The last episode of “Real Housewives of Potomac” Season 8 ended with Wendy Osefo and Candiace Dillard making faces at each other while Gizelle Bryant was talking about her daughter Grace going to college in Florida.
As the group lounged on the beach the next day talking about the shady moment, Wendy slithers saunters over and asks what they were discussing. Everyone looks awkward for a minute until Robyn Dixon finally has the balls to say it.
“So last night, like, I noticed the two of y’all, like, looking at each other, kind of make, like smirking, like making facial expressions surrounding the conversation about Grace,” Robyn begins. “I picked up on it. I didn’t like it.”
Wendy jumps in and tells the group she doesn’t want to talk about anyone’s children because she was accused by Gizelle of giving Grace the stink-eye two years ago. “Anytime it comes to a conversation about your daughter, I do not want to speak on it,” she says.
Karen Huger makes a funky face and then says, “They both give each other funky faces at different times.”
Candiace turns the attention on her for the first time ever and says, “Y’all are laughing, and it’s fine, but if I laugh about something, it’s problematic.” She tells the group that she and Gizelle have issues so when her former friend talks, she will disengage. “I don’t want to deal in anything that she has going on.”
Both Wendy and Candiace state that their eye-rolling has nothing to do with Grace, and everything to do with Gizelle.
And just as abruptly as Robyn brought up the issue, she quickly diffuses it by telling everyone they’re going back to the house to have dinner to celebrate Ashley Darby’s birthday.
The RHOP ladies have their Havana Nights dinner
Everyone is dressed for Ashley’s Havana Nights theme and the b-day girl shakes her buns like she’s making a TikTok video. Candiace has got the back-handed compliment game down to a tee. “Ashley gives $2 ho 99.9% of the time. But, she’s giving us lots of color, lots of plastic, you know, the energy of a Chiquita $2 ho banana. So yeah, bravo! Snaps!” Come to think of it, it’s 99% back-handed, and 1% compliment.
During dinner, Karen tries to squash the beef between Robyn and Candiace. Robyn looks emotional but says, “She thinks she did nothing wrong to me.” She’s referring to when Candiace talked smack about her for not being completely honest with the Juan Dixon situation paying for a random girl’s hotel room. “She literally slandered me repeatedly.”
Robyn points out that she defended Candiace’s husband, Chris Bassett, only to have it turn on her. “Robyn is such a victim,” Candiace responds. She claims in a confessional that she did nothing to Robyn, despite tweeting disparaging comments about her frenemy multiple times.
“I don’t know anyone that would take this crap and be okay,” Robyn says in a confessional.
Robyn tells the group that she’ll be “cordial” while Candiace says she’s “open shutting the f*** up and moving on.” Looks like another beef has been swept under the rug resolved!
Karen and Gizelle come to a truce
It’s a new day and Gizelle and Karen hash out their differences. The two frenemies have been feuding for so long that it’s hard to pinpoint the start of their spats, but it could be when Gizelle made a t-shirt during “RHOP” Season 3 making fun of Ray Huger’s tax woes. The hashtags #FreeUncleBen and #TaxReform will live on forever in Karen’s vault of wrongdoings done to her.
During their talk, Gizelle tells Karen that she acts differently around Wendy and Candiace, and doesn’t have her back as much. She’s hurt that Karen didn’t stick up for her regarding Grace.
“I’m very, very transparent,” Karen says, amid flashbacks of her talking smack about Gizelle. The two ladies hug and Gizelle compares them to Brandy and Monica, which only Millenials and older will understand. If you’re under 30, look up “The Boy Is Mine.” Of course, Gizelle says she’s Brandy because she “had a better career.”
They end their fight with Gizelle telling Karen her breath stinks, to which the Grande Dame answers, “Your a**hole stinks.” Insulting each other is their love language, apparently.
Karen has a new hot trainer
Gizelle plans a fun outing for the “RHOP cast in town and they visit an old, old church. For some reason, they think it’s appropriate to yell, “Kiss my a**!” in Spanish while a local takes a picture of them.
During lunch when Mia Thornton inexplicably freaks out about the local stray cats, it’s revealed that Karen has been working out with a former NFL star to get rid of the 5% blockage in her arteries. It turns out that her trainer is Vernon Davis, whom Ashley already knows somehow. She gets all giggly and says they’re “friends” but then blushes and runs to the bathroom like she’s a 12-year-old.
Ashley comes back and tells the group that she and Vernon haven’t done anything but flirt, and it seems they flirt big time over Instagram, judging by their long messages. The producers make the cast sing a cringey rendition of people sitting in a tree and K-I-S-S-I-N-G, which they play along with because they need paychecks.
Karen states the obvious, which is that Vernon is hot. She then adds that she needs to work on her inner thighs. “Karen getting cardio. Someone is working her out and it ain’t Ray, child,” Mia says in a confessional.
The ladies shoot some skeet/play tennis
After a heavy lunch, the gang is ready to let off some steam by shooting skeet and hitting some tennis balls, except for Mia, who is wearing heels and says she’s dizzy from the heat. The group is divided in half, with Ashley, Gizelle, Robyn, Keiana Stewart, and Nneka Ihim going skeet shooting. The ladies jump every time the gun shoots, despite being used to hearing loud screeching amongst the cast.
Karen and Mia sit while they watch Candiace and Wendy take their tennis lesson. Mia shares that when she was stripping, guys would love her feet. Wendy hilariously calls her “Socrates” for always telling stories.
Speaking of stories, Mia calls Ashley a “gold digger.” She says, “She came over to my house and she told me that she’s scared to leave.” She adds, ” I said, ‘Okay, so girl, you were getting a divorce because you thought you were gonna get a prenup, but then you realized the prenup wasn’t nothing, so you had to go back in for round two.”
The last dinner
It’s the last night in the Dominican Republic and you would think the housewives would make it nice, but of course, Wendy spills that Mia shared exactly why she thought Ashley wasn’t divorcing Michael just yet – hint: gold digger.
“Did you marry Gordon for his money?” Ashley shoots back. “I might have,” Mia admits. “Okay, well I didn’t,” Ashley says. “But I’m also not getting a divorce so we’re not talking about me,” Mia responds, which is unfortunate given that she later separated from Gordon — something that she confirmed to People in September 2023.
“I just think she’s jealous because Mia thought she was gold-digging but she really got fool’s gold, okay? My s**t was real and authentic and she got some pyrite.” Ashley says. Not pyrite!
Ashley shares details about her finances and what Michael pays for but it’s boring to Gizelle, who turns the conversation back to Trevor Vernon the Trainer. Robyn asks why Karen is being trained by someone who’s not a trainer. Karen defends her physique as a triple-twenty-year-old.
“I’ve had private trainers. It’s my choice. This is my journey and many a million cardiovascular people are gonna look at you like you’re dumb as f***,” Karen tells Robyn and Gizelle. Robyn says, “No they’re not,” and Karen says, “Yes they are,” and it sounds like a typical “RHOP” fight. Karen ends up saying she wants to work on her inner thighs and the ladies chant, “Work on your inner thighs. Work on your inner thighs, hey,” which might just be Candiace’s new single.
