The ladies of the Garden State headed off to Jamaica to celebrate Jennifer Aydin’s birthday on Wednesday’s episode of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” and of course, drama followed.
Before they left for the trip, Jackie Goldschneider confided in Jennifer that she was nervous about how Teresa Giudice would behave toward her while on the vacation. She said she felt Teresa had been a “bully” to her, which made Jennifer uncomfortable. She wanted no part in their beef.
Of course, Jennifer instantly told Teresa that Jackie called her a bully, which opened up a whole can of worms. The ladies along with Dolores Catania quickly decided the rooming situation in Jamaica would be Jennifer, Teresa, Dolores and Melissa Gorga in one room; Jackie and Margaret Josephs in the other.
Also before the trip, Jackie threw her 11-year-old twin sons a birthday party and invited Jennifer and Melissa because they all have kids around the same age. Melissa told the ladies she was so happy they had made up, then revealed what Frank Catania had told her husband, Joe Gorga, last episode — that he thought they were never gonna make up because “Jackie is a female attorney. They have to have the last word no matter what.” At the time, Dolores replied to her ex-husband, “I do see what you’re saying in Jackie.”
“He doesn’t know me at all, so to make that kind of assumption about me really bothers me,” Jackie told the ladies. “I would’ve hoped that Dolores would’ve said to Frank, ‘No, Jackie’s actually not like that.’ I don’t like starting with Dolores. I already feel unsettled with Teresa because, at [Melissa’s] party, I think we looked at each other for like five seconds. Like, if she f–king hates me…”
“I feel like she doesn’t say she hates you. It’s just, I know her, I’m just being honest, I don’t feel like she’s fully done with you,” Melissa explained cautiously.
Soon after, while all the ladies were packing for the trip, Dolores tried to call her doctor boyfriend, David, but the call went straight to voicemail. When Frank asked if she was okay with that, she said yes, but he wasn’t buying it.
“Dolores can keep acting like she’s okay with David not being around,” he later told the camera. “I’ve known her for 30 years. I know it bothers the crap out of her.”
Once in Jamaica, the girls in Jennifer’s room started talking about Jackie and her eating habits, as flashes of past scenes in which Jackie’s denied food offered to her by others took over the screen. Dolores said she felt Jackie was very “regimented” in every aspect of her life, and when Jennifer asked if she considered Jackie a friend, Dolores said no.
Jackie and Margaret then made the trek all the way to Jennifer’s “palace.” (Margaret felt she and Jackie were staying in the “servant’s quarters.”) Once there, they had someone from the resort come up to do a rum tasting.
While a bartender was pouring the ladies something called a “21,” Jennifer said, “the 21-year-old,” as Teresa added, “I’m gonna try it.”
“She likes a minimum age of 21, Teresa. She doesn’t like jail bait,” an admittedly tipsy Margaret blurted out. Teresa’s eyes widened and her mouth opened. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, as Margaret maintained she meant nothing by the joke.
“There’s all these rumors about Teresa with some younger guy, and you’re talking about, ‘She likes ’em 21,'” a stunned Melissa later said to the camera, as Dolores added, “You can’t joke around about something like this with Teresa unless you’re looking to get your ass kicked.”
In the moment, Teresa chose not to react, but Melissa seemed to think she would — in time.
At dinner, Jackie announced she had been “eating all day” and rattled off snacks like pretzels and granola bars. She then ordered a salad while the other women ordered steaks and heartier meals.
After some time, Melissa revealed at the table that she and Joe were considering expanding their family. They even went to go check their respective egg and sperm counts at the top of the episode. The women thought she was crazy, with Margaret later telling the camera she thought it was some sort of midlife crisis.
The topic prompted a different conversation — one about Dolores’s boyfriend, who’s never around because he’s always on call. She claimed he was supposed to be at Melissa’s birthday party but couldn’t make it at the last minute. That’s when Jackie asked, “After two years, don’t you feel like you should be engaged already?”
“Absolutely not,” Dolores replied. Some of the women were skeptical, as Jennifer suggested Dolores may be coming across as a “pushover” to people who don’t know her.
“I would actually like you and David to end up [getting married] because I think that David would like me better than Frank likes me. Frank doesn’t like me,” Jackie blurted out. Dolores maintained that that wasn’t true, as Jackie replied, “Frank said some bad things about me.”
“He didn’t say bad things [about you],” Dolores explained. “He said about female lawyers, that you’re probably like a female lawyer, that you always like to have the last word.” Jackie asked, “He doesn’t know me at all, so why would he say that?”
Dolores said that’s just “how Frankie is. He just says what’s on his mind. I don’t think it’s as personal as you think it is ’cause it’s not.”
Jackie explained that she was hurt Dolores didn’t come to her defense, which prompted Jennifer to let Jackie know that Dolores doesn’t actually consider her a friend. Yes, she really said that.
“You don’t consider me a friend?! ‘Cause I actually considered you a friend, so alright,” a hurt Jackie hurled at Dolores, who glared at Jennifer.
“See, that’s how she gets. Now that’s gonna be like a whole big thing,” Dolores said to Jenner, who was one margarita (and a lot of rum) in. Catania looked at Goldschneider and said, “The whole friend thing — you’re taking it out of context.”
“I just don’t know why you’d say that…” Jackie began to say, before Dolores interrupted, “Dog with a bone. Let me explain a dog with a bone. Let me explain a dog with a bone.” Teresa rolled her eyes, as Jackie urged Dolores not to call her that.
“Well, I will now because it’s getting on my nerves,” she fired back. “Because what I’m saying to you is, you call me ever to check in? No. I don’t know you that well that I would just come by your house and say, ‘Hey, Jackie, I’m coming over.’ And that’s exactly what I said.”
Dolores then took the opportunity to explain to Jackie she didn’t feel she was as “thick-skinned” as Jackie claimed to be. “You get upset over the littlest things. Getting so upset about that video,” Dolores said, which Jackie still maintained was “cyber-bullying.” That’s when Teresa chimed in.
“You take everything so serious,” she said, which Jackie explained was because she was being “made fun of on social media.”
“Maybe because you said mean things to me, yeah,” Teresa replied. “You came at me first!” Jackie thought they were past the “husband in jail” comment, but evidently, they were not. As Melissa pointed out, Teresa’s a “grudge-holder.”
“It still bothered me,” Tre told Jackie. “And then you were telling the girls, ‘If it looks like a duck, talks like a duck,’ what the f–k duck, quack quack f–king duck!”
Jackie maintained she didn’t “put the story out there” that Teresa was cheating on Joe with a younger man and that “everyone was talking about it.” She claimed she was “just asked.”
“I didn’t say you put the story out there, but I’m going through the worst time in my life right now, and you seem to shine a light on it,” Teresa responded. Jackie asked — again — if they could move forward peacefully, and Teresa — again — agreed.
“The Real Housewives of New Jersey” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
Got a story or a tip for us? Email TooFab editors at [email protected].
View Photos
Instagram
The Giudice Girls Reunite with Joe in Italy