Oscars Outsider - Mary built the house, we're just living in it | RHOSLC S06E10 Recap/Analysis

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

We want to hear your takes! Give our hotline a call and leave a message with your thoughts on what's going on in the Bravo universe at 1-833-927-0178.Join us on the Bravo Outsider Podcast as we embark on a thrilling exploration of the latest episodes of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City🥂 About Bravo OutsiderThe Bravo Outsider Podcast offers an outside perspective on Bravo shows like The Real Housewives, unlike any other Bravo podcast! We focus on the artistic value of these shows while providing strategic analysis of the social game at the core of the Bravo docu-soap. We love thick literary references and diving into themes before diving into the drama!🍸Featured Bravolebs:We want to hear your takes! Give our hotline a call and leave a message with your thoughts on what's going on in the Bravo universe at 1-833-927-0178If you enjoyed this breakdown, don’t forget to hit the like button, comment below your favourite moment, and subscribe for more Bravo content!🥂 About Bravo OutsiderThe Bravo Outsider Podcast offers an outside perspective on Bravo shows like The Real Housewives, unlike any other Bravo podcast! We focus on the artistic value of these shows while providing strategic analysis of the social game at the core of the Bravo docu-soap. We love thick literary references and diving into themes before diving into the drama!🍸Featured Bravolebs:Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: Heather Gay, Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, Angie Katsanevas, Mary Cosby, Bronwyn Newport, Britani Bateman, 📣 Stay Connected:Find Bravo Outsider:On your podcast platform of choice: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bravo-outsider/Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bravooutsiderTikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@bravooutsiderhttps://www.bravooutsider.comFind Craig Midwinter:chess.com: https://www.chess.com/member/craigjmidwinterFind Dylan Ferguson:Substack: https://dylanferguson.substack.com/Find Sandra Klowak:Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/corporealcurios⁠⁠📖 CreditsMusic by FASSounds from Pixabay#RHOSLC #bravotv #bravo #realitytv #RealHousewives

It fleshed out so much of her character. She really did look like a queen in her in her kingdom. Yeah, I think it is a boost in terms of her credibility as the narrator of this season. Hello and welcome to the Bravo Outsider Podcast. I'm your host, Craig Midwinter. I'm joined by Sandra Cloak and we are talking about Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season 6, episode 10, I believe. Sandra, what was your immediate thought on this episode? Were you thrilled?

I liked it. It was clearly a little break from the ladies' drama proper, but I really enjoyed it. I thought that the little takes on people's families and relationships were really compelling, and I was into it. And the Mary's Church thing, super into it. How about you? Yeah, you know what? I needed to sit on this episode. I really liked it a lot better on my second one.

watch through than I did on the first. The first time through, I was a little bit bored by it, but not that that's necessarily a bad thing when it comes to these shows. I feel like you need to have some of those valleys so that those peaks hit a lot harder. Like one of the great things about these shows, and I think art that you see a lot of in general is that there's that dynamicism that comes from having those lows and those highs. And so, Um, this wasn't, no one's going to call this like an action packed episode of this franchise, but I think you're right. There is a lot going on in this episode that I really appreciate.

Did you have like a favorite scene from this that stood out to you? I had a few. Um, so I don't know. So I guess that's good. I was really interested in the scene with John and Lisa. I thought that was so real and so compelling. It felt real to me. I don't know, your opinion.

but I thought that was good, honest look into the challenges they're facing and that John was like standing up for himself and kind of actually saying what he never says. And I mean, I felt like Lisa had some points in there too. And it just felt like a relatable, unhappy marriage situation. So I really liked, like I appreciated that scene quite a bit. Totally. I think one of the things that makes that scene feel so real is the fact that the communication issues that they are talking about having are on full display during that conversation. They aren't listening to each other. They're not giving each other space to talk.

And that's exactly what they're arguing about. And I think that neither of them come off looking like great. They're still in this phase of an argument where they're trying to assign blame on each other as opposed to trying to like get over it, which I think is a trap that a lot of people can really fall into. But they, yeah, so they're, they're trying to assign blame to each other as opposed to listening to each other. And that is what John is seemingly so angry about is that he's never listening.

