The Real Housewives of New York City Reunion Recap: Another Bite at the Apple

Surprise! Didn’t think you were going to get RHONY reunion recaps, did you? And why should you? Loyal readers know that Daddy Moneybags Vulture III closed the purse strings on reunion recaps years ago (with some notable exceptions ), and even more loyal readers will know that I have traditionally hated recapping reunions. But after that finale , this seemed necessary, and I will give a full explanation of why in this Friday’s edition of the Housewives Institute Bulletin ( sign up here if you aren’t already). So, yes, here we are.

The reunion is both exactly what I was expecting and completely surprising at the same time. Also, of the clips we saw in the preview last week, I’m surprised at how many were in part one and how many of them have nothing to do with the huge fight between Ubah and Brynn in the finale. But first, let us go around the horn and discuss the most important thing about any reunion: the outfits.



Going in order of them arriving to set, we start with Jenna Fucking Lyons, who, I don’t care what you say, did it again. She arrived in a $1,500 Balenciaga bathrobe (That she was going to return? Are we sure she’s not having money troubles?), a black towel on her head, tiny kitten heels, giant diamond earrings, and sunglasses she took off before thier first line of questioning. Andy Cohen hasn’t been this visibly aroused since he went to College Night at Pieces .

I’m sorry, but no one does it like Jenna, giving us something both unexpected, iconic, and destabilizing to the whole enterprise all at once. Racquel was dressed in a more usual reunion fair, with her black, white, and gold shiny dress, bangles up to her elbows, and the many moons of Saturn in her hair. It’s flawless, it’s fashionable, and thank the Catholic Jesus for chic lesbians.

Ubah looks fantastic in her black sparkly gown with large shoulder pads and a slit all the way up to her hip, but the sleeves that turn into gloves feels a little bit like last year’s RHOP confessional looks. This is the best version of it, but we’ve seen it before. Brynn says she spent $7,000 on her dress, which is more of a caftan that you would see on an aging cabaret star in Palm Springs.

Brynn says it was inspired by Zsa Zsa Gabor, which is appropriate, but does anyone with a TikTok get the reference? Erin’s bright gold sequin Bottega does a great job of both concealing and highlighting her pregnancy at the same time, which is a crazy feat, but the loose-fitting neck was giving (dare I say it) too much foreskin. Sai looks unusually glamorous and chic in a giant black dress that is giving updated Dior’s New Look or, as Jenna says, Wicked by way of Gone with the Wind . Finally, Jessel’s black dress with sculptural ruffles down the front looked amazing when she was standing but a disappointment when she’s on the couch, which is a rookie mistake.

Thankfully, she looked better thanks to her haircut. No, wait, it’s a haircut and Botox. Oh no.

It was a haircut, Botox, and fillers. Close ..

. it was a haircut, Botox, and fillers Brynn says she didn’t pay for because she posted them on Instagram. And don’t forget the veneers.

We don’t see Becky Minkoff’s dress until next week, and it’s funny that she is the fashion designer on the show, and not one person in the entire universe cares what she has on. Even her husband was like, “Eh, whatever. I’ll see it when Queens of Bravo posts it .

” Now, with outfits out of the way, the air is tense as soon as the ladies arrive. Brynn is going to check on Jessel in her dressing room and says she thinks everything is fine. Jessel says, with an incredulity usually reserved for school children and vaccine skeptics, “You think everything’s fine?” That’s because Brynn hadn’t watched the final episode before arriving that morning.

Okay, that seems like a dereliction of duty. She already lived through that once, she knows what happened, and she didn’t think to watch it until she was crying in the hairstylist’s chair? Even if Bravo sent it the night before, she should have stayed up late and watch it so she could figure out what to say. While Margaret Josephs convening a pre-reunion tribunal to discuss the reunion at her house was maybe too much, this was definitely too little.

