“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” Season 13 was full of major storylines, with the main one centered around Sutton Stracke’s small esophagus. So much so that Dorit Kemsley showed up to the reunion dressed as one.
The cast shows up to their trailers during what looks like the middle of the night, but we all know how long it takes the women to get glam, so that makes sense.
The cast gets ready for the reunion
Kyle Richards has brought crystals to help her (not to be confused with Crystal Minkoff), while Garcelle Beauvais is waving sage around as if that will help.
Sutton’s assistant/property manager/life coach Avi Gabay gives her a pep talk. “No crying today. No crying. Strong Sutton,” he tells her undereye patches.
Kyle is getting ready in her trailer when Andy Cohen comes in and tells her that her estranged husband, Mauricio Umansky, whom she may or may not be cheating on with Morgan Wade, will be at the reunion. “You are f***ing lying!” she tells Andy. He replies, “I am lying.” She yells, “You f***er, Andy!” He says, “I’m sorry,” but we all know he’s not sorry.
In another trailer, Dorit tells Erika Jayne that she’s nervous about addressing her issues with Kyle. She reveals that her frenemy is “trying to silence” her through a long text. This has now turned into an episode of “The Sopranos.” Dorit claims, “It was so manipulative, it was so calculated.”
The text reads, “I’ve been trying to reach out because I know we’re in a weird place and it really bothers me … Of course, some of the interview comments hurt my feelings and created more issues for me. “
“I don’t want to lose someone in my life over a TV show. They don’t even know [Mauricio and I] are going through a hard time so I don’t see the need to bring it up there … I would like to sit down and talk after we get through tomorrow,” the novel states.
Although there was nothing sinister about it, Erika agrees, “I would feel manipulated.” It looks like they’re both team Kyle takedown.
The housewives make their way to the set and Sutton can’t feel her feet because, you know, neuropathy. Dorit’s late because she needs to be sewn into her hooded dress while she’s reading from a matching red book/diary/notes on how to take down Kyle.
Finally, the show can start. Andy looks confused by Dorit’s outfit, while Kyle just rolls her eyes. “I hope it’s fun!” Andy says, while the housewives twitter with nervous laughter. He says his obligatory “Hi” to everyone despite having already greeted them in their trailers.
Kyle Richards and Dorit Kemsley address their fractured friendship
Getting right into the meat of it, Erika says that she’s still hurt over how she was treated by the whole Tom Girardi scandal. “The last couple of years, especially the reunion two years ago, was very hard for me.” She mentions how Andy told her back then, “We’re going to put you on a skewer and I’m going to fire up the barbecue.” It’s apparently hurt her a lot, despite her icy demeanor.
Addressing her recent statement on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” about how she wanted everyone on the show, e.g. Kyle, to get the same treatment this season, Erika said at the reunion, “Unfortunately, she’s the casualty of my misplaced anger.” Kyle is hurt but she lets it go.
Dorit starts talking about when Kyle played down their friendship in the media. “That stung,” she says from her hood. “I said that in response to all of the things that you had been saying throughout the season,” Kyle shoots back. She gives an example of how Dorit asked about her marriage on camera, which we all know Kyle doesn’t like to share details about. She likes to pretend everything is hunky dory. Then, Kyle points out when Dorit felt like Morgan was replacing her as BFF during “WWHL.”
Kyle and Dorit seem to have a differing view on how close they are. Kyle hints that she doesn’t have much in common with Dorit, who thinks that they’re tighter than they are. They argue about the time they went on a “brisk walk” together.
Dorit says they walked 10 miles but Kyle claims it was two, and that her friend had to sit down from over-exertion. “It was a flat loop,” Kyle says, refuting Dorit’s claims that it was like walking 1000 miles uphill on a snowy day. Seeing how Dorit exaggerates, Kyle is probably right. She also points out that Dorit doesn’t work out.
Kyle then explains how Dorit asking about her marriage on the show just fueled the rumors about Morgan, and that she should have known better. Meanwhile, Erika sits awkwardly between them. Perhaps production could have arranged the seating better.
Kyle reassures Dorit that she loves her but Dorit responds by calling the “American Woman” producer a “punisher” who deliberately ices her friends out. “We hadn’t spoken in a couple of months and then all of a sudden, you text me the day before the reunion. You know, do you really think that I’m an idiot?”
Dorit calls the move “manipulative,” which Kyle denies, but the other housewives don’t look convinced.
Garcelle Beauvais holds Dorit Kemsley’s feet to the fire
Dorito is not done in the hot seat. Flashback to when she didn’t like how Garcelle told the group she didn’t trust them with her sons after Dorit and Erika treated her teenage son callously last season.
“This is my problem with Dorit. She takes things and then makes them personal,” Garcelle says in a “RHOBH” Season 13 confessional.
In a previous flashback, Dorit accuses Garcelle of “attacking” her, which does not sit well with the actor due to negative racial connotations. A scene shows the two having lunch and resolving their issues.
Addressing her reaction to Garcelle, Dorit says at the reunion, “You know, it made me sad and it hurt me to hear that a friend of mine doesn’t trust me with –“
Garcelle interrupts, “It also hurt my feelings to watch friends of mine laugh at the situation of a 14-year-old being cussed at.