But he's also not listening to Lisa. This is, there's a lot of anger within this scene. Like, you can really feel the anger of John, especially when he is criticizing Lisa for just scrolling on her phone instead of listening to him. And yeah, I just like got the sense that there's a lot of resentment in this relationship. So I think, you know, that is another like contributing factor to how real this scene feels. Totally. I also really loved the Jared and Brittany scene because it was just wild.

And we don't, I want more Jared. Yeah. Like I hate him. I fucking hate him. But it feels good. So that's my other. And then of course, well, there's more. But go with that.

I love the scene. This was my favorite from like a cinematic perspective. I really loved what was going on in this scene. Like even right from the intro where we see Jared leaning cool guy on the picnic table. And it's so awkward. It's like framed dead center in the middle of a wide shot. And he just like, it's so awkward. They don't give him the cool guy treatment at all,

even though that's what he's like set up for. I really love that. But one of the things that I especially like about how this scene is shot is the use of the focal depth because through a lot of this scene, it's got such a shallow focus. So all that you can see, like make out clearly and read within the frame is Jared and Brittany. And it makes it feel like they are alone in this world. And it makes us focus so much on them in particular and their relationship. and how they've almost got this force field around perceptions of their relationship, or at least from Britney's perspective,

I think it makes it feel like so intimate, even though they weave in that awkwardness of their relationship. So I really like that. And then they end up as she's kind of pulling away from him within the relationship and leaving. That focal depth is a lot wider. So we see him literally on the rocks. Like he's literally on the rocks as the relationship is on the rocks. And the we can see through the wide shot, everything is a lot more legible.

And we can read where they are. And, you know, it's like the world is crashing into their relationship. So I really love that. And again, the treatment of Jared at the end of this, where they're kind of following him as he's walking. straight into the camera being like, if you want to be my boyfriend, you have to try being stable for four days or something like that. Just like they give him a really great asshole treatment at the end and the way it's like dead center frame like shot up at him.

It's yeah, a beautiful, beautiful cinematic treatment in this scene. Definitely I, in my opinion, was the best looking and presented in terms of cinematography. Did anything stand out to you? There was just one shot I really appreciated when. And I like this scene as well when Mary was entering her new church with her son. And I just noticed they were both dressed in red. They matched each other perfectly. And then they matched the church itself.

And of course, there's some themes about this church and opening back up and coming home to it. And I liked how Mary dresses to match her home. And you can really see how that place, like, is her in so many ways. And she dresses in red for the opening service as well. So I just appreciated sort of the visual connection there with the stunning color. and she really did look like a queen in her in her kingdom. Totally. Yeah, this entire episode really adds a lot of depth to Mary as a character.

And I think like Mary has been giving a lot this season just in terms of the comedic relief. But I feel like this, this was a big missing piece for the story of Mary over the past few seasons, probably since she returned because since the church has been shut down, we have a little got to see that side of her. And as soon as we saw her at the end, they're giving her sermon, it was like it fleshed out so much of her character. We see that missing piece. And, you know, Angie actually verbalizes this by saying, I feel so close to Mary, but there's

this one huge missing piece that I haven't been able to experience because the church has been closed. And we see her seem to come alive. as she was up there. And I thought it was, it was fantastic to see. I am a huge fan of Mary, Mary Cosby,

the character here and the fact that we are getting this added depth, I think is great. And you're right, the scene that we got leading into this where we see her and her son, we, a little more in terms of what this actually means to her

in terms of her, like, she wants to do this for, her son. She feels like this is something she can do to try to heal her son. And with the church closed, all of her emotions and her personal storyline has all been like contextualized around her struggle with her son. So I really like that we got to see that scene of them together because it really brings these two stories together. And we see why it all is connected and why it matters so much to her. She's doing this not just for her congregation, but also for her son and for herself

to like help heal the person that is most important to her. Absolutely. And it makes it so much more poignant that he wasn't able to actually be at that opening because of his issues. And yeah, it's pretty powerful storyline. What did you think of the opening to this episode, the high body count surprise party? Okay. Well, I feel like they're really overcompensating on, like, fawning over Brittany. I mean, we'll see how long that lasts or where it goes. It's a little much to me. Like, calm down, everyone.

