![Shannon Storms Beador and Tamra Judge kiss and makeup on “The Real Housewives of Orange County” on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. (Courtesy of Bravo)
Shannon Storms Beador and Tamra Judge kiss and makeup on “The Real Housewives of Orange County” on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. (Courtesy of Bravo)](https://www.pressenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/OCR-L-HOUSEWIVES-0705-01.jpg?w=576)
The girls’ trip to Montana continued for a second week on “The Real Housewives of Orange County” on Wednesday. It was Tamra Judge‘s idea, so the activities are all Tamra’s ideas.
That means when Heather Dubrow and Gina Kirschenheiter find themselves shoveling horse manure out of a trailer, Tamra put them there. And when Shannon Storms Beador crashes a tractor into one of those giant rolls of hay out in a field, that was Tamra, too.
“We’re gonna learn to live the life of a cowgirl,” Tamra announces, and apparently cowgirls really like to get up in each other’s business, gossiping and throwing each under this bus, er, wagon.
And Tamra’s right at the center of it all. She’s there to stir up trouble about Jenn Pedranti’s relationship with boyfriend Ryan. She’s there to shovel some more in the dullest storyline of the season, a beef between Heather and Taylor Armstrong about … Internet Movie Database credits for Heather?
Oh, please. At one point the chuckwagon chefs grilling bison tenderloins for the housewives’ campout look at all these silly arguments going on and on and on and wonder if they should get involved.
“You want to check on that (manure) show over there?” one says.
“Not really,” her pardner replies.
The sun comes up on the second day of the trip with Shannon and Tamra both suffering the after-effects of too many tequila shots the night before, too many being the eight apiece we see them throwing down in a quick and boozy montage.
But! Shannon and Tamra are BFFs again. We see Shannon hurling Haribo gummi bears at Tamra and Heather. We see Shannon and Heather kiss on the lips, and then Shannon stick her tongue in Tamra’s mouth. We see London, we see France, we see Tamra’s underpants as she and Shannon wrestle on the stairs.
“How many times have I seen emoji underwear? A lot!” Shannon shouts at Tamra as their skirts ride up amid all the writhing on the floor. (For those keeping score at home – they were a pair blowing-a-kiss emoji on this occasion.)
You know, just the usual stuff 50-something-year-old adults do.
Gina, Heather and Jenn are sent to the horse barn to shovel (stuff).
“At least give me, like, a Chanel shovel,” Heather tells the camera. “Does Chanel make a shovel?”
All three briefly ride horses around the corral. Gina, the Housewife Most Likely to Be Terrified of an Animal, yanks the reins and her horse “bucks” his front feet about six inches off the ground. “This is how I die!” Gina shouts to her camera.
The main storyline again revolves around Jenn and her boyfriend Ryan, both of whom might be regretting their participation in the show at this point. Tamra can’t stop trashing Ryan and his love life.
But this week she takes it further than before, alleging to the others that the first day he showed up at the gym owned by Tamra and her husband Eddie Judge he told a mutual friend that he intended to bed Tamra – or something. It’s a big, bold allegation, and when that stirred pot finally boils over and Jenn finds out what Tamra is saying, well, it’s not what she’d want to hear, is it?
To Jenn’s credit, she still feels more like a real person than a housewife five episodes into her first season on the show. She’s like the calf led into the branding corral – she has no idea what’s coming. You can see on her face how she’s trying to take all this in, weigh it, and then answer in a measured, reasonable way.
She doesn’t deserve to have her love life dissected for sport, but hey, buy the ticket, take the ride.
The funniest part of the episode occurs when Tamra reveals her big surprise – she’s planned for them all to sleep in safari tents on the Montana prairie … in a spot that is literally within view of one of the ranch houses. Most of the housewives are dismayed by this.
“I am not a camper-outer. I do not do a tent,” Gina declares.
“I’m not a camper – and I never will be,” Shannon vows.
“Believe it or not, growing up in Oklahoma they do not require you to go camping,” Taylor says. “Camping to me is the Ritz Carlton.”
We see Heather trying to lasso Shannon and Tamra. Her one success is when she ropes Tamra’s champagne glass holding hand, which feels right for Heather. Gina attempts some weak-armed-looking whacks at already split firewood.
And Shannon nearly has an accident when she can’t get her big rodeo-style belt buckle unfastened so she can do what a bear does in the woods. Taylor, who apparently did learn how to use a hunting knife in Oklahoma, saves the day and the dryness of Shannon’s pants by cutting one of her belt loops to free her and her bladder.
We end with Gina in tear. And that, as we say on the ranch, is all the stuff we’ve got to shovel for this week.