Originally posted Sunday, March 22, 2020 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
The conclusion of last week's NeNe Leakes/Kenya Moore confrontation in Greece included NeNe literally trying to spit at Kenya, though she was so far away, her saliva (or is that a piece of popcorn?) fell to the ground. In this day of coronavirus, that would have been considered a hate crime.
Indeed, the hatred is real on NeNe’s part. Her capacity for forgiveness and extensive life coach therapy only goes so far.
“This is gutter behavior,” Kenya said to the cameras. “Pure gutter behavior.”
Spitting was not something the other ladies liked either. "That deserves an a** whipping!" Kandi Burruss noted.
Even after the ladies settled down, NeNe kept yapping. Kenya goaded her: “If you’re feeling froggy, jump!”
That didn’t happen. The other women escorted NeNe away for a time out so she could cool down from saying “b****” so many times.
"The things she's saying to Kenya are so disgustingly vulgar," said NeNe's former bestie Cynthia Bailey.
Kenya told the women she hated it when someone goes after her family and at one point, NeNe had said Kenya was going to have a “buffalo” when she saw Kenya pregnant season 11. That really peeved Kenay. The other women and NeNe recalled she had called Kenya a buffalo but the video flashback proved Kenya correct, although NeNe’s intent was to insult Kenya, not the baby.So both were right in a sense.
NeNe apologized for calling Kenya a buffalo - her intent. If she gave the impression she was insulting Brooklyn, she also apologized. “I don’t do that to kids,” NeNe said sincerely. Kenya rolled her eyes.
Porsha Williams, who was also made fun of by NeNe while pregnant, made a sincere attempt to get Kenya to receive NeNe's apology. Kenya was like a wall. She said she'd only do so to calm NeNe down but Porsha called it as it was: passive aggressive.
Flabbergasted, Kandi shut everyone up and asked if Kenya would accept NeNe’s apology or not.
Kenya got tearful. She wasn’t ready to give an answer. And the other ladies - including NeNe - acknowledged that.
Bottom line: Kenay didn't want to feel "attacked" anymore. Yet Marlo Hampton decided to revisit the time Kenya came to her wig launch party to obnoxiously promote her natural hair products. She wanted an apology from Kenya. Oh, boy.
Kenya called Marlo “an aggressor toward me. You always have been since we fell out. You want to bring a gun to shoot me, I’m going to bring a machine gun and that’s what I did.”
She didn’t like the way Kenya insulted her relationship with her mom, her daughter and her husband. In her mind, she told Kenya: “You completely tried to destroy me the way other people in my family have.” Then she oddly said, “I’m sorry” in a way that sounded vaguely sincere but was at odds to what she had just said.
Marlo, not surprisingly, didn’t buy it. When she said she thought Kenya was acting, Kenya threw the crown off her head and left.
Kandi, in a position to try to solve issues here, told Kenya, “Stop being the person who walks away! You can’t say what you want to say then just leave.”
With Kenya’s marriage crumbling, she lost it: “The s*** I’m dealing with, I don’t have time for this s***.”
The next day, Porsha’s read was that if you can’t take it, don’t dish it. Kenya will often seek some sort of revenge over past ills and she feels justified by it.
Cynthia tried to defend NeNe by saying she made a good faith effort to be kind day one of the trip. But a suspicious Kenya didn’t receive that initial kindness so NeNe went negative instead.
Kenya was still not open to resolving the issues, which annoyed Kandi. Kandi said she has gotten over nastier things said to her like the time Porsha accused her of raping someone.
Later that day, Kandi hosted a bunch of bonding beach games that enabled the ladies to bond and avoid acrimony.
The episode ended with Kandi quixotically creating a Greek tragedy play with Cynthia and Kandi starring in it. (Kandi wanted to practice acting.)
This strikes me as fraught with danger but the producers were probably frothing at the possibilities.
Kandi announced to the ladies she was playing Kenya while Cynthia would channel NeNe.
NeNe abruptly walked away.
“She’s terrified to see herself and the monster she’s been to me this entire trip,” Kenya said.
RHOA showed some flashback moments of past times NeNe got up and left.
So in the end, it was no play and a trip that started so well ending with a thud.
TRAILER: Kenya plans a divorce while Kandi feels guilty about being away from family.
How many more episodes are left? It’s unclear.
One thing’s for sure: if there is a reunion of any sort, it would have to be done by Zoom, a software application I knew nothing about two weeks ago! Let’s do something Bravo!
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