On last night’s Little Women: NY, the group circles the wagons around Lila Call, whose recent drinking relapse gives them all a wake-up call. We begin at a restaurant with Dawn Lang & Jazmin Lang, who have tension brewing since their disagreement about Jazmin’s performance in Jordanna James’ recent burlesque show. But they’re not here to fight. They’re here because Christy McGinty (of Little Women: L.A.) reached out to Dawn about Lila. Christy, a recovering alcoholic, walks into the restaurant to tell Dawn & Jazmin that Lila’s been sending her weird texts at all hours of the day this past week, telling her she’s been drinking wine, and has basically fallen off the wagon. Lila was sober for about a year up to this point, having been to rehab in the past and a participant in AA since then.
Christy asks the girls if Lila’s been drinking. Jazmin evades the question, not wanting to “throw Lila under the bus.” “Have you guys gone out drinking with her?” Christy flat out asks them, and Dawn finally says yes. She says Jazmin has been drinking with Lila too, although Jazmin has been basically struck mute in the corner of the booth. The ladies then confess that they’ve seen Lila drinking, but don’t think she’s out of control. Christy reminds them that some alcoholic’s “rock bottom” is death. Jazmin finally sits up and listens, and all three ladies agree that they need to confront Lila in an intervention. Christy reminds them that this is all out of love, not anger.
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On a completely different mission, Kristin Zettlemoyer is interested in having children. Even though she’s only been with her boyfriend Josh for 4 months, she wants to freeze some eggs before she runs out of time. In her late 30s, Kristin is told by her doctor that she should seriously consider getting pregnant sooner rather than later. Freezing her eggs is also a viable option, but it costs upwards of $10k. She’s not sure she’s ready to cough up the funds, so no decision yet.
Christy shows up to surprise Lila at her apartment. Jazmin & Dawn are there as well. Christy acknowledges that she’s worried about Lila, then reads some texts from Lila about drinking. It suddenly dawns on Lila that her friends are here for an intervention and she breaks down in tears. Lila confesses she’s been drinking and lying about her drinking (huge red flag). She’s tired of being alone, but has been isolating in her pain. Lila marches off in tears, but returns to hug Christy and listen to what she has to say. She knows she’s not fine and admits her friends might be saving her before things get really bad again. She divulges some of her past out-of-control drinking binges, in which she’s physically hurt herself, blacked out, or made terrible decisions. Lila says she feels safe around Jazmin with alcohol, but not Dawn. “That was a stab,” Christy says. But Lila goes on to accuse Dawn of actually having a drinking problem too, even asking her to attend an AA meeting with her. What is going on here? Nothing like going to an intervention and getting your own a$$ intervened on! Dawn straight up says that she doesn’t have a problem.
Christy redirects the intervention, reminding Lila this is about her. She tells Lila that if she’s an alcoholic, she can’t “just have a glass of wine.” She can’t drink, period. Dawn surprisingly bounces back from Lila’s accusations and hugs her in support. Lila admits she has some Xanax in the house and flushes them down the toilet. She denies having any bottles hidden though. Jazmin & Dawn swear they won’t drink in front of Dawn anymore, but Jazmin doubts Dawn’s sincerity. Christy tells Lila she needs to get out, go to meetings, love herself, and eventually have sex. Huh? Lila interviews that she’s ready to commit to a program of recovery.
On a different front, Jordanna is working on voice lessons with a vocal coach to perfect her voice for her Broadway debut. Jordanna sings a few bars for the coach, then gets some rough feedback: her breathing needs work, her pitch needs work, her voice needs WORK. She’s barely opening her mouth during her singing, so she might want to start there. She takes the feedback with a smile and is more determined than ever to nail this. Good for her!
Lila is bringing Christy to see her life coach. Lila tells her coach about her relapses and Christy’s intervention. Her coach asks her what she’s avoiding. Lila ironically avoids that question, then launches into the intervention itself and how she thinks some of her friends have drinking problems themselves (cough, cough…Dawn). Lila does say out loud that she’s an alcoholic, which is a solid first step. Her coach recommends Lila does something “significant” with her friends to commemorate the beginning of this new journey. These damn life coaches and their commemoration-commemorative events of journeys and pathways and enlightenments! Meh. Lila needs to get her in-denial butt to an AA meeting, in my opinion. They work. I’ll leave it at that.
At brunch across town, Jordanna, Misty Irwin, and Kristin are catching up on Kristin’s fertility appointment. They discuss the high risk pregnancies little people likely face, and Kristin admits no time is the right time to have a baby. But she wants a family. She hasn’t even told her 4-month boyfriend about the fertility appointment yet, so that might be a healthy first step! The ladies discuss how their own parents dealt with them each being little people as children. Misty heartbreakingly shares that her parents were told that she had dwarfism at 3 months gestation and her mother was told to abort her. Misty’s awesome mom said Hell-to-the-NO and found a new doc, STAT, thank God. Jordanna admits her parents, and all parents of little people are strong as hell.
Later on, Jordanna meets Jason Perez for drinks to tell him the bad news: her Broadway play is closing down. Jason admits that, as performers, you never know what’s going to happen with these shows. Jordanna felt like she was safe for two years working in this play, but now – poof – it’s over. She has to get back out there into the auditioning/rejection cycle and is not looking forward to it. Side note: where is Jason living? Radio silence on that front, for now I guess. Jordanna doesn’t see herself doing anything else for a living besides performing, but she might need to find a regular job to pay the bills while she pursues her dreams.
Jason heads out on a walk with Jazmin & Kristin. Jazmin fills them in on Lila’s intervention and asks them to support her more. Jazmin says she feels accountable for Lila, but they remind her Lila’s drinking is all about Lila, not Jazmin. Or anyone else for that matter. They agree to be a united front of support for her, though. Jazmin says Lila is planning “something really big” to celebrate the beginning of her new stab at sobriety and they all agree to check it out. Commemorate away!
Okay, here goes the BIG thing! Lila brings the entire group down to the beach in rip-roaring winter wind to recommit herself to sobriety by forcing all of them to do an impromptu Polar Plunge. Man, homegirl is asking a LOT. Dawn opts out (of course!) but the rest of the group good-naturedly strips down and runs into the freezing ocean. Jordanna says, “You better mean business!” to Lila before she jumps in, and Lila has been #warned that she better damn well not be drinking her face off in front of Jordanna after pulling this stunt. The show ends with a message about alcoholism and asks viewers to call an AA hotline if we have friends or family who need help. I hope Lila is taking Christy’s advice seriously and I, personally, wish her the best. She may be crazy, but she doesn’t need to drink herself to death over it. There is help out there.
TELL US: DO YOU THINK LILA IS READY TO GET SOBER?
Photo Credit: Lifetime
