University of Utah assistant football coach Sharrieff Shah finally got angry in the latest episode of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” Not at his wife, Jen — who has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges — but at the husband of a Housewife wannabe (who attacked Jen online from a phony Instagram account.)
Meanwhile, Heather Gay is fighting with three of the other four Housewives. And it sure seems like Angie Harrington is fighting desperately to become a full-fledged Housewife, what with all the lying and going out of her way to stir up trouble.
At the Shah house …
Jen tells her husband, Sharrieff, that Angie Harrington showed up at the auditions for Heather’s choir. And Sharrieff — who has stayed calm and provided a voice of reason when he’s been on camera — is visibly irritated about Chris Harrington being behind a fake Instagram account that attacked Jen and Lisa Barlow.
(Fred Hayes | Bravo) Jen and Sharrieff Shah and Sharrieff's birthday party on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
“It upsets me more than you’ll ever know,” he says, “that a grown man would stoop this low to just jump on the bandwagon and make these horrible character assassination attempts about you. … What these people will never understand is … which straw breaks the camel’s back? Which insult, which post is the one that causes you to say, ‘I’m tired of it,’ and then hurt yourself or do something that you can’t come back from?”
On the one hand, yes, Jen is lying every time she tells anyone — including her husband — that she’s innocent of the federal fraud charges filed against her. But Sharrieff is clearly concerned about keeping his wife alive.
In a confessional, he says, “This is so low. Why would you do that? What did my wife do to you? You know, what did we do to you? That’s unbelievably serious to me. And I have the most forgiving heart. And I can forgive.” But only if Chris posts a public apology and leaves it for as long as the attacks were posted.
At the choir auditions ...
Jen is not happy to see Angie Harrington there, and who could blame her? Angie’s husband, admitted he was behind a nasty Instagram account, @shahexposed. (The account apparently has since been deleted.)
“What the hell is Angie Harrington doing here, in her dollar store leotard outfit?” Jen asks in a confessional. “I feel like it’s a slap in the face to me.”
(Chris Haston | Bravo) Angie Katsanevas on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
Housewives “friends” Danna Bui-Negrete and Angie Katsanevas. are there, and Angie H. approaches Danna and starts trashing Lisa. Danna doesn’t want to have this conversation, but Angie K. dives right in. “I wanted to like you, and I want to give you a chance. But I also think if you’re going to talk behind Lisa’s back, … don’t go try to be her friend,” she says.
Angie H. denies she has talked behind Lisa’s back, even though she was doing just that seconds earlier. And she insists repeatedly that she knew nothing about her husband’s nasty Instagram account. Angie K. calls Angie H. a liar.
Whitney is startled by this. “Wait a second. You’re telling me that Chris, a grown-ass man, created a Finsta account to troll Lisa?” she says in a confessional. “I feel really icky and silly right now being in a matching costume with Angie.” Jen has even stronger feelings, telling Angie H. she’s “full of [expletive].”
In a confessional, Whitney says, “It’s really interesting how Angie can just conveniently not know or forget. Like, she didn’t know that Chris created this Finsta. She didn’t remember saying the rumor about Lisa at the Jazz games. Like, is this a convenience thing, or does she really have a memory problem?”
(Bravo) Angie Harrington and Lisa Barlow on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Jen being Jen, she turns on Angie K. — who is trying to help her — and yells, “Shut up and let me talk!”
“The things you’re being accused of right now, is Sharrieff taking [expletive] for it?” Angie H. says. Jen yells, “I’m innocent!” (She’ll be sentenced next month.)
When Heather joins the fray, Angie H. asks her, “Do you know my husband to be a bad guy?” Heather replies, “No.” Of course, Chris didn’t troll her. But she feels Chris has taken “accountability.” Jen believes that was because “he got caught.”
Angie H. tries to divert blame. “Do you know how many fake Instagram accounts there are?” she asks. It’s so dumb it leaves Jen momentarily speechless.
In a confessional, Heather says, “Let’s be very clear here. Jen Shah is in a washing machine of turmoil because she’s been indicted on federal charges with a prison sentence looming. Not because she’s getting trolled by Chris Harrington on Instagram.”
True. But that still doesn’t excuse Chris’ behavior.
Heather vs. Lisa
Despite their latest disagreement, Lisa shows up to audition for Lisa’s choir. “Heather and I probably need a 12-step program to move forward in our friendship,” Lisa says in a confessional. “But step number one has to be showing up for her today, because I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that can sing.”
In a confessional, Heather says she is, “shocked to see Lisa, because she really hurt my feelings. And this is, I feel like, her way of saying, like, ‘I’m showing up for you and I’m sorry.’ But … I still can’t stand her.”
(Nicole Weinagart | Bravo) Heather Gay and Lisa Barlow on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" reunion.
Their current fight is because, in Season 2, Heather falsely accused Lisa of texting her good wishes for her father after he died. Lisa posted proof online that was not true, and Heather took that as an attack.