The first line of questioning is perfect, with Andy asking Jenna why she keeps talking about her love life in the press but won’t bring her girlfriend slash fake wife on the show. Both Sai and Andy say it is “annoying,” and we all agree, but then Jenna apologizes in her little baby voice with her bathrobe off one shoulder, and I almost forgive her. Almost .

I don’t know if we need to see Cass on screen, but can’t Jenna just discuss what’s happening a bit more openly with the ladies? On the same token, we find out that Ubah has moved to the great state of Connecticut (birthplace of Countess Luann de Lesseps, Dorit Kemsley, Kristen Taekman, and yours truly) and has given up her apartment in the city. Does that mean she can’t be on the show anymore? Is she going to commute? The first round of attacks on Brynn starts when the conversation turns to when Sai said she hates Jenna, or at least when Sai said she didn’t like Jenna. Jenna points out that while she talked to Brynn about it, Brynn didn’t bring the allegations to her, she heard about it around town.

But Brynn starts crying and says that the first five weeks of filming both Sai and Erin tortured her. How, exactly? Andy tries to get to the bottom of it, but it’s basically that Sai yelled at her at the opening party and Erin called her a bunch of names. Erin, who has never done a misdeed she hasn’t denied, said she did nothing of the sort, and luckily, the editors came in and showed at least five names that Erin called Brynn that night.

However, this is going to be the problem with Brynn throughout the reunion. We know that she twists things, we know she plays with the truth, and thankfully, Andy isn’t letting her get away with just saying she spent five weeks being tortured when that is an escalation or reimagining of the truth. The women even get to this when Brynn says what she does is take what someone tells her and goes and tells the other women.

Jenna tells her, to her face, “When you retell a story, the original intent of that story gets lost, and that person gets hurt.” That is exactly what Brynn does systematically, adding a little “sauce” to the story, as Andy says, to make it change directions and injure those around her. This is exactly what happened with Brynn’s story about Jessel when she told Erin and Sai that the “love of her life” wasn’t Pavit.

Jessel says she had to watch that with her husband, who was upset about it and thought that Jessel was lying when she tried to explain the real story. Jessel says the conversation they were having was about their craziest hookup, and Jessel talked about a time with an ex-boyfriend. See, that’s how insidious just a little bit of twisting can be, especially when it’s aired on a “platform” like this one.

Jessel says that she always tried to lift Brynn up and make her feel good, but when she said this about her relationship, it was the final “needle in the coffin.” Did you mishear her? No, because she said it twice. It’s just like our Jessel to mix up her idioms when she gets upset.

That’s what is so crazy about this story and the women at the reunion. Brynn is bringing out something in them, changing them in ways, and bringing out the extremes of their personality. Jessel has been nearly as silent and odorless as carbon monoxide this whole season, and finally, the fighter in her is snapped to the front.

Ubah remained practically silent for this whole half of the reunion, except to shed tears and share her emotions when Brynn talked about sexual assault. Jenna, usually mild-mannered, is telling Brynn that she needs to just shut up and apologize because she’s sick of her twisting stories and ruining people’s marriages. Sai, who was in therapy this season, reverts back to form, going after Brynn and showing her mean side, even asking the million-dollar question: what exactly is Brynn’s job? Brynn, for the only time all night, doesn’t have an answer to that question.

Brynn’s presence here is sort of wild. Just as we got some great discussion around abortion and the need to talk about it, thanks to Erin, Jenna, and Racquel’s admissions that they have all had them in the past, we also got some great discussion around sexual assault. Brynn shares her shame and difficulty dealing with it.

She talks about how she didn’t want to come forward after it happened because it’s so hard to prove. While Erin thinks she should name this guy to prevent other women from being harmed, Jenna understands that it’s often the women who come forward who have the hardest time of all. Brynn is bringing out so much from these women, making them act the most emotional and dynamic they have all season, but it’s also clear that they can’t continue on with her.

They don’t trust her, she can’t be verified, and maybe worst of all, she didn’t do her homework. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us..