Real Housewives of Orange County Season 17 Reunion Recap, Part 1

(Photo by: Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo via Getty Images)

The finale episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County was a freak show. And that was because Gina Kirschenheiter had everyone get dressed up in costume for her circus-themed party. Gina was the ringmaster, but that role really went to Tamra Judge or Heather Dubrow. It all depended on whom the group believed. 

Heather was able to repair her friendships with Gina, Emily Simpson, and Jennifer Pedranti. But Tamra and Shannon Beador were not about to be “Heather-merized” like the rest of the group. The final act of the evening was Tamra confronting Heather. Heather denied charges of calling the group losers, and Tamra said she had called the group losers because she was mocking Heather. Can their friendship be repaired during the reunion? Let’s find out! Here’s everything that went down in Part 1 of the Real Housewives of Orange County Season 17 reunion…

Jenn knew the assignment (Photo by: Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo via Getty Images)

A virtual beach setting awaited the RHOC cast. The producers made the ladies walk through actual sand to get to their seats. Shannon was just grateful she didn’t have to cross over a net like in the tree house. Andy Cohen greeted all the ladies, and we got a brief catch-up. Tamra was now unpaused, Emily lost 40 pounds, and Gina was an official real estate agent. No word yet if Heather’s teenage son helped guide her through the process. 

Things were still good between Tamra and Shannon. There was no more ghosting, as Shannon would text Tamra back. But Tamra and Heather were still on the outs. Heather wondered why she tried to turn the group against her. Tamra denied it but added that it was said on Heather’s podcast that Tamra didn’t belong on the show. And that right there might have been the key as to why Tamra had her sights on Heather this season. 

Jenn was up next. We got a recap of her rocky friendship with Tamra and the cheating scandal with her boyfriend, Ryan Boyajian. Emily wondered if Ryan ring-shopped just for the show. Jenn said he was waiting for her to be divorced before he proposed. Andy then joked Ryan loved married women. Ba dum dum. Ryan declined to be at the reunion because he didn’t have the right graffiti jacket and didn’t want to argue with Tamra. He’d leave that up to Jenn. And Jenn got right to it, calling Tamra a piece of sh*t. Someone was ready for her first reunion!

Tamra brought the receipts (Photo by: Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo via Getty Images)

Tamra clapped back that Jenn was the piece of sh*t and a cheater! Jenn snapped Tamra had cheated too. Andy finally broke it up and said the perception was that Tamra had went for Jenn. Tamra said she wanted Jenn to be honest. Then she dumped a bunch of receipts of the cheating texts onto Andy’s lap, but did not include the infamous d*ck pic that started it all. Ryan was accused of being too old to send a d*ck pic, and then Tamra chimed in that Andy sent them too. Andy was about to press the pause button on Tamra again.

Jenn stuck with the story that Ryan had cheated only once while they were on a two week break. Emily and Tamra accused Jenn of having different stories about the d*ck pic. On the show she had one version of events, while she posted a different explanation on Insta. Emily claimed she heard at Target that Ryan was called the “whore of Newport.” I’d hate to hear what they say at Walmart. Shannon was then accused of wanting to expose her more. Jenn summarized if she wanted to eat a sh*t sandwich, let her. No one could argue that so Andy blasted her with a speed round of questions. 

Andy asked if Ryan had a thing for married women, and how did she feel about his denim jackets. Jenn stuck by Ryan and said she loved him for who he was, denim jackets and all. Andy wondered where her friendship with Tamra went from here. Tamra apologized, but she was upset that Jenn made her look like a liar. Jenn stated let’s agree to disagree. She’s definitely found her voice, so I expect we’ll see a much more vocal Jenn next season.

Taylor served looks and attitude (Photo by: Clifton Prescod/Bravo via Getty Images)

Where has this Taylor Armstrong been all season? Taylor looked fantastic in her rainbow dress and new hair cut. She was excited to be the first housewife to cross over franchises, and was happy to be out of Beverly Hills and living her life in the OC. Taylor joked about her encounter with the paps at Craigs, and told the ladies it was time to get dirty!

