Teresa Giudice Is Finally Home From Prison on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, So Now What?

Giudice's road ahead is the main attraction as season seven of RHONJ progresses

By Billy Nilles Jul 18, 2016 1:00 AMTags
Real Housewives of New Jersey, RHONJ, Teresa GiudiceBravo

When a person gets out of prison after nearly a year behind bars, their return to a normal life offers nothing but opportunity. Opportunity to live differently, opportunity to take advantage of the introspective reflection you've hopefully done in the clink and apply it to your behavior, opportunity to be a better person than you once were. That's the rehabilitative ideal of the whole punishment, right?

It's clear that season seven of The Real Housewives of New Jersey is going to allow us to see whether or not Teresa Giudice's 11 and a half month ordeal might have any net positive effect on her—and that's a thrilling prospect. Reality TV at its realest. So, what's her progress report in this second week of the new season?

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When Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa Giudice Calls Jacqueline Laurita the Results Are...Awkward
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Sadly, as we see it, below average.

While Teresa has probably been scared straight in the eyes of the law after her time away, when it comes to the people in her life, tonight's was classic Tre. She's still trying to force sister-in-law Melissa Gorga to bend to her will and kiss her ring "for the sake of the family," while sidestepping any part she's played in the family disfunction as always. Poor Melissa, so exhausted by this unending cycle, seems to have decided that it'll just be easier to give in and get along—if only to protect the relationship she's only just developed with her mother and father-in-law.

And then there's that phone call with Jacqueline Laurita. Teresa is so old-school Italian, she'll never truly get over a grudge. She may pay lip service about wanting to make nice, but if you don't do it on her terms and see things exactly her way, it'll probably never work. Case in point? Her poor cousins Kathy Wakile and Rosie Pierri. When she realized they were listening in on Jacqueline's end during that New Year's Eve call, she got real cold, real fast. "Do you always take your calls on speaker?" she asked Jacqueline, as if she hasn't been on this show for seven seasons. (Everyone always takes calls on speaker on Real Housewives. How will the camera pick up what's being said otherwise?) She's never going to forgive those two for whatever she think it is they did—and she'll probably never really forgive Jacqueline either.

Sure, it'll make for some damn entertaining TV, but it certainly is depressing, isn't it? They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but Teresa seems to be living proof that there has to be some ounce of fondness existent before the absence even begins.

 

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Teresa Giudice's Daughters Were the Real Stars of the Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 7 Premiere
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Spare Parts

- Where was Siggy Flicker tonight?! After that whopper of an introduction last week, how can they deprive us of her so quickly? Was she still off healing somewhere? We want answers!

- "Usually, I have to pay for my Christmas photo. This year, a magazine's willing to pay me to take pictures of me." Teresa's instant capitalization on her very unique situation is incredible. The only way to get that lifestyle back is to hustle from the jump. And her openness about it is very refreshing.

- "I don't want you to work. I want you at home. I didn't want a part-time wife." Ugh, Joe Gorga. Wake up and smell the lasagna. It is 2016. Knock it off with this caveman schtick. It's not cute anymore. Also, bravo to Melissa for basically laughing in his face and continuing with her day every time he starts in on this. You do you, girl.

- Presented without comment: 
"Was this the night he died or the night he resurrected?" - Joe Giudice, on Christmas Eve
"It's the day he was born!" - Teresa

- Something tells us Dolores Catania going to regret her wish for a "reunion dinner" rather than a birthday party. Just a hunch.

- The saddest thing in all of this continues to be Gia. The poor girl just wanted to celebrate one New Year's Eve like a normal kid her age, but she couldn't even have that without being reminded that she's still expected to sacrifice for her parents' mistakes. "You know how I pushed you to do the right thing when Mom wasn't here? Well, now you've got to do the right thing when I'm not here," her dad told her as she cried. "And then it will be over and I'll be home and it will all be back to normal again." Yeah, in three and a half years, when her teenage years are behind her. Poor Gia.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.

(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

Watch: Teresa Giudice Has "No Time" for Jacqueline Laurita
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