BravoEven reality shows fall victim to the dreaded filler episode. The episode that does nothing to move the story along, merely it regurgitates known facts about the drama that drives the thread forward, offering little to no movement. That was this episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
Yes, Teresa Giudice and Jacqueline Laurita made amends earlier this season and then quickly had a falling out over drama from 2011. You may recall the "deck ambush." Teresa sure does! In the heat of rehashing last week, Jacqueline called Joe Gorga, Teresa's brother and husband to Melissa Gorga. This did not sit well with Melissa who took Jacqueline out to lunch to tell her that fact. Meanwhile, Siggy Flicker and Dolores Catania had their own little adventures with their family and remodeling and Jewish traditions.
The main drama this episode revolved around cell phones. Siggy is still taking away the phones of her son and daughter because they're always on them and little Milania Giudice, who celebrated her 10th birthday by going indoor skydiving and it resulted in some hilarious footage of Teresa struggling to get more than 4 feet of the ground, took issue with her mother's usage. Teresa said being "away" made her realize she needs to be more open with her feelings because growing up her family never talked about what bothered them. So, she decided to have a family meeting and invited each kid to write down how they think things can be improved with the family.
"Gia, stop saying mean words to me, in parenthesis: fat," she said. "Dad, stop saying mean words, in parenthesis: fat."
However, Joe Giudice said he never called her fat. She contested that point and sassed him back. "And you're so fat. You look like you're pregnant. You're having like four babies," she shouted.
As for Teresa, Milania said she thinks her mother doesn't understand her sometimes and when she's talking to her, she's always on the phone or laughs. This struck a cord with Teresa, but she rationalized that she's working, she wrote a book, she needs to be on the phone. Showing the dichotomy between Milania's grievances with Teresa's phone usage and Siggy's with her kids was interesting…but not worth a whole episode. Give us more footage of Teresa struggling to skydive.
The conflict has been cued up for next week: Siggy, Melissa and Dolores convinced Teresa and Jacqueline to go away together for the weekend. A trip means…drama.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays, 8 p.m. on Bravo.
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