But first Andy asked Heather about her husband Terry Dubrow’s stroke. They were at the Ivy when it went down. Terry denied anything had happened and refused to go to the hospital. Then it turned into The Italian Job as Heather hopped in her Uber to chase down Terry in his Uber. He finally agreed to get treatment. They learned if he didn’t come in and get the hole in his heart fixed, it was sure to happen again and he would have died. In typical Heather fashion, she had scheduled time later in the week for a breakdown. 

The sympathy was over and it was back to Taylor and her independent film. Taylor said Heather’s part was cast with an actor bigger than Eric Roberts. Let’s just hope this wasn’t a Randall Emmett slash Bruce Willis production. When Taylor sent Heather pictures of the set, Heather asked, “Where’s Oklahoma?” Heather claimed to be geographically challenged and not shady. Hey, throwing shade is part of the job. Taylor then got her moment and yelled at Heather for calling her anti-female. Taylor was going for that orange next season.

Horny Oranges (Photo by: Clifton Prescod/Bravo via Getty Images)

The anti-female talk segued into Heather not feeling supported in her career as an actress. Tamra felt Heather acted like she was better than them, and brought up the moment Heather saw her old producer and asked to be saved from the show. Heather had thought maybe it was a sign, but in the moment was mad about how she was being treated. We all know if Heather was asked to be on a sitcom she would have dropped the show in a heartbeat. Who wouldn’t?

Emily then brought up her career and not feeling supported by Heather when Tamra called her a party planner and not a lawyer. Heather admitted she should have said something. Emily then said Heather needed to lighten up more. Andy asked for a show of hands on who thought Heather had a sense of humor. It was an odd question, but Gina and Tamra were her only supporters. Andy then asked about the $55 million dollar sale of Heather’s home and why she didn’t tell the group sooner. Heather said she was planning on telling the group in Mexico but was worried no one would be supportive. Everyone claimed to be happy for her but she wasn’t feeling it. 

It was time to lighten the mood. Andy called the group a bunch of horny oranges and played a montage of them joking about penises, BDSM, and Tamra flashing herself. Quiz time! How many season’s has Tamra flashed her chest? The group guessed them all, but the answer was seven. When Tamra was married to her first husband she kept the girls in. Andy then said goodbye to Taylor, and it was fun watching her happy ending. The dad jokes were on point.

Don’t talk about the family (Photo by: Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo via Getty Images)

Gina got the spotlight after a brief reminder that Shannon’s DUI happened after the taping. Issues with Jenn’s infidelity, Shannon bringing up CPS, and Heather telling Gina not to share her grievances about her ex to her boyfriend were brought up. Gina shared that the infidelity was a trigger for her because that impact lasted longer than the domestic violence incident. Heather admitted she hadn’t had a boyfriend in thirty years so she was out of line. 

Then things hot heated between Shannon and Gina. They had a social media war over who wore their skirt best on Watch What Happens Live. Gina said it was joke and Shannon admitted she got too snarky. Shannon was also still upset about Gina talking about her relationship with John Janssen. She outright she didn’t like Gina. But she got no apologies as Gina couldn’t get past Shannon’s CPS comment. Gina felt like she never got a proper apology from Shannon. And now her name was associated with CPS online. Gina wondered if she could even continue to do the show. Can there be any resolution for the two? We’ll find out next week when the reunion concludes!

Real Housewives of Orange County continues Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.

TELL US – DO YOU THINK SHANNON GAVE GINA A PROPER APOLOGY ABOUT HER CPS COMMENT? WILL TAMRA AND JENN BE ABLE TO REPAIR THEIR FRIENDSHIP? DO THINK THAT HEATHER THINKS SHE IS BETTER THAN THE GROUP?