The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City — ‘Searching for Sereni-tea’ (TV Talk)

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City went to the dark side this week with talk of childhood abuse and suicidal thoughts. There were also charcuterie boards.

As a consumer of way too much television, I am sharing my thoughts on a few of my favorite TV shows. Here are a few of my miusings [sic] regarding the Searching for Sereni-tea episode from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City:

SPOILER ALERT

Jen is still proclaiming innocence to her mother and worries about her family and kids, as they didn’t do anything to deserve this and neither does she, since she didn’t do anything wrong. Jen states that she feels suicidal about everything due to all the bullying she’s receiving on the internet since “she’s done nothing wrong.”

At this point, I am very eager to find out how Jen intends to explain how she will explain the months and months of proclaiming her innocence after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a New York court on July 11.

The women do seem to love a charcuterie board as we are only minutes into the episode and we are presented with Whitney’s charcuterie board (already the second of the episode) that she made for Meredith’s visit. Of course, Lisa is the topic of conversation and Meredith brought up the fact that she’s shocked that some of the women are still friends with Lisa seeing that “She has bad-mouthed every single one of us in our circle.” For proof of this, the editors put a very compelling montage of Lisa badmouthing everyone in the group.

Then the two discuss the rumors both of them have heard about Lisa having affairs and doing sexual favors to further her businesses. Both of them agree that later seems pretty absurd.

Next up we have Lisa playing hoops with her oldest son Jack who is now professing that he’s not sure that he wants to go to college seeing that he already has a “successful” company. Lisa reminds him that she and her father bankrolled the venture, so… But then Jack drops the bomb, “Fudge college.” And then…”College is where they build machines not humans.” Woah…

And now for the childhood abuse block. Whitney tells her husband she needs to talk and is distraught after speaking to her brother Will. He has been doing memory recall therapy called EDMR, which uncovered repressed memories about Whitney being abused as a child. In turn, this leads to Whitney uncovering her own suppressed memories and trauma. Bravo could have added some subtitles to this scene because it was a bit difficult to understand what Whitney was saying since she was sobbing. This was a tough scene to watch, but it seems as if this will be the crux of Whitney’s storyline this season.

It’s not ideal timing for Whitney to go on a girls’ trip to Arizona, but she will get to see her other half-brother and sister in Arizona who are eager to help her on her healing journey.

We now awkwardly switch to scenes of Jen and Heather packing lingerie for Arizona which will be worn at the Garbage Trash Whore Lingerie Party. Heather and Meredith aren’t too eager to travel to Arizona. Per Heather — “It’s the redheaded stepchild of Utah. It’s just Utah, warmer, and with more white people … if that’s even humanly possible!”

Whitney reminds us all that Jen can’t travel out of the country, hence Arizona. The ladies arrive in Arizona, Whitney, and Lisa first, then Meredith, Heather, and Jen. The house where they are staying turns out to be an almost exact replica of Mary Cosby’s home (we do miss her).

Things are VERY awkward between Meredith and Lisa. Before the shaman healing event starts, Whitney and Heather chat about Whitney and Meredith’s conversation about the Lisa rumors. Heather is quite amused by all the gossip: “Who is she servicing? Vendors? Bartenders? Bar owners? State liquor store officials?” This is why Heather is our favorite.

Meredith is late to the shaman healing event as she’s hesitant to open up her energy around Lisa. Sadly she missed the cacao elixir which apparently tastes awful, although Lisa loves it (but Lisa loves giant fountain drinks and Taco Bell, so she probably doesn’t have any real working taste buds left).

The women all share what they are all releasing to make room for something they want. Lots of tears flow. Once things are wrapped up, Meredith apologizes to the group for being late, explaining that she didn’t feel safe.

Lisa softly says that she thought she used to be a safe space for Meredith and replies — “You are not a safe space for me Lisa.” This sends Lisa storming off into the house.

Heather retrieves Lisa and brings her down to dinner where the women are served the THIRD charcuterie board of the episode.

Meredith asks the women to fill her in on what everybody said they wanted to release during the shaman session (since she missed this part by arriving late). Jen manages to make some comedy out of her “release,” but then Whitney tears up and reveals her abuse secret.

And that is how the episode ended.