By Chandra Clewley

Tonight was the season finale of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Boy, what a long season it was, 16 episodes! And here we are at the end …so what have we learned?

It all started with everyone sort of at a standstill but then things got moving with Danielle confronting Jacqueline, Caroline wanting nothing to do with Danielle, Teresa confronting Danielle, Ashley pulling Danielle’s hair, Dina unsuccessfully trying to call a truce with Danielle, Caroline unsuccessfully trying to call a truce with Danielle, and Hurricane Danielle in the middle of it all. Or was she just the eye of the Real Housewives New Jersey storm, trying to stay sane?

We went up and down with Danielle, from her seeming certifiably crazy, to her making complete sense and everyone else being the crazy ones. Is she really the bad guy or is she edited to be this way?

We met the lovely, heaven sent Kim’s D and G, one an Ellen Barkin look-a-like (Ellen Barkin was NOT flattered with the association on Watch What Happens Live if you recall….) the other desperately trying to get into the fold whatever way possible and potentially masterminding the entire Danielle and Manzo breakdown to get in the Manzo’s good graces.

We also met Danny Provenzano, sometime actor, small time criminal, jail time veteran, homosexual slurring, hair feathering, and potentially newest housewife (well, if I had it my way that is…). Danny called poor Christopher Manzo the F-word, which was really disappointing, because Christopher Manzo was one of the only bright lights in this dim second season in Franklin Lakes, NJ.

Tonight’s episode had Caroline texting Danielle to meet up and ask her to reconsider filing charges against Ashley Holmes, Jacqueline’s daughter. This opens up another  can of worms, because really, according to Twitter feeds, Ashley has a lot of people buzzing that she needed to face consequences for pulling Danielle’s hair  (which she eventually did, paying a whopping $189 fine for pulling the hair extension out).

Obviously, we already know that Danielle didn’t reconsider, since this meeting happened last spring. The meeting escalates, and both women have points.   Danielle refuses to take responsibility for Danny calling Christopher a F_g, even though she is the one that brought him to the event where it went down. Caroline wants Danielle to give her specifics when Danielle says that Caroline has insulted her but Danielle doesn’t think fast enough to mention last year’s reunion show when she called her garbage the first time around. And it comes up tonight, again. Caroline calls her a clown and garbage. Danielle comes back that Caroline is the one with red hair in reference to the clown comment.

Once called garbage, Danielle pulls her typical “run away” like she did to Teresa and Kim G before and ends the meeting. It is reminiscent of Jill Zarin in Real Housewives of New York, actually. Run run run.

 Caroline, in reference to Danielle, says to the camera that she “came tonight with good intentions, she (Danielle) is blank, she (Danielle) is vacant, she (Danielle) is soulless, there is nothing there, why waste my time?” If anything, Caroline is certainly eloquent and knows exactly what words to use in order to express herself.

Danielle says in regards to the meeting, “she’s the clown, not me. Teresa’s husband is a drunk! Jacqueline? Certifiable. And here is a little message for Teresa: My kids wore lace and crinoline at that age, my dogs wear leopard.” Not sure what that was all about…perhaps another attack on the kids that Danielle so adamantly denied doing minutes before, when Caroline called her out for going after the children of the families when she wasn’t getting a reaction from the adults. 

And that pretty much ends the season. There is some small talk, and of course, some discourse between Ashley and her mother Jacqueline, because that is ALWAYS there, Jacqueline calling Ashley a teenager and making excuses for her because of her age (19).

The last captions do confirm Danielle’s sex tape, and the rumors that Joe and Teresa declared bankruptcy and debt of $11 million, but their house is not in foreclosure. There is still that pesky auction coming up though. You can read up more on that through a simple search on Google. 

oh, and on a side note Jacqueline and Teresa had babies, Albie was 86'd from Law School, Lauren got a boyfriend, Ashley got a boyfriend, Chris test ran his car wash/strip club idea successfully, Christine had a Sweet 16 and a chance to model, Jillian got to sing in front of an audience which was really cute, Dina left mid-season,  and the Manzo/Laurita group went to Italy...

Catch the first part of the Reunion next Monday at 10/9 c on Bravo.

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

Follow Chandra at http://twitter.com/ChandraClewley

For more Real Housewives of New Jersey visit Sirlinksalot.net