The Season 10 finale of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” began with Melissa Gorga getting back from her one-on-one meeting with Danielle Staub and joining her other castmates at a barbecue.
Uncomfortable and cautious, Melissa told the group what Danielle had told her — that it was the boutique owner’s idea to have her pull Margaret Josephs’ hair and that Teresa Giudice urged her to do it.
Teresa stared silently and open-mouthed, as both Margaret and Dolores Catania refused to believe the information. “She said that?” Teresa finally asked Melissa.
With everyone staring, she finally managed to mutter, “I don’t even… I remember her saying something to me… I don’t know…” Margaret’s eyes just about came out of their sockets, as Dolores’ mouth dropped open.
“I was drinking,” Tre added, “And everything happened so fast.” The shock and disappointment among the group was palpable.
“I’m a little freaked out. I’m not gonna lie,” Marge finally said. “Why would you ever tell her to pull my hair? How sick is that? You f–king love this girl so much that you’re gonna f–king just let her hurt me? For what? For what? You’re a real f–king asshole. I’m like f–king freaked out.”
“This is your f–king friend? This is who you wanna associate with?” she added. “She just threw you under the bus in front of the f–king world to save her own f–king ass. How sick is that?” Dolores looked at Teresa and said, “You have been going to bat for [Danielle] since day one, and look what the f–k she just did to you.”
Incredibly upset, Margaret stormed off, as Teresa struggled to come up with the right words. “I mean, I feel bad. I hope they don’t use this,” she said to Melissa, who replied, “They are gonna use it.”
When the reality of the situation finally sunk in, Teresa turned to one of the camera people, flipped them off, tossed her solo cup and all its contents, smacked all the red solo cups off a nearby table and booked it upstairs.
“What did she throw that for?” asked Jackie Goldschneider. “She’s pissed at the producers,” replied Melissa, as Dolores let out an “oh, shit.”
“You guys are f–king assholes. I’m going home!” Teresa shouted, as cameras followed her every move. While Margaret filled in her husband, and Melissa and Jackie tried to comfort her, Jennifer Aydin went to go check on Tre.
“Leave me the f–k alone!” she shouted. “I’m so f–king mad right now.” She announced she was “calling an Uber and going home” so that she could “calm down.”
Meanwhile, Marge wanted to know why Teresa was so upset: “because she looks like an asshole to everybody, or because she really hurt me?” The best Melissa could come up with was that Tre was “embarrassed.” So she went to go check on her sister-in-law.
Teresa refused to come out of the room, but she listened to her friends through the door. Dolores said the way to rectify the situation was to apologize to Margaret and cut ties with Danielle for good. Melissa told Teresa she knew she had a lot of stress at home and that associating with someone like Danielle was only bringing her down. Eventually, Tre came around.
“Alright, maybe you did me a favor for going to meet with her,” she said to Melissa, opening the door. “I guess you guys were all f–king right. Believe me, I was happy that Danielle stuck up for herself. She never stuck up for herself. I’m just really upset right now ’cause of Margaret. I feel like I let her down. I just wanna leave.”
Tre told the camera the same thing she told her co-stars — that she was “drinking a lot” and that everything happened so fast. “I’m not gonna lie,” she added, “I was angry at Margaret. I never thought anybody would get hurt. I wasn’t even thinking.”
When Joe Gorga popped his head in to check on his sister, she asked him to bring Margaret over so that they could chat privately. In the meantime, Teresa called Danielle.
“I’m really upset, Danielle,” she said. “Melissa just told me what you did.”
“Honey, don’t be mad about this, please,” replied Danielle. Teresa said, “I am! Don’t be mad? ‘Cause now Margaret’s gonna think that I told you to hurt her.”
“But you agreed with it,” Danielle replied. Teresa said, “I didn’t agree with attacking someone. That was your f–king decision, and then afterwards, what did I tell you afterwards?”
“You said I shouldn’t have done it,” Danielle said. “You wish I hadn’t done it.” Teresa added, “I’m so mad at myself. I don’t ever wanna hurt anybody again. It’s f–ked up. I’m not like that.”
“Don’t be mad at me, Tre. Don’t let this come between us,” Danielle urged, but Teresa had made up her mind. “I wish you all the best, I just don’t wanna be friends anymore,” she said. “I had enough. Alright, bye.” She hung up as Danielle was saying I love you.
Teresa then spoke with Margaret and explained she was incredibly sorry and upset that she hurt her. Margaret was apparently still too freaked out to really wrap her head around the situation, saying she didn’t realize their friendship was so one-sided.