At the auditions, Jen tells Lisa that if Heather sides with Angie H., “I promise I’m going to tell her to her face to [expletive] herself. Get the [expletive] out of my life. You are the worst [expletive] friend.” And, she adds, “the only reason” Heather is friends with Angie H. “is because you think her fat [expletive] elf-on-the-shelf husband is going to feed you and put you on a [expletive] yacht, bitch.”
Heather and Angie join the other women, and Angie H. sits on Heather’s lap and hugs her. “She’s literally sitting on your lap,” Jen says, “Like, you might as well breastfeed her.”
The fight between Jen and Angie H. resumes. Angie H. apologizes to Jen, which triggers Lisa. In a confessional, she says, “This is unbelievable. Your husband created this page to troll me.” (That’s true.) “Where’s my apology?” That does not occur to Angie H.
Jen says that what hurt her most is that Heather backed up Angie H. Heather denies that, and Angie H. continues with her nonsense, trying to smooth the waters with Jen. “You have been nothing but lovely to us. And to my husband. And he cares about you. And did not show it in an appropriate way.”
What? Trolling someone online is not showing you care about that person in an appropriate way?
Lisa is disgusted by Angie H.’s behavior. Angie H., with no facts to back her up, tells Lisa, “You bully everyone online.” Lisa calls her a liar And then Angie H. accuses Lisa of bullying Heather online for posting the truth after Heather lied on the reunion episode. “She used her dad’s death to lie about me,” Lisa points out. (Also true.)
Heather accuses Lisa of being a fake friend. Heather does not address, let alone apologize for, her fake accusation that led to this.
“The truth is, you have no friends left,” Heather says. Lisa says to all the women, “Who’s not my friend here? Raise your hands.” Heather and Angie H. raise their hands; Jen, Whitney, Meredith, Angie K. and Danna do not.
(Chris Haston | Bravo) Angie Harrington appears as a "friend" on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Lisa is, at least, willing to admit she didn’t handle things well. She tells Heather, “I should not have posted what was online, but I don’t want you to lie about me.” Heather finally acknowledges but excuses her false accusation. “I was mistaken, because I got that text when we were surrounding his bedside and he was on hospice. And you said, ‘I hope your dad is feeling better.’ And it felt callous and, like, a little bit of a cover-your-ass.”
Heather was understandably emotional at that time. But to be clear, she’s interpreting supportive texts from Lisa — who didn’t know the condition of Heather’s father — as attacks.
And then Heather goes on a passive-aggressive attack. “Your name is cleared and I lied,” she tells Lisa. “And you’re the best. And you’re awesome.” In a confessional, Heather says, “[Expletive] you and your stupid ass text. You’re missing the big picture. You’re clearing your name, but you’re totally devastating my feelings.”
True. But Heather is missing how nasty, personal and damaging her false attack on Lisa was.
(Charles Sykes |Bravo) Meredith Marks of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" and her husband, Seth.
Seth and Meredith in the bathtub
No scene to date on “RHOSLC” seems more staged than this one — the Marks in a bubble bath together. The tackiness is accentuated by Seth’s repeated instructions to Meredith to keep her toe out of “my butt.”
Meredith tells Seth that Heather is caught in the middle of Jen and Angie H. because of the Finsta. And that Heather has “blindly supported” Jen since her arrest.
“Heather is not in a great position,” Meredith says in a confessional. “It is very tough to be in the middle of two close friends that are fighting. Believe me, I know. I went through it with Lisa and Mary.”
What? Meredith thinks that Lisa and Mary Cosby were friends in Seasons 1 and 2? Never seemed that way. And we’ve had no indication that Jen and Angie H. are anything more than acquintances.
Seth being Seth, he says, “I honestly think me, you, Heather, Jen and Coach [Sharrieff Shah] should get in this bath and just work all this [expletive] out.” Ick.
Heather and Dre visit their new location
The business partners visit Mountain View Village in Riverton, which will be the second location for Beauty Lab + Laser. It’s still under construction, but Heather finds it “ridiculously huge and intimidating.”
She’s busy with the business and writing a book, “So I don’t feel like I have time for the petty [expletive].” And, of course, petty [expletive] is what “Real Housewives” is all about.
“I’m not trying to actively have conflict with any of these women. And yet every time I try to do something positive or get us together, they lead with how I’ve done them wrong,” Heather says. “And I don’t know how to fix it with my friends. What has always worked for me before doesn’t seem to be landing.”
(Bravo) John and Lisa Barlow on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Lisa and John Barlow eat out
The couple goes to the Market Street Oyster Bar in Cottonwood Heights. They order Vida Tequila — and Lisa is delighted when their waiter, who clearly doesn’t know they own Vida, tells them, “It’s been one of our best sellers.”
Lisa tells John that she’s stressed after talking to one of her four sisters — who’s in the middle of a divorce — on the phone. “I always said, like, I grew up with a built-in friend group and to have them so sad, like, just makes me so sad.”
