by Gina Scarpa

This reunion of The Real Housewives of Orange County is clearly a three on two situation. On one couch, we have Heather, Gretchen, and Tamra and on the other sits Vicki and Alexis. Andy Cohen sits in the middle ready to do what he does best - try to keep everyone from killing each other!

We start off with Alexis, who has definitely changed this season. She's started to become more independent, pursue her career, and not let her husband have control over her. Well, not total control. The women think that she treats Jim like her dad and asks permission for everything that she does but Alexis promises that's not the case. Heather then points out how bothered she was by Alexis's comment early in the season that she's not a real actress, but Alexis is hurt by the comments Heather has made about her. It's pretty clear these two are never going to be friends... but stranger things have happened, which we'll get to in a minute.

Time to check in on Tamra, who lets us know that once they returned from Bora Bora, Eddie proposed a second time in front of the kids. He's since moved in with her and things are going very well. Simon, on the other hand, didn't take to the news too well but he has a girlfriend and really, no right to an opinion about it. When it comes to Tamra's sense of humor, Alexis says it's nasty while Vicki says they've drifted apart and is very hurt by it. It doesn't seem to have as much to do with Tamra as much as her being caught up in her relationship with Brooks.

Back to stranger things, which is the reconciliation between Tamra and Gretchen. They got to a point where they felt like they were just fighting for the sake of fighting and put their tumultuous past behind them. Their friendship is still a work in progress but they talk regularly, which is good to hear. Vicki jumps in to say that Tamra only focuses on one friend at a time and goes after everyone around her. She even went as far as to say on her blog that Tamra told her not to like Alexis and that's why she didn't but then retracted in front of Andy and said that wasn't true. Cuckoo!

While we're on the subject of Vicki and her craziness this season, she said that when she met Don's girlfriend, she almost ripped her eyeballs out. Why?! A viewer wrote in and said it seems like Vicki is being brainwashed by Brooks (agree!) and the women get on her for always criticizing them for being around their men constantly in the past when she does the same now. Vicki finally throws her hands up in defeat and calls herself a hypocrite. Even though she doesn't mean it, it's nice to hear her say it, isn't it?

We finish off round 1 of this reunion with Alexis vs. Gretchen. Alexis says she wished Gretchen spoke to her in private before the "intervention" in Costa Rica. Gretchen claims she had an entire conversation with her on the plane ride over and even told her everything that was basically going to be said, but Alexis denies the whole thing. Heather jumps in to say that she treats the crew for the show horribly, and has a terrible reputation with the department store employees in their area. When Alexis continuously denies it, Heather utters my favorite comment of the entire episode: "If everyone says you're dead, it's time to lie down!" Then again, Tamra did give her a run for her money by calling Alexis "Jesus Jugs".

The fighting continues next week on The Real Housewives of Orange County, Tuesday at 9/8c on Bravo.

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

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