Bravo, TwitterCan we just give some props to Gia Giudice?
Watching your parents go through life-altering legal issues can't be easy, but while her dad Joe has begun to slowly spin out of control as his date of surrender for this three year sentence nears and mom Teresa continues to downplay exactly what she's done (to the point where she only refers to prison as "camp"), Gia has continued to stun us with her remarkably maturity. Lest you forget, this poor girl is only 15 years old.
And yet, her frank discussion with her mother regarding her father's spiraling during tonight's new episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, airing on a special night and time thanks to the holiday weekend, showed someone wise beyond her years.
"He needs to go. It would be good for him," Gia told her mom, leaving Teresa momentarily stunned.
"You mean the drinking?" her mom replied.
"No, yeah, but not even that. Just the way he acts, the way he talks with us sometimes, I just, I don't know. I think he needs to realize what he has so he can get his s--t together," Gia admitted. Damn. That is a savage AF, but remarkably accurate, assessment. From a 15-year-old.
"It hurts to hear Gia saying this because I know she loves her dad very much," Teresa later admitted. "There's a lot of anger towards Joe right now because of his drinking." As there should be. Joe was in rare form tonight.
Between getting so drunk, he would hurl hurtful lines like "Let me tell you something, I can't wait to leave. The only thing I'm gonna miss are my kids," at his wife and being so hungover that he was skipping out on time spent with loved ones in favor of staying in bed, it wasn't an easy episode for Joe. It was sad and a little depressing and not exactly the sort of thing you'd want to snark in a recap about.
"We only have a few weeks left together. I know Joe is unraveling. I see it. He is drinking a lot more. He's having mood swings. He's just not dealing with it well," Teresa said. "Before I went away, I was able to cope with it better than Joe is. I was about making memories because I felt like I was dying. I wanted my kids to remember, Mommy's happy, Mommy's smiling. Joe's just different. I feel like saying to him, 'Joe, wake up. Let's just make the next few weeks count.'"
That said, we can't end this thing without remarking of the highly ironic moment Joe and Teresa shared in the car on the way to her book launch party. As the two were arguing over Joe's invitation to his felon friend Chris C. (the sort of people who Tre's lawyer doesn't want around his client, at all) and Chris' 12-year-old son (who explicitly wasn't permitted in the venue, which must've been a bar), the following occurred:
Teresa: "Do you know what the law means?"
Joe: "I would never jeopardize you, my love. I love you."
And we'll just leave it at that.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)