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‘The Real Housewives of Rhode Island’: Episode 2 recap
From Middletown to Providence, the drama heats up in the second episode.
Drama-filled lunches in Providence and Middletown fed off Rhody rumor-mill-grist in Episode 2 of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.”
After the pilot aired Thursday, RHORI moved to its regular Sunday night time-slot last night. If you need to catch up, we have your pilot recap here.
If you’re ready to move on, here’s what went down in Episode 2. Bravo uses only first names on the show to ID cast members, so we’ll stick with that format to make it easier for you.
Grab your clamcakes and Del’s…
Don’t call her grandma
We open at Liz and Gerry McGraw’s house (The couple owns Slater Mill Dispensary.) Step-daughter Brianna, 26, who is pregnant, arrives with her boyfriend Zach, 25.
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Brianna “met this guy, and before you knew it, she was pregnant. It was pretty quick,” Liz explains, adding that Gerry “almost passed out” when he found out.
They meet Zach’s parents and all seem to get along. Liz explains she raised Gerry’s three daughters since they were little, and she doesn’t want to be called “Grandma… I like Gigi.” (Or maybe GG? Not sure on her preferred spelling there.)
Crying in the park
Jo-Ellen Tiberi and Ashley Iaconetti – the only non-native Rhode Islander — take their kids on a playdate to what looks like Johnston Memorial Park. Ashley explains to the camera, “there are some rumors around the state that [Jo-Ellen] can be quite a b*tch.”
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Ashley tells Jo-Ellen that she and husband Jared — the two met on “Bachelor in Paradise” and now run Audrey’s Coffee House and Lounge in South Kingstown— had a great time at Jo’Ellen’s Fourth of July Party in Portsmouth.
Jo-Ellen is relieved—she was worried she made a scary first impression at Rosie’s picnic. Jo-Ellen and the former Channel 10 WJAR reporter Rosie Woods DiMare, fought at the picnic, after Rosie raised questions about Kelsey’s polyamorous relationship. (Kelsey Swanson— a former Miss Rhode Island and University of Rhode Island alum — wasn’t there at the time.) Jo-Ellen told Kelsey what Rosie said later, at the Fourth of July party.
Ashley reassures Jo-Ellen she “wasn’t phased by” the picnic drama.
Jo-Ellen asks Ashley how Audrey’s Coffee House is doing. Ashley complained last week isn’t wasn’t making the money they thought it would.
“It’s a constant stress,” Ashley says. Jared is “at work all the time…he has a lot of stress… We have sunshine-y days sometimes, but they’re very far and few in between…He tells me all the time, ‘whenever I’m moody and dark, it’s not about you…’ But it’s hard not to blame yourself…”
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Ashley starts crying. This was apparently a Thing she was known for on “Bachelor.”
Ashley says she has a nanny 33 hours a week. “I should be able to handle it. I don’t know why I’m crying so much.”
Jo-Ellen says Ashley tries to portray “an Instagram-perfect family” but understands motherhood is difficult.
Meet Rulla
Last week, we met 6 of the 7 Rhody native cast members. Now we finally meet Rulla Nehme Pontarelli of Lincoln.
Kelsey and Liz get a table at Fleur, in the Omni Providence Hotel, where they’ll meet Rulla. Liz explains she met Rulla a decade ago “through the boating community.” They’re also both half Syrian, Liz says. “I always adore my Middle Eastern Girls.”
Rulla arrives, and conversation turns to Jo-Ellen’s Fourth of July party in Portsmouth. “I feel like I’ve been a little bit more on the outside lately,” Rulla says, asking the other two why they want to hang out with Jo-Ellen.
Rulla tells the camera Jo-Ellen “comes across as friendly but that’s not always the truth.”
We learn that Jo-Ellen showed Liz photos of Rulla’s husband with another woman, which the “mistress” posted to socials.
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Liz explains “there are echos all around Rhode Island that Brian’s got a mistress.”
Rulla says Jo-Ellen “was running her mouth around town about it” and starting divorce rumors. Rulla maintains his affair is not “ongoing.”
“But it is, ma,” Liz tells her. Liz tells the camera that Rulla is living in “delusion.”
Rulla rebuffs, saying to Liz that she and Gerry have also had “indiscretions.” The difference is she and her husband have kids together. “When you produce the kids with somebody, it is a game-changer. Gerry has kids. You don’t have your own.”
