The eight episode of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills opens with a tease of the infamous "ugly leather pants" line, in the middle of the Crystal Minkoff/Sutton Stracke fight that has gone on for far too long. We flash back to 3 days earlier and join Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin at the grocery store. He requests little pumpkins for a tablescape he's planning.
Crystal and Erika Jayne (and two of Crystal's friends, whose names I found too unimportant to write down) are at Kathy Hilton’s house to play tennis on her court. Erika, very apparently, does not play tennis but this is her attempting to fill up her time as a new independent woman. They talk about Erika's new independence in her home and she talks about cleaning dishes for the first time in 20 years.
At Kyle Richard's house, her family is shooting their Christmas card when Kathy shows up. Kathy brings along the bottomless purse from Harry Potter. Kathy reveals she talked to sister Kim Richards for three hours and it's revealed Kim changed her number and didn’t text Kyle, who had been reaching out to her with no answer.
Rinna arrives at Erika's $9.5k a month rental. In her talking head, Erika tells producers that her businesses have given her enough to live off of financially. Sutton shows up with a signed coffee table book from Dolce & Gabanna that features her in it not once but twice.
At Garcelle Beauvais', the mom of two is making dinner for her sons. Jax is learning Japanese. We see Garcelle balancing homeschooling with her two teenage sons and their mood swings.
Harry is making a meal from their garden. Rinna is having a cake for Garcelle despite the rocky status of their relationship.
Kyle arrives at Dorit Kemsley's. The producers show Dorit's dog with a questionable haircut. Dorit talks about expanding her designs from her beach wear to bridal. She also tells us that when the voice in her head doubts herself, she reminds herself about the Capri room she deisgned in her local Buca di Beppo.
Kyle and Dorit are the first to arrive at Rinna's. Kyle reminds Harry that grandchildren aren’t in his distant future because she was the same age as his daughter Amelia when she had her first daughter. Crystal arrives followed by Erika and Kathy. Erika asks the ladies what they’re having to drink and copies Dorit's order. (Probably because she wanted a hot toddy but they couldn’t make her one. If I had to guess.) Sutton arrives and Kathy calls her Thomasina, much to Sutton’s chagrin. Garcelle arrives and we see a flashback from Rinna's 50th birthday party 7 years ago and Rinna might be in the same leopard dress for this party that she wore to that party.
Garcelle tells Rinna she appreciates that Rinna has a cake for her and is making an effort for her birthday. Sutton gets jealous at the table that Crystal, Kathy and Kyle went in on a thoughtful gift for Garcelle. She feels especially awkward that she has no gift for bestie Garcelle and is the only one without a gift at the dinner. Sutton tells Kyle she wants to leave and doesn’t like being there and Kyle pulls her aside. Sutton starts to cry that she’s not had any resolution with Crystal and it’s worn her down. Garcelle, Kathy, and Dorit find Sutton and Kyle in mid Sutton meltdown. Sutton explains that she’s still trying to get over their fight but it’s hard to sit and pretend like everything is hunky dory to which Kathy asks “Who is hunky dory?” Great question, actually.
As the rest of the ladies join them, Sutton confronts Crystal as to the unwell status between them. Garcelle keeps pressing Sutton to tell Crystal what she needs from her. As Sutton tries to explain, Crystal cuts Sutton off with snarky one liners and eventually it’s revealed that Sutton would like an apology from her (although it seems Sutton is aware she wouldn’t get one from Crystal). Crystal shuts that down with a “No”. After the other women react, Crystal tries to retract the "no" by saying “I’m sorry that you’re upset”, which Sutton rightfully calls out as a non-apology. Crystal laments she used the word "violated" correctly as it was an abuse of privacy. Garcelle points out that Sutton didn’t know she was naked. (And I would like to point out that Crystal was also on the phone badmouthing Sutton to a friend when Sutton walked in on her, retuning her coat, and whether or not Crystal felt guilty/ambushed on top of being vulnerable and naked and violated. But I do think there's more going on with Crystal then she's letting on to the other women and the audience.) Sutton then asks, “Why are you so defensive? What was going on that you’re so defensive about?” Which Crystal replies to as “You’re upset because you’re jealous.” Sutton turns to walk out. Kathy tells Lisa it’s her house and she needs to mitigate the situation. Garcelle and Kyle follow Sutton out telling her not to run. The show ends with a smirking Crystal in her leather pants watching the women chase after Sutton.
