On this episode of Vanderpump Rules, Ariana and the Toms are off Glamping for Raquel‘s birthday. This is not a weird group AT ALL — said no one ever. Lala puts on her detective hat, and as more and more information surfaces about the “friendship” Raquel and Sandoval have, Ariana realizes that being Sandoval’s ride-or-die may be very much one-sided.
Scheana and Brock join the Glampers, begrudgingly, since ya know, Scheana is not really into getting dirty. Raquel is over the moon to be doing this for her birthday, and the crew gets down and dirty, petting some animals and smashing some pumpkins.
In the meantime, Lala visits with James at her Give Them LaLa Beauty “office.” This duo always leads to drama, and Lala is bringing it big time for James. She lets him know that Raquel slept at Sandoval’s, and to this, James is in shock (since he is still very clearly in love with Raquel).
Lala rewinds to the beginning so as not to leave James swimming in confusion. SO. Katie was at Villa Rosa working on sandwiches with LVP when Ken casually walked in and dropped a bombshell. He talked about Sandoval having Raquel over in his jacuzzi while Ariana was away in Florida for her grandmother’s wake. And then Ken left as quickly as he entered — the real MVP (“Goodbye, Kyle!”).
Evidently, LVP already knew BECAUSE Raquel rolled up an hour and a half late for her shift, and of course, LVP needed to hear her excuse. Raquel shared openly that she slept at Sandoval’s because it was “just easier to sleep on the couch and stay the night.” Naturally, LVP phoned Sandoval to get to the bottom of Raquel’s tale.
Sandoval’s story did not match up with Raquel’s, and he was being very cagey about the details. He talked about Raquel “dipping out.” From the evening? From his house? LVP got annoyed and continued to press Sandoval. Sandoval stated, “I’m just over this whole Schwartz and Raquel thing,” and leave it to LVP to put him in his place by reminding him that headline was so last week. Now, Sandoval will be the new Tom linked with Raquel after this information comes to light.
In conclusion, Sandoval’s stories are all over the place, and so, Lala ain’t buying what he is selling. The pieces are coming together now. It turns out Sandoval stayed at a Labor Day party with Raquel the day Ariana’s grandmother died. James is appalled by Lala’s detective work, and he wonders if the distance in Sandoval and Ariana’s relationship is what makes it work. To that, Lala scoffs.
While Glamping, Raquel toasts to good friends (yuck). Ariana shares that being home was super sad now that her grandmother has passed, and she talks about how she is hanging on by a thread after suffering all the losses this summer. She better hold onto her hat… there’s more coming.
Raquel clearly feels like she has to come clean to Ariana about the sleepover rumors, and according to Sandoval, after the beach day, Schwartz, Sandoval, and Raquel came back to the house to continue the party. Naïve Ariana nods in agreement, not suspecting any foul play. Scheana reminds Sandoval that at first, he lied about how Raquel stayed over because of “optics.” Sandoval swears that he was going to tell Ariana, and it was just plain stupid to try and dance around the details.
Lala is Giving it to Them in her brand robes, posing with her ladies Katie and Kristina. After the photo shoots, Kristina asks what we are all thinking: What did the new dudes think about all the drama that went down at the beach day? Katie is annoyed with Sandoval trying to deflect his issues when she questioned why he was alone with Raquel. Lala knows something just isn’t quite right with this Raquel/Sandoval “friendship.”
Kristina changes the topic of conversation to discuss her upcoming Heartspring skincare party at none other than TomTom… because apparently there are no other restaurants in all of L.A…
Later, Scheana, and Ariana sit down to chat about the infamous beach day. Scheana tells Ariana about Katie insinuating that Ariana and Sandoval have an open relationship. Ariana denies that and even goes as far as calling Raquel a “delight since the day” she met her, thus squashing any uncomfortable feelings about Raquel staying over when Ariana was out of town. However, later at dinner, Schwartz reminds the group that Raquel has a type: men who are taken. Sleep with one eye open…
Raquel states that her peach and pit of her last year is breaking up with James, and naturally, Sandoval jumps in to tell her she is a “bad a*s” and he is just “impassioned” by her. Woof. The talk switches to Kristina’s party, and of course, Raquel didn’t get the invite. A newly emboldened Schwartz suggests that Raquel be his date, but Scheana gets the okay for Raquel to join the event.
Raquel talks about her big dream of being Miss California and laments that she has aged out of pageants now. She shares that she no longer has to worry about her reputation and that she is “playing catch up” now. Raquel becomes emotional about her entire life plan being written out for her at a very young age, so she has decided to go rogue and sleep with men who have girlfriends — JK. She is bold, though… when Schwartz tells her he didn’t get her a present, she retorts, “It’s ok, you can give me a kiss.” Becoming uncomfortable, Schwartz disinvites Raquel as his guest after thinking about Katie’s reaction to the imaginary fire, to which Sandoval gets heated by Katie’s entitled behavior.
Ally and James relive the beach day, and James apologizes for being embarrassing. Ally believes that James is angry and still has feelings for Raquel. James claims that he is more upset about losing his friends…
It’s Kristina’s Heartspring event, and Katie is giving Schwartz a helluva cold shoulder. Katie is waiting on an apology from him, and until then, she will be keeping him at arm’s length. Sandoval, Ariana, and Raquel roll up to the event together, and I, like Lala, am very confused by this potential “throuple.” Lala explains that Raquel is like a “very stupid demon.”
Ariana pulls Katie aside to discuss the whole thing with James and Ally. Katie attempts to explain herself and backpedals discussing the unknown dynamics of Ariana and Sandoval’s relationship. Ariana is confused why Ally would twist what Katie said about her and explains that she “loves Raquel dearly,” and she trusts and loves her and Sandoval. Katie lets Ariana know that she “hopes she’s a good friend” considering Raquel’s track record with others. Ariana doesn’t want Katie’s beef with Raquel to trickle down to her, and in the end, things are cleared up.
James plops down and gets into a convo with Raquel (after checking his hair on his phone). Raquel explains that she was hurt when James stated he regretted Rachella, and to that, James essentially tells Raquel she needs to grow up. James makes it clear that he doesn’t know Raquel anymore.
Ariana and Lala stuff their goodie bags full of Kristina’s products, and they talk about how this summer has kicked Ariana’s a*s. Lala brings up the infamous Labor Day party that Sandoval attended the day Ariana lost her grandmother. Ariana believed that Sandoval couldn’t get a ride home to be with her cause his ride left, but Lala disagrees. Ariana calls Sandoval over and questions him outright. Sandoval is squirmy AF as Ariana becomes infuriated to learn that when Sandoval said he didn’t know his ride left cuz he was taking a sh*t, he was lying.
Sandoval tells Ariana he “kinda figured” she wanted to be alone, yet he was there for her when her dad died years before and THEY WERE NOT EVEN DATING. Ariana wonders if Sandoval still cares as much for her and is getting tired of being his ride or die… when all he I doing is making her look silly. It’s all starting to fall apart…
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