You bring in a build a bear expert to, like, make her, like, 10 stuff. I don't know. When they said the high body count hair, I was like, well, that's a mean girl way to celebrate her. And then she loved it. She loved it, yeah. And also don't, yeah, I don't know. And their hair looked very, didn't look like her hair at all.

Like they just made it spikey. So I may teased it. So it just, and it was a little haphazard. And I'm interested to see if that just kind of like, they're like, all right, we did our penance to Brittany. Now she can go back in the pit and we'll be more neutral. Or if that's going to continue, like I'm interested. Yeah. What did you think?

I, there's a lot about it that I like. I agree that the idea was pretty like haphazard. I love that it was kind of Whitney. just wanted to like throw something together and it really was like a potluck not just in terms of like everyone bringing food but everyone bringing like an element of the party like angie brought the theme of high body count and bronwin brought the activity of the build a bear and so i really i like that i think that that is fun you're right it feels very thrown together it feels a little bit like overcompensating I wonder how much of this is to sell the idea that Brittany has been attacked on the plane.

Like if this is them trying to communicate that more strongly so that we as a viewer believe that this was this egregious pile on that happened that we didn't get to see to help sell their narrative because we know that both Lisa and Meredith are trying to sell the contrasting storyline of. It was nothing. I was just venting to a friend. And so I wonder how much of this is actual, like, a storytelling attempt. I also, I thought that the, the builder bear was a cute idea. Like, I thought that that was a really fun way for Bronwyn to alleviate herself of the guilt of tossing the unicorn over. I like that they took this.

It's a pretty typical housewife activity of everyone, like, find a way to say something about everyone, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, either to strengthen a team or to, like, cause conflict. I really liked using these bears as a vessel for that. I thought that that was a really nice tie-in. And functionally, within the story of this episode, one thing that I really liked was it was a bookend moment because we got everyone giving messages of love to Brittany around the circle at the beginning of this, with the exception of Mary, Mary Cosby. And then at the end, the mirror of that is instead of being the only silent person that while there's messages of love going around, it's Mary giving messages of love to everyone within the crowd. And so I like that reflection.

I thought that that was just a really nice, nice touch there. Yeah. So I like this. I think that in terms of the, on the scale of really thrown together host wife events, this is like a success for me. I think it's really good. Fair enough. Yeah. And yeah, clearly like you said, I mean, Meredith and Lisa are going around doing their little tour, their little like PR tour to try to get people on their side. And it doesn't sound like it's working. So it is interesting to contemplate how that will play out and how the teams have like suddenly changed. I mean, not totally change. But like the team, there's still teams. And at least it's not one person totally single though. And it's a totally different issue than we were talking about two episodes ago. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. It's really funny that it feels like there's been a big shakeup or a big, like, team change.

Like, this feels like a blockbuster trade. And if you're following sports that, you know, we've got one big piece moving from one team to the other. But really, it's just like Brittany. It's just Brittany that is moving from one team to the other, kind of. And who knows how long that lasts, it's definitely not a big deal. But they are using it to kind of galvanize everyone on one. side. So I do like what they are doing in terms of trying to build, build a team around this. I don't know that Brittany is like the piece that you

would need in order to like to win the championship. But, you know, it's it's a she's a locker room piece. I guess that's that's that. But I'm curious about whether or not you think that Lisa and Meredith's strategy of just, you know, going on pretending and acting as though this was a big nothing on the plane, how that is going to play out? Well, I think if we never see the footage, then it's their best bet for sure. I mean, they, it's sort of this, like we talked about last week, who's telling the truth. And obviously, if you have like six against two, then I guess, you know, there's some data for you.

But for them to just, just go all in that they did nothing, I think it's a powerful stance. I mean, they need to, I see there was a preview for. Meredith talking to Brittany next episode maybe. So it must really kill her that she has to like apologize to Brittany to get clout back in this group. So we'll see where she lands next episode. Meredith, I mean.

But yeah, I think for now they are looking as powerful as they could in this in this situation. What do you think? Yeah. I mean, they're trying to just hedge this into a dead end. And yeah, I agree that this is probably their best bet.

just, you know, keep pretending it's nothing until eventually it blows over. This conflict has been snowballing, right? Like, I don't even know if I remember what Meredithus beef with Brittany was all about, but it's not what we're talking about now. We're talking about the fight on the plane. And so they, right now it's been a pattern of just throwing fuel on the fire. So this does seem like a good way to kind of hedge. that off. I think the more interesting thing is what it has done to Meredith's stance within the group.

