The Bermuda Triangle… From Hell
Like Heather Gay, I’m freaking the f*ck out.
“Pure magic.” “The RHOSLC finale should be taught in schools.” “The most riveting 5 minutes of reality TV we’ve ever seen.” “One of the most groundbreaking and meta episodes of television ever made.”
There have been comparisons to Big Little Lies, The Avengers, a Scorsese film and even Ghostface in Scream.
What made this iconic? And is it ICONIC iconic?
Yes. It was. Even for long-time fans of the show, it’s only every once in a while that you get a moment like this one. See, there’s a lotta Housewives. Ten franchises are currently airing — and that’s just in the US. In order to achieve true impact, a Housewives scene has to do something never done before. Take RHOC 2008, for instance: Tamra Judge (née Barney) utters the infamous “Did you go to Bass Lake?” line to her co-star, Gretchen Rossi. It was a watershed moment on the show. As one Redditer shrewdly put it: “Petty arguments had occurred on the show, but Tamra was accusing Gretchen of taking advantage of a dying man. That’s a serious allegation, and judging by the other Housewives’ expressions, they were as caught off guard as Gretchen.”
Well, something that level of game-changing occurred. It’s like in Survivor: Worlds Apart when the contestants effectively broke a challenge. At the auction, a staple on the series, the players are given an amount of money and proceed to bet on various items. Eventually letters from home became a biddable reward. In the previous seasons, generally, when a contestant buys their letter from home (usually dispensing most, if not all, of their money), host Jeff Probst will let the remaining contestants buy theirs for the same price. In Season 30, Shirin Oskooi (who described RuPaul as one of her inspirations in life, not for nothing) knew this and convinced her cohorts not to outbid the starting bid of $20 so that everyone would be able to buy their letter for the minimum amount. Probst was, as you can imagine, not thrilled by the contestants all saving their money for the end. They’d broken the game.
Monica Garcia broke the game. She was able to successfully infiltrate the world of the show with the sole goal of corruption. But was she a lone ranger? It’s hard to imagine that the show’s producers wouldn’t have learned this about Monica in their vetting process before casting her, and in doing so, setting the stage for her to enact her destruction. We probably will never know (though I’d watch a ten-part docuseries on it). Danny Pellegrino, expert on all things Bravo, called it “some of the best TV I’ve seen in years,” even arguing that it was one of the best episodes of Housewives of all time.
Who’s winning an Emmy?
Best Ensemble — The Core Four (Meredith, Lisa, Heather and Whitney). Secured when they gathered at the beach two hours before dinner at the behest of Heather in a Godfather-esque scene in which the mob boss lays out the kill plan.
Best Actress — Heather Gay. Secured by her delivery of “Guess how you know I’m telling the truth? I have your perfect formula: receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots. F*cking everything to prove that you’re a bully and a f*cking troll and you do not deserve to be at this table.”
Best Supporting Actress — Meredith Marks. Secured for her delivery of “I’m freaking out” while strands of her hair blew mercilessly onto her forehead and into her eyes, nose and mouth.
Best Costume Designer — Jonathan Simkhai. Secured for his SS23 Jacky halter dress on Heather Gay.
Best Editing — The Editors. Secured for, well, their editing.
So if Heather is Best Actress and Meredith is Best Supporting, where does that place Monica Garcia, the clear Most Valuable Player and arguably the best newcomer of all time?
Allow me to plead my case!