A reunion is a chance for the Housewives to sort out the season, figure out where they stand relationship-wise, and attempt to make amends, if at all possible. Welp, we were robbed of this for The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Because of the immense divide between the group, a typical reunion was taken off the table. Instead, we are basically rewatching the finale with commentary from the cast and calling it a “watch party.” Whatever it is, it is apparent that there is zero hope of getting this once family-like group back to the same table, literally.
After weeks of the news swirling about no Jersey reunion and promises of it all “making sense once you see the finale,” the ladies are back at Rails, the scene of the last supper. This time, though, there’s no booze being served, and they will be watching the finale episode for the first time, giving us the chance to watch their real-time reactions. The group is separated into two different areas, two different FLOORS apart. On one level, we’ve got Rachel, Margaret, Danielle, and Melissa. On the other level, Teresa, Dolores, Jennifer, and Judas, I mean Jackie, assemble.
Interesting to see Teresa and Jackie elbow to elbow since Margaret outted Jackie for talking to Louie’s ex during the reunion. Is this the Twilight Zone? Jackie claims she is not planning on “trashing anyone” during this and that she considers Teresa and Jen her real friends…
Teresa feels like Fessler has changed her mind about her, and of course, she blames Marge for swaying Fessler’s opinion.
In the other room, Danielle shares that she has not talked to Teresa since January. She explains that they were to attend an award show together, but she backed out once she saw that Teresa posted a picture of the cast with “the others’” faces scratched out, Danielle’s included. Teresa plays coy and claims she doesn’t understand what the beef is with Danielle.
Fessler is the last to arrive at Rails, and she takes a stand by heading to Danielle, Rachel, Melissa, and Margaret’s room. But the minute she enters and passes Danielle and Rachel coolly, Danielle comes in hot. Fessler says she is not ready to talk about anything with Rachel and Danielle yet, but she does admit that she was wrong in defending Jen during the fight since Jen did push Danielle. Danielle is pleased to receive this apology, and they toast, ready to move on.
Then, Rachel gets a chance to explain why she feels hurt by Fessler. Rachel doesn’t feel like their friendship was very two-sided since Fessler was hugging Teresa during the season, blah blah blah. Rachel and Fessler end up hugging it out, grateful that they can continue their friendship.
The ladies settle in with their chosen sides and prepare to watch the finale episode. Marge gets to see her dog who passed away, and she also gets to revisit the funeral arrangement stunt. During that scene where Margaret talks about dropping bombs on Jackie, the downstairs room feels like Marge seemed so full of herself.
Teresa continues to call Margaret a liar and looks to Jackie for confirmation of this. Hilarious that Marge was the one who exposed Jackie AND Jackie admitted to the contact with Louie’s ex, yet Tre won’t stop calling Margaret mean names.
As Dolores watches the scene where she loses her sh*t on Marge, you can tell she is cringing, but she continues to call Marge a liar in real-time. Teresa says she has never seen Dolores that mad, and it does make you wonder what caused Dolo to lose her mind over Margaret claiming to have invited her to a pre-reunion meeting. It’s becoming more clear that Dolores must’ve told the other side she didn’t know about the reunion review bashing Louie, but in reality, Marge invited her to be a part of it.
Dolores doesn’t like how that scene went down, so she excuses herself to check on Marge after going nuclear on her. She also realizes Margaret is probably upset after seeing her late dog. Melissa wonders why Dolores flew off the handle like that, and Dolores explains she didn’t like that Marge was making her look like a liar.
Fessler later shares that she hasn’t talked to Jen and Teresa, and she admits that now she has to believe the social media stuff that has been coming out about them leaking to bloggers…
When the women prep for their last supper, we revisit Louie’s pep talk to Teresa. Since this is the first time the group is watching this episode, they are aghast that Louie would stoop as low as he did, stating that he hopes Margaret’s son suffers. Margaret says she is “horrified,” and in the other room, Dolores points out that Louie is gonna “get a lot of sh*t” for saying that. Dolores admits that she cannot back Louie up for saying that, but OF COURSE, Teresa defends Louie and brushes it off. Tre says she will “make sure” he addresses that, which may explain his recent statement on social media.
When Jackie enters the infamous Rails Last Supper, Margaret audibly gags at the screen and then points out that Teresa is wearing fake Chanel. Petty. The Jen/Danielle fight scene begins, and Melissa retorts that nobody wants Jen’s life, “you wackjob,” defending Danielle. When Jen makes the comment about boobs and brawn, Danielle lunges, which causes Jen to giggle in real time.
Jennifer responds that Danielle should GTFO after getting violent with her and calls Danielle a “dingbat” for starting this by talking about her husband first. Jen doesn’t like seeing how much Dolores was taking care of a crying Danielle after the fight, and Fessler explains that she just had a facelift and didn’t want glass to her face, which is why she left.
Danielle wants Jennifer to “brush her hair,” and Fessler tries to bring some levity to the situation, asking Danielle if she regrets what happened after watching it. To that, Danielle responds, “I regret not killing her.” WHAT. Fessler tries to explain to Danielle that she crossed the line, and Danielle shares that she will try to have more self-control moving forward. In a funny moment, Teresa claims she doesn’t like being around violence and that she would never physically harm someone.
Jackie looks like she is gonna hurl as her outing is nearly coming up in the scene. To this day, Teresa still believes that the warrior video came from Marge. Jackie looks on as she denies it in the episode, and Margaret reminds us all that Jackie is a proven liar. Jackie claims she never leaked anything, but Jackie DID have the motive — she hated Teresa for spreading the Evan rumors.
Jackie tries to save face by saying two things can be true: she did talk to the ex, but she did not put out the warrior video. In fact, when she received the video, it had already been made public. Also, she had stopped talking to the ex years ago. Teresa thinks that all the other ladies are in on this Jackie thing, but she feels “vindicated” and like she got a resolution at the end of the dinner.
After watching the finale, Melissa feels like she should have worn black since this is clearly a death. Jackie tries to explain she never took part in leaking things to bloggers and that she had “no part” in leaking any of the ex’s information.
Fessler explains that she does have regrets, but she did the best that she could to remain authentic to herself. Danielle regrets having Jen in her life, period, and Jen cannot believe that Danielle has yet to apologize to her for hitting her. Around and around and around we go.
Rachel wishes she could have exposed Louie more since he deserved it, but alas, she has “morals,” and her room holds themselves to higher standards. Whereas, Jackie has the nerve to ask if there is a road forward for Tre and Marge after all that just went down. Tre explains that if Margaret gets on her hands and knees, she would think about it, but fat chance of that happening.
Melissa is very happy for this to be over and admits that “what I see there is done.” Her family relationship with Tre, the show, or both? Unclear. Jackie is ready for things to change, and Marge feels like this finale is a “final blow of good versus evil.” Dolores feels like where things stand right now is where they’re gonna stay. The show ends on a lighter note: Rachel is pregnant. But what now for this Jersey crew?
