This week’s episode focused heavily on the prep for Kandi’s musical and all of the storylines that lead up to the opening.
The episode begins with Kandi making an Oprah to Lindsay style drop by to Porsha. Kandi explains that although Porsha has signed her contract to be in the play, she still isn’t showing up at practice regularly. Porsha plays the excuse game. At first blaming Kandi’s people for not sending the full rehearsal schedule, and then calling her assistant to explain that she didn’t receive the schedule at all. In the end, the assistant admits that she DID get the email, but didn’t realize the schedule was in an attachment. Kandi rolls her eyes and so do I. If Porsha were as grown up and mature as she professes to be, she’d be on top of emails and schedules. In the end, Porsha assures Kandi that she is dedicated and she’ll be there from now on.
Next we move onto NeNe meeting up with her manager in LA. They discuss NeNe’s new clothing line before moving onto acting roles that she is up for. She scoffs at the mere mention of some of the roles she’s recently turned down. When her manager questions what she didn’t like, she explains that she never even read the scripts. She wants to elevate her career, not just take any role that’s offered to her. Her manager is obviously frustrated as he asks what kind of role she would consider. NeNe drops the bomb that she would like to do something dramatic as that doesn’t come as easy to her. Mr. Manager suggests acting classes to help her work on those skills. NeNe shoots him down right away, explaining that acting classes hinder natural talent. He finally relents and says that she better get ready because she’s going to be very busy soon. To prove this, we see NeNe fly from LA to NY to meet with the executives of her clothing line. They begin to go through the design samples and NeNe has no problem saying what she likes and doesn’t like. They show her what I think is a cute leather dress and she scowls and calls it ugly. NeNe makes it clear that even though others are designing and creating, nothing goes on sale without her approval. I’m not sure what to think about this clothing line yet.
Cynthia visits Peter at BarOne where she confronts him about the rumors that BarOne is in foreclosure. In typical Peter fashion, he tells her that he’s known about it for a month, but he just didn’t want to bring up bad news to her. Turns out that the owners of the building BarOne (and The Bailey Agency) are located in have not been paying the bank even though Peter has been paying them. Peter didn’t deem that news worthy to repeat even though it directly affects Cynthia’s business also. Peter hopes that once he can prove to the bank that he’s not in default, they will let him keep the BarOne space. Cynthia is disappointed that she had to hear all of this news on a blog and not from her husband. She questions him on what plan B is if the bank doesn’t let him keep the space. In his own laid back way, he says that he made BarOne a success in this space, he can do it again in another place. Cynthia is stressed because it seems like every couple of years they are starting over from scratch. Peter gets defensive asking what he’s done wrong? He’s been honest about the facts (now) and it’s out of his hands. Cynthia reiterates that he should have told her a month ago when he found out. He maintains that it doesn’t matter when she found out the facts haven’t changed. There’s nothing either of them can do but wait for an answer. The conversation ends with Cynthia storming out of the bar.
Now we move onto the emotional, heartstrings pulling part of the show. Kenya’s aunt arrives at Kenya’s house and finds Kenya a mess in her bed. Immediately she hugs her and asks how it happened. Kenya goes into a passionate story about how her dog, Velvet, got out of the gate and was attacked by a neighbor’s dog. Kenya rushed out to save her, but it was too late, Velvet was killed. Kenya’s tears seem real in this scene and I feel bad for her. Velvet was her one true friend on the show and it’s never easy losing a companion. Her aunt comforts her by telling her that Velvet’s passing may be making room for another love to enter Kenya’s life, a child.
Later on, Kenya meets up with Kandi and Cynthia to tell them of Velvets unfortunate passing. Cynthia overreacts, but both girls jump up in support of Kenya. She explains that she’s going to do a memorial and the two ladies are the only ones from the group invited.
Back to Kandi and the tumultuous relationship with her mother. Kandi invites a counselor to her house to try and broker a truce with Mama Joyce. Kandi explains that whenever she’s in a serious relationship, her mother flips out and becomes jealous and possessive of her. The counselor says that Kandi needs to work on not being subservient to her mother. Mama Joyce shows up and the counselor has a one on one with her. She explains that Todd quit a good paying job right after he got together with Kandi (didn’t he HAVE to because he worked on the production crew of the show??) and also that Kandi has gained 30 pounds since meeting him. Those seem like pretty weak excuses for not liking the man. Mama Joyce then blames Kandi wanting a father figure and losing her brother as reasons that she’s always chosen the wrong man. The counselor ends the session by making each lady profess their love to each other and promise to make changes in the future.
Cynthia and Peter are at home and they decide to rehash the argument at BarOne about the foreclosure. Peter tells her that they are still in limbo. However he’s had a conversation with the landlord who has offered to let them buy the property. Cynthia isn’t opposed to the idea, but she knows that neither of them have the money to buy at the moment. She hopes they can continue to rent. Cynthia relents control to Peter for all of those decisions. She just wants him to keep her in the loop with the information. Finally Peter agrees that he should discuss things with his wife. It’s a nice compromise between spouses with completely opposite personalities.
Back at the Rialto Theatre, we see Kandi’s crew in full prep mode for the musical. Kandi and another actor, D. Woods, try and run through some of the choreography with Porsha and it’s clear that Porsha is behind. Kandi says that she hopes Porsha can catch up, but she’s very glad they hired an understudy for her. After Porsha is sufficiently put in her place about missing rehearsals and her dedication, we move on to Mama Joyce and Todd’s confrontation. Kandi’s manager, Don Juan, facilitates the conversation by telling Todd to give Mama Joyce a tour of the theatre. Todd shows her around and she follows silently, making no comments one way or the other, even though Todd is digging for some sort of reaction. Finally, Todd jumps in with both feet. He questions Mama Joyce about her belief that he is an opportunist and he wonders where they went wrong. He wants to know if they’ll ever be able to get along or if she’s just never going to like him. Mama Joyce combats with the fact that she doesn’t trust him because he quit his job shortly after meeting Kandi. Todd explains that he had to quit his job because of the situation of Kandi being on the show he was working on (I was right!) and that he lived off of his savings until he got other projects lined up. He goes on to say that he had a lot of projects that took him out of town for 2 or 3 months at a time and Kandi was the one that asked him to stop traveling like that. All he asks for now is that Mama Joyce get to know him a little bit more so that she can see for herself that he’s not out to cash in on his relationship with Kandi. He wants her to want him as a son-in-law and part of her family. He doesn’t want Kandi to have to choose between them and he doesn’t want to sneak off without her to get married. The speech is very impassioned and respectful. He seems to be speaking from the heart and not putting on a show. In my opinion, Todd is a stand up guy. Mama Joyce hears what Todd is saying and states that she hopes his intentions are good. She’s still being stubborn and childish, but at least it seems like she knows she’s going to have to give in at some point.
Next week is the season finale and everything comes to a head. Can’t wait!