Episode 3: What A Little Whiskey Can Do

After last week's dramatic discussion on racial identity, how could the Housewives possibly up the ante? This week we saw a little less etiquette policing, a little more overall shade, and lots of racially uncomfortable undertones.

Let's start with Katie.

Katie- "My family is old money. My mom's family founded black colleges and universities and my dad's family made their money bootlegging during prohibition. My dad was actually one of my mom's professors".
Oh, biracial Katie. I don't know about Katie's family in particular, but all of this makes me a bit suspicious. In the 70s, a white male professor gets involved with one of his black female students and now it's just a cute family anecdote? 


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Also, note the implied respectability politics here. Katie's black family is framed as being involved with education, while her white family made their money illegally (lol, omg, those adorbs bootleggers, amirite?). I highly doubt that if the family situations were reversed, socialite Katie would be bragging about it. #twiceasgood

Katie had some relationship issues this week, but one of the bright spots was her growing friendship with Ashley. However, this led to one of the most awkward exchanges in this week's episode during Katie and Ashley's dinner with their respective #richwhitedudes.

Katie- "Isn't it exciting hanging out with like, an interracial couple? I like it
Katie's White Dude-"Absolutely"
Ashley- "Do you feel sometimes like you don't have a lot of interracial couple friends?"
Katie- "We don't at all. Like none."

Katie finally found someone she can relate to! Another biracial lady with a #richwhitedude! Taken alongside her comments from last week, this is further evidence that Katie sometimes feels like she doesn't fit in with the rest of the Housewives, which seems at least a little related to her identity choices.

Speaking of Ashley, she had this week's most exciting storyline, and she handled it beautifully.
Everything about that bathing suit shopping sequence was just...off. Karen felt the need to assert herself as the matriarch, but she took surprisingly well to Ashley, for now.

Karen to Ashley- I was just gonna give you one tidbit of advice though, because you are new to the community" (dramatic pause). In Potomac, the women especially, you know, we've earned our position. so it's respect that gets you into the circle. It's a hard circle to get into, but I like you so you have an introductory". 

Subtext: Girl, watch yourself. You're alright for now, but remember that you're on probation.

And Ashley knows it.

Ashley: "It's so nice spending time with these Potomac women who aren't judging my character, just my figure".

Ashley is foreshadowing some future trouble, because Karen warned her about how they do. And low and behold EVERYONE had something to say about Ashley's whiskey tasting.

Karen- "I couldn't believe that THIS is the place she invited us to, to have a whiskey tasting. I am dressed to the nine, and I didn't know the attire was flip flops"

Robyn- "I'm really shocked that ashley is hosting a whiskey tasting. It seems like a grown up man thing and Ashley's like a little girl". 

Gizelle- "I'm Gucci down to my socks and y'all told me to go to the basement. I typically don't venture out this way"

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At this point, I was terrified for poor Ashley. She knew whiskey might not be their thing, and this whole event was a big, big risk. But in the end, she came out on top after confronting Gizelle about calling her a THOT.

Ashley to Gizelle- "You're being nicer to my face than you were behind my back...you called me a THOT for God's sake".
Gizelle-"You were humping her...typically hoes do that"
Ashley- "Hoes have sex with other people. Did I have sex with her?
Gizelle-"That's ho-ish behavior".

But ultimately, Ashley did get Gizelle to apologize, which touched Charrisse so much that it helped smooth things over between her and Gizelle as well.

Charrisse- Considering that she's 26, Ashley is behaving more mature than both Gizelle and I.

In the end, Ashley ends up with a win. And even Mama Karen can laugh about it.

Karen- "Ashley, now that you're in the circle, if I catch you humping another woman, I will pull you off of her"

One more thing. Mama Karen managed to make an awkward racial comment this week too, but it was more subtle. She's a little too excited about the whitest white dude ever who shows up to take her daughter to prom and it feels a little like she sees it as a come up for Rayvin.

Karen- "Interracial dating in Potomac is normal. We tell our children to look for a good person who has the milk of human kindness, so the fact that Rayvin's date is a Caucasian young man, it's a true reflection of what Ray and I taught Rayvin".

You taught your daughter to be interested in...what exactly? And this storyline, alongside Karen continuously comparing Katie and Ashley to her daughter, looks a lot like she's hoping that Rayvin will find her own #richwhitedude.

One moment of linguistic interest stuck out this week, along with the general intonation and discourse strategies that I've been seeing since jump.

Ashley to Karen-"I'm tryna get to know yo fashion sense, honey". 

Because of their power differential and Ashley's less glamorous background, we might be surprised that she said this to Karen, but it gets received in a good-natured way. Karen's treatment of Ashley has shown that maybe aside from all the etiquette policing, she's actually got a sense of humor.

Random Unrelated Thought: Katie, you cannot shoehorn Andrew into marrying you! And relatedly, I've also got some judgment towards that dude from Washington Life magazine who was all "what you don't have is a husband right now". Katie knows, dude. Trust us, she knows.