Review: The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season Finale

Clearly you need to rethink your inner circle when people are trying to intentionally sabotage your wedding by not only discouraging you from getting married, or encouraging you to call off the wedding, but are also withholding your marriage certificate from you so your marriage won’t be legal or betting money on the fact that you and new husband won’t be together in a year.  After the season finale of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Cynthia needs to rethink her inner circle.

While the finale culminated with Cynthia’s wedding, it started with Lawrence’s performance of “Closet Freak.”  As an avid watcher of RuPaul’s Drag Race, I must say Lawrence put on a great show.  His dancers, while one had a few rolls of fat that showed through her leotard, overall complemented his performance quite well.  “Closet Freak” should have been the “booktrack” to E. Lynn Harris’s first novel Invisible Life.

Sheree went on an audition for a movie.  What was this brown, furry material hanging off her purse?  Is that the new ATL style?  Hilariously, Sheree walked into her audition like she was homegirls with people who would be auditioning her, which included Terri Vaughn (The Steve Harvey Show).  In my opinion, Sheree can’t act her way into a free meal. Everyone in that audition room saw it.  Terri Vaughn amused me so.  I loved her facial expressions as she was watching Sheree audition.  Apparently Sheree was reading, behaving, and gesturing as she would if she were the character in the script.  Maybe she didn’t get the memo, but she’s supposed to be playing the part of a character, not auditioning for Sheree starring Sheree! Sheree said, “Maybe Terri Vaughn wanted the role herself.”  Really, Sheree?  Girl, don’t you know you’re probably auditioning for Terri’s sloppy seconds?!

Thankfully, the finale included Kandi having a semi-professional meeting with Kim where Kandi asked Kim to have her lawyer speak with Kandi’s lawyer about the production fees for the song “The Ring Didn’t Mean a Thing.”  Hopefully next season, if the show returns, Kandi won’t be at the same place she was at the beginning of this season: frustrated that Kim hadn’t paid her for her services.

Phaedra had a tender moment when she returned back to work and she left her son with the baby-sitter.  Each week every new mom lives out that same moment.  Phaedra got a little more respect from me for that.  Although she can have her slice and dice moments, her never-heard-of-Sip-and-See moments, and her off-the-wall-baby-shower moments, her personality came full circle for me when she shed tears and returned to the office.

Most parents will say that their children are a reflection of them.  If Brice is a reflection of NeNe, what does that say about NeNe? She complains that he’s not taking responsibility.  Whose fault is that?  She gave him 90 days to get a job, do something with his hair, and help out more around the house.  The 90 days has expired and all he has done so far is get a haircut, but she’s still letting him stay at the house and, with a little crooked smile, he’s still asking her for money.  Clearly, he hasn’t learned anything in these past 90 days. NeNe claims to be an ol’ school mother, but a real ol’ school mother would’ve injected that tough love and made that big ol’ grown boy either get out of her house or start paying rent.  Sadly, though, I was disappointed to see NeNe extend grace to Brice but not be able to extend it to her husband, Greg, who apologized for the radio rants earlier in the season.  Although NeNe has never claimed to have needed to apologize to her husband, no one is perfect.  We can assume she has had to ask him for forgiveness, and if she has not, she will need to ask it of either him or another person before her life is done.  Whether she has to ask once, or a 1,000 times, if it is sincere, she’ll want them to forgive her.  However, she did not feel compelled at the time to forgive him.  As NeNe cut and rolled her eyes at Greg and exhaled these deeps breaths as she struggled to hold this conversation with him, she appeared to be just too fed up for forgiveness.

While they snip at each other like little poodles, Kim and NeNe are going to be friends forever.  They act so much alike that no one else would want to put up with their sophomoric behavior.  During each of their individual segments, both of them were talking about something completely separate, and they each alluded to one another.  Neither of them mentioned, or was shown mentioning, any other housewife but one another.  Instead of soul mates, they are girl mates.

Cynthia’s segment did not always feel like the drama that is The Real Housewives of Atlanta, per se, but her conversation with her mom in the park and her conversation in the restroom with her sister came across the screen like a serious demonstration of marital concerns that would precede a counseling session. However, out of the mouths of a babe (her daughter, Noelle), did Cynthia find her best support.  Noelle was seemingly the most inspirational person in Cynthia’s wedding party.  Although the previews hinted that Cynthia would be a runaway bride, she gracefully descended the staircase of the museum and exchanged vows with Peter under the skeletal remains of what looked to be a T-Rex dinosaur. During the vow exchange, it was no accident that the camera cut to NeNe when Cynthia and Peter got to the part where they said they’d love one another “when times were bad.” People need to have their marriage vows enlarged and framed over their bed so they’ll remember what they promised one another while the blood was still running warm through their hearts and the flowers were still smelling so fresh in their arms.  If Cynthia and Peter’s wedding did not have rings but yours did (or you wish yours will), if Cynthia didn’t wear a veil but you did (or you wish you will), or if Cynthia and Peter paid for theirs either equally or unequally but you didn’t (or you hope you won’t), it is no one else’s business.  No two marriages are alike.  What works for one couple won’t always work for another.  As long as Cynthia and Peter are happy, get out those folks’ business.  Granted, they’re on reality TV, but the reality TV co-stars who aren’t married themselves need to stop interjecting their unsolicited, uneducated advice.

At the end, a few of us thought the season finale seemed like a series finale, especially when NeNe’s final update showed that she wanted to move to L.A. Whether NeNe goes or stays, I’m looking forward to next season with the newlyweds.  Call it the hopeless romantic in me, but I’m on Team Cynthia and Peter, and I’m looking forward to hearing more music from Kandi and Lawrence.

For another opinion on this episode, check out The Long Walk Down the Aisle by Inisia Lewis.

Season 3, Episode 16: “The Bride and the Doom” (Originally aired January 30, 2011)

To look back on this season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, click here.

Images courtesy of Bravo and IMDbPro