by Gina Scarpa

Lydia has decided to throw a salsa dancing party and invites all of The Real Housewives of Orange County - all of them! Before it takes place though, she practically begs Heather to sit down and talk things out with Alexis. When the two meet up at a local restaurant, they're quick to jump on the defense with one another. They part ways, agreeing to be civil, but nothing more than that. Hopefully, they'll both keep up their end of the truce.

Gretchen catches her mom up on the trip to Mexico for Tamra's bachelorette party. She also spills the details from Lauri about Vicki's "indiscrepancies", which is neither a word, nor the word she was looking for. When Vicki finds out about these indiscretions that are being discussed, she's going to go berserk. On a positive note, though, Gretchen's mom finally seems on board with the idea of her daughter and Slade settling down and getting married.

Things get very real over at Vicki's house as Ryan spends his last night at home with his mother-in-law, wife, and son. He's leaving for combat training for a few months and then will head overseas to Afghanistan. As a Marine, with ten years of service left, this is something that Briana unfortunately has to get used to and it's understandably difficult. Here's hoping Ryan stays safe during his active duty!

At the salsa party, Lauri shows up and stirs things up by revealing that Brooks is dating her friend's daughter, who is obviously much younger than Vicki. Speaking of Brooks, he surprises Vicki by showing up then briefly speaks to Tamra about the whole "evil eye" nonsense. If I never hear that phrase again, it won't be too soon.

Slade offends Lydia when he makes comments about her being too skinny and whispers to Gretchen that he's going to nickname her Cheeseburger. Lydia has no problem standing up to Slade, saying that she doesn't like that he made comments about her within earshot and also gets on his case about talking trash about the appearances of other housewives, like Vicki. That causes Gretchen to jump in and defend her man, but Lydia refuses to back down. Let's give some props to her for standing up for herself and the other women as well!

Tamra decides to make a nice gesture by inviting Alexis wedding dress shopping with her and the other women. That doesn't sit well with Gretchen, who tells Tamra perhaps it's better if she doesn't go if Alexis is going to be there. She's working hard to keep Tamra from being friends with Vicki or Alexis but should she be so opinionated about who she spends her time with?

The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

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