Why Ariana Madix Won’t Take High Road with Ex Tom Sandoval

That same can’t be said for all her costars, however.

Tuesday’s new hour began with Scheana Shay meeting up with mutual friend Kyle Chan to discuss her performance at his upcoming launch party in San Francisco. Joining them was Sandoval, who was helping with the band equipment for the gig — this after he royally ticked off Scheana last episode by bringing up her own affair with Eddie Cibrian during an argument.

The two agreed not to throw each other’s past in their faces going forward, with Scheana saying she sided with Ariana after Scandoval because Madix “didn’t do anything wrong.” Picking sides, however, isn’t something Tom understood, saying “relationships never end well” and he’s now in a place where he feels “alienated” whenever he shows up to a group event.

Despite how he feels, Scheana insisted she had no hate for Sandoval, wanted the best for him and missed spending time together.

When she relayed that sentiment to the other women in the cast at Lala Kent’s birthday party — which Sandoval was disinvited from — later that night, Ariana reacted with just one word: “Pathetic.”

“What is going on? It honestly makes me feel like I’m being gaslit, as if what happened was not clear as f–king day,” Madix continued in a confessional. “It has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the fact that he repeatedly treats her like s–t and doesn’t actually give a f–k about her. That ain’t your friend, baby.”

“He’s a loser. So annoying,” she added.

Viewers later got a small glimpse into Ariana’s relationship with new beau Daniel Wai, after he came to Los Angeles to visit, before they traveled to San Francisco together for Kyle Chan’s launch event.

Before the trip, Ariana warned her man that they would likely interact with her ex, something which Daniel showed zero interest in doing. The pair also shared how dating long distance has been good for them — saying they’re able to focus on talking to one another, instead of just having sex all the time — before Wai made it pretty clear he doesn’t plan to move to L.A. anytime soon.

Then, it was time for them all to head to San Fran.

The trip was actually the first time Lala met Daniel and her first impression was certainly an interesting one.

“Let me put it this way. You can tell me he’s a great guy all the live long day, [but] I think it’s f–king weird that any dude would be like, ‘She’s the one,'” Kent said in a confessional. “Just left her man of 10 f–king years and they still live together. I’m sorry, something seems off, right?”

Daniel avoided the rest of the group for the first day of the trip, giving Brock Davies some time to pull Ariana aside following a cast boat ride and ask her how it was being on a getaway with her ex.

“He’s like scenery at this point. I didn’t really realize he was there. He hopefully learns don’t f–king talking to me,” she said, before Brock said he hoped she could find space for “forgiveness” — describing it as being able to “focus on the good things that you have going on around you.”

“In order to move on happily in your life and focus on the good, you 100% don’t have to forget anyone who’s traumatized you. You can just be like, nah, f–k off,” Madix replied. “There’s power to me in hurt, in anger, in female emotion and being able to have that and not being put in this position of you have to take the high road, be stoic … I think there’s power in all those emotions and I stand by that.”

In a confessional, she doubled down on her stance.

“The notion you have to forgive in order to move on with your life, that’s outdated therapy,” she explained. “Grey-rocking and no contact is literally the only way to avoid the s–t, the manipulation, all of it. It’s me, I’m a gray rock.”

The episode ended with Sandoval and Scheana having a conversation about Ariana and her relationship with Daniel. Though he acknowledged the trip was probably “a little awkward” for the couple, he also felt Ariana would “mentally” be able to “handle” the situation better with him around. That’s when Scheana took the opportunity to push Tom to apologize about one very specific aspect of the scandal — how he aired some of Ariana’s personal information post-split.

“I know she has a very strong no contact policy. I also know that things that you have said about her and her mental health and things maybe she didn’t want public, is that something you could actually apologize for kind of weaponizing?” she asked.

Scheana felt Tom bringing up Ariana allegedly threatening suicide was done just to “deflect” from his own behavior and “make an excuse” for his actions — when Ariana, per Shay, was only doing the best she could to make things work.

“She didn’t freeze her eggs just for herself. She didn’t go to couples therapy just for herself. She didn’t buy a house just for herself,” said Scheana. “She did all of those things to build a life with you. Just think about what I said. That’s all. Think about that tonight.”

While it remains to be seen whether he’ll make any such apology, in a confessional Sandoval said that when he spoke of where he was emotionally during the relationship, he didn’t intend for it to also “come across as blaming Ariana” for what happened. “I screwed up and no matter how our relationship went south, she didn’t deserve that,” he added.

Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays on Bravo.