Nutshell Synopsis of Episode: Against their will, the spoiled rotten little 20-something brats are forced this week to prepare and serve food to homeless men at a homeless shelter, with Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child making a cameo! Then the ladies get back all of their clothes and accessories that they were forced to forfeit at the start of the series, only then to find out that they must sell a lot of that stuff off in a sale to benefit the homeless! And capping things off, a very deserving lady (finally) wins the weekly award for Very Improved Princess (VIP)!Segment 1: The week starts at the ladies' house with the well-endowed bad girl Erica Rose in a bikini! (See the gal on the left in the second of the three pictures above) (BTW, Reality shows should always start each episode off with a BANG, or TWO, after all!) Erica informs the other ladies that she and Jackie are going to do a "stiletto bikini blast," meaning a high octane physical workout in bikinis, stiletto heals and sunglasses. Bad girl Gia (the arch-enemy of Erica) (Gia's in the first of the three pictures above) immediately starts to mock this. Girl-next-door in look only, Pam, joins them in their workout. Gia's chiding continues outside the threesome's hearing: “Who am I talking about -- Ugly, I have legs like a horse and eyes like an owl?” Leanne quickly answers the riddle correctly: “Erica.” Courtnee (the hot lady in the third of the 3 above pictures) observes that Gia has not changed a bit during this series. Gia lacks respect for people and is "mean and rude," comments Courtnee.
After working on their household chores (with Gia and Erica bickering as usual), the ladies head off by car to see what's in store for them in this week's "lesson." They are somewhat distressed to discover that this week's lesson will take place at a local homeless shelter run by PATH (People Assisting The Homeless). At the shelter, series moderator and leader Laura Baron informs the lady that this week’s lesson is about giving back. Laura introduces the ladies to the Executive Director of PATH, Janet Kelly, as well as special guest star and 1/3 of Destiny’s Child, Michelle Wlliams (who is a big PATH supporter). The ladies learn that they will be preparing and serving food to the homeless of LA.
The ladies exhibit a certain degree of trepidation towards this reality, with Leanne commenting off camera: “Homeless people are disgusting. I mean, they like stand on the corner and beg for money. Anyone could do that. Stop being lazy and go get a job." Says Jackie: “I'm kind of nervous, because obviously where I’m from in New Jersey, we don’t have any homeless people.” Amber says: “I’m feeling like 'ooooo,' this is unsanitary, like I’m going to get a disease, these people are going to be creepy as hell.” Erica, meanwhile, worries most about Michelle Williams: “What is she doing in a homeless shelter? Have things really been that bad since Destiny's Child split up?” Meantime Gia has a very worried look on her face. Off camera, Gia comments: “There is no way I’m going to serve homeless people. I can’t believe Laura has gone this far and thinks I’m going to sit down and, like, feed homeless people. It’s just not me."
Segment 2: Michelle Williams shows the ladies the kitchen at the homeless shelter, where the ladies are requried to don gloves, a hairnet and an apron. Amber: “A hairnet? I mean, c’mon, I am not a lunch lady!” Gia has a similar reaction: “Putting on the hairnet made me feel so much less sexier. It flattened my hair out and just didn’t do any justice for my face. It was ridiculously horrible!”
Then the ladies start gettin' the grub on. Courtnee is cutting potatoes and says that her mama would be proud to see her doing this. Surprisingly, all the girls, including Gia, take to doing the cooking work they’ve been initially assigned. Although, Gia is literally holding her nose, saying that the rice she’s working on "stinks." "Why can’t I just donate money," she asks. Soon Gia sneaks off to take a break, and Courtnee calls attention to it: “I got tired of seeing Gia sitting around while everyone else worked. She wasn’t pulling her weight.” Gia tells Leanne that she just doesn't know if she can do this work after just having seen a homeless guy in the hallway (which apparently startled her or something). Leanne tries to encourage her to get back to work.
Then Laura Baron stops by the kitchen, and Michelle Willaims reports that she’s been impressed with the ladies and their work. Laura now assigns the ladies to go serve homeless folks a meal and also says that she wants the ladies to try to interact with them and to try get to know them a little bit. Gia remarks off camera: “I don’t even serve my own husband food, and I’m going to sit here and serve homeless?” The ladies take positions at the serving window in the shelter’s cafeteria.
Then a number of homeless men stream in for a meal. The ladies are instantly impressed with how most of the homeless gentlemen are decently dressed with fairly neat appearances. Pam and Erica compliment a few of them on their attire. Pam says: “I’m very impressed when I see the homeless people. They’re just pretty nice. I thought they would be naked or something.”
