It’s Raquel‘s time to shine on the third part of the Vanderpump Rules reunion. Because of the restraining order filed, Scheana is over 100 yards away in her trailer, watching the sh*tshow unfold on set. Ariana keeps her head down as Raquel passes her and sits down next to Schwartz. Raquel claims she is “holding up” and owes many people an apology. Yea, I’ll say. Andy then takes it way back to how this Scandoval truly began…
The girls’ trip to Vegas was the beginning of the end for Raquel. LVP gets the chance to talk about how great her Vegas restaurant is doing, and Andy reminds Raquel how much the girls rallied around her during her panic attack on the way to Havasu. Raquel chooses not to focus on that, but rather, she reminds Andy that she felt like the ladies bashed her later on that night when she was so drunk.
Lala reminds Raquel that she was spot on with her comment, “I wouldn’t trust you around my man.” I mean, she ain’t wrong… Raquel talks about the shift in her mindset and calls herself selfish, but that word isn’t good enough for Ariana. Ariana jumps in and calls her “sub-human,” and as the group gangs up on Raquel, Sandoval attempts to defend her. He goes as far as telling Lala to STFU, and Andy plays referee.
We are reminded of the time when Raquel talked to Ariana about her intimacy issues with Sandoval, which now totally seems “diabolical.” Raquel makes it clear that she slept with Sandoval one time at that point, and the reason she had that convo with Ariana was that she just wanted Sandoval to be truly happy (aka, break up with Ariana). Gross.
Sandoval adds that he doesn’t “live his life by logic” — LOL — and Lala gets heated once more as the mistress word gets thrown around when Sandoval tries to liken their affair to her situation with Randall. According to Lala, she is not a mistress, and she claims she was *lied to* by Randall about his relationship status. Lala denies calling herself a mistress in a conversation with Raquel, but unfortunately, the cameras don’t lie, and the scene is played back for all of us to see… Lala calling herself a mistress.
LVP tries to talk some sense into Lala, who is very clearly angry because of what happened to her in her past relationship. Lala makes it clear that Sandoval hates her because she sees “him for who he is.”
The Schwartz/Raquel make-out session gets highlighted, and we are reminded of the one rule the Bubbas had post-divorce: no hooking up with anyone in the friend group. Schwartz attempts to find a loophole in this rule, since at the time, Katie was not really friends with Raquel, but that is met with eyerolls. Schwartz swears he had some real chemistry with Raquel, but no one is buying it. Raquel says she went after Schwartz because she “put a cap on this thing with Sandoval,” and she always wondered what it would be like to be with Schwartz. Because THAT makes sense…
Earlier in the season, Lala lets Raquel know that she hooked up with James when Raquel was dating him. Andy begins to call out the double standard of Lala attacking Raquel for her cheating ways when Lala admitted to partaking in such activity. Obviously, Raquel noticed the flirtation between the “friends” in the past and believes that Lala resented Raquel because she lost the attention James used to give her.
Schwartz’s joke about Rachella and the infamous drink thrown by James gets revisited. Andy reminds James that Schwartz apologized “85 times” for cracking the Rachella comment when James was sharing the good news about his DJing gig. So, James finally admits to regretting the rant (where he ripped apart Schwartz’s life), but he still doesn’t regret throwing the drink.
The infamous night at the Abbey gets reviewed, and so does the open relationship rumor. Everyone thinks it was weird that Sandoval and Raquel were at the Abbey alone, and the possibility of Sandoval being the source of the open relationship rumor gets brought up. Because he is ride-or-die for Sandoval, Schwartz talks about the rumor going around the Valley that Sandoval and Ariana hooked up with Billie Lee. Well, that and the time Lala went to town on Ariana’s cookie could have potentially sparked the open relationship rumors…
Sandoval admits to hanging out with Raquel during the last few weeks since the news of the affair broke, and again, Raquel apologizes for betraying Ariana. Raquel calls it a mistake, and now the real consequences are hitting her. She was merely living in the moment.
Raquel goes on to share that she felt comfortable confiding in Sandoval, and Ariana jumps in to remind Raquel that her dog just died, and after crying in Raquel’s arms, Raquel went and screwed her boyfriend. Ariana calls Raquel a “soul-sucking individual,” and Raquel stares blankly at her.
Raquel was hooked on Sandoval and even admits to being in love with him. Ariana calls Raquel rotten on the inside, and when Sandoval is asked if he loves Raquel, he states, “I’m sorry, yes.” Lala reminds Ariana that she should be grateful to the two of them for freeing her and letting her live her life better than ever.