I think it has deflated her quite a bit. So I'm curious how she's able to rebound because she was facing criticism for not necessarily standing up for Lisa or not really picking aside. And then she took a very arbitrary thing to get upset about. Well, maybe not arbitrary for her. her, but just within the scope of the story that has been told, just like a passing remark about something a blogger said about Seth and using that to completely snap and burn her bridges across the entire group is really a poor strategic choice in my opinion. But at least she's doing something. At least she's like, I'm not disengaged from Meredith now. Exactly. She's not disengaged, we're not disengaged, so I'm here for it. It's a win for us as a viewer. It's a big,

a big L for Meredith. But one of the things that I have always said is makes for a good housewife is your ability to take owls and still like keep, keep things rolling and make things interesting. I think that, you know, we can't have just a cast of entirely likable housewives all the time that are always friends. That's not why we watch these shows. We watch it for the conflict. And so you need someone that is either stirring things up or able to like take some punches or blow things up. And I think that one of the things that is making this cast so successful, like we've got so many people that have have multiple seasons under their belt and not a lot of changeover in this cast, I think is we've just got a great chemistry and we've got a lot of well-rounded housewives that are able to do a lot of things,

both winning and losing things. So yeah, I'm glad to see Meredith is not just like rolling over and is actually doing something here. How do you think that Meredith's freak out is impacting Lisa's story? I wonder if Lisa feels better off. As I said last week, I kind of felt like it would make sense if Lisa sort of impulsively joined Meredith's team on the plane just to feel like she was not not alone and had a had an ally and I wonder if she's regretting that now or if she feels like at least she has one solid person who now needs her now they need each other as opposed to just her being in the the lowest position yeah I I think that this has worked in her favor in some ways and worked against her in others because, for one, no one is talking about her anymore.

She's off the hot seat, it seems like, for the most part. Everyone is talking about Meredith. I guess there is a little bit of chit-chat about Lisa and her not taking accountability for what happened on the plane. But from the sounds of things, her part was pretty small. It seems like most of that chatter is mostly just because all the momentum was against Lisa and, you know, people are trying to continue that a little bit, especially like all the groundwork that Heather has been putting in to undermine Lisa.

She's hoping that she can take some of the momentum that is building towards Meredith and, you know, form more of an attack on Lisa. So I think that the fact that no one is really still talking that much about Lisa is good for her, but feel like she's still in a corner. She is not able to use this and pivot and, you know, be like, okay, you're right. Meredith was wrong. She's not able to like take accountability.

So she can't turn this into anything really other than a distraction from everything that was going against her. I think it's not going to be a stepping stone to get back in with the group. But yeah, I don't know that necessarily needs to be. She's got someone firmly in her camp now. So this has worked out well for her, I think. Totally.

So we talked a little bit about Lisa and Meredith. And I think that they are obviously still the big losers in this. In your mind, has anyone really gained a lot of position in this episode? I mean, I don't think there was a ton of that because it was a bit of an interlude. I think that Bronwyn's sort of keeping up her. narrative with her marriage and speaking honestly to Todd sort of bolsters her in this sort of alternative way, showing that she's sort of ready to have some power in her relationship and want some changes. So I think that maybe might sort of boost her a little bit in that from that

angle. Yeah, I think that, yeah, I don't know what to think about the Bronwyn and Todd thing. Honestly, I'm a little, I'm a little bored by it. I don't know. I feel like Todd is, a big man baby and I mean there's a lot of man babies in in this I feel like John was a little bit of a of a man baby um but yeah I feel like Todd and Bronwyn I don't really I don't really care Todd seems like she seems like she'd be better off without him uh the open relationship thing is just not really reading as legitimate I think maybe the most interesting thing about it is the fact that it feels like it's just this piece that she wants to play in order to like hold on to him.