Jessica, Courtnee and Jackie sit down at one table to talk with some of the homeless patrons. One guy asks, “so you guys are like, brats, right?” [Nailed it.] Jessica responds, “I wouldn’t say we’re brats, I would just say we're more privileged than most people.” The dude is appreciative that Jessica (recalling the earlier lesson when the ladies had to shop in a thrift store) compliments him on this threads, which were all purchased at a thrift store. Erica also sits down to talk to one of the dudes. She reveals that she's 26 (while the dude thought she was 19).
Gia then actually sits down at one of the tables. She admits to the men seated there that for most of her two hours here at the shelter, she felt like she didn’t want to be here, but that she's changed her mind now. An older gentlemen remarks, “I don’t want to be here either!” A younger man tells her his story about becoming homeless, becoming separated from his two daughters, who don't even know that he's homeless. But he feels like the whole experience has very much strengthened him so that he can do better for his daughters going forward. Gia admits to the table that she wished she worked harder earlier in the kitchen, but the gentlemen still compliment her on her rice, for which Gia seems very grateful and flattered. Says Gia: “I’m shocked to say that I’m actually inspired by these homeless people. I never thought in a million years that I’d be grateful to meet these men.” And the Kicker!: She tells the younger man (the one estranged from his daughters) to look her up later because she has a restaurant and is offering him a job! (Way to go there, Gia!). They hug.
At Jessica's table, the young dude she was talking to says that his dad was a judge and that he used to have a higher lifestyle, and he warns the ladies to never think that they couldn’t he homeless someday too. This makes Jackie ponder what she’d do tomorrow if her parents died. Jessica tells the dude that this whole experience is helping her to put things in a whole new perspective, “because I don’t realize I take things for granted, but I guess I do."
Segment 3: Their cooking and serving work done, the ladies meet with Laura Baron. Laura says she’s proud of them for how well they worked so far this week (which is a vast improvement over last week's camping disaster), but now she wants to push them even farther. Laura reminds them of the start of the series when they could each only take one bag into the house. Laura tells them that they’re getting all of their old stuff back tonight! She tells them that they can choose to keep any constituents of their former wardrobes that they please, but that there's about to be a competition to see which of two four-lady teams can sell off the most of their wardrobes to benefit the homeless! The carrot involved is that the team selling off the most loot will get a "very special prize."
Some of the ladies are reluctant. Jessica does not want to sell off any of her shoes. Pam remarks: “I’m a little disturbed. My clothes aren't for charity, they’re for me!” The ladies are allowed to form their own two teams, and it comes as no surprise that Erica, Pam and Jackie team up (along with Courtnee) in a team opposite Jessica and Gia (with Amber and Leanne also joining that second team).
Back at the house, the girls are all extremely excited to be suddenly reunited with their previously confiscated luggage! Pam: "It’s my Luggage, I missed you!” Jessica actually embraces her lost luggage with a hug. Jess is in love with her shoes, she says. Erica decides she’s going to give away one of her self-described “T-Erica” princess crowns, which she says is a big deal because it’s handmade. She says she wants to "help a homeless woman really bring out her inner princess, and [also] I would love to see the look on Gia’s face when they lose.” Erica's team is actually progressing towards completely filling a large bin with clothes for the sale.
In contrast, Gia's teams is not progressing so well. Gia is toking on her beloved hookah and (seemingly) jokes about putting it up for sale. Says Gia: “I’ll give any amount of money that you want, but I’m not donating my clothes.” Jessica quickly realizes that this team won’t win at this pace because the other team is setting a lot more aside for the sale. Jess tells Gia to put something in the box. Gia then decides to give up her hookah (thinking back to the guys she met at the homeless shelter, who genuinely seemed to make a real impression upon her). Jess: “Gia cares more about that hookah than I think she does her family, so that like is a very serious step for her.” Gia says to the hookah: “I love you, I’m going to miss you.”
The next morning, the ladies are back at the PATH homeless shelter. Both teams have filled a large bin with clothes for the sale. Laura Baron informs the girls that the general public has been invited to the sale and that the money raised will go to the homeless. She’s pleased the girls have donated as much as they have. Then the ladies have to price their items. Jess realizes that the folks coming in for the sale likely won’t have huge amounts to spend, so she says they need to keep all prices at 25 bucks or less.