After repeatedly telling Raquel she is nothing, Raquel exits the stage to get some water (aka, get a breather). They dive right back in again, and Sandoval denies sleeping with Raquel the night of the hot tub/lies to LVP about the sleepover. Schwartz makes it clear that while they were in the hot tub, there was no hanky panky because his word is bond (not).
Ariana asks Sandoval what he thought would happen after this affair came to light. She continues to let him know that no one likes him, and she becomes emotional for the first time when she talks about the support she has received. She had someone stay with her every night and she didn’t eat for eight days. Ariana knows she didn’t deserve this behavior, and she calls the affair gross. I feel like when Ariana’s voice breaks, Sandoval cries for the first time.
And because he is who he is, James lets Raquel know that Ally is an upgrade, not a replacement. Ariana chimes in that Raquel IS the downgrade here.
Andy takes the time to call out some of the rumors. Yes, Sandoval went to Halloween dressed as Raquel AFTER they slept together. CREEP. The lightning bolt necklace that matches Sandoval does, in fact, have significance, and the fact that Raquel did this on camera is twisted. Even LVP realizes how insane that scene is in retrospect.
Sandoval claims that “neither one of us has had time to really process this.” Blah. Blah. Blah. And thank GOD that Ariana’s eggs are only frozen, not fertilized.
When Sandoval denies sleeping with someone else after hooking up with Raquel, Ariana reminds us that Sandoval did actually sleep with her. To that, Sandoval retorts, “Yea, she kept her T-shirt on, it was really hot.”
We learn that Raquel’s family still calls her Rachel and her friends call her Raquel, but Ariana lets her know that she no longer has any friends so… there’s that. Sandoval says he told his own mother about the affair, that his family met her, and that in January, things between Raquel and him really heated up.
Schwartz corroborates that is when he heard Sandoval throw around the L-word. LVP cannot fathom how Schwartz could hold onto this knowledge of the affair. Schwartz knew it was going to be nuclear, and as Raquel apologizes left and right, it is not lost on me that she keeps calling her behavior “an embarrassment”…that she created herself. Raquel wants to treat this as a “learning process” and remains dry-eyed as she exits the stage.
During a break, Sandoval runs to Raquel, who becomes upset when she reflects on the carnage from this affair she created along the way. Sandoval agrees that it’s been hard, and when Raquel changes in front of Sandoval so easily, it demonstrates a comfort between the two of them. The chat is interrupted because Raquel needs to be 100 yards away from Scheana, who is returning to the set.
Scheana comes back on stage after watching the Raquel segment. She calls Raquel a “sociopath” since she didn’t shed one tear. Scheana shares that she is not planning on having a second baby any time soon. James doesn’t have any festivals coming up, and Schwartz believes he will never get married again. Katie doesn’t have a dying wish to be a mother but hopes to find love someday. Sandoval “cries” about being a human who makes mistakes and promises to always love Ariana and cheer her on from afar. Ariana talks about how grateful she is for having a strong team for her to rely on, she refuses to forgive Sandoval, and she will not be cheering him on from afar.
LVP dabs her eyes and feels like in the future, the group will be able to find some sort of forgiveness. Andy thinks that time may heal the wounds, and after 10 seasons of Vanderpump, this one is the one that “blew our minds.” Agreed.
Six days later, Raquel sits down for her final interview, and it is a bombshell. Raquel is tired of the accumulating lies, and the timeline of the affair is eating her alive. She states that Sandoval felt as though it would be less hurtful if Ariana didn’t know how long it went on for… but Raquel spills.
Raquel shares that the second time she hooked up with Sandoval was when they were in Mexico!! Actually, they hooked up the first night in Cancun. And then they proceeded to have sex multiple times in Mexico. In fact, Raquel shares the affair picked up speed after they wrapped filming. She met his mom, but she initially denies being in St. Louis, even though there is photographic evidence of her being there (and she claims she simply cannot lie anymore — that’s another lie!!).
Raquel went as far as suggesting they be in a throuple with Ariana: in her eyes, an easy way to fix their sh*tty affair. Raquel mutters, “God, he’s gonna kill me,” insinuating that Sandoval is going to be less than pleased with Raquel’s come-clean moments.
Sandoval has asked Raquel to not “disclose this information,” and she is concerned about betraying Sandoval since she really has no one else in her corner. However, there is one story they agreed on getting straight. Raquel claims she must tell the truth. Raquel hooked up with Sandoval in the house he owned with Ariana while Ariana was out of town at her grandmother’s funeral. And with that, we see RACHEL shed some tears for the first time. The truth will set you free, right??
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