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Real Housewives of Potomac recap, Season 8, episode 8: Struggling in Austin's stalemate, Ashley's drama, and more
In the latest episode of Real Housewives of Potomac, the lingering tensions in Austin continue as the lackluster trip orchestrated by Ashley fails to engage the audience.
The holidays are over, and the New Year has arrived, but the Real Housewives of Potomac find themselves still stuck in Austin after a two-week break. The trip, orchestrated by Ashley, seems to serve no purpose other than showcasing her questionable cowgirl-inspired wardrobe.
Karen Huger, usually the Grande Dame with high expectations, finds herself at a public hotel pool in Texas, preparing for a less-than-thrilling celebration of her 60th birthday. The attempts to inject excitement into the scene fall flat, and the strained efforts to recreate iconic moments from previous seasons only emphasize the lack of substance in the current storyline.
Fractures Within the Group:
Despite Karen doing her best, the bulk of the episode highlights the deepening fractures within the group and in the show. Conversations that have been beaten into the ground continue to be revisited with no forward progress; individuals who need to speak one-on-one refuse to show up and do the scene required to close the storyline and move on to the next topic. Instead of evolving the plotlines or dialogue, we’re just circling the drain.
Ashley's Role in the Drama:
Ashley is a key culprit in keeping this cursed ecosystem going. By her own admission, she is slow-walking this divorce. A separation keeps Michael off-camera and allows her to be no longer publicly accountable for his missteps until they finalize a number that she feels will allow her to be independently comfortable (which will likely not happen anytime soon). Aside from minor early grumbles about that, it seems to have largely been abandoned, as has her “dating” journey.
More pressing, however, is how she has, throughout the years, alluded to significant family issues, which she has largely been given a wide berth on the outside of the early season with her journey to see her birth father. The reason has been obvious — the antics of the festering wound known as Michael Darby took precedent — but with him out of the way, why are her discussions of these lingering tensions within her family limited to asides? She hasn’t gone to her mother’s house in two years, remains at odds with her mother’s partner, and has lingering trauma around instability.
Housewives' Conflicts:
Generally speaking, the best housewives fights are when everyone is a little bit wrong, a little bit right, and a little bit delusional. All of these factors are technically at play here, with an additional wrench: Everyone is extremely annoying. It's unclear what audience Candiace is playing to when she acts as if her social-media temper tantrums don’t run afoul of her friendships on the show, but she needs to stop acting like she and Chris didn’t go on a campaign and imply that Robyn should be demoted for her actions.
That’s the true subtext of what Robyn thinks is unforgivable. Not that Candiace called out the alleged or seeming diversion between Gizelle and Robyn during the season, but that Candiace suggested that Robyn, as the main breadwinner, should lose part of her largest income as a result.
Failed conversations:
Robyn refused to accept a one-on-one discussion with Candiace, which allowed for too much interference from the peanut gallery. Trapped in the same pattern, it inevitably devolved the way that almost every group scene has this season: with the ensemble splitting into groups on opposite sides of the restaurant, desperately rallying their position before regrouping to the next location.
The girls all smooth out those ubiquitous Mugler bodysuits and make their way over to the drag show. Finally, it feels somewhat like a proper Huger birthday — the La Dames showed out with their Karen Huger merch! A delightful touch for the event
ALSO READ: Are Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet finally splitting up? Divorce drama explained
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