“I witnessed you do bad things to her, so I wanted her to stand up for herself. But I shoulda said to her, ‘Don’t do it,'” Teresa said, adding that she felt maybe the situation “had to happen for me to wake up ’cause I’m done with her.”
Tre insisted it was “an eye-opener” and that she didn’t want to be the girl she used to be. She also offered Margaret a sincere apology. Marge was grateful but said she needed time to process.
Later, Teresa her four daughters — Gia, Gabriella, Milania and Audriana — flew to Italy to see and hug Joe Giudice for the first time since getting released from prison and then ICE custody.
From the day he was granted permission to await his ongoing deportation case in his home country, Joe’s been living in a small town in Salerno where he was born, where his parents were born and where Teresa’s parents were born.
The group hug was as emotional as you’d expect, with Teresa even leaning in to give Joe a kiss on the lips. But once the initial emotions subsided, the two had alone time to discuss things. Joe told Tre he had forgotten what it was like dealing with four girls of different ages and with different emotional needs. The conversation soon turned to the couple, and things were tense.
After some awkward back-and-forth over sleeping arrangements, Teresa asked, “Well, I mean, were you expecting to sleep with me?” There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, which Joe broke with, “I mean, we got what 20 years in our marriage?”
“Alright, Joe, listen,” she explained. “We haven’t been together in almost four years, so it’s kinda weird, right?” Joe put his hand up to rub his forehead. “I don’t know, I mean, it’s been a long time, you know?” Tre added. “You need to, like, slow it down.”
Joe took a sip of his wine and let out a disappointed “alright.” He put on his jacket as Teresa stared silently.
“Listen,” Joe eventually said, “by the end of this trip, things could change. Who the hell knows?”
While on a shopping trip the next day, he asked Teresa if she liked a pair of earrings and a matching necklace. She said no and walked away.
“I think Joe wants to be a couple again, but I haven’t been happy with Joe for a long time,” Teresa later told the camera. “But when I first got married to Joe, everything was great. And I truly do not want to hurt him, but sometimes, you can’t get over what happened, and you just need to move on.”
Later at dinner, Teresa asked the girls about their favorite part of the trip. They said it was getting to hug their dad, and everyone started to cry. “Girls, I’m sorry about everything that’s happened. Listen, I’m gonna do whatever I gotta do, and don’t worry about it. I’m gonna keep us together always.”
Later, Teresa and Joe got another chance to talk alone. She said, “I just wanna have this conversation before we leave. I just wanted you to know how I feel, and I want you to tell me how you feel. So tell me how you feel.”
“I mean, I don’t know. It’s been a little while,” Joe said. Teresa agreed. “I know. We haven’t been with each other in so long.”
“By the time we get used to each other, you’ll be gone,” Joe said. Teresa asked, “How do you see us with this whole situation? You live here, and I live in America.” Joe’s solution was that Teresa “get on a plane and we meet places, that’s all. And we have fun. And that’s what we do. We make things work.”
“I don’t want that,” Teresa replied. “I want somebody with me every single day.” Joe brought up how his deportation case hadn’t been closed yet, suggesting they wait it out. “Maybe it’ll make our relationship stronger,” he said.
“The past five years have been really dark,” Teresa explained. “You’ve said a lot of hurtful things to me — you wish you would’ve never married me and all this other stuff. It just makes me think about a lot of things. You know, you marry somebody, and they’re supposed to protect you. I don’t know. I trusted you, and you made shit happen.”
“Tre, shit happens to everybody,” Joe interrupted. “Are you out of your mind? My crime was a bogus crime, alright? People don’t even do time for that kinda crap. So let’s just forget about it. It’s in the past.”
Teresa said she hadn’t “been the same since,” which Joe met with, “So why don’t you blame me then? Listen, Tre, do you think I want our marriage to fall apart? Absolutely not.” Eventually, Joe asked if she just wanted to “end it now.”
“Do you want me to lie to you?” she asked. He said no, then added, “I guess that’s it.”
With tears in her eyes, Teresa told Joe she never wanted to hurt him and that she wanted him to be “happy endlessly.” Without looking up at her, he replied, “The same goes to you,” and they hugged it out.
She later vented to the camera, “It’s so infuriating to me. After four years of both of us doing time, he still does not take responsibility for what he’s done. He hasn’t changed.” She also said she wasn’t ready to tell her girls that things were over between their parents.
“The Real Housewives of New Jersey” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
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