Bros & Shows - Vanderpump Rules Season 11 Premiere Full Recap

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

What's up Bros?! VPR is BACK baby! The season we've all been waiting for and this was a solid first episode! We start out by checking in with everyone to see how they're holding up 3 months post Scandoval. Don't worry, Tom is still in New Zealand filming Special Forces so we don't have to deal with him yet... But things have settled down slightly amongst the group. Tom and Ariana are still living in the same house but communicating via assistant. Katie fills us in about Something About Her and its looking like things are still moving in the right direction. Could we also see a friendship blossoming between her and Scheana?? Scheana is still reeling from Scandoval and the betrayal. DJ James Kennedy is doing well in his new house, he's sober, seems happy and seems like he is in a really good place (love to see it). The episode ends with Lala reaching out to Rachel as she begins to empathize with her having gone through what she thinks is a similar situation with Randal. All in all, solid start to the season and the Bros are ready for more! Time Stamps: Intro: (0-8:27) VPR: (8:28) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DC high volume, Batman. The Dark Knight's definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or have you shot. What do you mean blow up the building? From this moment on,

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. As there's a drive in a deep left field by Castellanos. Oh man, it's 8 o'clock. And so that'll make it a... I don't need the spotlight. I shine just fine.

Hi, I'm Karma. And yes, I am a bitch. Brov Bros. Good evening, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Brov Bros. Your favorite podcast from The Bros for everybody. For whoever wants to listen, I am your co-host, Steele Russell, joined as always by the one and only L. V. Magoutz P. What the fuck?

I know where you're going for. No? Yeah, I don't know. Lisa Vandergoots. Oh, that's actually nice. I like that one. I'll do that one. Lisa van der Goots.

What's up, Phil? Not a lot. I mean, changing of the tides here. We've got new shows rolling out, VPR back. Boys are in the studio a little early. So the show actually hasn't dropped yet. But we're making sure to get it out right on time for you. We get to have like a cool moment, like where we get to feel like we're more important than we actually are because we've got the screener for this bad boy.

So we got to watch it beforehand to give you guys the episode right as this episode ends. And by this episode, I mean the Vanderpump premiere. So now you can listen to our takes immediately. Who doesn't want that? It's like Christmas come early. I mean, we do actually get a lot of people commenting saying, I'm watching an episode and I'm wondering what the bros are thinking right now. now you get to know well i mean you know not during the episode we're still trying to work out the bugs there but uh maybe a watch party in the future should we do a watch party people know logistically

i don't know how that works because doesn't it air later on the west coast so then what we have to do like a blackout which is crazy because the mlb used to do that and i used to freak out all the time when they used to blackout games in certain areas yeah i know well now they just put it on apple tv which you know i pay thousands of dollars a month for streaming services so you know what are you going to do. But yeah, no, I don't know logistically speaking how that would work, but just know that we're thinking about potentially watching with you virtually. Oh, you're talking about a virtual watch party. Oh, you like wanted to go somewhere and do it? People have asked us if we could like go to a bar and do like a watch party with them. And I, I've never said, yes, I'm not against

the idea. We just have had so much going on that I didn't like. What if we did a live show? So we do a live event. Hear me out. We go to a bar right next to a stage. Okay. And we see. And we sit at the bar and we all together watch the show, and then you and I just go up on stage and we start talking about it. I think that's a good idea. I think that could work. Yeah, I think you know where we should do it? Where?

Chickies and Pete's. Oh, God. You think we could do that? I don't know. I don't know if that would work. I don't think Chickies and Pete's would put that on. And obviously, people outside of Philadelphia probably have no idea. Chickies and Pete follows us on Instagram.

They do. And I think they're also not just in Philadelphia anymore or the surrounding areas. Aren't they, like, down in Florida now, too? They got some random ones now. Yeah, but I think we could swing. That would be a cool one. I would feel very accomplished if we did a live show of Chickies and Peets. I'd feel like we really made it, in this city at least.

That's how you know you've made it. Yeah. We were on Watch What Happens Live last week, and you're like, I really want Chickies and Peas. I said in this city. In the city, we made it once we're doing a live show of Chickies and Peets. Maybe. Yeah. If the follower from Chickies and Peets, whoever followed us, if you're listening to this

and you'd be down for a little watch party slash live show recap at Chickies and Peets, reach out speaking of by the way which is not speaking of at all because it's a completely different topic okay cool somebody reached out to me and said that you have never said brav bro gs before that's false i have just tell you but like here's the thing people are telling me this isn't like a thing where i'm like no no i swear like no i really have because like i remember way back um they came up because we had just gotten a boost in listeners and i remember trying to think of a name for our like oh gs i was like oh my brab brog's i don't even have a name for for the people that listen to the show.

I know that. They're just our bros. They're our bros. Yeah, I guess, yeah. But no, like that one I'm certain of. So I don't know who reached out to you, but I don't really care. They, because this one I'm actually like, usually you can get me on these because I don't remember shit.

I can't remember like where my shoes are right now. Well, I want more people. The other thing is also, we talked about this at the end of the episode. So there are people that definitely tune us out towards the end. Oh, for sure. So, including me, I tend to tune out at the end of the episode anyway. Yeah. But yeah, as more people reach out.

look, I'm going to keep everybody anonymous. Your secret's safe with me. Well, you're a liar, whoever you are. Maybe not a liar, but maybe it's just somebody that was like, oh, yeah, I've never heard that before, because I'm also probably saying. But again, that's lying because you don't have all the facts, and you're just trying to, you're trying to cuddle up to Magout's over here. You can lie to me all you want, pal.

Just don't lie to yourself. I don't need to. This is one of the few times where I can be like, oh, I actually did say it. And I'm confident about that because you write it in the notebook, though, because you don't have the best memory. I don't know, man. My notebooks are ever. You have to dig through around here.

Oh, man. That would be a great case study. If anybody can read your handwriting. Nah, they can't. Get all the notebooks back out and go back through it. Maybe I should start bringing notebooks to our live shows and, like, tossing them to the audience. You get a notebook. You get a notebook.

That would actually be a pretty funny giveaway. Do they want my notebooks? Dude, maybe. I don't know. If you want my notebooks, reach out and let us know that, too. Let us know one was chickies and peats. Okay. I don't care about, I don't care about pro geez because I know I said it.

And I don't need you. Or, what do you call it? I don't need your approval. Validation. I don't need it. All right. And then the third thing is let me know if you want a notebook. Maybe I'll sign one.

I think that would be a good giveaway, honestly. Maybe not like a toss off the stage type of thing because then that would be kind of like a bouquet at the end of a wedding. Although I don't know. I don't know what the significance would be. But here's the thing. If you do get my notebook. Do I get married to that person then?

Like, how does that work? You got to go on a date with them. I like this game now. I like this game more now. I was thinking more just like a maybe a fundraiser for a charity. In the back of the notebook, there will be a coupon to go on a date with Magout's. One coupon. One coupon to go to Chickies and a hug.

Maybe just a hug. Okay, fine. A hug and a mustache ride. All right. No. Shave in the mustache tomorrow. That's the other thing. I can't even shave the mustache because it's just, it's who I am now.

So if I ever want to like alter, which I haven't had, I haven't felt compelled to alter my facial hair in the last year and a half. it is just to grow the beard out. And then you don't, you still don't lose the stash. No, the stash is always a little bit longer, so. But before we get into the main event, and I know everyone's chomping at the bit here,

isn't it champing at the bit? No. Are you sure? What would champing mean? I think that this is one of those. Championing. I think it's one of those weird ones where it's like actually not,

like, uh, for intents and purposes. Like some people think it's for intensive purposes. What are some other ones? Oh, there's one that I still don't know what it is. Um,

And it would be not all it's cracked up to be, not all it's chalked up to be, not all it's choked up to be. I don't know what it is. I have no idea what it is. I've heard so many variations of it. But what do you think it is? Not all it's cracked up to be. Cracked. I don't know. They all kind of sort of make sense in a way that they don't make sense. But here you go. What? It is champing at the bit was the original. But people say it's, it's acceptable to use both. But technically speaking, champing at the bit, C-H-A. Is there a date next to that, like a year that that came out? Because that could have been like some weird old-timey. Oh, for sure, because it was about a horse when they bite. That's what it says. Like, that's what it comes from.

Because they have the bit in their mouth, you know? Okay. When you put the reins on them. So because they're camping at the bit. So even then you would think it would be chomping. But no, the OG vernacular was champing at the bit. Stupid. Isn't this what you all, this is what you all came here for, right?

