Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith might want to get his marketing team to work wooing “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” as the nine members of the cast flew to Milwaukee this week — and may have found a new NBA team to call their own.
Beyond basketball, though, this week brings news of a boyfriend’s bad behavior, attacks on Whitney Rose’s jewelry brand and Bronwyn Newport starting to question whether the person who introduced her to the ‘Housewives’ — Lisa Barlow — is really a friend.
Also, after two weeks of comparative silence, we finally get to hear from the other new cast member, Meili Workman. But once again, it involves a confrontation with Lisa over snarky comments.
Making Milwaukee more famous
The big event this week is the start of a road trip to Milwaukee. (The stated excuse for this trip, visiting Trixie Mattel’s gay bar there, doesn’t happen until next week.) Whitney Rose is the host for this adventure — causing her husband, Justin, to think initially that, “Oh, you must hate these girls,” he says. (Bravo seems to like Wisconsin. It’s where the network shot the last season of “Top Chef.”)
Meredith Marks — who’s still stewing over disputes with Whitney about their businesses — is going on the trip, but isn’t thrilled about it. Her husband, Seth, gives her this advice: “Spend time with Heather [Gay] and Lisa, who are evolving with you. To me, Whitney’s like high school algebra: Pay no attention to it.”
Another husband — Todd Bradley, who is married to Bronwyn — gives his two cents while Bronwyn packs: “Is the plane big enough for all the egos that are going on there?”
Angie Katsanevas is prepared for Milwaukee — in particular, seeing the Milwaukee Bucks and their star, “The Greek Freak,” Giannis Antetokounmpo. Angie shows her husband, Shawn Trujillo, her custom-made wraparound sunglasses, with the image of the Greek flag covering the top half of her face.
Heather, meanwhile, works on her unique pronunciation of Milwaukee — “mill-ee-waw-kay” — which she says she learned from Alice Cooper in “Wayne’s World.”
The day trip Whitney has organized on their first day involves visiting what’s billed as the world’s largest bobblehead museum — which is Whitney’s nod to Mary Cosby once calling Whitney a “bobblehead.” Whitney, Mary, Bronwyn and Meili go to the museum, while the others go to a casino.
The casino trip gives Lisa a chance to riff about Latter-day Saint custom, which is “anti- anything addictive. … Gambling, drugs. … Porn is totally frowned upon.” Lisa recounts sitting next to “a Mormon kid” on a flight from New York to Salt Lake City, who pulled his hoodie over his head and “watched porn for four straight hours.”
This anecdote bolsters Lisa’s argument for what she calls “Mormon 2.0,” which allows her to gamble, as well as make a living selling tequila. “I might be gambling, but I’m not addicted to it,” she says.
(Bravo) Bronwyn Newport, left, and Angie Katsanevas, right, tell Britani Bateman about news they've learned about Britani's boyfriend, in a luxury suite at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, in the Oct. 2 episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Britani learns the truth
Some of the things Real Housewives often do — spending exorbitant amounts of money, throwing lavish theme parties, wearing designer labels like they were team jerseys — aren’t always relatable to the average TV viewer.
Bad boyfriends, though, are a more universal concept.
Britani Bateman, one of the new “friends” on the series this year, was introduced two weeks ago in relation to the person she’s been dating off-and-on for months: Jared Osmond, a member of the Osmond singing dynasty and a nephew of Donny & Marie. Last week, Britani declared that she and Jared were “Instagram official,” though the other Housewives had their doubts.
The doubts grew larger this week, thanks to some news from Angie. As she’s packing for the Milwaukee trip, Angie tells Shawn that a woman who works at their Lunatic Fringe hair salons — a woman identified by Angie as “my brow girl” — was getting flirtatious texts from Jared.
Angie wonders whether she’s close enough to Britani to tell her about the “brow girl” text exchange.
