Nikki Bella proved to be a changed woman this week on Total Divas after attending a Best Buddies charity event for people with mental disabilities coming into the working world. She becomes infatuated with activist Maria Shriver after watching her give a speech and finds her relatable, connectable and actually falls in love with her, wanting to make her her "Woman Crush Wednesday."
At the bicycle marathon event, Shriver gives Brie and Nikki the opportunity to speak. Nikki becomes so nervous because she knows she isn't exactly the best speaker and can't even do it.
After not being able to speak, Nikki books an engagement to speak at Tampa's Center For Women. Brie immediately crushes her dreams, telling her she can't show cleavage. If she is supposed to speak on behalf of women, she will have to be a classy, well-dressed woman.
Nikki gets a new wardrobe and haircut, and she is ready to be a new, empowered Nicole--until Brie crushes her yet again. This time Brie puts her on the spot and tries to get her to speak in front of their friends. Nikki ends up nervous and embarrassed and leaves.
Alicia Fox (Foxie) has a new boyfriend Darryl, who Rosa is skeptical of because he still lives with his ex. In an attempt to keep her friend safe, she makes her do a $3.99 background check on him. They discover he lied about his age; he is 50, not 45. Foxie goes to his house to find out the truth, and he tells her it wasn't him lying. His friends said he was 45, and he agreed. She storms out, ripping her mic off and telling him she has a huge problem with liars, is disgusted by this and doesn't know if he's lying about really being broken up with his ex.
The problems don't stop there for Foxie, as she later finds out her backyard is inhabited by armadillos and snakes. The door bell rings, and she thinks it's someone coming to fix the animal issue, but it's actually flowers from Darryl...which Rosa feels makes him look even more suspicious. He doesn't answer Foxie's call, and Rosa leaves him a nice little voicemail screaming and calling him a liar.
Mandy is still skeptical about Eva, but after watching her NXT match she sees for herself that Eva has improved. And since the two have a lot in common and really get along, she decides to go through with being her tag team partner. Mandy tells her that she asked all the girls if they thought it was a good idea first, and overall Eva appreciates the honesty but is hurt. Realizing she was wrong, she apologizes to Eva, who then gives her the benefit of the doubt and thinks she would have done the same thing in her place.
The apologies keep rolling when Brie calls Nikki moments before her speech, saying it was all coming from a protective place. But when it comes down to it, she really does believe in her. Much to her own surprise, Nikki gives an amazing speech reminding the women to "never give up," which is what she did by conquering this fear and deciding to make this the next part of her career.
Foxie also apologizes to Darryl because ultimately she wants to give him a chance, since she does really care about him.
The real shock comes at the end, though, when Paige tells Rosa and Foxie that she sees herself with Kev for the rest of her life and doesn't actually know if she wants to break up with him or stay with him.