That's what we're here for. Are you not entertained? To quote, you and fucking Joe Bradley, losers. Am I not merciful? Oh, here we go. All right, let's go. But let me just start out by saying, make sure you get your tickets to our live show,

March 6 at the city winery in Philadelphia. They are flying off the shelves, off the virtual shelves, if you will. So please go get your tickets before you miss out. This is not a marketing ploy. They are actually going super quick. So we want to make sure if you are trying to come out and see us, that you make sure you get your tickets and don't miss out on them. So go buy those tickets.

is in our Instagram bio to order. You got anything else? No, I want to get into it. And let's get into it. We've been champing at the bit for about a year, now or what, six months since it aired. No idea. I think the most important thing to note here,

and it's easy to forget, especially watching, because we're diving right back into pretty much scant of all. This is only three months removed, all right? And they mentioned that really early, and that's very important because of a point that I want to talk about very early on and we'll get there.

but I want to start out with Katie and Ariana and there to Ariana's house and it's already weird like being back in the house like ground zero you're like oh god this is where everything went to shit this is where she screamed to Tom this is a lot of ground zeros in this episode I know it's crazy like everything seems like it's still radioactive yeah everyone should be wearing a hazmat suit well to be fair that house still obviously aside from the penis phase which apparently Tom's assistant had to glue back together it's a flute shooter sorry flute it's a flute it's a skin flute the skin Yeah, honestly. There are other things. There's a fucking big picture of the two of them up on a wall between their two bedrooms. Like, you got to remove all that shit. Like, what are you going to do with it? I don't know. Just trash it.

Maybe sell it. Somebody's, somebody, some sicko out there definitely wants that. Without a doubt, but Dev actually brought that. I would actually, I would hang that right here. For sure. Yeah, I'd remove this shit. But Dev pointed it out too. And she's like, that's fucking weird.

I was like, yeah, it is. But do you think it's like bolted to the wall or something? It's got to be, like, immovable. because I can't imagine Arianna like willingly walking by that every day when she can't even... They're communicating through an assistant who I feel terrible for, by the way.

That poor woman, I cannot imagine those two texting... Can you tell them to turn the LED lights off? That was one of the texts. And do you see the response? No. Tell her it's not illegal because it's part of my free speech.

That's how Tom responded about his LED. I know. That's why I was like, I feel bad for the assistant. I had the same feeling, because one, you're Tom's assistant. You have to indulge him in his whatever the fuck kind of behavior. Is lunacy? Lunacy, yeah.

And you still, like, you can't be too nice to Ariana, so you have to be cordial and responds back to her. But Tom's obviously influencing the situation and you have to be nice to him. Like, that is the worst place to be in imaginable. Oh, I could not imagine being in her shoes. But, like, and before we keep going with this, I don't know if you've been seeing the Tom's went on the vile files. Yeah, vile files. I don't know what the fuck Tom's got up his ass,

but the fact that he's coming out of the gate trying to say that he's somehow victimized in all of this and saying that Ariana needs to back off and focus on her own shit. Like, why on earth? She is. 100% she's starring in Chicago, dude, she's cool. She's got it figured out.

But my whole thing with it is why on earth, when you know that at some point during the season they're going to attempt some kind of redemption arc, or at least that's going to be the premise of what he thinks is going to happen because we've seen it happen before. You're going to see the beginning stages. It's going to be the villain arc for sure. But at some point, you have to kind of push the narrative to a different direction. And there was definitely an avenue in which he could attempt to do that. Would it land? I don't know. You know, that's a question for for all of us as we watch. Like, is he redeemable? Because as

of now, no, he's not. But to enter the season before the masses have seen episode number one and you go on a podcast and pretty much say like I also am a victim is insane and it immediately brings me back to like oh no fuck this guy like he's the actual worst I can't imagine going on a podcast the day before or actually sorry vial dropped it today yeah you just buried yourself and it hasn't even started yet yeah it's a thing that only tom sandival could do he's going to weasel his way into situations and we're going to be spending the entire season watching him try to squirm into relationships and friendships. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to play the sympathy card because his friend just passed

away. There are things that he's going to do. And obviously, it's only a thing that Tom Sandoval could do that are just deplorable. And we're going to be able to see that the entire season. I just hope that they're not receptive to it. Obviously, there's some level of that where you're going to think, and we've kind of already seen that a little bit where people have reached out to him. I don't want there to be too much acceptance and grace in him coming back from

fucking special forces because you know he's going to start talking about that and he's going to talk about like how grueling it was and how eye opening it was and he realized that he was a piece of shit but you know what he can come back from this you don't think so I think he's going to play that card I do not okay which is the crazier part

I really don't think he should that would be the smart move I don't think he's ever going to admit I'm a piece of shit I don't think that sentence is capable of coming out of his mouth because even on the vial podcast he didn't say it there I think he'll he'll skirt around it.

He'll say he was a piece of shit friend to Schwartz or James. He won't do it to Ariana. No, he won't apologize directly to her. He won't apologize for what he did to her to other people, but he will take ownership in what he thinks he can without actually taking ownership of the entire scandal. Okay. Yeah, I can see that happening.

It's crazy to think, but we've spent a lot of time thinking like Tom Sandoval to try to understand where he's going to go with this. And I think we're getting close. Closer to the mindset of a worm with a mustache. Yeah. Well, let's get back to the show. We're back with Ariana and Katie, like I said, and they're discussing something about her. There's been a lot of speculation as to what's going on with this. And a lot of people are trying to play the game. Like, oh, is it actually going to happen? I would imagine that given everything that occurred over the past year and then the big blowup that Ariana had, she's in Chicago now. She's doing commercials for every company under the sun. Katie got a lot of publicity. Like, a lot was going on. And they made like 500K off of merch alone. right so they probably didn't make they weren't pressed to open this place so they're probably taking their time with it they had some new designer come in and redo the whole place so i think that they have the luxury of this not being a pressing matter now so they're like yeah we're getting to it we're going to do it right but we have other shit going on do you think that there's any actual hold up with something about her no not at all i think it's the i think it's a pure dichotomy of schwartz and sandies yeah i think when we watch them try to fly through and test all this food and they realized that they needed to open the doors quicker so they can bring money in because they were losing all the capital that they had invested, Tom squandered away, all of his parents' money, everything that happened

last year. The complete opposite is happening over here. They have almost unlimited capital for a sandwich shop, which again, you don't need a liquor license for that. There are a lot of things that you don't need, and I don't want to say it's easy to do it, but speaking financially, it's way easier to run that than it is to run a bar. So they're here now in a great position, and again, Ariana just went through all of this, and then she went on a tour. Now she's She's getting all these new opportunities. They can sit and wait. Yeah, that's what I think.

They can afford to wait. Literally, they can afford to wait because they have so much money, probably still rolling in while we're watching this. Because, again, it's only three months later. So they're still seeing checks and checks come in for things that they haven't even done that's legitimate towards what their business is. They're not selling sandwiches right now. They're selling merch, and that's great and good for them. That's exactly what they should do. They should take their time, bring in whatever designer you want to, fly in Sutton's designer from Paris.

Let's just make sure that he comes in and he gets through customs and everything. get him in there and we'll revamp the entire thing and then set yourself up because when you're done with this, Ariana, you can come back and now you have all of this to look forward to. Like a nest egg. Yeah, because look, the public eye is fleeting. When you get to a certain point, people are going to be tired of the whole Ariana thing. We think you deserve everything. But yeah, in like a year from now, we're going to be like, all right, whatever, move on. I'm kind of done with this whole thing.

That's what you can move on to. Now you have something to put your focus into. Yeah. And it's interesting that you framed it like that. because there was a moment where they're talking about in the beginning, especially in this scene. And I'm like, oh, boy, here we go again. I'm like, that's where I had to be like, okay, don't do that. It's only been three months.

It's still super raw. Like, nothing has been resolved yet. They're still going through, like, they're on the back end of like the shock value of it, I think. They're starting to settle down, starting to see a little bit clearer, trying to figure out the next step forward. But that was my first reaction when they started talking about Scanavile. I was like, oh, and I was like, oh, no, three months later, stay in the moment, stay in the moment. stay in the moment so like shooter said yeah she deserves everything she does deserve the house tom keeps trying to buy her out of the house but i think that they should just sell the fucking

thing and split it yeah it's cursed with it you know it's a cursed house just get rid of it rip that stupid painting off the walls i don't care how much drywall and it to us send it to us for no money at all we will put it up behind us maybe we'll draw some dicks on it like around tom's face yeah like that yeah that sounds fun good time yeah uh but speaking of houses we get to go see Allie and James's house and love the house. I love that he just got something small. It still costs, I think, like,

$1.2 million. Of course. But it's nice to see them in, like, a normal home and be so excited about it. They do have a pool. Like, it's a nice place, especially in L.A., I'm sure. I think they're overplaying the airport thing a little bit, too. Like, editing is? Yeah, relax. I don't think that you can hear it. Like, they look up and there's a plane very high up in the sky,

and they make it sound like it's taking off over there. Which sounds like a fucking, like, battle ship, like when they land on that aircraft carrier but um james just reminds us you know he's still really hurt by tom and this is when like if anybody out there was even remotely a sandival sympathizer like if he has any redeemable qualities he hasn't reached out to james once he hasn't attempted to smooth things over he hasn't attempted like that's the deeper part of this is people forget sandival's friends with everybody as well especially the dudes and he slighted them not as much as ariana but still quite a bit and to make

no effort at all just shows he doesn't give a fuck he's so self-centered so self-absorbed he got an opportunity to get on another reality tv show said fuck everybody i'm out of here and he's going to play it exactly like you said he's going to play it as i found myself out there it was so difficult and so hard it pushed me to my limits they treated me like shit but i figured out a lot about myself rather than frame it for what it was you found an escape you found a way to make more money and capitalize off of being a dickhead went out to new zealand to shoot this dumb show to avoid all of your problems while everyone has to pick up the pieces back at home that you caused so this is not like a redeemable moment like oh thank god you went through some hard shit like i wish that you fell

off that fucking cliff and landed in the water and survived but seriously like when you're out there in doing your special forces shit i hope you were the worst one there because had he had any kind of remorse any kind of oh fuck and sorry everybody at all in the past six months in the past two weeks in the past month alone I would have a different take but he's so dumb and self-centered and obnoxious it was genuinely frustrating to see him walk into the house

at the end of the episode I was like he's still with a band-dad on too and he's got band-aids all over his fingers do like he's trying to play that card like it was rough out there was it was it what are you doing saying hello in the house like one it's late at night your assistant's not still there who are you saying hello to she's not going to respond nobody's going to respond to you yeah

the fuck out of here brutal but whatever Sheena and Brock are still kind of getting over things as well. And that's what like the beginning of this episode really is. It's like checking in. How are people coping with everything? The fallout. The fallout. Yeah.

