By Emma Chance | TV | January 16, 2025 |
After the fourth wall blowout that was the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season four finale, season five had big shoes to fill. For the most part, that was achieved. Newbie Bronwyn Newport injected the cast with some much-needed color and fun, Mary Cosby had a heavy but heartening comeback, and her friendship with fan favorite Angie Katsanevas was a relief in opposition to the relationships of the rest of the cast, which are shallow at best.
But while the majority of the season lived up to the intensity of that dinner in Bermuda last season, the finale whimpered. Heather Gay’s storytelling feels heavy-handed now—when this finale’s dinner started to fall into screeching insult territory, she gave an impassioned speech about everyone being at fault, attempting to callback to her own “Receipts, screenshots, timelines,” lecture from last year, but not quite pulling it off. Last year, Heather orchestrated the confrontation that would bring them all together against a common enemy, and she had the same thing in mind here. So, she proposed that everyone look through their text messages for the worst thing they’d ever said about each other, and recite it to the group. This, of course, caused an explosion, and now no one’s talking to anyone anymore.
Except for Mary and Angie. Before Heather commenced her orchestrating, Mary and Angie had their own mini fallout and makeup. Mary was upset with Angie for comforting Britani Bateman earlier that day because Mary doesn’t like Britani and vice versa. That sounds petty, fine, but keep in mind that Mary is a fortress of pain right now with the situation with her son, and Angie is the only person she’s felt comfortable enough to confide in. Britani is a kooky, selfish mess, and Mary’s hackles are up. Angie coming to Britani’s aide felt to Mary like a betrayal, because Mary’s just that fragile right now.
“You’re being very quiet with me,” Angie said to Mary at the dinner table before Heather’s weird text message thing. “I know,” Mary responded. “Tell me what I did,” Angie said. Mary told her.
“So you don’t care what I feel with her?” Mary asked, referring to Britani.
“I do care,” Angie responded, shocked. Everyone else at the table held their breath. “I’ve spent months trying to gain your confidence,” Angie started.
“I didn’t ask you to. That was a choice you made,” Mary retorted.
“And you made a choice to be my friend, and you said God brought us together and I believe that and you believe that,” Angie implored.
“I did believe it, but I can be wrong. I’m human,” Mary responded. Now everyone else was just as shocked and confused as Angie. “Mary, really?” Heather asked.
“Look at me,” Angie said, leaning towards her, “Mary, I’m so sorry,” reaching for her hand, which Mary rejected. “I love you. You’ve given me all these…you’ve changed my life.” Then they both started crying. “I see you differently than everyone else does,” Angie choked out. “I’ve gotten to know you in a different way, and I don’t like that you’re shutting me out like this.”
“Well you hurt me,” Mary cried. “You hurt me because I told you everything.”
“It’s just that, like, because both of my parents abandoned me…now I’m an adult with abandonment issues. And I don’t like when people betray me, I don’t do well with it, I’d rather walk away,” Mary explained.
“I’m not abandoning you,” Angie assured her. “I’m so sorry that I made you feel that way, and I do love you, and I want to be your friend forever.”
“Angie brought me sisterhood,” Mary later said in a confessional.
This was the moment that I wish the season ended on, not the rest of the bullshit that came after. This was a genuine, profound moment between two people who really see each other. This show and so many like it deal in bitchiness and petty drama, and apologies are rare. That’s why a statement as simple as “I’m sorry I made you feel that way,” not “I’m sorry you feel that way,” not simply, “I’m sorry,” but an admission and acknowledgment of the power one’s words and actions can have on the people we love, is so powerful in this context. Angie is taking accountability for the power she holds in her relationship with Mary because to love someone is to possess that power, and true love wields power responsibly. Mary’s issue with Britani doesn’t make complete sense and Angie’s kindness towards Britani feeling like a betrayal is an overreaction on Mary’s part. To any of the other women who don’t understand Mary the way Angie does, this would have been a ridiculous, offensive notion, and there would not have been a resolution. They would have fought about it at the reunion. But Angie genuinely, unselfishly loves her friend Mary, and so she was genuinely sorry.
I know you think the people on these shows are bad people. I know you think reality TV is fake. But pain is an inescapable part of the human condition, whether you’re a bad person on a fake reality show or not. For five minutes on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City last night, we were witness to authentic forgiveness and compassion. Isn’t that all there is?