On Sunday night’s highly-anticipated The Real Housewives of Potomac Season 6 premiere, fans were brought up to date on what the cast had been up to during the pandemic and in the aftermath of last year’s explosive shenanigans. Notably, OG cast members and longtime frenemies Gizelle Bryant and Karen Huger did what they do best — shade each other.
With all her academic degrees in tow, at the beginning of the episode Dr. Wendy Osefo helped open up the season by sending out a “silhouette challenge-esque” invitation to all the ladies for a party she planned to host. According to the invite, all the attendees were asked to wear nude. Wendy also hinted that two very special friends of hers would be making guest appearances.
Fans got a view of Candiace Dillard’s new 10,500 square foot, 6 bedroom, 7 bathroom, $1.1 million home that she shares with her husband Chris Bassett. The fact that her mother was helping her and Chris pay the mortgage at their previous home was always an easy low blow for the cast to use as a jab against her. When Gizelle came over to visit, Candiace opened up about adjusting into the new space and having Chris’s two children (both from previous relationships) stay with them for a month. Cheerfully, Dillard referred to herself as a “bonus mom” and the children as her “bonus kids.”
In a confessional, she and Chris seemed slightly unsure about whether they saw having kids of their own in their future.
Gizelle broke the news that her romantic relationship with Pastor Jamal Bryant, her former husband, was then on the rocks. She simply felt as though they were “victims of the pandemic.” Their rekindled romance was officially called off earlier this year. Candiace wondered in one of her confessionals whether the very “public embarrassment” of #Bindergate had anything to do with their subsequent split.
While Gizelle voiced her grievances with Karen to Candiace, Karen was at her home telling her husband Ray about her issues with Gizelle, as well.
Gizelle told Candiace that Karen was talking negatively and untruthfully about her relationship with Jamal and their family. On the flip side, Karen shared with Ray that she felt Gizelle needed to direct her anger towards Jamal instead of throwing it her way.
At Wendy’s party, “The Nude Interlude,” she host shared that she’d gotten a boob job and that the two special guests of the evening were her newly sized up girls, “Happy & Ness.” Following discussion the women noticed other features of her body were looking brand new, too. Wendy cryptically mentioned that she’d also gotten “tweaks.”
After newbie Mia Thornton asked her to elaborate on what exactly the “tweaks” were, Wendy asked, “What have you had done? Because it seems like you’ve had a lot of stuff done.”
In response, Mia ran down a laundry list of cosmetic enhancements she’s elected to have done. To the surprise of everyone at the dinner table, she even shared that she’d gotten work done on her clitoris.
“After you have children, it’s large,” Mia said before sharing that what she’d gotten done down there was to “make it tight.”
Regarding the revelation, co-star Ashley Darby stated, “That thing has been beat to a pulp. That’s really the only thing I can deduce.”
Candiace ended up not showing up to the dinner which prompted longtime castmate Robyn Dixon to suggest maybe she hadn’t come to Wendy’s event because she wasn’t ready to be around Karen. Those who watched last season might know that Candiace and Karen’s chummy friendship turned sour after Candiace felt Karen didn’t do enough to support or defend her in the aftermath of her physical altercation with Monique Samuels.
When Wendy said she just really wanted the group to get along and be on good terms, Gizelle quickly let her know that the goal was going to be a difficult one to accomplish.
That’s when things escalated between her and Karen.
After saying that she could “never get along” with Karen — and Karen saying that couldn’t see herself getting along with Gizelle either — Gizelle said to Karen directly, “So I have decided that I’ll just tell your truth. Your whole truth. Your drunk truth, your cheating truth, I’ll spread it out over time. Don’t worry, I won’t tell it all tonight.”
Karen said back to Gizelle “You want to talk about your fiery box that’s on fire and that’s why you can’t keep a man? Do you want to do that?”
“She has a hot box,” Karen said to the table. Addressing Gizelle again, she continued, “Tell everybody what’s going on between those legs of yours.”
That’s when Gizelle proceeded to make a jab at Ray’s expense — and Karen bluntly retorted, “You’re a broke wh–e from Hampton University and everybody knows it. That’s why we went to Sing Sing.”
For the record, on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live late last night Karen explained, “The ‘Sing Sing’ thing, I’ll say this — Gizelle is really good at sparring, and she likes to pull you into her darkness. I came up with Sing Sing because I wanted to come back into the light and add some comedy to it, because it just got too dark.”
