BravoThe hits just keep on coming for Vicki Gunvalson.
Not only was she unable to win over former friend Shannon Beador with one of her patented faux-pologies, full of circular logic and continued insults, as she progressed to the next stop on her "Brooks Ayers faked cancer, not me" apology tour on tonight's new episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County, but she was also forced to watch helplessly as daughter (and continued RHOC voice of reason) Briana Wolfsmith had one hell of a health scare. And we've got to be honest—it made all the other nonsense going on in the episode seem petty and small AF.
Shannon planning a '70s-themed party? Wake us when we're actually there. (No, really, please do. That preview for next week looked INSANE.) Kelly Dodd's brother quizzing her daughter on state capitals? Zzzz. Heather Dubrow reminding us yet again that her husband works more than she'd like? Like we said, not all storylines were created equal tonight.
We watched Vicki's waking nightmare begin as she rushed home, responding to a phone call from Briana complaining that she couldn't breathe. And this was no simple asthma attack. Of what little of Briana's distress we actually saw (the crew was respectful enough to keep their cameras off Briana during much of the ordeal, giving the situation the distance it truly deserved), this was one scary scene. She appeared to be violently sobbing, but she was in fact gasping for air. "She says she is not going to make it," Vicki recounted of her attempt to drive her daughter to the hospital. "She is, like, passing out in front of me."
The situation proved to be too dire, however, and Vicki pulled over into a gas station to call 911 and get Briana some immediate medical attention. In a weird twist of fate, as Tamra Judge called her son Ryan's ex-fiancée Sarah to tell her about what she'd heard as she was on the phone Vicki, Sarah realized she was in the exact same gas station parking lot. This proved to be a blessing in disguise, as Sarah followed Vicki home to keep an eye on Briana's little boys so Vicki could hightail it to the hospital. "Jesus did that! He did that," Tamra exclaimed in an interview. "It's not a coincidence."
After a night in the hospital with a 103.6 fever that wouldn't break, the doctors were able to determine that Briana's lymph nodes in her chest were so enlarged that they were compressing her lungs, making her unable to breathe. Unfortunately, the source of the infection, the root of the issue, remains a mystery, meaning Briana and Vicki are in for a season full of tests and surgeries. Suddenly, winning back old friends doesn't seem so important.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
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