And to no surprise, Tom hasn't talked to either of them. And I guess Sanneval lost his friend Ali. And Sheena and Brock knew Ali as well. And apparently he was a great dude. So when he passed away, neither of them had to do this. There was no reason for them to do this. But they took the time to reach out to Sandeval, who is a pariah, to just say, hey, regardless of what happened,

hope you're okay, reach out if you need anything. That's going above and beyond for this piece of shit. Yeah, I mean, it definitely is. And we find out that he blocked her immediately after because she tried to send a follow-up text message because he didn't respond to the first one. And it didn't go through. Now, my initial reaction was,

oh, if he's filming it in New Zealand, maybe he just has like eye messages or whatever turned off. No, he blocked her across the board, Instagram all over pretty much every page that Sheena has. I do have to give Shane a little bit of shit though Oh yeah, me too You're gonna make an Instagram for your child And then they get pissed off when they get mad and be like

How could you block that face? Well, one, summer is not controlling the Instagram No, nobody cares. So I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry Instagram for your dog which I know a lot of people are going to get offended about that You're going to piss a lot of people out there Yeah, but what do you think is far as actually? Let's do that Making Instagram for your dog or making an Instagram for your baby? Baby. Really why? Because then you do it

Either way you're still doing the weird like My dog wrote this caption, my baby wrote this caption like This is my face when I want numnums. I just think, look, it comes back to, and I post pictures of poppy on my, like, personal one. On yours, yeah. But, like, I also understand, like, when people, it's the whole trope of, look, your kid's adorable.

Every once in a while, yeah, show me a picture if he's grown up or if she's grown up, like, yeah, I want to see. I don't need to see every time we hang out. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, my biggest, my biggest issue is just don't make it look like it's your daughter's Instagram. Like, that just doesn't... What's going to happen?

When she gets old enough, or you're going to be like, hey, it's like building a credit report. Like, hey, I already did this for you. Now you can start. Here you go. No, it's not how that works. Well, if they do,

then they're going to delete all the work you did. Yeah, this is embarrassing. This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen. Why are their captions written from the perspective of a baby? You misspelled multiple words trying to act like me.

You're making me look like an idiot. That's actually an even funny to premise. You're not see me spell my name and my middle name? Mom! I can spell better than you, but we keep on trucking and we get Lala with her mom. And I guess Lala's mom and her brother Easton, I didn't know she had a brother Easton. Neither did I.

But we find out that Lala's mom and her brother Easton have moved local so that they can help her out. And they got, she describes them as a pot of horkas. Yep. Which, you know. Sure. Yeah, okay. That works. L.A. man.

Yeah, that's a good point. It does. And it's nice to see her have a support system. You know, she went through a lot of shit with Randall and she's on her own. She's trying to do the single mom thing. But to see her get some support from her family is nice. And the fact that her brother is so attentive to it where he's like, yeah, I'll take her for a while. I'll take her to the park.

It's just nice to see that she has like some kind of support out there. What? Are you going to point out the same thing I was going to point out? I don't know. There's a weird phrasing during the confessional that I had to go back and watch multiple times. What was it? Lala was talking about her family coming out. And she's like, yeah, my brother Easton came out and he's been great with everybody.

Yeah. And people ask me, like, are you dating? That would fuck up the dynamic. What? Uh-huh. And then I had to go back and re-watch it. And I'm like, it still doesn't sound right. Went back a third time, finally realized what she's talking about.

She's just talking about generally dating. Not dating her brother. I was really confused. I was like, what the fuck? Because I could get that, like, if you don't know that she has a brother and you see like her and the kid together, it's like, oh, are you dating? And then her response didn't make any sense. No, that would fuck up the dynamic.

I'm like, all right. That, okay. Utah. I know. But like. but still like no absolutely as i rewatched it three times i finally realized what she was i just wrote down are you dating mess up dynamic what the fuck question mark yeah because i was so okay that that actually makes sense because if she's not dating somebody like i get that like your mom just

moved in with you you're focusing on your child obviously you still have a lot of things going on and she's working on herself which i do think just based off of this episode alone and kind of what we've seen from la la overall she came on strong during the whole scandal of all but she kind slid away for a bit. I think we're going to get a more emotionally intelligent la la this year, which I'm all four. Yeah, same. Because if she can kind of identify situations and be able to give her input, I think that she has a lot to prove and she has a lot to give to the group when they're going through things. So that would be really cool to see. But yeah, I mean, I get that. You don't want to be dating somebody who's going to be whispering like dripping

honey in your ear. Oh, that fucking guy. While you're living with your mom. The Don. Yeah. Oh, the Don. I forgot about the Don. No, I didn't. I don't want to think about the Don. Honey, honey, honey, and you're sticky, sticky, honey. Hot damn. But I agree, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing a more emotionally in touch, Lala, because I think that, you know, and she always likes to point out how tough and fierce and ferocious she is. But I think at the center of it, and I've come a long way to get to this. Yeah, me too. But I do think that she is way more sensitive than she is harsh.

I think that that's just a facade that she puts on to try to protect herself, given all the shit she's been through. through. So if she can unlock that side and give us the audience a different side to her this season, it's the perfect time to do it because the rest of the cast is so volatile, right? Like everyone's so fired up about the sand of all shit and against Rachel or Raquel that if she can show like grace and empathy here, that speaks volumes to her character because Lala in the past would never pull back. She would be full throttle to the end. So I think that this is a a more realistic or not realistic this is a real look i think into who she actually is and it's something that i've needed honestly for the past three seasons because i every time i watch you

get all like riled up i'm like i don't think that this is really you no and i think that's why i really like the way that i think this season's going to go and i could be proven wrong of course i have been a thousand times when it comes to seasons and predicting but it seems like a true you just admitted that. Here, the most popular fiction podcast of all time, which the New York Times described as what might occur if David Lynch was a producer at your local radio station. Welcome to Night Vale is a twice-monthly update from a small desert town, where the paranormal is real.

Every conspiracy theory is true. We all have to get on with our lives anyway. Welcome to Night Vale is available wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm here to tell you about Good Morning Night Vale. Welcome to Night Vale's official recap show and unofficial best friend food podcast. Join me, Meg Bashwinner and fellow tri-hosts, Hal Lublin and Symphony Sanders, as we dissect all of the cool, squishy, and slimy bits of every episode of Welcome to Night Vale. Come for the insightful and hilarious commentary and stay for all of the weird and wild behind-the-scenes stories. Good morning Night Vale, with new episodes and every other Thursday. Get it wherever you get your podcasts. Yes, even there. Goodbye. Summer movies, Hello Fall. I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer and early fall releases. We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle

after another, Timothy Salome playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme. Let's not forget Emma Stone and Jorgos Lantamos's Bugonia. Dwayne Johnson, he's coming for that Oscar in The Smashing Machine. Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again, plus Daniel DeLuis's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about two. Tron Aries looks exceptional, plus Mortal Kombat 2, and Edgar writes, The Running Man, starring Glenn Powell. Search for Raiders of the Lost podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Yeah. Usually you're like, well, no, because I always have high hopes, and I'm like, this is going to be so good. And then by the fourth one episode, I'm like, fuck. this, this sucks. But with this specifically, I feel like we're, we are actually getting a lot of people looking inward after what happened last year. And yeah, we can go back to the reunion and talk about how volatile that was and everybody just screaming and just getting airing out all of their grievances at Tom and Tom, if you will, and sitting back now thinking, all right, what can I change? Like that, that took a lot out of me. So now we're getting people looking inward, analyzing their relationships, their friendships, and I feel like there's a lot of that going on. And look, it's going to make these people, we've watched them for, years at times they were deplorable and if we can watch them grow into actual adults that would be really cool to see and then have some issues later down the road of course but it kind of goes to say with like we want people to all be friends and have better relationships and then when it

falls apart it's real i agree with that and i think it's also interesting that we as an audience and i don't know if this is a universal thing but we've all had so much time to process this and we've all been involved with it like everybody when this came out you guys remember would have felt like that's all we were talking about it's all we were looking for we're looking for clues everything i think that since we the the audience have had time to kind of step away from it i do think that some of the animosity is kind of quelled a little bit to where i can look at for example we're getting to the next scene with james and schwartz and now i'm looking at it because before like we went strong after schwartz right and rightfully so for to a certain extent but

the more i look back at it the more i'm trying to process it i'm like did he find up yeah does he deserve shit absolutely was he put between a rock and a hard place because sand of all is one manipulative and two his best friend and three clearly spun this web to like trap shorts and and pretty much fuck him from the from the get go there's nothing that shorts could have done to like come out clean here aside from well yeah i mean clean yeah rather than just flat out yeah because even like had he come forward you know a month or two later they would still be like, dude, you sat on this for two months and I haven't said shit. So the only way he could have been vindicated entirely is by coming the next day and be like, hey, I just found out about this and I need to tell you guys so that I'm not thrown under the bus.