When Andy had pointed out that her saying “Sing Sing” had viewers wondering if she was referring to Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a prison in Ossining, New York, Karen said, “I never knew Sing Sing was a jail,” before adding, “I thought it was like a looney bin or something.”
#RHOP star @KarenHuger breaks down her premiere fight with Gizelle Bryant and explains what she meant by the comment about Sing Sing. #WWHL pic.twitter.com/SrNzt6Fs0y
— WWHL (@BravoWWHL) July 12, 2021
The episode ended on a “To Be Continued,” just before playing the Season 6 teaser that was released in late May.
If you were interested, Ashley opened up about what is was like seeing her husband Michael being a dad to their toddler Dean while she was then still pregnant with their second son, Dylan, who was born this past March. Being five months along with the pregnancy when the episode was filmed, she shared that she and Michael hadn’t had sex since the first month of the pregnancy and at one point she’d worried about Michael’s wandering eye. Longtime viewers of the show will know that there’s a lot to be said about Michael and his escapades.
On another note, Robyn said that she and Juan getting married again wasn’t a priority due to the pandemic pushing back their plans. Since fans have been asking when the couple — who live together with their two boys — will be getting remarried since Season 1, the news really didn’t come as a surprise.
In her confessional, she opened up about being “burnt out” and feeling “stuck” and “overwhelmed” amidst the pandemic. When Juan said he was hoping the two of them would have a little girl, or girls, Robyn said that she didn’t know how they were going to handle that when she was already feeling “unmotivated.”
All things considered, episode one of the show gave everything we needed to give. Of course, RHOP OGs Gizelle and Karen brought the heat — so we can only assume their frienemy dynamic will produce more iconic soundbites as the season continues.
Down below, see the best tweets about last night’s episode.
The way Karen continues to live up to her own season 1 quote all these years later… Now that’s a legend. #RHOP pic.twitter.com/jBNR2r5JXJ
— Real Housewives Videos (@doritkemsleys) July 12, 2021
Not Wendy saying she’ll “light your ass up” after dragging Monique all last season for getting violent #rhop pic.twitter.com/y8hC3ulwbo
— Pastor Holy Whore (@pastorholywhor) July 12, 2021
Look at all this violence about to pop off this season and Monique ain’t nowhere in sight. Lol #rhop pic.twitter.com/eMz56pdNeB
— YouCan'tPronounceIt. (@CocoaAfrodisiac) July 12, 2021
As the King of Reality TV, listen to me neowww. SHE is the moment! Mark my words. I’m impressed. #RHOP pic.twitter.com/nebAH6bjUP
— Carlos King (@thecarlosking_) July 12, 2021
Karen and Gizelle are THE best pair of frenemies on Bravo. I’ll never get sick of seeing them fight. Never. #RHOP pic.twitter.com/gmeeOAoNG0
— Unfriendly Black Hottie (@mainlybravo) July 12, 2021
Gizelle storyline each season is to attack someone else’s marriage or family just to overshadow her own issues. I mean she literally has done this to Ashley, Monique, Karen, Wendy …. The list can probably go on. It’s giving desperate #RHOP pic.twitter.com/ujakyeDdhL
— um chile ANYWAYS SO (@realitytvstanb) July 12, 2021
Gizelle screaming “at least it works” like that was a good comeback I can’t 🤣🤣💀💀 #RHOP pic.twitter.com/v4TkvOFN80
— Becca (@ImWatchingBravo) July 12, 2021
The #1 franchise on Bravo came and showed the fuck up #RHOP pic.twitter.com/grIZDnEw8h
— JONEL (@SoMilli_) July 12, 2021
Not the math problems on the screen!!! 😩 #RHOP pic.twitter.com/9I9n5mwlQP
— Gibson Johns (@gibsonoma) July 12, 2021
I will never get tired of this feud #RHOP pic.twitter.com/i0uIs0sSeB
— Real Housewives Gifs (@housewifegifs) July 12, 2021
Mia is all of us at the end of tonight's #RHOP: pic.twitter.com/ItkdXeFAgb
— Gibson Johns (@gibsonoma) July 12, 2021
This one episode of #RHOP was better than the entire season of #RHOA 👀 pic.twitter.com/t2Vrm3q2LA
— 🦋 الأخ الأصغر (@therealcamgam) July 12, 2021