That was ... not easy to watch.
We knew the nasty ATV accident involving several of The Real Housewives of Orange County was on the way, which made watching tonight's seemingly endless trip out to the Glamis dunes in Heather Dubrow's rented luxury (but still not luxury enough for everyone's favorite fancypants) RV feel like a grim exercise. The end result was not going to be good. We knew this.
And even though we'd seen countless previews of the horrific accident itself, nothing could prepare us for what came afterwards.
Between shots of Vicki Gunvalson uncontrollably vomiting into Kelly Dodd's lap as the result of a neck injury, Tamra Judge laying on the floor, seemingly immobile, and Heather and Kelly's poor children forced to stand nearby by and watch the horrifying scene unfold, it certainly wasn't the great advertisement that Glamis thought it would be getting when it signed off on filming permits.
What it was a great advertisement, though, was for Heather Dubrow: Woman in Charge. Say what you will about Heather, but watching her spring into "help mode" after self-assessing that she was relatively unscathed was enough to convince me that I want her by my side in any and every crisis.
Surviving an accident like that is something of a bonding experience for all parties involved, so we wouldn't be surprised to see Tamra and Heather set aside any lingering doubts about welcoming Vicki and Kelly fully into the fold moving forward. And we wouldn't be surprised if Meghan King Edmonds' reaction to the news might just turn everyone against her.
You see, after Vicki was airlifted, alone, to a hospital in Palm Springs, Heather and Kelly called Meghan, who, along with husband Jim, were hosting Shannon and David Beador at their home in La Quinta, to ask how far away they were from the hospital. Clearly, Heather and Kelly expected Meghan to offer to go keep an obviously frightened Vicki company. That's not exactly what they got.
Rather, Meghan blankly said, "That's too bad," and did her damnedest to get off the phone pretty darn quick. "I don't need to go see her," Jim said when his wife hung up the phone. "Of course we don't want Vicki to be hurt, but I don't want to go visit Vicki in the hospital because I'm not her friend," Meghan said in her interview. And thus, we're certain a new feud has been born.
Is Meghan within her right to choose to not upend her weekend and go out of her way for a woman she doesn't really like? Certainly. But does it come across as kind of cruel? We'll let you be the judge of that.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)