Like she's trying to stay connected by any means necessary. And so this like it just speaks to a little bit of desperation that she has for having some control within a personal relationship. But otherwise, I just like I don't really care about Todd. He's not interesting enough to care about. He just seems like a dick. And I don't know what else I need to see from him. No, that's fair. And I mean, she certainly wants this to be her storyline.

She's really pushing the open marriage thing. She didn't wear her ring so that it would come up at the brunch. So maybe, yeah, maybe there's nowhere to go with it, but she's certainly hoping there is. So that's kind of interesting. Yeah, on the topic of the wedding ring, I think that that is a really interesting choice from her. I think that her decision to not wear the wedding ring and give them a chance to bring that up. I think that is smart storytelling. And I think that Whitney, by kind of taking the ball and running with it and asking Bronwyn whether or not she can bring it up, I think that that is really smart.

That's really courteous. And I think she's helping Bronwyn a lot in terms of the storytelling portion of this. I am really interested to see how this relationship between them progresses because it seems like it is legitimate. close, like the fact that they are opening up about their personal lives, the way that they are having like a back and forth carrying the ball of, of this story. And Whitney is really there to build Bronwyn up. And Bronwyn is someone that we see really needing us like a close personal relationship. She just has such lonely energy. And we see that in all of her personal relationship. So she wants a relationship to happen.

And I want that for her and Whitney because I think they are both like fantastic housewife. So I'm very interested to see how this progresses. Nice. My other one that of note is I liked how Mary chose to give no message to Brittany in her stuffed animal. And I thought that elevated her from the rest of the group who were kind of, you know, desperate for approval. Not approval.

It can't be. but like desperate to get in to show that they were on team Brittany. And Mary was like, look, I'm not going to be a jerk to her because she had a hard time on the plane. But I don't like her still. And I appreciate that. It's like, I think we were kind of saying like Mary's like the has moved into the role of that sort of voice of the audience or conduit. And I feel like that I felt like that there. I'm like, thank you, Mary, for like keeping your head on your shoulders here.

Like everyone's going nuts and you're like, I'll be reasonable. But I'm not going to say something nice if I don't feel anything nice. I really respected that and I think it gives Mary a light strategic boost in my eyes at least. Yeah, I think it is a boost in terms of her credibility as the narrator of this season. Like I think that we see her as more honest for doing that. And, you know, she did it without being that mean. Like it didn't seem like a pile on. I was just like, I don't have anything nice to say to you.

So I'm not going to say anything at all. you know and we see how big of a a diss that is at the end when she's giving like nice messages to everyone else within the friend group or sort of nice I guess she she did tell Lisa that she hopes that God gives her a brain or something like that yeah a sound mind that was my favorite quote because straight from God and it was like I thought

no one commented on that like the little like everyone's like you'll get peace and you'll get love and you'll get your dreams and you'll get a sound mind. It's so great. Well, Meredith was, it was kind of shady to Meredith too. It was like, you'll get a full heart or something like that. It was almost like Lisa and Meredith had Tin Man and Scarecrow energy from the Wizard of Oz.

You get a heart and you get a brain. Which was a callback in a way to last episode because Meredith was saying that that Brittany was tin man with no brain. Wait, brain. I think they got the mixed up. But anyway, she meant to say the one with her brain. They got the mixed up. Yeah.

Wait, or did they? I don't know. I'll have to review the story. You know, you read it to your kid recently. But either way. So they did get it mixed up, I think. So they said that Tin Man had no brain, but it was scarecrow that had no brain. And Bronwood dresses like the patchwork girl of Oz.

Okay, so do you have any other strategic moves that stood out? to you? I think it's really strategic that Lisa chooses to gift Vita tequila to the Church of Satan. You don't want to have any enemies and you never know when that can help her in the future. Yeah. Honestly, that endeared me to Lisa a bit more. I really like that. It was very cute and honest. Yeah, I think we got through most of the things that I had outlined for strategy. Any other highlights that we haven't talked about? No, one thing I just noted was, like, I know both the sequence of these shows are edited together and climate change makes weather weird, but like, the weather is really hard to follow on this show. And I, like, I get that they might be jumping a few months, but it's like, it's like a snowstorm and then they're out in shorts.

I guess that it's fine. It adds to the weird witchiness of the vibe. Yeah, yeah, true. It could just be like our prairies talking, but. But the drastic changes in weather is definitely hard to follow. Yeah, that's very true. Maybe we're just, maybe that's just how it is some places. Okay, who are your stars here?