Flashback to Kyle, Mauricio, Dorit, and PK laughing about when Erika cursed at Garcelle’s son during RHOBH Season 12.
After Dorit’s “attack” comment, Garcelle admits that Dorit wasn’t racist per se, but was just an “unconscious Karen.” Dorit says, “I don’t know all the words and all the things, but you know, also, you have to judge on character … and intent. You know that I would never deliberately do something to hurt you, okay?
Garcelle then doubles down and uses Dorit’s home invasion as an example. “You know what an attack is,” she says.
Annemarie Wiley, who everyone has forgotten about, says from the end of the sofa, “When you guys were having this conversation and you said to Dorit, ‘You don’t call black women angry, you don’t call them aggressive,’ when we were sitting at Sutton’s store and I was, unfortunately, asking you about your esophagus, Sutton said to me, ‘Why are you yelling at me?’ When I was clearly not yelling at her.”
Then, Annemarie points out that when that happened, the only one who stood up for her was Dorit. Andy tries to pivot the conversation but Garcelle stays put on how Dorit claimed she “attacked” her.
“Yes, that [word] is used all the time. If you go back and look, I would say thousands and thousands of times,” Dorit says. In a flashback, Garcelle shared how she felt Dorit lived in a bubble regarding her choices of words, only to have her castmate post a social media pic with the caption, “I’m happily living in my bubble.” It seemed like Dorit was doubling down on her “attack” comment at the time.
“In hindsight, it was a big mistake on my part,” Dorit admits.
Dorit plays dumb but no one believes her. Andy advises Dorit to “say less.” When Dorit asks Garcelle if she wants to be friends, she gets the answer, “I’m not sure.” RHOBH Season 14 may not see Dorit back again.
Annemarie Wiley vs. Crystal Kung Minkoff
We finally get to Annemarie’s first season. After acknowledging that her mom sadly passed away during filming, the newcomer shared that it was hard getting all the criticism from “RHOBH” fans this year.
One thing that was big this season was whether Annemarie introduced herself as an anesthesiologist or an anesthetist to Crystal. The Real Coco owner shared that when Annemarie first met the new housewives, she introduced herself as an “anesthesiologist” but then later corrected it to “anesthetist.”
Crystal and Annemarie argue for what seems like decades about anesthesiologists vs anesthetists, but at the end of the day, they’re both putting people to sleep.
Annemarie addresses Sutton’s esophagus drama and says, “How I handled the entire situation, I just want to apologize to you because I can’t even tell you how much I hated watching it.” Is she apologizing for questioning Sutton’s small esophagus or because she got reamed over it? One may never know with “RHOBH.”
Although it seems like the issue between Crystal and Annemarie is put to bed, of course, Andy can’t help but bring up another point of contention between the two.
During the season, Annemarie tells the group, “The first thing Crystal said to me about this group of women was, ‘You ladies were not intelligent, nobody was educated, and you’re very shallow.'”
In a confessional, Crystal denies saying those things but a flashback shows her stating, “They’re clearly not highly educated.” In the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t the worst thing a housewife said about a castmate.
Crystal Kung Minkoff addresses child bride comment
To retaliate, Dorit calls Crystal a “child bride” in a confessional. “While you were busy getting married at 12, the rest of us were building businesses, graduating college, doing things, you know, to educate ourselves.”
During the reunion, we see Crystal telling Dorit, “That is a disgusting thing to say.” Dorit tries to make light of it by saying, “You know, they call Priscilla Presley a child bride.” Crystal points out, “I’m an Asian person … ‘Child bride’ is equivalent to ‘mail-order bride.'”
Dorit defends her statement as a “throwaway comment” as a result of Crystal calling them “unintelligent.” Then, Kyle awkwardly tries to smooth things over by whitesplaining, “I always say, if I’m saying someone’s young, I’ll be like, ‘They were, like, 12.’ That’s like the number that people seem to say.”
Crystal totally ignores Kyle and tells Dorit, “I got married at 24. I had already gone to college and I’ve built a company worth over $100 million right now, so for you to say that you were in college and getting all this education, building businesses, while I’m getting married at 12 years old is bullsh*t.” Dorit gives a pseudo-apology but Crystal doesn’t care because she knows she ate.
Kyle Richards almost addresses Mauricio/Morgan rumors
This is the part viewers have been waiting for. Right when RHOBH Reunion Part 1 is almost over, Kyle’s marriage is addressed but instead of talking about why she’s on the outs with Mauricio, the conversation ends up being about why Dorit and Kyle are fighting.
It turns out that Kyle is upset because a troll slammed her relationship with Teddi Mellencamp during BravoCon 2023 but Dorit stayed silent. Also, something to do with Kyle’s bad history with her sister Kathy Hilton. There are a lot of layers going on that no one knows about because Kyle doesn’t like to talk about things.
Kyle accuses Dorit of caring more about what the “audience” thinks, which Dorit finds “hysterical” because she doesn’t relate to the masses in any way. Everyone makes funny faces and that’s when Part One of the reunion ends.