Well guys, we made it. We’re finally done with season 8 with only a little bit of emotional scarring. I am one of the biggest Vanderpump Rules fans out there, but this season felt like it went on forever. I mean seriously, so much happened this season that when I think back to the first episode it feel like it was 2 seasons ago. So let’s recap the season and breakdown all the most drama filled, feud enticing moments.
Sandoval vs. Stassi – Pretty much right out of the gate we were subjected to this weird outburst from Tom Sandoval. At the last minute he got mad at Stassi for wanting to have her book signing at TomTom and sent her a rage text. Rage texts are the signature move for the VPR cast. I think everyone was a little confused about all of this because it really didn’t seem like a big deal?? It definitely seemed like a jealousy thing with Tom since he sees himself on a higher plane as co-manager than Schwartz, but in hindsight I kind of get it. He was the only one that wasn’t consulted on this, which made him feel like Stassi didn’t respect his position, and he clearly takes his role at the bar seriously, so he wanted the event to be perfect and just had some anxiety about it all being handled by Schwartz. We’ve all been there. If you’re the type of person who ends up doing an entire group project on your own (ie. me) you probably feel him on this. Doesn’t excuse the way he acted towards Stassi though. Stop rage texting people Tom, that’s Jax’s thing.
The Wedding – Can we all agree that there was far too many episodes devoted to Jax and Brittany’s wedding? Ugh I really don’t even want to talk about it anymore, so I’ll just say that having to endure all the pomp and circumstance that surrounded this wedding was a different kind of torture. Listening to those two constantly say “but it’s our wedding” made me want to throw up (and one time I actually almost did). I still have PTSD and honestly, after everything Jax put Brittany through in their relationship, I think people just know she hitched her wagon to the wrong horse.
The newbies – I wasn’t into these people in the beginning, frankly I don’t think anyone was at the start. I’m a die hard advocate for the original gang. Those first couple of seasons were pure magic. Adding in 5 new people just seemed to make the cast huge, and I wasn’t into it. However, halfway through the season I started to warm up to them, but don’t feel like any of them belong on the show together. I think the problem is that we had the old VPR drama between the originals, which is always good, that made all the drama with the new people just seemed so second tier. Dayna was trying a little too hard to have those funny one-liners, Danica seemed super shady and didn’t really bring anything except her hot boyfriend, Charli has never had pasta so I can’t trust her, Max and Brett were both very inconsiderate towards Scheana and really just came off like not nice guys. Also why did we need 17 episodes about Max and Dayna when they only dated for like 2 weeks? Makes no sense and I didn’t buy it.
Jax vs. Sandoval – One of the two most prevalent feuds this season was between old besties Jax and Tom. I’ll just say it now – Tom is way to good of a friend for him to be taking this nonsense from someone like Jax! Is Tom perfect? No. But you can tell he genuinely cares about his friends and that’s friendship that Jax just doesn’t deserve. I don’t fully understand how this feud even came to be. Tom didn’t surprise Jax at his second Bachelor Party because Tom was in Ohio or something, and so Jax thought “how could you do this to me, question mark” and decided Tom didn’t care enough. In what universe would anyone think this way?! I truly can’t wrap my head around it. Then to fake being friends for your wedding, but talking badly about Tom the entire season is so cruel. In my opinion, neither party is innocent in this feud. Both sides did something at one point that upset the other – but Jax’s actions took it to a different level. I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually became friends again, but for now I’ll enjoy Sandoval being the #1 guy in this group.