Liz immediately takes offense. “You have no idea what I’ve done… bringing up kids. Maybe not producing.” Rulla tries to walk it back.
Kelsey says she empathizes with Rulla, because her relationship — with an older man who lives six months of the year with another woman in Florida — is also grist for the rumor mill.
Drive time
Alicia visits Kelsey (with only “crackahs” because the line was too long for cheese.) Kelsey explains that if you’re “from Rhode Island born and bred, you’re a breed… Alicia? So Rhode Island,” from her accent to her hatred of highway driving.
Alicia says: “I don’t like highways… I ran over a woman, I’ve almost driven off a bridge.” (Yes, the producer asks about the woman. No, she doesn’t elaborate.)
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They discuss the Rulla rumor. Kelsey said Jo-Ellen is “gasoline” to these cheating rumors.
Cranston shade
We finally see Rulla’s house — well, mansion— in Lincoln.
“I live in an upscale town,” she says of Lincoln. “I wouldn’t live where Jo-Ellen lives. I would never live in Cranston. It’s just not my vibe.”
Rulla says she’s “one of the only female captains in Rhode Island. I run my own financial planning firm.” She says she has a rep as a “boss b*tch.”
Rulla has been with Brian, a podiatrist at Rhode Island Foot Care, for 12 years. Rulla tells Brian about the Providence lunch talk.
Brian says, “What happened last year, happened last year… I just want to move forward.” She tells the camera she’s “still working” on forgiving him
Grapes of wrath
All the castmates, except for Rulla, board a party bus to Newport Vineyards in Middletown.
Kelsey says she likes “cheap wine … what they call stripper juice.” Jo-Ellen says she’s a “wine snob.”
Touring the Vineyard, there’s some confusion as to whether the grapes are tomatoes. “They’re not tomatoes. It’s grapes. We’re at a vineyard,” Jo-Ellen says. (Ah, the modern day Jessica Simpson tuna or chicken question.)
Kelsey takes Jo-Ellen aside to tell her Rulla is coming to Newport Vineyards. Jo-Ellen is upset.
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Jo-Ellen tells the camera doesn’t understand why she’s “getting the brunt of the blame from Rulla.
“Her husband was having an affair.”
She said she only shared photos that the “mistress posted on the Internet.”
Jo-Ellen complains that Rulla and her husband called her work “to try to get me fired” and she won’t stand for anyone coming after her finances and family.” Her husband’s the one stepping out… it’s not my problem. You want to start sh**? ‘Cuz I will f***ing bring it.”
At the table, the others are talking about the clash between Jo-Ellen and Rulla. Alicia says, “Rulla’s husband is a foot doctor… but I think he’s doing more than rubbing foot.”
Rulla FaceTimes the group and says she can’t make it because she’s sick. The Housewives wonder why she was in “full glam.”
Jo-Ellen tells the camera, Rulla is “not sick, she gets headaches because” she “takes too much Ozempic. Have a protein bar.”
They then play a game where people can write a question anonymously on a card, addressing rumors head-on.
Someone asks Rosie if she “had sex with the coach,” referring, apparently, to a rumor involving a reporter and a basketball coach.
“Don’t believe everything you see on Reddit,” she tells the camera. “Rich is barely my type, you think I’m going to date an old man basketball coach?“
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Someone asks Jo-Ellen “Are you a swinger?” She says she’s heard that rumor often, and it’s not true even though “Rhode Island is a big swinging community.”
Kelsey gets asked if she has a second boyfriend. (Her wealthy partner of 10 years lives in Miami with another woman half the year.)
“I am not in a polygamist relationship,” she says. “I am dating somebody else…. Whether I end up with either/or, I would be very happy.“
Rosie tells the camera she “asked ChatGPT,” and polygamy is “when you’re married…[but ] if this isn’t polyamory, I don’t know what is.”
Then Liz gets a question from Alicia, asking “is the news true” that Liz is having an affair. Liz gets visibly angry that Alicia of all people would ask.
Liz says that she and her husband have a close friend, Dino, who is like her little brother. They have “an unconventional friendship that people didn’t understand. Was it completely right? No… did I ever sleep with this human? No.”
Liz tells the camera: “It’s a scary day when people can take rumors and ruin lives over it. With Alicia saying that rumor, she was co-signing onto a narrative that she knew was false.”
Aaaaand, insert Michael Jackson eating popcorn GIF. Stay tuned next Sunday for more Ocean State drama.
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Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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