The season finale focuses on tying up the loose ends of the season at the pinnacle event that is Kandi and Todd’s musical.
We start out with Todd walking in on Kandi rehearsing a song for the musical. After a quick chat about being nervous about slow ticket sales, the conversation turns to Mama Joyce and Todd’s conversation from the week before. Todd’s feeling is that Mama Joyce went through the motions of the conversation. She wasn’t invested in what he was trying to say. Kandi begs off the subject, saying that Mama is on board with coming to the musical and all is fine. Next topic on the list is their upcoming wedding planning and the pre-nup that Kandi wants Todd to sign. He’s on board with the pre-nup but can’t believe that she thinks he’s going to sign it without reading it. Something tells me that this will be a sticking point in the upcoming Kandi’s wedding spin-off.
Moving on to Kenya and the memorial service for her dog Velvet. Cynthia is the first to arrive, with her dog in tow. I’m a little thrown off by that. It feels like a slap in Kenya’s face to bring her dog to the memorial. Kenya’s aunt takes the lead running the ceremony with a prayer and a eulogy. Cynthia does her best to wrangle her own dog and comfort Kenya with side hugs. I’m surprised that Kandi (the only other Housewife invited) didn’t show up, nor did Miss Lawrence or Marlo or any of Kenya’s besties from the season. Although I do believe it’s sad and tragic to lose a pet, I also think Kenya is being overdramatic and milking the situation for sympathy points.
For some uplifting action, we head over to Phaedra’s house where Apollo and adorable Ayden surprise her with a cake to celebrate being finished with her mortician degree. After partaking in some cake, Apollo suggests that Phaedra’s mood will lift now that she’s not so bogged down with school. To her credit, she takes that suggestion with a smile. They discuss buying a mortuary and going out on their own before Ayden pops in and asks where his little brother Dylan is. As a family they race up to his room to grab him. It’s a refreshing family happiness scene from the Nida/Parks home.
It’s Porsha’s divorce finalization day and her mom and sister stop by her house with a bottle of vodka to celebrate. Porsha explains that it was easier than she expected to sign the papers and be divorced. She says that if she would have known that dropping her demands and signing the papers would be this easy, she would have done it months ago. She goes on to rationalize that she wants to be an independent woman going forward and that means not being tied to Kordell or his money. Something tells me that she realized she wasn’t going to GET any of Kordell’s money, so she stopped wasting her own money on lawyers and adopted the independent woman stance. That stance gets a slight crack when her mom questions why she hasn’t taken off her wedding ring and she gets defensive. Finally they coerce her into slipping the ring off and dropping it in a glass of champagne, which I’m sure she fishes out and pops back on her finger as soon as her mom and sister leave!
Cynthia is trying to seduce Peter with candles, cigars, and liquor. She rehearses her lines in front of her sister Mallorie, which grosses out both Mallorie and myself; so much for keeping the love between the couple. Finally Mallorie leaves and Peter arrives. He cracks up as soon as he spots his “sexy” wife on the chair. She explains to him that she’s trying to be romantic and he continues laughing, first at her spanx and next at her sexy talk. Cynthia decides to take charge and leads him upstairs to the bedroom.
NeNe arrives back in Atlanta from either New York or Los Angeles complaining to Gregg about a pain in her body. Gregg thinks its gas and tries to give her Tums. NeNe doesn’t think he’s funny and leaves him and his Tums to go rest upstairs. Later on we find out that she has been admitted to the hospital for pulmonary embolisms.
It’s finally opening night of Kandi’s play and we are treated to an inside look of how Kandi and Todd work as a team. While Kandi is backstage doing final rehearsals and getting her hair and makeup done, Todd is running around the theatre checking on the parking situation, the orchestra pit set up, and how the overall show will be run. It definitely looks like Todd is an asset in Kandi’s life.
The cast moves into a final run through of the musical and once again Porsha is not taking this thing seriously. She’s fooling around, dare I say flirting, with a stagehand backstage and not hitting her mark when called for. Porsha does not amuse Lark, the stage manager, at all. A few hours before curtain call, Lark wakes Porsha from a nap and gives her a stern talking to about staying in character and not making a fool of herself. Porsha takes it as a peace offering from Lark, smiling and agreeing to everything she says.
Finally the house is open and guests begin to arrive. Phaedra and Apollo meet up with Cynthia and Peter to exchange friendly chat about NeNe’s illness and about whether Mama Joyce will show up. They rehash the crazy that Mama Joyce brought to the season while calling her a Geritol gang leader and laughing. I love it whenever castmates actually get along and genuinely have fun together. Mama Joyce arrives and tension is high. Kandi’s assistant runs into the dressing room to hide from her and Shirley Murdock, who plays the Mama Joyce character, takes a picture with her but jokes that she’s all smiles now because she hasn’t seen the show yet.
The musical starts and we get flashes of the audience faces intertwined with scenes from the show. Cynthia and Phaedra joke about the Mama Joyce character and giggle. People agree that Porsha has come around and is putting on a good performance. Mama Joyce has a serious face on the entire time she watches.
Afterwards, everyone congratulates Kandi and Todd on their accomplishment. The consensus is that it was an amazing performance. Even Mama Joyce agrees that it was a good show, although her comments feel a little forced. The season ends with jubilation of a project accomplished well.
In the finale updates we learn that Phaedra will not be defending Apollo at his fraud trial, Porsha is dating an African tycoon, Kenya plans to have a baby via in vitro with her African prince, Cynthia’s Bar One is still in trouble, but she’s not helping Peter bail it out, NeNe is recovered and competing in Dancing with the Stars this season and Kandi sold out 5 performances of her show and is now planning her wedding. That’s a wrap for this season. Next week things explode on the reunion set!