‘Real Housewives of SLC’ recap: Monica is a pariah at the reunion; Lisa gives an update on Jack’s LDS mission

“The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” kicked off their three-part reunion on Jan. 9 with a whole lot of fighting and cursing, but the most interesting clips are from the two upcoming episodes:

• Lisa Barlow’s son, Jack, preparing to go on a Latter-day Saint mission was a big storyline in the just-completed Season 4, but Lisa confirms that Jack “bounced on his mission. He’s not going.”

• Mary Cosby (who does not appear in this week’s Part 1) says that the way the other Housewives have reacted to Monica Garcia’s involvement in a Instagram account that viciously trolled them is “unacceptable.”

• Monica insists that she’s just one of six people operating that Instagram page. Lisa and Heather say they have proof that Monica is lying.

As Part 1 of the reunion (taped just before Thanksgiving) gets underway, the Housewives are all gathered together for the first time since the season finale, filmed back in May. Well, Monica is with the other five Housewives for the first time since they filmed the season finale back in May — since Heather Gay broke the news that Monica is behind Reality Von Tease, that vicious Instagram account.

Monica enters last, and Lisa, Heather, Meredith Marks, Whitney Rose and Angie Katsanevas do not look happy to see her.

• Heather says that, with Jen Shah is now in prison, she worried viewers would expect all the “drama and toxicity and just craziness” went with her, and that “they might tune out if they didn’t see it.” There was, of course, plenty of drama, toxicity and craziness without Jen, albeit no federal crimes.

• Andy tells Monica it was “really touching and honest” when she started crying as she expressed her desire for a designer bag. Monica says, “It wasn’t necessarily about the bag. It was about entering this group of women as an outsider looking in.” She described herself with a crude synonym for prostitute, before saying she’s “going through a divorce [and] has four kids and lives in a 3,000-square-foot home. This is how I felt.”

The missing ring

Andy asks Monica why she acted “so annoyed” when Lisa got upset about losing a $60,000 ring. “I have to assume if you had lost a $60,000 ring, you’d be freaking out about it.”

Monica says that “Lisa had every right to be upset,” but she was aggravated because Lisa kept repeating the price of the ring. “I only said the price three times,” Lisa said. And, she added, the ring had great sentimental value because her husband gave it to her after their second son, Henry, was born and “almost died.” The ring remains missing.

• Monica blames Lisa and Heather for starting rumors that she stole the ring. They strongly deny that.

• When Angie laughs at something Monica says, Monica asks why Angie is “even talking,” calling her a “bench-warming b----,” and telling her to “shut up. … This doesn’t even involve you, just like most of the season.”

• Monica was one of Jen’s former assistants. She says they were “friends first. And then I was working for her. And then enemies, I guess.” She was not, however, being paid, which puzzles Andy: “So you were taking time away from your kids for a job that didn’t pay?” When Heather suggests that Monica trying to get on the show, Monica at first denies it. Heather plays a recording of Monica admitting “the whole reason why I was an assistant ... was as a stepping stone.” Monica then says, “Why wouldn’t I try to get on the show?”

• Monica says she emailed casting and wrote that “your show sucks, and your ratings are [expletive] and it’s going to get canceled because you don’t have the right cast.” Andy looks perplexed.

• Monica says she reached out to “federal investigators” with information about Jen. “I think that I did the right thing. And I think that everyone here probably should have done the right thing.” The insinuation that they didn’t is never unexplained.

• Monica says the affair with her ex-husband’s sister’s husband happened “over a decade ago.” She is no longer in touch with him. She says that she wasn’t “bragging or not taking accountability” for the affair. “I don’t think taking accountability means self-shame and self-hating for the rest of my life.”

She adds to the story: After she was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she was later rebaptized. She has since left the church again.

Are the friendships repaired?

Meredith says she and Lisa have had “a few bumps along the road” in their relationship, but they are in a “much better place.” Lisa says, “I feel like we’re building a new friendship,” and Meredith agrees.

• Heather says it was “easy to get back to, like, true love” with Whitney, “but there’s still stuff we’re working through.” Whitney adds, “There’s many trust issues, still.”

• Even after watching the episodes, Meredith cannot admit that when she’s confronted about something, she shifts focus to some unrelated drama in her life — something the other Housewives and viewers have seen her do repeatedly. “Actually, quite the opposite,” she says. And then she deflects by bringing up the behavior of other women.

• Whitney can’t bring herself to admit that she overreacted to Lisa’s behavior toward her after her friend died. The video evidence shows that Lisa did indeed ask Whitney several times if she was OK, and that Whitney later said she was antagonized because Lisa asked her if she was OK too many times.

• Andy reads a question from a viewer who doesn’t understand how Angie could so quickly forgive Monica, who, it turns out, was the only Housewife spreading false rumors that Angie’s husband, Sean, was cheating on her with men. Angie says she was “really confused,” and that she believed Monica when she said it was Meredith spreading those rumors. Monica laughs “because you keep phrasing it as if I started this rumor.” Angie and Andy both correctly point out that Monica is the one who brought it out on national television. Monica does not express any remorse.

• Lisa also correctly points out that Angie believed Monica over her. Angie says that, “in hindsight, I regret that I really bought and fell for everything Monica was saying. She’s lied a lot today. She’s lied a lot, you know, last season. So I’ve learned my lesson.”

• Whitney says she stands by her statement that Lisa lacks self-awareness and makes every situation about herself. Surprise! Lisa disagrees.

• In the 30 years she’s been with Sean, Angie had heard no rumors about him having sex with other men “until this rat came out of the sewer,” she said, motioning toward Monica.

• Monica asks how what she did was different than when Angie said that Meredith cheated on her husband. “Meredith didn’t pretend to be my friend,” Angie says. She later says she was told that both Meredith and her husband, Seth, were “seeing other people” during their separations. “I’m sorry that I said that.”

• Not for the first time, Meredith refuses to take responsibility for things she’s said, preferring to play semantics games. She denies she said anything about Angie’s marriage, insisting she only referred to (unspecified) information she said she had about Angie’s husband. “The difference is there could be rumors pertaining to her husband that have nothing to do with their marriage,” Meredith says.

• Angie admits that she called Meredith “a trampoline with eyes,” but says Meredith should take that as a compliment. “That means you have nice tight skin.”

• Angie says Monica “was determined” for the false rumors about Sean “to come out … because she went around to everyone in this group and said there were rumors about me in the first week of filming, when I thought that we were friends.”

The two women argue back and forth, and Angie accuses Monica of “spending your kids’ money on a[n expletive] purse.” Monica replies, “Are you insane?”

Part 2 airs on Jan. 16.

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