Well, Guerdy’s breast cancer diagnosis is now common knowledge among “The Real Housewives of Miami” cast, largely against her wishes.
Episode 3 picked up where the previous left off, as Larsa and Guerdy continued their awkward fight-turned-cry session.
When Guerdy eventually let Larsa in on the diagnosis, Larsa’s first words were “How was I supposed to know that?”
I want to make something very clear. I’m not defending Larsa for her anything but supportive initial reaction, but I feel like we need to cut her some slack.
The book of fighting with someone who unbeknownst to you, has cancer is yet to be
written, so I can understand the initial disarray, but at some point you have to know how to toss your feelings aside and be there for your friend.
As the conversation went on, Larsa kept talking and explaining her confusion, to the point where Guerdy had to say “Stop!”
Guerdy explained that she needed a safe space to be herself, and that she was telling Larsa about the status of her health in confidence.
Guerdy said this is a testament to their friendship and that she is now the fourth woman in the group to be let in on the secret.
Larsa seemingly agreed to keep the information she had just been told to herself … or so we thought.
In what I believe to be the funniest moment in Bravo editing history, the scene cut and my television screen read “Six hours later.” My TV then cut out and suddenly the transition credit read “No literally, six hours later.”
Only hours later at Larsa’s welcome back party she ends up telling Guerdy’s secret to the rest of the cast.
Yes, she outed Guerdy’s breast cancer diagnosis.
I really don’t know what Larsa’s excuse is going to be in defense of this messy behavior, but in any case, I can’t think of a situation where I would think to myself: “Welp. This feels like a good time to ring the bell on my friend’s life-threatening illness.”
It just felt gross. Watching this scene felt gross. I love Larsa and I love the relationship she has with Marcus, but I can’t get behind this level 0f treachery.
The rest of the ladies reacted with tears and compassion so that gave me some hope that there might be an ounce of humanity in this rather grim episode.
Larsa wasn’t the only one telling people close to Guerdy about her diagnosis.
Russell, Guerdy’s husband, had the heartbreaking duty of telling his children their mother has cancer.
This was one of the most touching parts of Episode 3.
He clearly had no idea how to impart this devastating information onto his sons, but was nothing short of supportive, reassuring Guerdy that she was not a burden and that he’d be by her side for this journey.
Another person who offered Guerdy support was Martina, Julia’s partner.
Martina had previously been diagnosed with both throat and breast cancer and is now in the final stages of radiation therapy.
This was another bright spot of the episode. Watching Guerdy and Martina talk about their experiences was enlightening.
It also felt good to see Guerdy be treated with love and kindness, I could tell she was hurting.
A dialogue I wasn’t expecting to weave its way into the episode was the correlation between race and illness.
Guerdy said to Martina and Julia that she Googled something along the lines of “Black women breast cancer” and was unable to find images of Black women who are struggling with the illness.
While white women are more likely to develop breast cancer, Black women have the higher likelihood of dying from the disease according to a Breastcancer.org webpage.
To me, this intensifies Guerdy’s situation and tugs hard at my heartstrings, and even though we now know that she has (thankfully) beat her cancer, it is still terrifying to think about the unfair medical disposition that Black people are wrongfully placed in.
Continuing with this episode’s theme of despondency, halfway into Larsa’s welcome back party, Lisa starts dejectedly speaking about her divorce and I’m starting to sense an overall “we get it” vibe from the other ladies.
Marysol, who has often had Lisa’s back for the past two seasons even mentioned that her persistent complaining about her ex-husband might drive her current man, Jody, away.
I agree with Marysol. Talking too much about your ex in front of your new partner is a recipe for disaster, and I’m afraid Jody might not be the only one suffering.
Lisa’s kids were an integral part of Lisa’s storyline this episode. As her children yelled for her attention, she was seen on the phone with Jody, consumed in conversation about her ex.
And even when she eventually sat down with them, viewers could see she was in a bad mood, eventually snapping at her son.
While I can’t necessarily empathize with Lisa, as I’ve never had a rich husband cheat on me, I can see she cares about being a driving force in her children’s formative years and in order to do so, she’ll have to stop Lenny from having this much emotional power over her.
This was definitely a darker episode of RHOM, and while I’m glad the South Beach ladies are bringing the drama and deep storylines, I would like to see these women come together and rally around each other.