The Witches of WeHo – That brings us to feud number two. All season we had to deal with the same drama between Kristen, Stassi and Katie and it got old real quick. Basically, Kristen complains all the time about how Carter doesn’t treat her right, doesn’t contribute to the relationship, and is just an all around dead beat boyfriend, and Stassi and Katie would always say she deserved someone better – yet she never broke up with him and continued to defend him whenever they were in front of other people. Finally this season she ends it. Well, we come to find out that “ending it” means something different to Kristen that the other witches. She and Carter still see each other every so often, and she basically changed her mind about how he treated her, to only then complain about him again a few days later. It was just this constant cycle that Stassi and Katie got tired of, so they showed Kristen how to really ended a relationship and stopped being her friend lol. I think we’ve all had a friend that just always complains about something. But then not take the advice you give them on how to deal with their problems. It’s frustrating as hell, so I get why they axed her, because honestly I probably would’ve done the same thing! Where it gets messy for me is the way Stassi and Katie treated Kristen. It’s one thing to just kind of keep someone at arms length, its an entirely different thing to be as mean as they were to her. In my opinion, they took it too far. Kristen obviously was dealing with some stuff and they could’ve been a little more understanding of that, but then again if they were, it wouldn’t be Vanderpump Rules now, would it?
DJ James Kennedy – I haven’t always been a fan of James’, but I find myself rooting for his success and happiness. Idk there’s something about him that makes me think of my little brother, so I that’s probably where my soft spot for him comes from. This season started out pretty rocky for DJ JK, with him blowing up on Raquel and calling her horrible things. But he turned it around and started going to AA. Within just a few weeks you could see a completely different side of James that’s the version of him I think we’ve all been wanting to see since the beginning. I’m happy he finally got sober and that Raquel put her foot down with him – which leads to our next topic…
HRH Raquel – If there was a standout star this season, for me, it’s Queen Raquel Leviss. I think this season she really found her voice and stood her ground with both Lala and James when they gave her shit. She finally knows her worth and holds her own in the group. I’m truly psyched to see her next season. I hope she continues to rise above the rest of the hooligans on this show.
Scheana – Poor Scheana. Another season with a bad edit. But now that we know she truly was the victim of vengeful editors, I think her popularity will have a resurgence next season. Having had to deal with all that nonsense from Max and Brett, she was truly resilient this season and I’m proud of her. Even with her bad edit, she never spoke out against the producers or Bravo and just kind of accepted that this is what she signed up for, which I can respect. She’s already come out of this on the other side with a super hot boyfriend who can apparently bench press her. Bravo, Scheana. Bravo.
The Reunion – There’s almost nothing I love more than a 3 part Bravo reunion. While it may not have looked the same as reunions past, I actually think the virtual format worked well because it seemed that people weren’t as timid about voicing their opinions on everyone else’s drama. This reunion was messy and I loved it! Tom and Arianna were calling people out left and right, Charli called Jax an old man – oh and we found out that Max and Kristen had spent time together in the fall. Yeah, when he was still talking to Dayna and Kristen was her friend. Classic Kristen move. We saw James and Katie becoming friends again. A video of everyone’s new hobbies in quarantine. Jax lashed out at Andy because he felt he was being attacked. James had everyone in tears when he was talking about his sobriety – except for Kristen who rolled her eyes. The best moment of the whole reunion was when Jax tried to defend himself by saying he’s “a work in progress”. To which the produced trolled him hard. They showed flashback clips of every single time in all 8 seasons that Jax said he was trying to be better. Yet clearly he hasn’t tried at all.
Where did Lala go? – Finally, I want to talk about Lala. What was she even doing this season? She honestly just seemed to be hanging in the wings waiting for the moment when she can insert herself into someone else’s drama. Her beef with Raquel was super random, and her “intervention” with Carter was definitely not her place – I just don’t understand what her role was this season. Even on the reunion, she was more like a “behavior monitor” than an active participant and basically just cried every time she was talking. She doesn’t really give us anything anymore, which is fine because she’s at a different place in her life now than she was when she first came on the show – but if you don’t have anything to contribute, it might be time to go.
All in all, I feel this season was a wash because we barely got any insight into the Fofty incident – and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that’s what we were all looking forward to most. Missed the mark on this one Bravo, but there are obviously a lot of changes going on right now in the Vanderpump Rules sphere, so we’ll see what happens in season 9!