But that goes into the, well, that's your best friend. That also goes into the, you know, Tom's telling me how miserable he is with Ariana and she's like emotionally abusing him. So there's so many factors there. I'm not giving Schwartz a pass by any means. But looking back now, I am a little more lenient where I'm like, all right, do I get being pissed? for sure does he deserve to be thrown under the bus the same way sandball does absolutely not no no it shouldn't be that degree at all obviously i feel like with schwartz i think we gave him shit already i think that's what i'm going to move on yes agree i mean like he he took his beating at the reunion

for what he did know or didn't know what he was defending what he wasn't defending what he said and what he didn't say part of that is because he is a very sad guy he's a super sad guy he says christ dude he's got a bug tank he's bugs what a fucking like he's He's got all these plants, and he's talking to them, which is fine. Like, if you have plants, he talks to them, we learn that with Sutton anyway. But he's got too many plants for that little apartment. There's a lot of things going on there. There's a kitchen.

Wind chime in the kitchen. He's got bugs that he's talking to and naming. I didn't think that apartment could get any sadder. And it did. It got a lot sadder. We don't need a bug tank. No. We really don't need bugs.

No. I think when bugs come into the picture, that's your, here's your side. This is not okay. Yeah. No, it's definitely not okay. So I think that he's gone through it enough. I think, yeah, I don't think he needs anymore. Like, we'll talk about how sad he is and everything,

and if he does anything that's, again, stupid, we'll give him shit for it, of course. But for right now, while he's not doing anything, except for tending to his little insects. Oh, man. Yeah, we'll just leave him alone. Yeah, just for now. But Schwartz gets James a couple of gifts for his new house,

some housewarming gifts. He gets him a plant and a candle. And I had to, it's so many jokes to make, because he calls it citrus pussy. I'm like, oh, is this the new line from Gwyneth Peltro? But, you know, she has her vagina candle. But we find out that James is not drinking. He orders a double espresso.

And before he even says he's sober, I wrote that down. I said, oh, he ordered a double espresso. Yeah, I wasn't sure. I actually had to go back on that too because I couldn't tell if I heard martini. And I was like, double espresso martini is crazy. That's wild. That is too much. It's too much of everything.

Yeah. So to find out that he is sober now, he's Cali's sober, which is totally fine. Yep. But to find out that he's sober now, I was like, oh, This is so much better because of how he frames it, right? The last time he did it, he got an ultimatum. He's like, all right, I'll do it for Raquel. I'll do it for whatever, Rachel.

This time he makes a point to say, Allie didn't tell me to do this. I want to do this for myself. And as a sober person, I know damn well, if you're not doing it for yourself, it's not going to stick. Correct. You need to have that inner battle with yourself.

So to hear him going down this path, and he's standing by it, I was really proud of him. And I think even in this episode, you kind of see a more mature James Kennedy. I'm sure he's going to still have his moments, his DJ James Kennedy moments. And we all look forward to those. But the in-between, I don't need to see Bat-Shick Crazy James all the time. I want to see a more mature James, and James that's growing up, along with this other cast. Like, we're seeing growth, at least in episode one.

I'm not getting my hopes up. But it is moving forward. And it's also important to note that Schwartz is not happy with Sandoval. And I'm glad that he's speaking up about it. He drags him. Then he says, you know, Schwartz and Stannies has been a disaster. Our staff is quitting. People are coming in to harass us, like, every day.

It's been an absolute nightmare. Did he need to wear the hat? Probably not. No, he shouldn't have worn the hat. Nope. I think he's trying. It was a choice he made, right? He's making a choice.

Making bad choices already. It was not a great choice. So maybe this is foreshadow. Maybe the hat's foreshadowing. It could be foreshadowing. It could be foreshadowed. It continues to make terrible choices. Yeah, which.

Shoot himself on the foot. Yeah. And, you know, we're going to get the blonde hair sooner than later. So that's also a tough job. I think we might have jumped the gun, but I'm still being hopeful that maybe we can see some growth from Schwartz. I don't know if we're going to see growth, but I think we're just going to see him be sad all season. It's going to be tough to watch. Yeah.

But he also says, you know, he felt banished from the group. And I think that banishment was the right punishment for a little while. I don't think that he deserves to be alienated from everybody. And he talks about it later. and I'm just going to bring it up now. I don't think he can connect with the rest of the group until Ariana at least, at least with the women in the group until she pulls back a little bit or gives him some kind of opening where she's like, we're not going to be friends, but we're fine.

Like, I can be in the same room as you because as of right now, she can't. And no fault to her. Like, I'm not saying, get over it. Like, if you, I think that other people in the group should be able to not give him a pass, but be able to move forward soon. It's been three months like he's apologized. Yeah. And I think they're waiting for Ariana, though.

I do too. I don't think that it's really anything against them or any of their intention to do so. And we kind of see a little bit of that, and we'll get into that later when the girls' night happens towards the end of the episode. But when it comes to Schwartz, like, yeah, I fully understand. You're Sanival's best friend. Why would Ariana still be cool with you? Why would she even want to talk to you? And she doesn't have a timeline.

He doesn't get that. He just doesn't understand that for whatever reason. It's the way his brain works and he's a big idiot. But he shouldn't be trying to do anything. And look, you're skirting around it. You're talking to James. You're going to talk to Katie when Katie comes over to pick up the dogs, which still drives me fucking insane, but we're still going to do this again for another year, and I hate it.

You're going to talk to anybody that you can around. Stop talking about Ariana. Just try to see what happens. You can still be in the same room with them. You can go to events together. Just don't cross that line. And as long as you allow Ariana, a little bit of space to move on, everybody else in the group will stop walking on eggshells around everything.

It will be open to being friends with you again. they'll be open to at least being cordial with you. And again, it's Schwartz. So I'm saying this, like a normal person is operating this way. Schwartz isn't going to wait around for that to happen. He's going to push the issue. He's going to act like everything's cool and he's going to make some dumb jokes and he's going to talk about hooking up with people. And it's going to be really inappropriate and that's going to suck.

And then he's going to talk shit about Katie and that it's going to blow up. Yes. And he's going to say something really mean. And then he's going to say, Bubba. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. Bubba. As if the dogs aren't bad enough.

We'll get to the dogs. I had the same fucking reaction. But we get a couple's massage with Ariana and Sheena. And side note, did you know that I can't get massages? Why? Because I laugh. Dicklish? No.

Oh. I'm not. You guys uncomfortable laughing? It drives Dev crazy that I'm not ticklish. It drives Poppy crazy that I'm not ticklish. I'm not ticklish anywhere in my body. I get so awkward in massages that within the first three minutes I laugh too much. It gets awkward for everybody in the room.

I apologize and I leave. that's happened three times i stopped trying three separate places are two of them were very nice hotels like very nice hotels and i was like all right if ever there was a place that i could relax it's this hotel it was a ritz carlton on the fucking beach i'm like i can do this two minutes in mud bath or something can you do other relaxing things yeah yeah like if no one's like there's something about it where i just start to laugh it's like you've seen me on an elevator when i get on an elevator i have to look at the floor because i start laughing if there's other people in the elevator.

I don't know why. You're a weird dude. I know. So, like, for whatever reason, as soon as the massage starts, I start, like, to hoo-hoo, and then it's a full laugh. Does it tickle, or it's just laughing? It's just uncomfortable laughing. And then they always ask, like, are you okay?

And I'm like, I'm so sorry. We've got that checked out? How do you get that checked out? Like a neurologist, like you get your brain scans while somebody's massaging you. Don't need to open that door. Yeah, that's a good point. I agree with that. I got hit by fastballs.

foul tips off my head for like 15 years there's something wrong up here i don't need to know about it yeah i don't need to know about it you know yeah let's just avoid those things that's all yeah i don't need to know you know what i mean that could be why i don't remember a massage gut like one of those i can therogone myself yeah and you don't laugh no because you're doing it yes okay yep there's something about the the interaction where i just get awkward and then they get awkward because i'm laughing and then i just i go i'm so sorry and then i just leave i still pay and like tip them and everything i'm like because i feel work They actually end up making more money because I feel so bad that I've made it such a weird situation that I'm like, here's like 50 bucks.

Three minutes of work. Yeah, I need to run away now. I'm so sorry. You know what? You don't know what kind of emotional scarring you've done to those people that are trying to massage you. They're like, what the hell's wrong with that guy? I can't help it. I just start giggling like an idiot.

