Raise your glasses high as we welcome in the Vanderpump Rules Season 11 Reunion, Part 1 recap. In the finale, Scheana and Lala’s frustrations with Ariana’s boundaries were clear, but Ariana refused to be the final cog in Sandoval’s redemption storyline, so she dipped out early with her new man Daniel Wai. Now, ready or not, everyone’s dipping back in, because they have to. But of course, nothing ever comes easy, as the VPR Season 11 Reunion, Part 1 just proved.
It’s all happening
As the cast arrives, Schwartz jokes with James, saying that he’s “having PTSD flashbacks” from Season 10’s reunion. Meanwhile, Sandoval tells Lisa that he’s “nervous” to see Ariana.
As for Ariana, she’s ready, but Lala turns to her and boxes her hands, saying, “[when] we get out there…” At this, Katie and Ariana’s faces are smiling, but also, kinda not.
Finally, everyone is seated, and the countdown begins.
To roommates, or not to roommates
To kickoff the intro’s before the interrogations, Andy Cohen jokes that “Ann [Maddox] wasn’t available” to mediate, so he’s going to do it instead. I love this for her. He also congratulates everyone on all of their recent life moves.
Then, the gloves come off, and Andy dives in, bringing up the matter of Ariana and Tom’s house first. On this, Ariana has to keep mum. But, she’s mostly living in NYC, and when she is in LA, she rents an Airbnb. Aka, they’re now living under separate roofs.
Speaking of shared roofs, Schwartz’s Season 11 roomies promise with Sandoval is up next. He’s now having “some reservations” on the matter. Lisa can’t even comprehend why he’d be okay with this, but Sandoval jumps in, noting that it’s fine, as “my dad’s in his sixties, and he has roommates.”
Insert many cringed-out faces here, which only deepen after Schwartz explains that they’re possibly buying something new, as one. “What could go wrong?” Andy jokes.
Everything Rachel
Clearly, Rachel Leviss didn’t return for Season 11. As for her former costars, Lala stands behind her words spoken at the Season 10 reunion, as does Ariana. However, Lala did give Rachel credit for having the balls to even show up. Sandoval disagrees, saying “looking back, I think she’s a f*cking coward.”
He says this because Rachel’s still talking about it, after wanting us all to move on. Pot. Kettle.
One of Rachel’s headlines spoke about how Sandoval had “groomed her.” Sandoval hates this, because he thinks that the word “groomed” implies Pedophilia. Lala argues here that “no, it doesn’t. It’s taking someone who is younger than you and more impressionable than you, and someone who’s at a higher level of power than the other person.”
“Well guess what? I was very impressionable when she took all her clothes off and jumped in my pool,” Sandoval argues. Ugh.
As for Rachel’s revenge porn lawsuit, Scheana quickly answered that these questions also cannot be answered, but that it’s all ridiculous, as Ariana deserves none of this. Sandoval agrees that Ariana should be left out of this one.
Coming in for the comic relief, James apologizes for bringing Rachel into this group.
Mental health and ill-chosen words
When Sandoval’s affair hit the universe, his popularity plummeted. In turn, so did his mental health. At his worst, thoughts of suicide emerged. To date, he’s still having his ups and downs.
Lala and Scheana feel remorseful on this, but Ariana reminds Andy that her ex had weaponized her own suicidal thoughts first. Sandoval asked her how, but Scheana responds instead, telling him that he brought Ariana’s struggles up publicly, so that’s how. He fights back, but Lala shuts it down. “You’ve got to stop fixating on the things that are different with everybody else, so that it doesn’t apply to you,” she quips.
Next, Andy brings up Sandoval’s attempts to compare his media backlash with George Floyd’s murder. On this, Sandoval can’t defend his words, thankfully, but Andy still thinks that he needs to fire his PR team.
Let’s talk about the kids
Sadly, Lala’s custody battle is still ongoing. As for Scheana, she’s still working through her own anxious parenting thoughts, including the possibility of Brock and Lala maybe one day becoming the next Sandoval and Rachel. Lala gets this, but jokes that despite their throuple-like friendship, Scheana will be the only one doing the heavy-lifting (insert a BJ hand motion here).
As for Brock’s older children, he still hasn’t seen them, but he is up to date on his payments. Moving forward, it’s up to his kids when he’ll see them next. Katie praises Brock here for his amazing parenting of Summer Moon, admitting that she was wrong about his character.
Kudos, Katie.
The ‘ships
Everything ends on the topic of relationships and friendships. Thankfully, all of the couples are still good as gold. The friendships, however, are not.
After watching this season play back, Andy asks Ariana how it feels to see Lala and Sandoval getting along. Shockingly, Ariana replies that she didn’t even watch this season, like, at all.
Finally, we get to Lala and Katie, who had a rough Season 11 as friends. Lala explains that she had felt abandoned by Katie. Katie asks why, was it “because I didn’t jump on the Tom train?”
Lala shut this down, clocking Katie’s behind-the-scenes words, which apparently weren’t the same as what aired. She claims that Katie was frustrated with Ariana, so she pressed her to talk about it on-air. In reply, Katie allegedly told her “If you’re gonna f*ck with my business Lala, then I’m gonna f*ck with yours.”
Katie denies this, and the VPR Season 11 Reunion, Part 1 wraps.
The Vanderpump Rules Season 11 reunion continues on Tuesday, May 21 at 8/7c on Bravo.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE VANDERPUMP RULES SEASON 11 REUNION PART 1? WILL KATIE AND LALA MAKE PEACE? HOW ARE WE FEELING ABOUT SANDOVAL?
