I pity Shai, who hitched his horse to Hudson’s wagon, only for Hudson to completely disappear and leave Shai to fend for himself. His choice to funnel info about Ariana to her ex has left him on the outs with most of the group, who now won’t even answer his messages about his photo shoot. Even worse, Brooks directed him to contact his agent instead. It’s cold-blooded but a move I’m going to start using despite nobody asking me to participate in their photo shoots, and despite my shocking lack of representation (modeling or otherwise).
That directive happened only after Shai finally decided to just call Brooks since he wasn’t getting a response. To Brooks’s credit, he doesn’t beat around the bush, telling Shai exactly why everybody is feeling weird around him. When he tries to explain that he was just being a friend to Hudson, Brooks pushes back by bringing up Shai calling Ariana cute a few weeks ago — so what is actually the truth behind Shai’s motivations? Shai tries to downplay the comment by saying many of his friends are cute (Brooks included), but Brooks doesn’t let him get away with it, pointing out that Shai also said he wouldn’t pursue it because of Hudson. In any case, he doesn’t want to do the photo shoot, opting to not even run the opportunity by his agency.
After the original girls’ night went so poorly for Riley, who I feel like I haven’t seen in years, she gets a chance to redeem herself at this week’s gathering. But does she? Well, she invites Georgia as an olive branch, but after hugging her, she jokes that she’s going to “go home and wash this jacket on extra-clean.” It’s both mean and a sign that Riley doesn’t know how to do her own laundry, because what is “extra-clean”?
The vibes are awkward all around, and things only get weirder when Emira pulls Georgia aside to chat. Emira finally concedes that she appreciates Georgia telling her what Charlie was saying behind her back, but wishes it was in private and thinks that Georgia was just trying to pit her against Charlie. Here’s the thing: Who cares if that’s what she was doing, as long as the information was true (which Charlie basically admitted it was). In any case, Georgia takes the note and tells Emira that there was more that he said but she’d rather say it off-camera. “Was it about my identity?” Emira asks, and Georgia nods.
Emira not only instantly believes her, but also says that she knows exactly what it is she was going to say. If it’s so believable that one of your closest friends would say something horrible and offensive about your identity, why are you friends with him to begin with? This is a type of loyalty that I can’t wrap my head around. Is he in charge of Emira’s crypto or something?
And what better time for them all to jet off together to BravoCon! Well, as long as their flights aren’t canceled. We get to see Brooks find out in real time that the government has been shut down for a month, which is impacting flights. But luckily, they make it to Vegas for the big fourth-wall break of a cast trip.
Liam, of course, isn’t going since he wasn’t in the season-one cast, so he stays back with his imaginary friend Kendall. I have to double-check what that quiet girl’s name is every week, but I’m glad Liam has someone to talk to who cares about his film festival (because I do not, unfortunately). We also get to see him be cutesy and send Ariana flowers and chocolates to her Vegas hotel room, which she’s charmed by — though she’s a little skeptical at first and asks the producers if he really sent it or if it was them, but they assure her that it was all Liam. See, that’s the fun thing about having a cast who grew up on reality television — they’re jaded and wary of production tricks. Oh right — the two of them finally went on a motorcycle/ice-skating date earlier in the episode, which you can tell went pretty smoothly because I don’t really have anything to say about it.
Having arrived in Las Vegas, the BravoCon-ers of the group meet up for dinner, where it becomes abundantly clear why production decided to break the fourth wall by chronicling this trip for the show. With Charlie on the outs with Emira, the only thing left to get him in the same room as his castmates is a work trip. The thing is, Charlie doesn’t know he’s on the outs with Emira. He thinks all has been forgiven after their one-on-one last week, unaware that Georgia has since told Emira about even worse transgressions — no pun intended.
I’m noticing a pattern emerge on this show, where just about everybody is mad at Charlie for one reason or another — so when someone breaks rank and greets him cordially, it’s treated like a betrayal. That’s how this dinner kicks off, after a minuscule, benign moment of small talk between him and Georgia. Riley and Emira both act like she’s sleeping with the enemy, which is especially rich coming from Emira, who had been doling out free passes to him all season.
But before we get to that feud, Charlie has to be weird to Ariana (which at this point I’m starting to think is a contractual requirement). When she expresses excitement that her probation is ending, which Georgia calls a “bullshit charge,” he chimes in with an “I feel you.” Hmm, I don’t know Charlie … a DUI is a little different than crypto torture. Neither is great, but they’re definitely different. He then goes on to randomly ask her what her dream man is, physically — and rather than fall for the trap, Ariana just says Liam.
He keeps the bad times rolling when he then, randomly, asks the table, “If you had to choose, who’s the most dishonest at this table?” It’s a card right out of a Real Housewife’s playbook, which makes me think something was in the Las Vegas air that night because of BravoCon. As it always does, the question leads to discourse.
Charlie denies that it’s him, which Georgia balks at, pointing out that he lied about hanging out with her ex. She’s got him cornered with that one, so all he can do is yet again point out that he was the one who got her on the show. When they groan at this coming up yet again, he wonders what they mean by saying “again” because he only brought it up one other time. “Yeah, so this would be it again,” Ariana explains, which makes Brooks laugh in Charlie’s face. My favorite part of this show is them subtly bullying Charlie for being dumb.
Even so, Ariana tries to throw him a bone, saying maybe he’s not necessarily dishonest; he just doesn’t think before he speaks. But Charlie throws that bone away, saying that he actually thinks everything through — thus doubling down on all of his offenses, including his most recently uncovered ones against Emira. When he asks if the things he says are ever wrong, she answers with a firm “yes,” pointing specifically to “slurs,” which must have been what we saw Georgia start to tell her about earlier in the episode.
And yet Emira still makes this about Georgia, saying that she’s been made collateral damage in her feud with Charlie, rather than thanking her for telling her that someone she considered a friend was using slurs against her. I’ve never in my life seen a messenger take so many bullets. Yet again, I feel like I’m on crazy pills watching this show. Why are we talking about the motivation behind Georgia tattling on Charlie rather than the fact that he apparently used a slur? The priorities here are totally out of whack, so much so that I’m relieved that their bickering over it is cut off by the waitstaff arriving at the table at the most inopportune moment with a cake for Shai’s birthday. Poor Shai. Everybody is mad at him, his birthday is overshadowed by yelling, and, worst of all, he’s at BravoCon.