In contrast, Erica does not want to lowball the prices: “This dress cost $350 and has been worn once. What should I price it at -- 300 or 250?” Michelle Williams comes in and is taken aback by a $200 price that Erica ultimately placed on the dress. Jess wants to win this competition, and so she tells Erica: “That’s a good price Erica, I would price it like that.” But Gia ruins Jess' fun and tells Erica that such a high price means the item will never sell. Jess is a bit perturbed at teammate Gia for saying that: “I want to win,” she tells Gia. Michelle Williams talks Erica into lowering the price to $100, and Jess is clearly annoyed at that turn of events.
With all prices set, the PATH Mall Charity Sale is Officially Open for Business! Several younger woman come in to browse the merchandise. Erica and Jessica admit their strategy of lying to these customers to try to get them to buy stuff by telling him how wonderful they’d look in it. “I’m going to lie for charity,” says Jess. One woman has her eye on the hookah. Gia wants 100 bucks and the woman wants it and says she’ll need to go to the ATM to pull out the cash.
Then Sabotage! Erica pulls the woman aside and says, “I have to tell you something about that hookah -- it does not work and there’s been a lot of people like smoking out of it, and it might have herpes.” Gia gets wind of this and rushes over to try to discredit what Erica has been saying. Off camera, Gia blasts: “Erica would definitely know a lot about herpes!”
Segment 4: The great hookah controversy continues. Gia divulges off camera, “I’m so pissed off right now I could literally punch a wall.” Gia confronts Erica, but not in her usual nasty tone since customers are around. Courtnee tells Gia that “this is for charity, so you all need to stop -- this is not about competition for me.” Courtnee is as visibly angry as she’s ever been during the entire series, but she’s really criticizing both Erica and Gia for their behavior.
Although that woman apparently decided not to buy the hookah for $100 (Erica: “Mission accomplished”), another woman is also interested in it. But alas, she only has $40. Gia tells her that on a normal day, she wouldn’t sell it for $500, but that since this is for charity, she’ll sell for $40. But Gia's visibly shaken by the sale: “It's very hard for me right now to let go by baby. It’s my hookah, it’s like my second child. There’s a million hookahs out there, but this is the one that I’ve always been with, and it’s really hard to let go.”
Similarly, Courtnee sells the skirt she’s been wearing for $20 (after a woman expressed an interest in buying it), even though she really did not want to sell it. Since this is all for charity, Courtnee takes it off, sells it, and puts on a new skirt. AND, this gives Courtnee an idea! She starts pushing the blouse she's wearing on the customers, and is able to sell it too! She says: “I literally sold the clothes off my own back, and if that’s not working hard, I don’t know what is.” I'm sorry, but every dude out there has to love Courtnee!
The sale now over, Michelle Williams announces that $3446 total have been raised for the homeless. As for the team competition, get this close result: $1741 vs. $1705! So the winner? Gia, Jess, Amber and Leanne! And Jess and Gia are SO happy to defeat Erica's team! It's announced that the winners get to go to lunch with Michelle Williams (the first time any of these ladies have eaten decent food in weeks!). At lunch, after the four all express their admiration for Destiny’s Child, Michelle Williams asks them to talk about the biggest thing they’ve learned from this series. Gia says it's been learning to appreciate her daughter and husband a lot more. Michelle warns Gia about spoiling her daughter too much as she’s growing up, and Gia indicates that she’s taking that advice to heart.
Back at the house: Gia and Courtnee have a bona fide heart-to-heart discussion. Gia confesses to Courtnee that she’s been a bad mom but wants to make up for it going forward. Gia also says postpartum depression hit her very badly from the day she gave birth. She says she was jealous of her own baby. And the old man (hubbie) apparently got wind of it, as Gia says that she was not ever left alone around the baby and was not even trusted to change the baby’s diaper (earlier in the series, Gia would often comment about how she never changed her baby's diaper).
Gia further confesses that sometimes when her daughter was crying like crazy, Gia would just lock her in her room and “I wouldn’t even give a shit.” Gia says she wishes she could go back and do all of that over again. She ways that she wants now to give her daughter everything, but she says that she gives her daughter all the wrong things (i.e., material things all the time). She admits that she does this because she feels that’s her way of trying to make up for the past.