But anyway, Ariana and Sheena don't. They actually get to enjoy the massage and they're talking about Dan and we found out about Dan last year. My first question is something that Sheena points out in a confessional right out of the gate. this seems quick, right? Like, this seems really quick. Yeah, it's a rebound. That's what I thought. They're still together, aren't they?

Yeah, that's a good point. Look, I don't really know. I don't think there's any, like, exact science that goes into this. Maybe they are meant to be together. Who the fuck knows? But, yeah, I do agree with you watching this now because it's three months later. It seems reboundish. And maybe that's true.

Maybe it's just, you know, she had a really tough time and she just decided to get into another relationship because she wanted the compatibility. Ten days after everything went out. Yeah, and he was there for her. her, which makes sense. But that doesn't, you know, it could evolve into something more. Timing is weird. I got to play devil's advocate here.

What's that? Is he clout chasing? We don't know, Dan. I haven't seen enough of TV. We have no fucking idea. Possibly, I wouldn't rule it out for sure. But again, that could have been much,

look, it was a mutually beneficial relationship to start off with. She needed somebody to kind of comfort her and that she could talk to and understand. He wanted clout if we're thinking like that. And it worked. and now they're still together. Maybe it blossomed into more.

It's like an arranged marriage that ends up being a very happy and loving marriage. Correct. Okay, cool. Yeah. But anyway, we find out the damage, I guess you could call it, that this is taken on Sheena, this whole scandal of all thing. And she said that she was diagnosed with OCD before everything happened. And then when all this game crashing down, her anxiety got ramped up, all of it got ramped up.

And understandably so. And look, Sheena bugs the shit out of me. But this is. all relatable, where I can be like, yeah, I could see this actually happening. I could see you, because we've seen the moments where she gets so overwhelmed and she just can't calm down. We saw it when she was talking to Sandoval on her couch. I'm sure this did fuck her up a lot. So I actually had sympathy there where she's trying to deal with all of this shit and process it, but that's when Schwartz comes up again. And this is why Ariana has no intention of rekindling

any kind of friendship because of watch what happens live. Schwartz said, if you see Sanneville on the street, give him a hug. He's been through a lot. If you saw the Vile Files interview, clearly hasn't been through enough. But at this point in time, he hadn't really spoken out other than the reunion. And Schwartz was like, yeah, he's taking a fucking beating. Like, just give him a hug. Do I think this is damning enough? I think where I get not frustrated, because again, Ariana should have no timeline to rekindle anything with him. She has no, she doesn't owe him anything. But she doesn't, she doesn't owe him anything. but she does know him and you know that when he's sitting there on the couch he's not trying

to say like go help my friend sandval he's just like it's more of a generalized statement i think where schwartz is like just hear me out when i say generalize before you make faces yeah i already make a face you can't take my faces back just give me a sec my point in saying a generalized statement i think that schwartz is just set he's trying to pull a shep where he's like just smoothing things over he's like give him a hug i'm tired of like hate i'm tired of being in the middle of this thing like you see him just hug him like let's put the shit to bed i'm fucking done with it but i think more so schwartz says dumb stuff when he's put on the spot and i don't know if he always means it it could be what we talked about last year he's got a mask on he's really

good at playing that card and i think that's still very possible but do you think that him saying give sandoval a hug is enough for ariana to be like no fuck this guy thousand percent you do thousand percent yeah i i he chose his side right then and there he had i this is where i would want him to be a little more self-serving okay you are thrown into the middle of all of this because of what you did know or what you didn't know and you are now picking sides by doing that you could have completely recused yourself and again i understand it schwartz he says dumb shit all the time especially when he's put on the spot but you should be thinking about yourself this is already thrown your life into absolute hell and you're not really part of this you're you played party to it in one

way or another, but you didn't really do anything to exacerbate the situation. You can just completely remove yourself from everything and not pick aside, especially on national TV. That is not talking about Ariana and talking about Tom and giving him a hug and showing him sympathy is crazy. And I get that's your boy. I get that's your best friend. But that is you picking aside.

So yes, I agree that Ariana should be like, yeah, fuck that guy. All right. That's fair. I was, like I said, I was playing devil's advocate. Were you? you're a known you're a known Schwartz Apologist I don't know

Episode 1 we're already You're already gaslighting me shocking That's not even gaslighting you really are You are a well-documented Schwartz Apologist No I'm not I gave him more shit than you last year And this season I'm simply saying Well I think he's dumb as a rock

But I don't And not because I'm an apologist I think that that's where he gets away with stuff I've said that in the past I think he gets a pass Because he plays the I don't know any better card until you get him pissed off enough. And then what do you think?

You're playing devil's advocate over here. What do you actually think? Does Ariana deserve to be mad at him? Yeah, like I said before, so that's my point. Like, she has no timeline. If she wants to stay mad at him forever, she rightfully can do so. I'm trying to navigate, like, all right, knowing that, that if she doesn't want to rekindle any kind of friendship, that's fine, that's her prerogative, and I agree with it.

But at the same time, is there a place where she can look past it and be like, look, this man just says dumb shit when he gets put on the spot? like can she see through it if there is anything to be had in a form of friendship or is she in this phase of her life where she's you know she's going to do chicago she's going to do all these things that she's wanted to do and this has helped propel her career to the point where she can yeah is she just like fuck all of it like i'm fucking done with it but i also don't really care as much because i don't think that her and schwartz having a relationship is really important to the show i don't think it's important to ariana it's definitely not important to ariana but i don't think it's important to the show

either. I don't think that it's really going to, aside from getting the annoying Schwartz trying to cross the line and talk to Ariana directly instead of just going around, that's going to be a little annoying. But everything else, like, it's really not that important as far as the storyline goes for the show. I don't think it's really going to bother us. I agree. And I think what will bother me is never going to be like Ariana refusing to be friends. And what's going to bother me is Schwartz going over to her? Be like, you want to drink? You want to drink? No. Because we know that's going to happen. Yeah. And like, no, she doesn't. She's good. Leave her alone. Leave her alone. Let her stew. She deserves to. So fuck off. That's what I'm saying the whole time. You're trying to call me a Schwartz Apollo. I'm just trying to bring up all sides of things because that's what we do. We're a podcast that analyzes the show and you're gaslighting me. And you're gaslighting me. And you're gaslighting me. You're like a stove. Right? I just want to know your opinion. I gave you my opinion. There you go. I'm going to start. I'm going to start calling you kitchen aid. Why? Either way, you gaslight me, you're like a stove.

You like that one? No, actually. I wanted it, right, right? I wanted to come up with a better brand or a funnier brand, but KitchenAids the first whirlpool. That sounds like a bath tub. It does, but yeah, I mean, whatever. We're not doing, we're not doing brand names. You're right, you're right.

You're right. Pioneer. Okay, sure. Yeah, that is actually a gaslight. Viking. Now we're, all right, go. Now we're getting fancy. Keep going.

Okay, my bad. We get to Tom Tom, Tom. And LVP arrives. She looks great. And James, again, in this scene, he just seems more present. And I don't know if that's the absence of booze. I'm not giving that all the credit. But there's definitely just, he seems very happy.

He's a happy guy when he's in a good relationship. And we've seen that before. Yeah, maybe that's it. And yeah, you throw in the not drinking because that's when he tends to spiral. And look, they kind of go hand in hands when he's in a bad relationship or it's towards the end of the relationship or they just broke up and he leans on drinking. Then it gets really bad. And that's when James is at his absolute work.

first, we're seeing him on his best. He just bought a house with his girlfriend. Everything seems to be going well relationship-wise. Things are going really well career-wise. And he's not boozing. This is the best James version that we're going to get for him, of course, not for the show, but for him, which is what we root for. Absolutely.

Yeah. And I hope that he can still keep some of the characteristics of what makes James great and what makes him such a great component of this show while still doing well in life and while still growing and doing better things while he goes forward. I think that's going to be the best thing to see for. from him and great for people to see is like he doesn't need to drink to be the funny fun guy and i think that's going to show up the season i think that's important and i think that he's very capable of that but it's just it's comforting to see him because we've seen him

you know from 20 what fuck he's like 23 years old when he started this show like we've seen him grow and i just think it's cool that he's reached a place where he just seems happy and i like that But when Ariana and Katie arrived, we get the flashback of them walking into Tom Tom when it opened. And that was Tom and Tom's first venture into like the restaurant industry. This was their big comeuppance after working at Sur for so long. And it's weird. It's weird to see that. We get another flashback later that made the whole thing very real for me.

Like I don't know how Ariana walked back in there. I don't know. And that's what we talked about earlier in the episode where there's a lot of, of PTSD that pops up with all of the places that she goes to. And there's so many different moments towards the end of their relationship and when she found everything out. And the last time that she was at Tom Tom was that same concert that we saw a million different times.

There's so much going through her head. And look, I get it. Like it's a small group and you tend to do the same things. You tend to go to the same places, especially the LVP restaurants. So you're going to be going there a lot. You have to be able to get over that. I just wish the Bravo producers gave us a little bit of a heads up for the jump scares. because those flashbacks

started turning into like pulsating lights and it was just Tom's face in the background with the mustache. Like, what the fuck's going on? I'm scared. Did you take it in an edible or something? No. I was not high. And I was scared. Still scary. Very scared. Yeah.