Continue below the cut if you'd like to read my brief opinion on Coatgate. Or not, you may be as sick as me of hearing about it.
I want to first start out by saying that if Crystal feels violated by Sutton walking in on her naked, then Crystal feels violated. I also think Sutton was wrong in how she shut down the conversation about racial stereotypes and tried to give her own perspective on prejudice from the perspective of a southerner to equate to that. But I also don't think that conversation has anything to do with Coatgate because I think Crystal was very aware that she was on the right side of that fight and I think Sutton's apology was genuine.
That being said facts are facts.
Sutton, Kyle and Kathy were all up late the night of Coatgate, and from all accounts buzzed. Crystal was also up late, she was on the phone with a friend venting about Sutton on the trip. When Sutton found the coat, she told Kathy and Kyle that she's going to bring Crystal her coat because that's what good friends do or something, which to me, shows that she was trying to mend the tension with Crystal and welcome her to the group. Sutton did knock on Crystal's door. Was it too lightly? Maybe? There was no "come in" from Crystal but Sutton reveals she heard Crystal talking so she entered. Did she mishear a come in? Did she think that Crystal is obviously awake but maybe didn't hear the knock because she was on the phone? Whatever it is, I think it's obvious that all intentions from Sutton were pure and innocent. Sutton's behavior in Lake Tahoe was bizarre, but Sutton is harmless. We also know from the footage that Sutton said something along the lines of "I don't know what your doing in here but I'm a bring you your coat" in the voice I believe she also uses for Mr. Poppins. We see Sutton enter, drop off the coat, say that, and leave, in what was maybe 8 seconds. The last morning of the trip, Sutton returns to Crystal's room again to try to mend things with Crystal and Crystal brings up how she felt being walked in on the other night. Sutton apologizes. Crystal and her agree to let it go and not talk about it and move on.
Before I go any further, I want to point out that Kathy Hilton, a stranger to Sutton, came in to Sutton's room, no knock, carrying 6 pillows and dragging a fan while Sutton was naked and it was NBD. I'm not saying that just because Sutton's comfortable with those boundaries that Crystal should be. But I think it's a good insight into the headspace of Sutton going in to the morning after argument.
Crystal does not leave the incident in Lake Tahoe. She barely left it on the property, before telling the women what happened and truly, exaggerating what had happened. Her account painted Sutton as an intentional creep, who was cruelly trying to embarrass Crystal in a vulnerable position. Before leaving, Crystal had told a different story to Kyle, one much closer to what accurately happened. And when Dorit learned of the discrepancy the narrative changed. With all the women knowing about Coatgate now, and that Crystal's tale might have had a bit of embellishment, Crystal pretends to Sutton that she isn't the one telling the rest of the women and acts like they should face the group together for Sutton's sake. Instead, Sutton calls Crystal out on breaking their agreement, exaggerating what happened, and taking shots at her character, in front of the other women.
Now we have that "violated" term being fought for. I wish Sutton would concede that Crystal could feel violated for being walked in on naked and I wish Crystal would concede that Sutton wasn't a creep for returning a coat, and she shouldn't have led a smear campaign against her for it.
I do think most of this fight was produced, and I think Sutton might be referring to what Crystal might be defensive about is that Crystal was trashing Sutton on the phone and with both ladies together, it might've reminded Crystal that Sutton was still miked, as is Crystal's entire room, so her private phone call really wasn't that private. But we will have to wait until next week, when the fight continues to find out more.
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