Last week on the Real Housewives of Atlanta, the ladies (except Drew Sidora and Kandi Burruss) ventured to Birmingham, Alabama, to celebrate the Magic City Classic. But, unbeknownst to the rest of the cast, Kenya Moore teamed up with Monyetta Shaw to prepare a showstopping halftime performance at the football game, which Kenya Moore Haircare sponsored. Unfortunately, the trip quickly derailed when the ladies tried to attend a charity event, only to get kicked out for causing too much of a spectacle.
Since last week, social media has been ablaze about the show’s disappointing ratings and lackluster storylines. The fact that getting kicked out of a charity event was the biggest thing that happened says a lot. The whole episode felt like filler.
For Episode 5, the ladies amped up the drama and moved the storylines down the track. Slowly but surely, we’re getting somewhere. From Kenya’s dramatic 911 call to a sit down with Mama Joyce, here’s what went down this week on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Real Doorbusters of Atlanta
After getting kicked out of the charity event, the ladies rallied at their hotel while Kenya disappeared to her room. Everyone was puzzled about the purpose of the Birmingham trip because Kenya had kept her big halftime performance a closely guarded secret.
The ladies decided to go to Kenya’s room — a big mistake. Marlo Hampton kicked the door. Shereé Whitfield banged on it. But, little did they know, Kenya was in there tending to her daughter. So after a few minutes of obnoxious door-knocking, Kenya emerged from the depths of her hotel room to tell the ladies to scram. Her head poked out of the door, and you could feel her anger radiating from the TV screen. It was like watching a scene from Evil Dead Rise.
Kenya’s furious reaction caused Marlo to respond with a full-blown temper tantrum. She immediately fired off a few nasty text messages to Kenya before comparing her to Kanye West, which, these days, is a pretty low blow.
As Marlo angrily stormed around the hotel, she slammed a door in Monyetta’s face, and the two got into a heated altercation in the middle of the hotel. Marlo swore up and down that she didn’t slam the door on Monyetta. The footage proved otherwise. Still, Shereé sided with Marlo and said the door must have “failed.”
Monyetta gets Kenya on the phone to tell her about the drama going down with Marlo. Fed up, Kenya dismissed everyone except Shereé and Monyetta from the trip. Basically, the cast trip completely unraveled in just one night.
9-1-1 at 9am
The morning after the door-knocking controversy, things went from bad to worse. The scene began with a black screen with white text. When you’re watching Bravo and see a black screen with white text, you know something wild is about to go down. This time, it read, “At 9am, Kenya informed production that she was unable to shoot.”
We then see some grainy cell phone footage of Kenya lying in her hotel room. She says she’s dizzy, having trouble breathing, and feeling numb. Eventually, she musters the strength to dial 911. Paramedics arrive and whisk her away. Meanwhile, Marlo was sitting in her room, praying the day away in hopes of repenting for the previous night’s temper tantrum.
With Kenya hospitalized and running a fever, the Magic City Classic halftime performance is called off. The cast trip comes to an anticlimactic conclusion. Sadly, we were robbed of the Kenya Moore halftime experience.
Looking back on this cast trip, it’s unclear why this trip even made it into the season. For the last couple of episodes, we watched a fraction of the cast hang out in a hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. We expect more from RHOA.
Todd problems
Kandi returns in this episode, and we revisit the neverending ups and downs of her relationship with Todd Tucker. Not only is Todd trying to venture into the movie business, but he’s also trying to recover from Mama Joyce relentlessly roasting him at BravoCon a few weeks prior.
Todd tells Kandi about his big movie idea, a film called The Pass. It’s a story about a couple giving each other a pass to step outside their marriage. It’s a cute idea, but Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis already did this in 2011 with the movie Hall Pass. Either way, Kandi was too busy looking at her phone to pay attention to Todd’s movie pitch, which caused him to get in his feelings. Between Kandi’s lack of attention and Mam Joyce’s slick mouth, Todd is tired. But Kandi is trying to make an effort to support him and, once again, defend him from her mom.
Later in the episode, Kandi and Mama Joyce sit down to talk about the BravoCon drama. It feels like we’ve seen this scene play out time and time again, where Kandi tries to convince an unflinching Mama Joyce that Todd is actually a good partner.
Mama Joyce hilariously shared her latest observation about Todd during her meeting with Kandi. She said he went from being “meek and humble” to being a “George Jefferson” type.
Whether Todd is a George Jefferson or a Fred Sanford, Kandi explained to her mom that she has to stop publicly shading him for the sake of their kids. Kandi doesn’t want the kids to grow up and see YouTube videos of Grandma being mean to their dad. Let’s hope this is the last time Kandi has to have this conversation.
Drew’s back in the game
After being sidelined last week with the flu, Drew was back in on the action this week. Fresh out of the hospital and mostly recovered, she meets up with Shereé and Kenya to get caught up on what’s been happening in the group.
Shereé has a bone to pick with Drew because of an interview where she made shady remarks about She by Shereé. According to Drew, Shereé confiscated all the She by Shereé samples she proudly showcased at the Season 14 reunion.
It’s not the first time someone has called out Drew for flip-flopping. It probably won’t be the last, but she and Shereé squash their beef. Instead, the conversation turns towards a bigger problem in the group: Marlo.
Drew finally got to share her side of the story about her bizarre argument with Marlo. And, of course, Shereé had all of the tea about Marlo’s resentment toward Kandi. She’s still running off of the idea that Kandi should have been more supportive in the aftermath of her nephew’s death.
Kenya, Shereé, and Drew are all on the same page that Marlo’s anger toward Kandi is misplaced. With a team-building activity on the horizon, they hope the problems can be addressed. However, the episode ended with a sneak peek of the team-building activity, and people are probably going to want to tune into this one. Unless Kandi threatening to choke Marlo is somehow part of the team-building exercise, it doesn’t seem like anything positive is coming for this group in Episode 6.
Real Housewives of Atlanta continues Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.
TELL US – WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON SEASON 15, EPISODE 5? DO YOU THINK THE BIRMINGHAM TRIP SHOULD HAVE BEEN EDITED OUT? WERE YOU BUMMED THAT WE DIDN’T GET TO SEE KENYA’S PERFORMANCE?
