RHOC: “Come on, are you the first person in the world to ever get pregnant?

I didn’t expect I’d ever say this, but last night’s episode of real Housewives of Orange county was completely terrifying. and not in a “quiet terror of upper-middle class suburban disaffection” way, but in a real, life-or-death, “visceral remind of our own eventual mortality” way. If you’re from an area where outdoor sports are popular, then you probably know, or at least know of, someone who was killed or seriously injured in exactly the kind of accident the cast got into last night.

Making the normal jokey-jokes about everything that lead up to the accident last night feels like it would be in poor taste, but we know that both Tamra and Vicki survived and have fully recovered from their injuries, so let’s tread lightly in that direction, or, at the very least, poke a little fun at Meghan, who would turn out to be the episode’s unlikely villain.

I say “unlikely” because even though I don’t think Meghan’s anyone’s favorite, she didn’t seem like the ice-in-her-veins type, and even if she were, mostly all she talks about is becoming America’s First-Ever pregnant Woman, so there hasn’t been much opportunity yet for to be a monster. That came at the very end of the episode, but first, we had to ensure she’s pregnant. Zij is! Meghan’s pregnant and any average RHOC audience member was probably more excited about it than the man that consented to have his frozen sperm used to knock her up.

Beyond that, most of the episode was spent in preparation to go to Glamis. much ado was made about Heather’s fancy camper that she needed because she’s a princess who just can’t spend a night in a regular RV like Tamra and her plebe family, as well as the foil packets her private chef prepared for her so she could just toss them on the grill without having to operate a salt shaker or cut a vegetable.

The results of Heather’s expenses and efforts were an RV that did not look especially more spacious or comfortable than the others on the inside, but was far shinier on the outside, as well as a meal that tasted probably about the same as everybody else’s because Heather doesn’t know how to use a grill. Heather also seemed to recognize that her special, expensive RV wasn’t stunting quite as hard on the others as she wold have preferred, though, but she didn’t explain why she didn’t have her assistant find her an even better RV instead of just taking Tamra’s recommendation. good help is so hard to find! even in costars.

The episode felt a little difficult to watch at times, and not only because there was a lot more barf than the average hour of real Housewives. we all knew where the whole thing was going, which put me on edge, especially when Heather’s middle school-age son was sent out on an ATV all by himself. He came back fine, of course, and he didn’t seem to go far, but some sort of maternal instinct welled up inside me that was very unpleasant and anxious. That doesn’t happen all that typically when watching a Bravo reality show.

That’s sort of the paradox of reality TV in general, though. shows like real Housewives have one foot in the real and one in the not-real; the characters we see are play-acting staged scenarios that helpfully illustrate real interpersonal conflicts, which have in turn been stoked by the not-real forces of production crews and network programmers and Andy Cohen. The hokey theme parties and obviously contrived sit-down meetings between enemies make it easy to take sides and root for cast members like people root for pro wrestlers, but what happens on the show directly affects the personal lives of reality performers more than it would most other kinds of entertainers. A lot of real Housewives end up divorced after a couple seasons.

Far fewer end up with serious physical injuries like the ones Tamra and Vicki suffered last night, and among other things, it was a stark reminder that the women on the show are all a lot of things other than the characters we see once a week. Seeing anyone strapped to a board and helicoptered to a hospital is jarring, and even more so when you realize that might be the first time in a while that you stopped to consider someone as a human instead of a character.

The accident also made me wonder about the particular circumstances surrounding how this part of the reality TV sausage gets made. If they had been filming a movie or traditional TV show, they’d have received training and guidance from professionals and stunt drivers before zipping around on the dunes. (And, it’s worth noting, they’d all be getting paid much more handsomely for taking on the risk–Bravo is notoriously stingy with its Housewives.) reality contracts are different, so did Bravo just send ’em out to do something obviously dangerous for our collective amusement? Does that maybe describe a lot reality TV?

I can’t answer any of those questions right now, but they’re the ones I’m still thinking about after watching thetonen. Ik ben natuurlijk ook nog steeds aan het denken aan de reactie van Meghan op het horen van Vicki, was een leven gebricht naar een ziekenhuis in de buurt Ga haar controleren. en niet om een ​​bepaalde reden; Ze houdt gewoon niet zo van Vicki, het zou een beetje onhandig zijn geweest voor haar ontspannen weekend en ze had geen zin.

Meghan is nog steeds een relatief nieuwe huisvrouw, dus ze heeft destijds misschien niet gerealiseerd hoe harteloos die weigering zou lijken kijkers die Vicki net een rollover -crash hadden zien overleven, overal over Kelly, gejammer hulpeloos en in een helikopter worden gezet omdat de lokale Het ziekenhuis kon geen verwondingen omgaan, zo potentieel ernstig als de hare. Zelfs als Meghan zojuist haar golfschoenen voor tennisschoenen had verwisseld en voorbij kwam om Vicki gedurende 20 minuten te zien, had ze er gevoelig en grootmoedig uitgezien in het opzij zetten van haar persoonlijke afkeer om iemand in duidelijke behoefte te troosten.

In plaats daarvan haalde ze haar schouders op en besloot dat ze de voorkeur gaf aan het eeuwige gezelschap van haar eigen belangeloze echtgenoot, naast Shannon en David, het minst leuke paar van de show. (Shannon, zo moet worden opgemerkt, smeekte uit de Glamis-reis over bezorgdheid dat het zand haar longen zou storen, maar pas nadat ze erachter kwam wie er op de gastenlijst stond.) Niet alleen is dat objectief koude, maar het is een fel Tactische fout in de inspanningen van Meghan om haar verhaallijn uit te breiden na een zwangerschap, lijkt ze zelfs niet in staat om de vader van de baby te overtuigen om om te zorgen. Pettiness is een kwaliteit die ik meestal op een vreemde manier in anderen waardeer, maar je moet zelfbewust genoeg zijn om te beseffen wanneer iedereen die erbij betrokken is, meer baat zou hebben bij het zoeken naar een hogere morele grond. Volgende week weet ik zeker dat Kelly blij zal zijn dat hij wat vrije tijd heeft van de schurk.