I have to give Meredith's sprained toe, specifically a star for being the star of me, that scene when they walk up. I mean, and of course, Meredith is attached to that toe. So she does get the credit. You don't need a full boot for a sprained toe. you don't need anything for a broken toe. So cool, because it was funny. I'm going to give a star to Jared for quite a performance of being a huge asshole that I enjoyed.

And I'll give a star to Mary for kind of, I'd say coming out as the most compelling character in this episode. Like you said, it really rounded out her storyline. And like, you just kind of like want to see that side of her. And it's so unique. We didn't really talk about how there's. a documentary about her church being a cult, but that just adds to the mystery and craziness of it all. The timing is really interesting because Mary is on such an upswing right now in terms of the

sentiment of everyone within the fan base. And then for this expose of Mary's cult to come out, I'm interested to see how that plays within the fan base because I don't know how. complex as a fan base, our relationship with Mary is. I think like individually, I think there's lots of us fans, probably a lot of our listeners, because we have the smartest listener base in all of the Bravo fandom. But I think that there's a segment of the fan base that is smart enough to realize that the Mary's flaws and the total weird shit that she does with her church and the cult and her whole history is something that adds a lot of depth to her as a character. But I think that as a fan base, any fan base is guilty of this.

We often like to try to look at things in binaries in like black or white, someone is good or someone is bad. And so when we are seeing Mary as, you know, someone that is good and like our proxy into this world and our lens and the voice of reason to have something that comes out. really undermines that. I think it's going to be interesting because we've had documentaries like this about Jen Shaw. We've had them about Erica Jane,

but they have not been at a point within the like the reverie of the fan base that Mary is at right now. Because, you know, she's getting standing ovations at BravoCon. Whereas when Erica Jane was was down, people didn't like her and people still don't necessarily. love her and Jen Shaw obviously was like a villain so I think that I'm interested to see how this all plays out I'm going to watch it I think it like I love how it like I said add step to Mary's character and I'm very curious about it and I think it's probably going to highlight a lot of things that we won't get to see within the real houseways of Salt Lake City just because I think that as a personality on the show she does have

have some narrative control over her story. So I don't think, I don't think we're going to see a lot of the elements that are covered here. So I'm, I'm here for it. I'm just curious to see how it plays out within, within the fandom. How do you think it's, it's going to land? I mean, I have to see it. It's, it's pretty intriguing. I don't, I don't know how many, like, you know, really yucky details will be in there or if it's like, you know, like, cult content is super popular. So it could just could just be something interesting. It really depends how icky it gets. I don't know.

Yeah, we will see. I am eagerly looking forward to this. Another thing that we haven't really talked about, a show that we've covered in the past, I'm curious if you're watching right now, the Mormon secret lives of Mormon wives. Have you started watching the latest season? I have not.

I've never watched any of it, actually. Oh, what? Oh, okay. Season one is fantastic. Season two is really great as well. I'm not through season three if started watching it, but it is excellent. I highly recommend, especially season one. I think that is like fantastic top tier docuiceop.

And the presence of the church within that series is even stronger than early Real House Boys of Salt Lake City where it's like looming over everything. It highly recommend watching that. We did an episode last year where we talked to. about an episode of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. For any of our listeners that are listening right now and are curious, go back and check that out. I'll try to find a link and drop it into the description

on our YouTube and Spotify. But we dive into the presence of the church and how the whole structure, the patriarchy, fits within that culture and imposes itself on that show. And the inversion of that by all these women gaining power and platform turns that on head and the challenges that that creates for the men who are used to the status quo there. Super fascinating, especially within that first season. So highly, highly recommend checking

that show out. So I think that about does it for this week. Sandra, do you want to let people know where they can find you? I am on Instagram at Corporial Curios. I'm Craig Midwinter. You can just connect with us on our YouTube and Spotify or wherever your platform. form you're listening to this right now. Leave us a comment. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok, though less active on those platforms. But check out at Bravo Outsider. Maybe if I see a bunch of new followers on there, I will be motivated to put out more content there.

But until next week, good night, baby. You are love.