Because that's not the type of face that you want to see that's like fucking flashing at you. Yeah, no. No. No, thanks. But while they're sitting there, this is where you know, I was talking about Schwartz maybe being able to reconnect to the group and maybe he's learned a thing or two. And this is why I said I wasn't hopeful about it is because of interaction with

Ariana here. And she's not having it, doesn't need to. Like, she's good. And in his confessional, he's like, oh, like, Queen Ariana, this and that, like can't rock the boat, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, this is where you're going to shoot yourself in the foot. And it's what we saw in Southern Charm with Austin and Taylor. They're like, they're now getting mad at Olivia because she's not accepting their

apology. She's not willing to move forward. Schwartz is getting frustrated because Ariana's not ready to move forward and may never be. You don't get to get mad about that. You fucked it up. You did something dumb. She's mad at you. She's allowed to be.

Just because you're ready to move forward. You're tired of this narrative doesn't mean that they are. And you don't get to just say, like, all right, can I get your drink? We can move the fucking please. He was already told twice that he shouldn't be doing this and probably a lot more. Yeah. He's the worst at like asking people for their advice and then still doing whatever hell he wants yeah he got advice from james he talked he talked james's ear off about all the things

and his woes and look i get it like it does suck about the restaurant because you've tied yourself to an absolute pariah but at the same time you weren't squeaky clean during all of this anyway so listen to what james is saying listen to fucking katie katie was giving you good advice listen to anybody that you're talking to anybody's going to give you good advice and tell you to stay away from ariana for a bit the less you do is better because eventually she might forget about all, not forget about it all, but she might forget about the animosity towards you and be able to open up a little bit more. You don't need to have a one-on-one sit down with her to talk to her about what your role was and moving past it. It's just not necessary at all.

You should be trying to stay away from her because, look, if you want to have a good night, maybe don't go near Ariana because she might rip you apart because she's still very mad at you. Why would you be trying to cross that line and talk to her? I can't wrap my head around it, But again, it's Schwartz, and I just don't understand how he thinks. No, and I don't think you're supposed to understand how he thinks, or else you would be a shitty person to... Tending bugs in my apartment? You have bugs in your apartment right now.

And we don't like that. I don't think it matters what kind of bug. I think it matters if you're giving them personal attention. That's where... Take one out and then all of a sudden it's out there and it's procreating and you've got bugs in your apartment. That's what I mean. That's what it's like, dude, it's a bug. Gross.

You don't have to kill it if you're one of those people. Like, you want to set it outside? Don't give it a home? No, don't buy a terrarium for it. That's bizarre. It's a bug. What was that bug that he pulled out? Like a stink bug.

Yeah, I thought at least like, get like a stick bug or something that's cool. Cool, right? Like a scorpion. Okay, that's, that's, yeah, okay. It's a bug. I guess it's kind of a bug, right? It is a bug. Isn't an arachnoid?

It's not an arachnid. Arachnoid. Araknoid sounds like some kind of crazy giant spider. Sounds great. Speaking of, there's a conspiracy I saw today. Okay. I need Craig to come back. there's apparently in Antarctica, have you seen the Antarctica conspiracy?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. Ice spider? Giant ice spiders with five legs. Sick. And their steps are. It doesn't seem as efficient as eight legs, but yeah. Their steps are 30 to 40 feet away from each other.

That's how big these things allegedly are. And there's apparently a Polaroid, and it resembles, you'll like this, because you were all about this stupid shit in high school. I still remember the bloop. Oh, the bloop. Mm, a fucking bloop. You and George is the goddamn bloop. It resembles the global.

overfield monster oh cool yeah see now you're on board yeah i'm gonna dig into that one it's a good one it's a i'll try to sit it to but the funniest that sounds like an arachnoid yeah the funniest part of it was the dude saying it first of all could barely read what he was trying to read and he's from probably like where i am in texas and he's like well here's a good one for you saw this on the internet the other day there's apparently giant spiders and i'm like this is fucking perfect it's like man like it freaks david arcad yeah exactly but um anyway back to uh schwartz's bugs we're still at tom tom and arian's getting overwhelmed this is where we get the recap of

her relationship with tom and i think it's easy to forget amidst all of the the fighting and the arguing and the sad moments that they had a really happy relationship for a very long time or at least it seemed to us that's why let's not forget we were all so shaken by this because we thought that they were so rock solid for so long. Like no one ever questioned Tom and Ariana. And you go back and watch these moments with them, like being close, kissing, having this friendship above all else. They seem to be best friends.

It made it all like hit harder for me. And this is where I really, really felt for Ariana. I was like, fuck, this has got to be a tough hill to climb. Hats off to you for going into Tom Tom, honestly. I don't know how the fuck you did that. but we get a different take. And this comes from Lala. And again, we're getting empathetic Lala.

She talked about her briefly with her mom earlier, but I wanted to save it for this. She's relating to Raquel a little bit. Rachel, what are we calling her? I don't care. Rara. Whatever the hell you want. Ray, Ray, Ray.

Ray, Ray? Sure. Okay, so we're relating to, she's relating to Ray, Ray a little bit and comparing it to her situation with Randall. And she remembers feeling like an outcast and like a home wrecker. what we got out of her this time

that sets it apart from previous ones and this is so important for me and I'm sure for a lot of the audience watching is the accountability factor she says people say horrible things they call you a home wrecking whore like really mean things and she says all true

takes accountability for kind of and I think people have all said it we've all talked about a reference to like you had to know something was up you never went back to his apartment back in the day before you guys were married like he always would meet you somewhere else we've all alluded to it like you had to have known something was up this is kind of or not kind of this is super important that she just takes accountability on it and she's like yeah i was that person and that sucks and it sticks with you and regardless of what has

happened regardless of how disastrous this has been she doesn't want rachel to have to try to deal with this for the rest of her life she's taking a beating and We all watched her take a beating for a long time. She's not doing herself any favors via Schmethany Schmankle or this fucking podcast that she's running now. Nothing's helping her out and that's sad to see. But it is good to see on the other side of it, Lala, able to be like, you know what? Maybe I can offer some words of wisdom here and at least, at least help her move forward

and able to get past Sandoval. During the Volvo Fall Experience event, discover exceptional offers and thoughtful design that leaves plenty of room for autumn adventures. And see for yourself how Volvo's legendary safety brings peace of mind to every crisp morning commute. This September, lease a 2026

XE90 plug-in hybrid from $599 bi-weekly at 3.99% during the Volvo Fall Experience event. Conditions apply, visit your local Volvo retailer or go to explore Volvo.com. Hey, Michael. Hey, Tom.

Well, big news to share it, right? Yes, huge, monumental. It's shaking. Heartbeat sound effect, big. Mates is back. That's right. After a brief snack nap. We're coming back. We're picking snacks. We're eating snacks. We're raiding snacks. Like the snackologist we were born to be.

Mates is back. Mike and Tom, eat snacks. Wherever you get your podcast. Unless you get them from a snack machine, in which case, call us. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the L.A. Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director. You might know me from The League, Veep, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We come together to host Unspool, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits.

Fan favorites, must-season, and Casey Mistoms. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to hit the follow button. because she was so rattled from Randall and felt isolated by Randall, Rachel felt the same way, allegedly, via Tom.

Yeah, I think it's a good point. And I think that's, like, the main difference that we saw from last year. And before all the Ariana Tom stuff dropped, we were accusing, not us specifically, but people were accusing Raquel of being a homewrecker because of the whole Katie and Schwartz thing. And we saw Lala talk to her briefly, I think it was Lala's birthday, outside. And she did that. She said, look, I've been in your place before. but she wasn't taking that accountability.

She was saying, I'm not that person. Yes, this year she is. And that's a huge difference. And I think whatever she's been going through, whether it was the tom of it all, or there's something else going on, maybe she's taking therapy or whatever might be happening. She's doing some reflecting. And she's a completely, she's got this emotional intelligence about her. And I think that's important because she's the only one out of this group right now that's

not really afraid to make waves with Ariana. Like everybody else is, is petrified to say the wrong thing. because you don't want to set her off and look she's been through a lot so that's fine you want to tread carefully you want to make sure that she's in a good safe space but la laud knows that that's not going to do her any favors she needs to get through things on her own she identified herself in rachel and she doesn't want her to go through that and i think talking to lvipi about this one is because lvipi for whatever she is she's the mother of the group essentially and we saw her sit down with sandoval we saw her talk i don't think we saw her talk to rakel last year really at all did we i can't i don't think i don't think i don't think I think we got that one-on-one. Yeah, I don't think we got that. And she was also the only one at the reunion saying, like, there needs to be a way past this. Like, he can't be. Yeah, and she got a lot of flack for that.

