The Real Housewives of Orange County had a pretty great Season 18. The drama was back at an all-time high not seen since the early days of the franchise. And between the combination of Shannon Beador’s landslide life, the return of Alexis Bellino, and Jennifer Pedranti’s shocking personal life, the season wasn’t exactly lacking in creative storylines. But as I sat down with my “Make it nice” Bravo mug and my Bravo blanket, I started to feel a bit bored with the RHOC Season 18 finale. What came in like a lion moved out like a lamb, leaving only a soft whimper in its wake.
The RHOC Season 18 finale lacked a little bit of interest
As I sat dutifully watching the full 44-minute finale, I was left wondering where editing had gone wrong. For the majority of the episode, fans watched a pretty mundane version of Desperate Housewives. The scenes literally jumped from house to house as the network tried its best to tie up all the loose ends.
But what was produced was more of a hodgepodge of information. The scenes had no real bearing on the final outcome. To be honest, I needed a Dramamine since the Chat Roulette sequence left me nauseous and praying for the room to stop spinning. I would have liked to see a whole lot more from the first half of the finale.
Viewers learned that Shannon left the London trip early. Instead of recapping why she left since we all know Tamra Judge, former Tres Amiga, was to blame, I wish producers had shown us more of the conversation between Gina Kirschenheiter and Shannon. All viewers were given was a quick peek into their conversation, where Shannon admitted her fault in trying to dig up legal information on Gina’s relationship. This was the crux of the first half, yet for some reason, the information was just passed over.
What was the point of Katie Ginella and Heather Dubrow’s feud?
Fans have watched Katie Ginella and Heather Dubrow duke it out all season. Between the accusations of the fake paparazzi photos and Heather snubbing Katie, I was ready for a major end-of-season fight — or at least a solid, wordy conversation. Instead, fans were left on a cliffhanger, only knowing that neither woman cared about an active friendship. What Bravo could have done is force their hands. Heather is known to keep conversations at arm’s length until she is ready to approach with caution.
But this attribute just doesn’t work for fans who dutifully watched the entire feud play out before their eyes. The finale showed Heather confronting Katie at Jenn’s party … sort of. But the interaction didn’t seem genuine. If anything, I needed Heather to be 25% more believable in her reactions. The entire culmination of the argument came down to the allegation that Katie called Heather “mean.”
I hope that the two women will be forced to talk to each other during the reunion. Right now, I need Andy Cohen and a camera to grill them so it can make all their squabbling worth it.
I felt short-changed by the RHOC Season 18 finale
As I stated above, fans don’t need the hodgepodge for an episode. We only needed the last 10 minutes when the news finally broke about Ryan Boyajian’s part in an FBI investigation.
The scene opens with Jenn crying on the couch, asking for answers. But Ryan just placates her and basically tells her life is hard to get a helmet. To say I was devastated by this altercation is an understatement. Instead of probing for more details, Jenn and the producers seemed complacent and just moved forward. I do think the eight days between arriving back from London and attending Jenn’s party had many of the women mentally checked out. I would have preferred it if Bravo had kept on filming until the big celebration.
If it were up to me, the finale would have started with Jenn’s engagement party and ended with Emily Simpson and Gina trying to spy on John Janssen over the garden wall. I forgot Alexis was on the series for a second since she was on hiatus for the last few episodes. I wanted the finale wrapped up in a nice, pretty bow.
While I will never regret watching, I do hope there’s a bit more effort shown next time. And I am going to need all parts of the reunion to slap.
The Real Housewives of Orange County is available to stream on Peacock.
