‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ season 11, episode 14 review: Are Shannon Beador, Vicki Gunvalson moving forward?

Last time on “The Real Housewives of Orange County” we saw Kelly Dodd opening up about her marriage to Michael. Things are not as good as she hoped that they would be the second time around and told the ladies such through a stream of tears. There is also the matter of the un-returned voice message that Shannon left Vicki… but that will be addressed soon enough.

This week’s episode starts off at Meghan’s candle shop opening where Shannon and Vicki see each other for the first time since before the dune buggy accident. Vicki has still not returned Shannon’s message and even though Tamra is pushing her to talk to Shannon, Vicki feels that Meghan’s store opening is not the right place. Shannon on the other hand is taking the opportunity to try to talk to Vicki – who isn’t having any of it.

Shannon calls out Vicki as a liar, and Vicki says that Shannon needs to own up to her own lies as well saying that she still has secrets that Shannon told her about her relationship with David that she hasn’t shared. Kelly confirms that it’s true to Tamra, so did she share it with Kelly? Shannon says there is no lie and that’s why Vicki hasn’t said anything. Vicki keeps trying to walk away form this talk, but it escalates to the point where Shannon is raising her voice and Jimmy is asking the ladies to take it outside. It ends with both women stating that they don’t want to be friends again – so nothing we didn’t already know. While the way the dune buggy accident was handled definitely plays a role in the growing tension between these two (as well as the heated exchange between Vicki and David at Shannon’s 70’s party), the root of the problem still sits in the Brooks cancer scandal from last season – at least to us, but that’s not how Shannon feels. Her only problem is that Vicki has called her a liar, saying that she has let the rest go.

At Heather and Terry’s book party, we had a chance to meet a man that Vicki is seeing, a retired cop named Steve, who so far seems like a nice enough guy. Shannon is determined to show everyone that she is over the past problems with Vicki, so she tries to casually chat her up. This moves into Shannon  looking down Vicki’s top for hickey’s and patting down Steve for a gun. Is she really over it or is she over compensating?

This was a bit of a weird episode and felt a little disjointed because there were too many stories going on. The Shannon/Vicki fight was the meat of the episode, but there was also Kelly and Michael’s fight, Meghan’s depression battle, Vicki’s cancer commercial and a whole wack of other small stuff. Next week though we are headed to Ireland and that is something we are really looking forward to. We’ve never made it much of a secret that we love this show for the glamour and exotic locales. Episode grade: C+

What did you think of tonight’s episode of “The Real Housewives of Orange County”? Leave us a comment in the box below.

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