He's got a lot of shit from us as well. Which is fair. And for Lala to sit down and talk about this right now, I think that's super important because she's going to do what she's going to do. And look, if Ariana can understand that, that's awesome. If she can't, she has to be okay with that. And I think that Lala is all right with that. So that's important to see because we gave Lola.

a lot of shit for last year because she was right before anybody else was right and she was parading around that she was correct and that was really tough to watch because she didn't know what was going on but she thought she did she well you've got to give credit or credit to she called it to an extent but she was already being mean before that and now to see her this year taking the accountability i think that's really important because again this show goes really well when one we've got james in a great spot right now and again if he can perform as well as he did you know in years past while still growing and doing more things. That's awesome. If Lala can do the same thing, that's great for the show, because that's what we need. And we talked about this with Ryan Bailey last week. We're not really sure what direction this show is going to go in. They have a lot of momentum, obviously, from last year. This year's going to be the fallout, but you still need people and you still need those main components of the cast to drive the show forward when this is finally over, which could take a couple years, and that's fine. But it needs to go in a different direction. And these are the people that are going to do that. And if we see some growth from them,

I'm going to down for it. I agree. And I think it's going to be interesting to watch. unfold but I think that these shows especially a Vanderpump type show it's different than a housewife show where you more are just along for like the experience like yes we love to see growth in those shows as well but I think that there's something about Vanderpump where we've been with these people since they were struggling actors and models cheating on each other and sleeping with each other in apartments like shitty apartments in L.A and we've watched them come up and we want to see that growth like with the housewives you're seeing people that are already established. There's different, there is a big difference in watching the people that you've

kind of come up with, so to speak, and seeing them be successful and grow up. Like, you need that factor of it. You need that with James. You need that with Lala. You need that with everybody across the board. And the people that the audience tends to grow closer to in this type of show are the people that look at Sandoval and Schwartz. They've been the same fucking people and they've lost so many fans. A lot of that's because Tom cheated. But even in the past when we've talked about them, we've always referred them as like dumb and dumber. So I think that it's important that they continue this growth. And with Lala, it's huge. And I mean, even with Katie, you know, and Katie's tough, man, like she doesn't budge on anything. It drives me crazy sometimes. I talked about it last year

a lot. We see her and Sheena vibing. And they, fuck, last year, Katie crashed her wedding to like prove a point because she already booked her hotel. Yeah, the fallout is bringing people closer. And that's what should happen. And that's great for the show because we were watching people at odds for dumb reasons last year. Something big happens and they're all kind of coming together. And look, Katie and Sheena are two different, very, very, very different people. Yes. And they will clash from time to time.

But if they can at least get along for now, that's good for me because there's something bigger than both of them. And that's going to be great for the show. I firmly agree. But at the end of the night at Tom Tom, we get a, some would call shocking. some would call outrageous some people might even be pissed off about it i'm actually curious what the response is going to be once everybody sees it la la i thought she called rachel but she actually i thought it was a voice she voice messages her and just says that she would like to talk to her and uh this is going back to the empathy thing that she understands what she's going through

as far as feeling like the mistress and that she shouldn't have to carry that forever and would like to speak with her and all we know is that rachel saw it because she has a red receipts on which is interesting that somebody that's getting bashed all the time keeps a red for sheets red for sheets that's just a weird move but she does see that she read it there is no response i don't know i think this has come out i don't think that rachel ever actually did respond i think she has actually spoken on this um i could be wrong but oh man could you imagine that bombshell if rachel actually does show up during this season that would be great it would be great i would see it happening yeah i don't see that happening at all now although bravo now has a

track record for the last couple of shows of keeping things under wraps. If they can pull that one off that would solidify that would that would solidify Bravo's like comeback because we saw a lot of three seasons for a long time. That would be remarkable. I don't even want to talk about it's not

going to happen. Shut out. Shut up but my one that my one thing with Lala calling Rachel I don't know if I fully agree with it and we're going to talk about we get to girls night more. My biggest issue with it honestly is the timing of it.

Right. I think that she could have spent some... And look, but we don't know if she spent a lot of time thinking about it, and then she went to LVP. But why are you... Ariana's inside.

You know that time is a triggering place. Why are you doing it at the party? Wait till tomorrow. It's a TV show. Okay. I think that's really the answer. Because you know I struggle with those things because we try to just level

and separate and say these are real people. You don't do shit like that. You think about it. Do it in the comfort of your own home in the morning. You know, not 10 o'clock at night from Tom Tom. five seconds after you have a conversation with LVP. But again, that is also Lala. She got the guidance and she got basically the approval from LVP to reach out.

Honestly, she even got like, LVP was urging her to do it to an extent. So she went right out and did it. And then again, it's a TV show, so she's going to do it immediately. I do agree with you, though. The timing of it, not great. Not awesome, right? But then I know you've been dying to talk about this. This is the bug scene because the next day, Katie comes over to pick up the dogs.

And it's funny that you said, I can't stand this scene. I got to watch all this shit again. I said the same thing to Dev last night when we were watching the screener. I was like, if she's going to continue to go over there, that's fine. And yeah, she deserves to be mad at him. I'm not getting mad at Katie Schwartz is the villain in this situation. All I'm saying is if we are going to continue to see these scenes over and over again where she has this like, ugh, ugh, attitude every time she walks in, you can feel that way about him.

That's fine. I don't want to watch it anymore because it's the same scene played out over and over again in this sad apartment. Yeah, and you know what I think it is? We don't get, aside from that, we wouldn't be getting one-on-one Katie Schwartz scenes. Do we need them?

What do you get out of this scene? Other than the bug? Me personally, I get nothing out of this. What do people get out of seeing them in the same room? I did laugh thinking like he's going to, she's showing her his bugs. That was funny. That was funny. That was, I don't know.

Maybe there are some things. And look, I think you and I are on the same level when it comes to. I don't want to watch Katie come in just immediately be annoyed, which rightfully so, you can be annoyed at Schwartz. We're annoyed at Schwartz. I don't want to see that as much because, again, you're still, you're sharing dogs. It's been, you know, it feels like four years since you guys broke up at this point because so much has happened. I just don't care anymore. But there could be some tidbits and some weird conversations that they have. There will do apply to the whole world. So that might actually work out in.

our favor as the viewer, because we might get a little bit more information. And let's face it, Schwartz does tell Katie things that he doesn't really tell anybody else, even with them broken up and, you know, divorced. But he's still going to say things and weird things. As long as they can drop the Bubba talk, as long as they can drop all the other weird shit that they do, maybe there is something good there. Well, I think that, you know, what we definitely have seen from Katie is, Katie is very confident in who she is now.

Like, she doesn't need Schwartz's approval in any way. shape or form. And I would go as far to say she doesn't really need anybody's approval for better or worse. Like it's cool to see, again, growth. Like we saw her with Sheena earlier talking and they're cool now. But I think the biggest thing that we've gotten out of Katie is Katie is Katie and she's going to be Katie and she's unapologetic about it. And that's fucking great. And I'm not a biggest fan. But I will commend anybody that gets to that place in their life where they're like, this is me. If you don't like me, I don't give a fuck. And that's cool to see. And it, I think that this has been a product of that.

And I think that this is a product of getting past her relationship with an immature moron in Schwartz and seeing that she has way more worth than Tom Schwartz. And she should feel that way. And I'm proud of her. And, like, it's cool. That's all cool. I am going to get tired of these scenes. I mean, did you saw scenes from the season?

Yes. So they're in a weird thruple situation, if you will. So annoying. And then they're going to have, and then she's going to come over to pick up the dogs. Stop. It's going to be weird. Whoever that woman is that's in this thruple is the most opportunistic. That, I already know that's going to be my least favorite plot point in season.

It's going to be so fucking forced. I don't know who this chick is. I'm like 50-50 on it. I can't wait, but I also can't wait, for sure. Remember this moment. Remember you saying that, okay? 50-50. I don't care.

That's still 50%, yay. Remember this moment. It's going to, I know you're going to be like, fuck. I have committed to a bit. I can lean into it. I know you can. I need you to be honest when push comes to shove

and say, am I enjoying it or not? Don't you fucking lie because you don't want to be wrong. Remember this moment. Minute 107. I don't have a great memory. I'm not going to remember this one. I will.

These are the kinds of things that will stick with me. But regardless, we get to ladies night. And everyone's checking in with Ariana and just making sure she's good after the other night and just good overall.

I think they're all on high alert where they're always making sure she's feeling better and better, as good friends should. But Lala, as good friends should as well, plays devil's advocate a little bit. And this is in regards to Schwartz. And she says, yes, he needs to change a little bit, but he had to deal with Sandoval's mind games as well. Like, he was also trapped by this guy. And I didn't think about it. And I know I talked about it earlier in the episode, but Lala was actually the one that kind of spun my mind differently to think about it. Like, oh, yeah, like he was caught up in the bullshit with Sandoval as well.

And we've seen how Sandoval talks to people, especially people close to him like Rachel, we saw it all season. He's good at spinning this web. He's good at getting people trapped in. Ariana was trapped in it for fucking seven years. Yeah. You know, he had Ariana anti-Kady because he would say that Katie's the problem. Fast forward, we all know very well Katie was not the problem. It's the Tom's.

The Tom's are always the problem. But it's a very valid point, I thought. But again, it comes down to if Ariana is not ready or does not want to forgive him. She really doesn't owe him that. No, of course not. I think it just, like, that's where your point comes in. It's a TV show they're forced to be around each other.

That doesn't mean they have to like each other. Yeah, exactly. But that's when Lala plays devil's advocate about Raquel. And it's funny you say devil's advocate because I do think that Ariana had a great line with that when she went to the confessional and said, I feel like the devil has enough advocates. That's a really good one. I feel like people were going to gloss over that one, but I like it.

