Last week on “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” we met the impassive Tua and James, the security guards tasked with removing Angie Katsanevas from Meredith Marks’ post-bat mitzvah party.
This week, we meet a new quiet hero: Carlos, a waiter at a Puerto Vallarta resort who valiantly interrupts the many voices shouting across the table — so he can take their dinner orders.
As the castmates travel to Mexico, the arguments mostly center on Angie, who’s still at odds with Meredith and Britani Bateman. But there’s also something brewing between longtime friends Lisa Barlow, who planned the trip, and Bronwyn Newport.
Meredith vs. Angie, again
(Bravo) Meredith Marks relaxes during their Palm Springs trip, on an episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
We start with Meredith at home with her family, recounting having Angie thrown out. It happened after Meredith found Britani crying over what Angie said about her personal life.
In confessional, Meredith says, “I don’t know why Angie is so consumed ... I think it’s weird. Leave her alone.”
Angie and her husband, Shawn Trujillo, also talk through the aftermath. Angie tells Shawn she’s angry, though in confessional, the dominant emotion is sadness. “I haven’t stopped crying since Meredith kicked me out of her event,” she says in confessional.
Meredith says that Angie’s treatment of Britani is part of a pattern — that she’s said mean things about many people. The example Meredith cites is how Angie cracked a joke at the “girls camp” two weeks prior that referenced Meredith’s hearing aids.
She’s also upset about how Angie made a point of mentioning the gift she brought Meredith as she was tossed out: Large bottles of shampoo and conditioner, from Angie’s hair salon business.
Brooks, Meredith’s son, is quick to notice that the shampoo contains an ingredient that Meredith can’t use in her hair — so Meredith plans to return the bottles to Angie in Mexico.
Mary tells Angie the news
(Koury Angelo | Bravo) Mary Cosby returns as a full-time cast member of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" for season 5. The season premiere is scheduled to air on Sept. 18, 2024, on Bravo.
Mary Cosby comes to see Angie, and the visit begins with a bit of comedy — Mary lets herself in when no one answers her knock, and startles Angie when she finally comes into the living room.
Mary confides in Angie that her son, Robert Jr., has acknowledged his substance misuse. Angie gasps a bit when Mary mentions heroin, Xanax and LSD among the drugs Robert has taken.
Mary, both to Angie and in a confessional, says she has failed Robert. “What did I miss?,” she asks the camera. “Was I not paying attention at some point that he went that far? To the point where he did not want to live? If I don’t blame myself, whose fault is it?”
Angie responds reassuringly. “You did all the right things,” Angie tells Mary. “That could happen to anyone.” Angie talks about her late mother, whose alcoholism has been mentioned previously on the show.
Mary tells Angie that she intends to go on the Mexico trip, but she first has to make sure Robert is doing OK. Mary also gets a “pinky promise” from Angie that she won’t tell the others about Robert’s problems.
Flying down to Mexico
Three days later, the cast members are arriving at Salt Lake City International Airport to fly to Puerto Vallarta. (All except Mary, who we’re told will join them later.) Unlike the trip Bronwyn planned to Palm Springs, everyone is on a commercial flight.
Heather Gay sizes up the situation, as someone who, at the moment, is not fighting with anybody.
“With airport security everywhere, everyone seems to be on their best behavior,” Heather says in confessional. “You would never know Britani and Angie can’t stand each other, Meredith and Angie aren’t speaking, and Whitney [Rose] and Lisa basically hate each other. Thanks, TSA!”
Lisa, in confessional, notes that she’s planned this trip in great detail, creating PowerPoint presentations about the accommodations and dining.
“The Notes app is no match for a Lisa Barlow trip,” she says.
Bronwyn shows up at the airport with bruises and bites on her calf and arm, from a dog that attacked her in the park. She gives the other cast members a token gift: bedazzled passport holders. This upsets Lisa, who told Bronwyn that she was giving everyone a gift and thinks Bronwyn is trying to upstage her.
Arriving at the resort, VidantaWorld, the cast members learn that Lisa has booked two adjoining villas, each with four rooms. Lisa has assigned herself to one, along with Heather, Meredith and Britani. The other will be where Bronwyn, Angie, Whitney and (when she arrives) Mary will stay.
Lisa declares this arrangement is no big deal, because the villas are next to each other and everyone will still be very close — but it also separates pairs who are currently arguing.
Bronwyn is still upset. She points out that her friendship with Lisa predates her arrival on the show — and that being separated from the “cool girls’ club,” as Angie calls them, is Lisa “sending me a message.”
“I am being put in my place,” Bronwyn says in confessional. “I have to claw and beg and plead my case back into Lisa’s good graces. She might have to plead herself into my good graces after this snub.”
On the way to dinner, over margaritas (made with Lisa’s Vida tequila), Bronwyn raises her displeasure about the room assignments. Lisa says she can’t understand Bronwyn’s complaint, as the rooms are all gorgeous and the villas are right next to each other.
“I don’t have a problem with the room,” Bronwyn tells Lisa. “I have a problem with what’s happening between you and I.”
Britani enters the chat
(Bravo) Britani Bateman talks, and gets talked to, in a moment from "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
It’s here where Britani chimes in, because she thinks what Bronwyn really wants is to exchange rooms with her. Bronwyn replies icily, “I’m not even looking at you, Britani.”
Whitney, in confessional, comments that Britani is distracting from the real disagreement between Lisa and Bronwyn — about the level of commitment Lisa brings to their friendship — in a way that favors Lisa. “Britani doesn’t realize she’s a pawn,” Whitney says.
The producers show a montage of Britani regularly drawing the group’s attention to herself, usually to make an announcement of some kind. Over margaritas in Mexico, she makes another announcement — that her estranged older daughter is finally speaking to her — and is upset that the others have almost no reaction.
Britani also jumps into the fray between Meredith and Angie at dinner (where the shampoo bottles make a return appearance). Meredith raises her complaint that Angie says mean things about the others — including Meredith and Britani.
Enter Carlos, the waiter, making his determined attempt to restore quiet so he can take their orders. It’s his only line, but he delivers it with a level of conviction and sincerity that wins Emmys.
Once Carlos leaves, Meredith asks Angie about what she said about Britani’s relationships — which is when Bronwyn mentions that Britani, at the reception before Meredith’s bat mitzvah, said something nasty about Angie and Shawn’s relationship first.
In confessional, Bronwyn lays out the timeline: “I’ll just make it this simple: Britani said it first, Britani said it meanest, I like Britani the least, [so] she’s the most in trouble.”
Britani — who has said in recent weeks that she has been dating three men — declares that she was not sleeping with Jared Osmond when he was her “boyfriend.” She added, “and even if we were, that’s my business.”
Bronwyn and Angie roll their eyes, and the producers apparently share their inference — playing a scene from two months earlier on the Milwaukee trip, when Britani showed Heather and Angie sexy underwear off-camera that she can be heard saying Jared bought for her.
Finally, after the food arrives, Meredith acknowledges that maybe she didn’t know the whole story when she saw Britani crying and called security on Angie. “I’m sorry that it ended the way that it did,” Meredith tells Angie, and Angie thanks her for the apology.
In the quiet, Angie says, “I’m just going to stay in this moment for a while.”
It apparently doesn’t last long. We get a teaser for next week’s episode, which shows Bronwyn crying on a boat, and Angie and Lisa arguing at another dinner.
Next week’s episode is scheduled to air on Bravo on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 8 p.m. Eastern time — 6 p.m. Mountain time on DirecTV and Dish, and 9 p.m. Mountain time on Xfinity. (The show streams the next day on Peacock.)