Lisa says that “the one thing that makes me feel the best” is her “relationship with God. And like, I feel like I’ve let that go a little bit and it [makes] me emotional because it’s so important.”
She apparently misspeaks when she says, “I’m very important to God.” But she’ll be mocked and criticized for it.
What? Lisa and Whitney are BFFs?
Lisa and her son, 9-year-old Henry, and Whitney and her son, 9-year-old Brooks, meet at a park to play basketball. Weirdly, the scene begins with a shot of Sugar House Park, but they’re actually at Firmont Park in South Jordan, more than 20 miles from Sugar House Park.
After all the fighting Whitney and Lisa did in Seasons 1 and 2, it’s kind of surprising to see them so chummy. Even Whitney is surprised. She says that she used to be triggered by Lisa’s “big sister energy … like she was looking down on me.” But she’s come to realize that Lisa “actually does care a lot. It’s just sometimes her words get in the way of that.”
(Jesse Grant | Bravo) Whitney Rose and Lisa Barlow hug on "The Real housewives of Salt Lake City."
Lisa tells Whitney she wants “a different relationship with God than I have.” Whitney is supportive. In a confessional, she says, “Even though it’s not for me, I have zero hatred in my heart towards the [LDS] Church. I think Lisa is Mormon because she loves God and she loves the community. Like, good for her.”
Lisa says that she was supporting Heather by auditioning for her choir. And Whitney says, “That was a bold move.”
Lisa isn’t wrong when she says, “Heather used something so sensitive to disparage my name and character, and that bothers me. Like, if you didn’t use your dad to lie about me, I would not have ever used your dad to tell the truth about me.”
And she adds, “I have done nothing for anyone to say, in the most ridiculous, childish way, ‘Who doesn’t want to be friends with Lisa?’” she says. That’s turning reality on its head. It was Lisa who said, “Who’s not my friend here? Raise your hand.”
When it comes to Heather, Whitney certainly seems to be on Lisa’s side. But Whitney also makes it clear she’d like to reconcile with Heather.
Whitney visits Heather
The two hug, but Heather is not optimistic. “It’s been clear skies for far too long. It’s time for a tornado,” she says.
Whitney tells Heather she’s “not here to fight with you. I’m just here to be real.” And then they fight.
Whitney says that she didn’t feel any support from Heather on the trip to Arizona earlier this season while she was “discovering that I am traumatized by abuse I experienced as a child.” Heather apologizes.
(Photo courtesy of Gabe Ginsberg/Bravo) Whitney Rose, Heather Gay and Lisa Barlow are caught up in the drama of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
And then Whitney says she’s hurt that Heather hasn’t called since Justin got fired. Heather looks shocked and says she had “no idea” that happened. Whitney equates this to what she believes was Heather’s lack of support in Arizona. A drunken Whitney was livid with Heather for not corroborating a story she says she was told by Angie H. — that Lisa had traded sexual favors for business connections and Jazz tickets. To be clear, Angie H. denies saying that, and no one else has said they heard her tell that story. And, of course, Lisa adamantly denies it.
Nonetheless, Whitney says Heather’s lack of corroboration was “devastating.” Heather says that leaves her “confused” (along with the rest of us). And, when Whitney mentions showing up for the choir auditions, Heather gets all passive-aggressive again: “I’m glad I had an event that you could show up for and, like, be a hero. And I am the [expletive] that has ignored you for two weeks.”
Heather is not happy when Whitney says that it “felt like [Lisa] was defending herself.” Heather once again calls Lisa “a liar,” even though she’s the one who lied.
“And I love the way you’re bringing up how right she was with the way she hurt me,” Heather says, passive-aggressively throwing everything back at Whitney. “You want to walk in and be, like, ‘Not only are you a bad friend, but you also have completely ignored me in a huge crisis,’ which is unfair and untrue,” Heather says. Whitney just assumed Heather somehow knew, and she’s mad at Heather for not knowing. “How did you not know I was going through all this?” she demands.
(There is some irony in that, in Season 2, Heather argued that Lisa should have known the date of her father’s death, even though she never called Lisa to tell her.)
“I’m in trouble for a rumor I never heard. I’m in trouble for a horrible event in your life that I didn’t know about,” Heather says. “I’m sorry that I am not well-versed in the gossip mill and that Lisa’s not calling me to tell me all the [expletive] that goes wrong in your life every single day.”
As they continue to argue, Heather finally admits that what she said about Lisa was “a lie,” but she does not seem to think it was any big deal.
“I don’t know what is going on in Heather’s life, but clearly something big is going on because I do not recognize Heather,” Whitney says in a confessional.
The next episode of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” airs Wednesday, Nov. 16, on Bravo — 7 p.m. on Dish and DirecTV; 10 p.m. on Comcast. Previous episodes can be streamed via Peacock or on demand.
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