Courtnee, BTW, would make a great psychiatrist! -- the way her little questions bring all of this out of Bad Girl Gia is truly incredible. Off camera, Courtnee says: “Gia opened up about a lot of things, and to me, that took a lot of courage.” Gia tells Courtnee that she (Gia) really doesn’t have any friends and that it was good to let these things out. Courtnee tells Gia that Courtnee's always here for Gia if she needs someone with whom to talk.
Segment 5: Time for the end of the week meeting between Laura and the ladies. Laura tells them that this week's lesson "was all about giving back." Laura says the ladies did extraordinary work this week (and for once I completely agree) and made a difference in people’s lives. Gia relates how her attitude improved as this lesson progressed and says how she offerend the one dude a job in her restaurant. Jackie says it’s no longer about the material things for her, as she’s come to realize.
Then Laura asks the ladies to tell her what they think about others' growth on the series. Talk about lightin' up the Fireworks! First up is Erica: Jessica (who hates Erica), surprisingly, says that Erica's made some changes and has made an effort, at least, to change. Next up is Gia: Pam says she thinks Gia absolutely will not change her behavior when she gets home. Erica, for good measure, says that Gia is a "bitch." Gia retorts that she’s resolved to make changes in her relationship with her daughter. Erica just rolls her eyes. Gia sees that: “Don’t roll your eyes, before your freakin’ eyelashes fall off -- what’s your problem?” Off camera, Erica says: “Gia hasn’t grown. She’s still just as selfish as she was from Day 1. She still puts herself before she puts other people, and she’s still a completely spiteful bitch.”
Segment 6 (Final Segment): They’re still talking about Gia at the group session. But Courtnee speaks up for Gia, saying that while she (Courtnee) also had a lot of reservations about Gia from the start, “Today we had the deepest conversation, and they have no clue.” Gia tells Laura Baron that she (Gia) told Courtnee this week the real reason behind the whole diaper changing thing. Courtnee then tells everyone: “Until all of us know each other’s story, we really don’t know each other, and I can say that Gia’s going to change.”
Laura says that since the series is almost over, they’re not going to announce pass or fails this week (truth be told, all 8 ladies would have passed this week anyway). But Laura says that they are going to award a VIP (Very Improved Princess) -- which will be the last such award of the series. AND COURTNEE WINS! Finally! So many times during this series, I have criticized the fact that the VIP awards the most "improved," meaning the lady who acts rotten one week and then shapes up the following week. Courtnee has been extremely well-behaved on this series from the start, and thus so often was left out of VIP consideration. Courtnee also happens to be the most grounded, down-to-earth, sweetest (and second hottest) lady on this show. She often exhibits a ton of character, and is frankly about the only lady on this show that most dudes would ever want to actually meet in real life! When she was announced as VIP tonight, it marked the first time in the history of this series that I actually became a bit emotional and yelled at my TV screen a very approving, "YES!!!!!!"
So anyway, after Courtnee receives her very deserving key to the VIP suite, Laura tells the ladies: “There is something that all of you should know -- there is one last step to this program. I'm going to be in contact with your loved ones, and I’m going to be giving them my recommendations on whether you’re graduating this program or not.”
Final Comments: As Laura Baron made that announcement at the very close of tonight's new episode, Erica looked very nervous, and for good reason: I think there's a very good chance that all 8 ladies will graduate next week, barring some huge meltdown by one or more of them in the final episode. Before this week, I would say that Gia definitely fails, but not after this week's performance. Honestly, the one gal that I think could fail is the hottest gal on the show -- Erica Rose:
Because while Erica has never exhibited the violent mean streak of such bad girls as Gia and Jess, Erica still in my mind has shown the biggest lack of progress from among any of these ladies. Erica has always been willing to participate in all activities (unlike the other bad girls), but her attitude (i.e. that she's the most wonderful thing to ever hit the planet ) has never changed one iota, unlike the attitudes of other bad girls like Gia and Jess. I'm not overly criticizing, because Erica has been one (or two) of the absolutely most entertaining things on this series, but I'm just saying that the show's criteria is an improvement in attitude, and I'm sorry, but Erica has shown none. She's still the hottest, though! Can't ever take that away from her! Just no attitude improvement.
Preview of the Season 1 Finale Episode: The ladies reunite with their families. But the British-accented series narrator said it best tonight: “Will their benefactors want them back? And under what conditions? Who will pass and who will fail?!” Also, we’re teased with Gia’s husband setting down some strict terms upon her return that Gia says she cannot accept! Stay tuned for the stunning, hot finale (and recap & summary on This Blog) of VH1's "You're Cut Off!"
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