Jax Taylor Tears Into ‘Disgrace’ Tom Sandoval During Vanderpump Rules Return

On Tuesday’s latest hour, Sandoval had some pretty uncomfortable exchanges with Scheana Shay, Katie Maloney and returning former costar Jax Taylor, the latter of whom had the most heated of the three conversations.

Taylor’s appearance came at the tail end of the episode — timed perfectly with the premiere of his spinoff show, The Valley, which aired after — as the guys all met up for a boys night. Right off the bat, Jax was pretty condescending, talking about his new bar and saying he didn’t need any advice on how to run on from Sandoval and Tom Schwartz.

“He’s always felt some sort of competition with me. And it’s just unfortunate because we were best friends,” Sandoval remarked in a confessional. “But I think as time went on, I realized that nothing brings Jax more joy than celebrating other people’s failures and misery.”

Taylor then went in on Sandoval’s appearance, saying he looked a lot better now than he did in a recent photo from a few weeks ago where Tom looked “50 years old.” He also hated on Sandoval’s white nail polish, before Tom said it seemed like Jax couldn’t shut up about all things Scandoval on his podcast.

“I know what you did was wrong, but what I did was wrong too. The only problem I had with this whole situation It’s just the way you handled it,” said Jax, who had his own past issues with infidelity. “Sometimes it’s okay to tuck your tail between your legs and be like, ‘I f–ked up.’ It’s a humbling experience.”

Tom was livid to be getting any kind of criticism from Jax, however, and said it must be a humbling experience for him “to only have something interesting to say when you’re talking about me.” He added, “I don’t need to humble myself to you, dude. You don’t deserve it, homie. I don’t need to give you f–king answers. You’ve been relentlessly talking s–t about me.”

Jax defended himself by exclaiming “the whole world has been talking s–t about you. The whole world!” before Tom said he didn’t “f–king dogpile” on Taylor when “the entire world was talking s–t about you when you were going through it.”

“You did, you called me out … you’re me, 7 years ago. If not worse,” Jax hit back. “I’ve grown up, I’ve worked my ass off … I got everything in the world I could possibly ask for. You are literally a disgrace.”

Brock Davies interrupted and told them to take a beat, noting they haven’t seen each other “for a hot f–king minute” as Jax admitted he came in “guns blazing.” He said he just needed to get all that off his chest, saying his anger only proved how much he cared. Jax then apologized and they hugged it out, as Taylor said he only wants “the best” for Sandoval.

The episode then transitioned into The Valley premiere from there, but it wasn’t the only time Tom got a talking to in the hour.

Earlier in the episode, the entire group met up for a night out, marking the first occasion outside of the reunion that Tom and Ariana Madix have been at an event together since Scandoval broke. Everyone seemed surprised to see Ariana at the bar, including Tom.

“I can’t even put into works how big a deal it is that Ariana is here breathing the same air as Sandoval,” Lala Kent said in a confessional. “I feel like Ariana is here to reclaim her friends from Tom and I am here for it. I would so much rather look at Ariana than Tom Sandoval.”

Echoed Ariana in her own confessional: “I can’t let my ex prevent me from hanging out with my friends for the rest of my life. I’m not looking around, not trying to catch any stray eye contact. I can feel those eyes buried into me.”

As she walked in, Schwartz joked that he didn’t want Sandoval to “stand so close to me,” because he didn’t want Madix to see them together. Then, Scheana approached Tom and asked him about feeling “abandoned” by Rachel Leviss, something he said he felt during a different guys night out with her husband Brock Davies.

“Can there be a part of you that can … be like, maybe I did hurt that person, maybe I didn’t even mean to but I did manipulate that person,” she said to him, before saying he should probably apologize to Katie too for how he treated her last season.

“Can you do that? You have hurt a lot of people and if you can take your ego out of it …” she continued, before Tom snapped that it wasn’t about ego, but that he was “tired of being the scapegoat” for the group. Scheana said it wasn’t about blame, but about “having some self awareness and taking accountability” — before telling him she was “just trying to help.”

Though he seemed like he didn’t want to help — saying he wouldn’t be “groveling to these motherf–kers anymore” — he did eventually apologize to Katie while she was visiting Ariana at the home the exes still share together. Madix avoided Tom by leaving the room before Sandoval came downstairs, leaving time for him and Maloney to talk.

“I’ve been doing some thinking and reflecting on all this s–t and Katie, I want to apologize to you for the way I acted last year during your divorce. I know you were going through a lot and probably didn’t need any of that extra s–t,” he said.

She, however, wasn’t really having it.

“Apologies are just like words. At the end of the day, you f–ked up big time. It’s fathomless, really, to carry on an affair like that,” she said. “I walked away from a 12-year marriage when I still loved the person, because I wanted to be happy. I didn’t f–k his friend.”

She then told him to stop having parties at the home, after he held a pool party with some prospective singles earlier in the episode. “You don’t think there’s an issue having random strangers in a house you’re cohabitating, sharing a space and it’s giving audacity,” she told him, as he asked for her to show him “a little bit of grace.”

“Katie, do you know what people are doing to me?” he asked, before remarking on how he seemingly can’t do anything right. “Like, really Tom, a blue shirt today, you know how bad that looks?’ he gave as a faux example.

Katie made it clear she would be extending no such grace to Tom, however, and he said he would simply “try to do better and stay out of the way.” Her response: “You could give her a little more decency and respect.”

Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays on Bravo.