she makes it clear that it all started when Meredith called Lisa to say her father was dying. When Meredith invited Lisa to the Shabbat dinner to honor her father, Meredith was looking for a friend, not for someone to stir sh*t up.
Lisa repeats that she was there for Meredith, and Meredith states that a month later she sent Lisa a text saying, “If you love my family, please stand up for me. I am in immense pain, suffering daily… but I am asking for a friend.” Meredith cannot fathom how after sending that text, Lisa could spit out all those mean words about Meredith. Lisa restates that she was there for Meredith, but Andy tells Lisa it’s “not landing with us.” Lisa keeps saying she “knows” she was there for Meredith, and to pour salt into the wound, Andy rattles off the infamous hot mic lines word for word from Lisa, ya know… Meredith’s pal.
Meredith states that the content of that rant is absurd, but the “venom and hatred of the delivery” is something Meredith cannot get over. Lisa denies, denies, denies, even as Whitney spits out that Lisa has told many people about Meredith’s marital issues way before this incident. Lisa claims that she felt rejected by Meredith and probably just exploded over the friendship lines she felt as though she had to follow. Jen tells Lisa that her apology delivery is off, and Lisa states that she is not sorry for getting caught but is sorry that she said those cruel words.
Lisa reminds Meredith that she was there for Meredith when it came to her father, and she cries that she is being herself right now since “everyone wants to break her all the time.” Lisa is over everyone thinking she thinks she is sooo perfect. Lisa regrets saying all those things in a “moment of rage” and has hopes of repairing her friendship. Meredith states that she is “processing” and hates to throw their 10-year relationship out the window, but it’s certainly gonna be hard.
One last thing that Andy wants to touch on is how Meredith threatened to expose the other women and their extramarital affairs on the finale episode. The rumor about Meredith and Jen seeing the same guy at some point gets brought up, and Meredith shuts it down stating she has only dated her husband for the past two years.
During a break, Lisa comes over to Meredith to apologize for her rant. Interesting how she does this off-camera again. Lisa explains that she was mad because Meredith called her renovations and her house ugly, so I guess we are doing tit for tat, huh, Lisa? Seems like it’s going to take a lot to get this friendship back to where it was…
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE SECOND PART OF THE REUNION?