Make sure we highlight that. That was a good one. to make a t-shirt about that one. We have so many t-shirts, like, in the queue. Just hope there's somebody out there that's just making these t-shirts for us, and we just see them someday. I don't think. Well, then, no, because then they're taking your idea.

It's fine. I'll just wear it on stage in our shows. That's all I really want. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. Well, there you go. You got the green light.

But Lala takes it upon herself. Lala takes it upon herself to tell Katie, and I appreciated this a lot. Like, hey, just so you're not blindsided, this is what happened last night. I messaged Rachel. I reached out to her because I just felt that this is very similar to what I went through with Randall. Now, Katie points out something very important as well. It doesn't always apply. Yep.

It does not always apply. The players are different. The situation is different. The feeling might be the same. And there could be some merit to what you're saying for sure. But the difference is, Lala, you didn't buddy up to Randall. 's wife. You didn't lie to her face for an extended period of time. You didn't lie to everybody else in the group for an extended period of time and paint this picture of being Ariana's

friend while fucking her boyfriend. That's the difference. Now, is there a place in which you can be empathetic and have that conversation with Rachel? Yeah, but you can't expect everybody to understand what you're coming from and you may not even be right. If you believe that that's correct and that's what you should do, do what you got to do. But I don't think you can expect everyone to receive it well. And I think it's also really important if Lala's on this growth mission and becoming a better person and being more emotionally available for her to be able to understand this is not the same as what I went through with Randall. Yeah, I would say that for sure. And I kind of struggle a little bit with this moment, this scene in general, because as much as I do appreciate

that Lala is telling Ariana what she's doing and specifically with Raquel and how she feels about the whole thing. I sort of don't want her to do that in front of Sheena and Katie. Right. Because we know where they stand. We already talked about this earlier. Like, they are going to, rightfully so, they're going to defend Ariana at every turn. So if you do something that they think might kind of turn Ariana off or blindsided a little bit, they're going to immediately go after you and they're going to chirp in and chime in. And I don't really want that. But again, I do like that Lala started this off with saying, you know, I don't really know where we all. I don't know if you even like me.

Do you like me or do you tolerate? Or do you tolerate me? And look, I think that she was doing that emotionally. I don't think that that was like a, we've seen Lala in the past. Like she could say that with a smirk on her face. Yeah. This time she actually meant it. This time she was like, I don't know how that feels.

She cried more like, she's, but she's cried in the past. And I've been like, all right, these moments all seemed real. Yeah, no, they all seemed real. And I appreciate the fact that she started off with that because we've seen this before where it's like, all right, yeah, like I'm happy that we're friends now. but this is what I did that completely fucked you over. We see that and shows all the time. And it's like, you just became friends.

Maybe give it a day or two and then reach out and do this. But I actually liked that she did that because she didn't just completely start the conversation off by saying, hey, you know what? I did this. I just want to let you know. I want to see where we are first because I want to gauge how you feel about it and then tell you where I'm coming from and doing all of this. I would have rather had that in a one-on-one situation, but I don't know if we would have been able to have that in the first place because Ariana, it's still three months removed. she still is in that safe space zone where if we're going to go out on a girl's night

it's going to be with Katie and Sheena because those are the people that I'm close to right now not as close to Lala but still okay with Lala and still friends so that's fine I would have preferred as being one-on-one but I do get it and that's why I kind of struggle back and forth

with what I would want versus what Ariana would want and that's kind of an issue but I still give Lala praise for telling her right away like look this is what I did you're not going to be happy about it you're not going to like this at all but I'm just letting you know this

is where it is. But my one question here is, is Ariana seems cool with him, right? She seems okay with it. Is she actually cool with it? She wouldn't, I mean, not cool with it. She had an issue with it. And she goes on to say, like, you know, he has enough advocates and also, like, this is weird and her confessional. Will this rear its head again later? I don't know. I think that if Rattel were to come back, yes, because then all of a sudden it's, well, Lala started off the conversation. She opens the dialogue with Raquel. And that's the reason why she feels comfortable coming back

because she thinks that Lala's in her court. Which she's not, by the way. Let's just get that out there now. Lala is not trying to bring Raquel back to the friend group and saying that everybody needs to give her a little bit of grace because this is really Sandoval. She's not doing any of that. She's just saying, I don't want her to bear this for the rest of her life.

That fucking sucks. I did like her at one point in time. I don't like her anymore because of what she's done. But I can still look at her on a human level and say, I can give you some advice because I can be a bigger person. So, no, I could see Ariana maybe flipping a switch and bringing that back out at some point. I don't think that she would, though, because if Ariana is truly getting better and we see her, you know, with her new boyfriend and we see her growing closer with her friends, I don't think that she's going to bring this back up unless it were to bring Raquel back. If that doesn't happen, then no, I don't think so.

Fair enough. Fair enough. I'm curious. And I, like, we'll see a play out in the season. Obviously, we get, like, the scenes from the season after this. and we don't need to dive into that. But I'm hopeful. I was apprehensive about this first episode. I was like, I don't know how they're going to carry this over

and repeat any kind of season like they had last year. And I think that that was the thing that we talked about with Ryan was you don't need to replicate last year. Yeah. You need to. It's impossible. Correct. So you need to just move forward, allow us to move forward with all these people,

pick up the pieces, see what, it looks like and go from there instead of trying to recreate Scandival 2.0. This was my biggest litmus test was episode one. How are they framing it? Because we would have known out of the gate like, fuck, here we go, Scandival 2.0. That's not what it seems like. It does seem like, hey, look how good these guys are doing. This person is still struggling a little bit.

These two are still working through some shit. Here's where everybody stands, but we are past the initial act. We think. We think. This is only because Tom wasn't in the episode, though. Which I do think is important and I do applaud Bravo for doing that because not having Tom there is showing what's truly important, which is the fallout with the rest of the group. We don't want more time. We don't want any more face time with Tom than we need to have because he's explained himself.

He's got a fucking podcast. He goes on tour. He doesn't care. He went and did another show. We already know all of those things. Throwing him into the first episode probably would have led us to believe this is going to be Scandival 2.0. Everybody's just going to be yelling at him because there's still a lot of people like James, obviously Ariana, like Sheena, that are still really upset with him for other reasons and for the way that he treated their friendship. So not having him there in that first episode is truly important for me because it shows where everybody is and it shows how we are.

And that was exactly what we wanted to see. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it's going to look like with him and back in the picture. I think we're... It's going to be really interesting. It's going to be really interesting. I'm eager to see it. Yeah. Week to week.

I mean, this is going to be hopefully a great season. I just hope the pacing is correct. But not obviously this isn't scripted, but the pacing should be good. I don't want too much too soon. I don't want any of those things that are really going to turn us off and make us look back and say, yeah, I didn't really like the way they did that. This was a good first episode. Yeah. And I think that in my opinion, there is so much here that is real and organic because of what happened.

There is no reason to overproduce this season. Just follow it happen. Yeah, follow them. It'll work. Force them to film together and follow them. Yeah. That's all we need. That's the only production that we need out of you is just follow it.

I will say, though, credit to a production, the transitions, the music, the slow, but. Oh, yeah. They're bringing their A game. They have to. That's what I said. You can tell they made more money last year because this production value is way better. Oh, yeah. But the jump scare.

I didn't like that. Yeah, you don't like the jumps care. But all in all, yeah, I'm optimistic. cautiously optimistic as we like to say here but since all of yous have not seen it yet or are watching it now or are listening to this shortly after you've watched it we don't have any questions for today so I'm going to ask you a question oh god you ready what do you want what is your favorite balloon animal do you had to get one uh probably a giraffe oh okay I like like the long neck because then you can kind of like bring it around like this oh yeah You want to kill it? It's not real. It's alive. Why?

What's yours? It's not an animal. I like the bike from wedding crashes. Oh, well, yeah. Make me a bicycle clown. You want me to make it to scale version of Wrigley Field, too? Yeah, while I'm at it. But no, that's all I got.

You got anything else? Do not. Make sure you get those tickets, though. March 6th, City Winery, where it all began. Get them ticks. We'll come out. We'll meet. We'll greet.

And we'll have a great night. We'll meet, we'll greet, you'll eat. Hopefully we eat. Skeet, skeet, skeet. Brock Bros are out here. See ya. Here, the most popular fiction podcast of all time, which the New York Times described as

what might occur if David Lynch was a producer at your local radio station. Welcome to Night Vale is a twice-monthly update from a small desert town. Where the paranormal is real, every conspiracy theory is true. We all have to get on with our lives anyway. Welcome to Night Vale is available wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm here to tell you about Good Morning Night Vale. Welcome to Night Vale's official recap show and unofficial best friend food podcast. Join me, Meg Bashwinner,

and fellow tri-hosts, Hal Lublin and Symphony Sanders, as we dissect all of the cool, squishy, and slimy bits of every episode of Welcome to Night Vale. Come for the insightful and hilarious commentary, and stay for all of the weird and wild behind-the-scenes stories. Good morning nightfail, with new episodes every other Thursday. Get it wherever you get your podcasts. Yes, even there.