Once the group arrives in Milwaukee, some of the cast members visit a casino — where Britani finally receives a reply text from Jared. Lisa types a breezy reply: “Hey, sorry, having the best time with the girls. I don’t know what time I’ll be in tonight. I guess we’ll probably chat tomorrow. Thanks.”
“We’re over Jared,” Lisa tells Britani. “He’s not your identity. You have to be done unless he makes a major, major change.”
Later, in the luxury suite at Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks, Angie shows the “brow girl” texts to Bronwyn — including Jared’s comment that he and Britani aren’t together. (It’s receipts, proof and a screenshot, to cite last season’s favorite meme.)
Bronwyn comments that if her husband Todd were involved in such a text exchange, “I’d want you to tell me. And I’d also want you to hide Todd’s body when I killed him.”
Britani overhears this conversation, and asks, “Is this about me?” So Angie shows her the texts. “I’d be a bad friend and a bad woman for not telling you,” Angie says. Britani leaves the luxury suite in tears, comforted by Meredith.
The camera crew follows Britani and Meredith into the women’s bathroom — a place, we’re told earlier, that Mary will never, ever set foot.
Britani acknowledges to Meredith that she’s suspected something was up with Jared, and the “brow girl” texts just confirm it. Meredith gives Britani a hug, unrolls some bathroom stall toilet paper to dry her tears, and advises her to “take a little time for yourself” and maybe date other guys.
Bronwyn sees a ‘crack’
After Britani’s tears, the argument that ends the episode almost doesn’t merit the climactic music that accompanies it. But it does let viewers finally hear something substantive from new “friend” Meili Workman.
It starts with Bronwyn, who has been nursing some animosity since last week’s episode, which featured a “bonding” exercise on a ropes obstacle course. Bronwyn says she’s hurt that Lisa, who brought her into this group, didn’t have her back when Heather started going after Bronwyn for commenting on people she’s barely met.
(Whitney, in a confessional, makes the point that Heather is still sensitive about new members to the group, after Monica Garcia joined the Housewives last season and was revealed to be involved with a gossipy social media campaign.)
Bronwyn takes up her resentment with Lisa, and she brings Meili in for backup. Meili had heard about what Lisa said about Meili in the car with Bronwyn and Lisa last week — a rumor that Meili has been blacklisted from Nordstrom for abusing the store’s returns policy.
Lisa’s defense — that she makes snarky comments all the time, and the Nordstrom line “wasn’t said to you” — is not a winner, in Bronwyn’s view.
“Lisa and I are reaching a crossroads,” Bronwyn says in a confessional. “This is a crack that’s forming. … This feels like a crack that could destabilize my friendship with Lisa.”
Bronwyn opines in the luxury suite that “we have to come correct on a few things.” Heather — who has detected a tendency for Bronwyn to tell different stories to different people — joins in the conversation now, and replies that “if anyone has to come correct, it’s Bronwyn.”
“I’m not the root of the problem,” Bronwyn says in a confessional. “I’m just the best-dressed part of the problem.”
(Bravo) Milwaukee Bucks player Damian Lillard, a Weber State University alum, meets the cast members of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" at Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum, in the show's Oct. 2 episode.
Odds and ends
• Meredith talks to Heather about something she’s seen on the internet: Accusations that Whitney’s jewelry designs are coming from a bulk retailer — at 10 times the price. Heather suggests Meredith take Whitney aside and, as a more experienced businesswoman, help her answer back to these accusations. “I can’t tell her myself,” Meredith says. “She always assumes the worst from me.”
• Angie lets her Greek flag fly, literally, when the cast members see the Bucks. Before taking over a luxury suite for the game, the castmates sit courtside during a shootaround — where they get to take selfies with the Bucks’ Damian Lillard, a Weber State University alum. Utah represent!
Next week’s episode is scheduled to air on Bravo on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 9 p.m. Eastern time — and airs at 7 p.m. Mountain time on DirecTV and Dish, as well as at 10 p.m. Mountain time on Xfinity. (The show streams the next day on Peacock.)
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