This week on Southern Charm , there are a series of get-togethers which flesh out the future of the narrative for the season, and much of it started with the party for the opening of Nico’s , a restaurant owned by Naomie Olindo’s parents. While it was obvious to viewers last week that Thomas Ravenel is still at the very least attracted to his ex, Kathryn Dennis (he calls it just being playful), Kathryn takes a morning workout with Chelsea Meissner as an opportunity to open up about what she thinks of Thomas’ expected flirtatiousness.
Kathryn describes the level of awkwardness she encountered at Nico by explaining to Chelsea that she now understands Thomas’ predictable behavior. She tells Chelsea that Thomas flirted with her with his date standing right there almost as a chaperone who never intervenes, even with things get bawdy. Dennis says this is just what Ravenel has always done to feed his ego.
“It’s triangulation. He uses the both of us to feed his ego. If he can get two girls to seem jealous of each other he enjoys it because it is two people stroking his ego.”
In her confessional, she says she knows it probably sounds manipulative, but she’s learned a lot in five seasons of Southern Charm .
In another meeting across town, Whitney’s mama Patricia Altschul sees that she might have taken on more than just a DIY project when it comes to playing Henry Higgins to the Eliza Doolittle which is Thomas’ latest girlfriend. Thomas asked Patricia if she would turn this self-described “Cali girl” into a proper Southern belle.
Patricia decides to meet Thomas’ plus one at Gwynn’s a local upscale department store and has asked owner Madison Simon to pull some items which whisper Amal Clooney rather than Spice Girls. The girlfriend, whose name is Ashley, seems as if she’s playing dress up, and even she admits to Patricia that she feels like a Barbie Doll.
Patricia tells her never to call herself a Barbie.
“Honey, never refer to yourself as a Barbie Doll. No, no, no, no!”
Ashley makes a mental note, and next tells Patricia and Madison that she feels like Julia Roberts’ character in the movie Pretty Woman (oddly, Roberts played a prostitute).
“Now I feel like Pretty Woman !”
With a facial expression that says things are going from bad to worse, Patricia corrects her once again.
“No, no, no! Don’t use that analogy!”
Mrs. Altschul tells her that she doesn’t want to be a child’s toy or a prostitute, but rather a grown woman with a job and her own friends. On their way out, viewers are told that all three outfits ($10k worth) have been charged to Ravenel’s credit card.
Patricia has now heard from Thomas that he doesn’t want to buy the cow when “he gets the milk for free” according to FitsNews, and learned from Ashley that she didn’t move across the country without thinking she could close the deal. These things sound incongruous, so she throws a dinner party to do a deep dive into Ravenel’s relationship and learns more than she bargained for.
Even before dinner, during drinks, Thomas tells Patricia and the other “Lost Boys” that he and Ashley had an argument after Patricia passed on pearls of wisdom about ultimatums. Thomas explains that he still likes to stay out, and Ashley wanted to go home, which turned into a spat. Thomas said he threatened to send her home if she didn’t straighten up.
“Do I need to send you back to California? I’m not going to put up with this crap.”
During a vegan dinner where Thomas continues to talk about a future with Ashley, he calls her Kathryn instead and gets called out by the other diners. Then he shares that after a two-month relationship, Ashley wants a baby, and no, they aren’t using birth control. Cue the “have you learned nothing” face from everyone else at the dining table.
And speaking of baby-mamas, Thomas and Kathryn are the last get-together of the Southern Charm episode, sitting down to set the stage for the drama to come next week in Hilton Head. Thomas expresses to Kathryn over candlelight that he thinks she wants to get back together. Boy, he read that one wrong, as she exclaims “no!”.
The former couple plan to get together for a party for their son Saint’s birthday, and both agree that Ashley is not invited, which lights the fuse for next week’s episode when Ashley seems to turn into the Incredible Hulk (“don’t make me angry, you won’t like it when I’m angry”) while on a group trip.