Phaedra said it best. Last week’s sound bath and Reiki experience went from “meditative to mayhem,” and now the friend group is in a worse place than ever. The group is fractured, and in The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 17 Episode 9, “Picking Up the Peaches,” the ladies found themselves in desperate need of some friendship interventions. A few of them actually tried to make it happen.
What Happened in The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 17 Episode 9?
RHOA Season 1 7 Episode 9 picked up right where the sound bath left off, with Kelli and Porsha still screaming at each other about their alleged sexual exploits. In the aftermath, the fracture in the friend group became impossible to ignore, and once again, Cynthia and her cheekbones had to clock in and try to broker peace. By the end of the episode, she wasn’t the only one with a “friend contract.”
The RHOA friend group is severely divided
Back at Phaedra’s Healing Waters event, Kelli and Porsha got separated by security, but Porsha was not done fighting. She kept on screaming those allegations about Kelli, loudly into the night. Neighborhood noise ordinance be damned. Everyone within a two-mile radius heard every word about how Kelli allegedly slept with a married man, a preacher, to add insult to injury.
Once they were pulled to their separate corners of the house, the divide in the group became crystal clear. On one side: Porsha, Phaedra, Drew, and Angela. On the other side, it’s Kelli, K. Michelle, Shamea, and Pinky.
Everyone involved in this mess is fully aware that the friend group is cracked down the middle, and the bigger it gets, the harder it’s going to be to close. What they can’t agree on, however, is who is to blame for the divide.
Phaedra tried to hear Kelli’s side of the story
Phaedra may have packed away her healing flute for the night, but she wasn’t done trying to fix things in this broken group. In the days after the sound bath went to hell, she invited Kelli back to the scene of the crime to hear her out. Why is she so angry at Porsha? What is actually going on here?
“I know that your emotions get high, but I don’t want the friend group to be this fractured,” Phaedra told her.
Initially, Kelli came in hot, still firing off accusations about Porsha’s allegedly adulterous activities. But eventually, she began peeling back the layers and admitted that the bigger issues in her life were causing her to act out of character.
Kelli opened up about her ex-husband trying to prevent their kids from appearing on the show, and you could practically see the lightbulbs going off behind Phaedra’s eyes. Getting Kelli and Porsha to coexist might be above her pay grade, but a legal situation involving a questionable baby daddy? That’s something she can work with.
Cynthia hosted peace talks for K. Michelle and Porsha
While Phaedra worked on Kelli, Cynthia met up with Angela and Pinky. They’re giving each other a second chance after their own blowup in Dallas. They were able to get the full debrief on the sound bath night. Angela had all the tea on K. Michelle’s accusations about Porsha dating her ex. Meanwhile, Pinky had the much-needed context about why K. Michelle felt so suspicious of Porsha in the first place.
With the right info, Cynthia immediately spotted an opportunity to bridge the gap between Porsha and K. Michelle, which is pulling the friend group in two opposite directions. It was time for peace talks.
K. Michelle and Porsha establish a “friend contract”
Cynthia and Pinky teamed up to bring Porsha to lunch with K. Michelle. They sat them down, set the intention, and then walked away, leaving them to, once again, try to get back to a sense of normalcy.
Of course, you probably felt a strong sense of déjà vu watching this because we have definitely been down this road before. But K. Michelle had to take ownership of not being direct with Porsha about her feelings.
K explained that she and Porsha got off on the wrong foot back in Episode 2. She had a front-row seat to Porsha going after Kelli about sleeping with a married man. To K, that was evidence of mean girl behavior, but Porsha insisted it was just her getting her lick back on Kelli. Either way, it had nothing to do with K at all.
The pair decided to establish a “friend contract” about how to navigate each other’s feelings moving forward. Again, we’ve been down this path, and in real time, we already know that the contract has been violated ten times over. Still, let’s just be thankful for some sort of progress.
If you’re keeping track of K. Michelle’s conspiracy theory, she originally said that Phaedra, Porsha, and Drew were plotting to air out information about her past romances and the old rumor about her vagina. Apparently, there also may have been a plot to expose her long toes.
At this point, however, she has now narrowed down her list of grievances to just one person, and that’s “Drew Tubi Sidora,” as K. Michelle called her. She still has a bone to pick with Drew about the Blakk situation, and judging by the midseason trailer, she’s definitely going to pick it.
In the meantime, Pinky and Cynthia were just relieved that this showdown with K. Michelle and Porsha didn’t result in overturned chairs and security guards. This “friend contract” feels like a win.
“We’re gonna put this group back together,” Pinky said.
“One lunch at a time,” Cynthia added.
Angela and Shamea dragged each other over lunch
Cynthia and Pinky might be right. Maybe they can resolve the group’s issues one lunch at a time. It’s just not going to be at this lunch with Angela and Shamea. Episode 9 ended with the two ladies meeting up, and things went to hell before they could even put in their order with the waitress.
The feud between Angela and Shamea dates back to Season 16, when Angela told Porsha that Shamea had been complaining about their friendship. Shamea believes Angela is directly responsible for her falling out with Porsha, and she showed up to this lunch ready to say so. Angela wasn’t buying it. She accused Shamea of trying to be like Kandi Burruss and called her a “lapdog with lipstick.”
Now, this restaurant had some genuinely intriguing salmon kabobs on the menu, but not a single one was ordered. We’re not even sure they made it to the point of looking at the menu because after that lapdog comment, they both went straight to the gutter. Shamea accused Charles of stepping out on Angela. She turned around and accused Shamea of doing the same to Gerald. It was messy, and Shamea stormed out of the restaurant, leaving Angela sitting alone on an empty stomach.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs every Sunday at 8/7c on Bravo. You can stream it the next day on Peacock.
TELL US — WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA SEASON 17 EPISODE 9? WERE YOU SURPRISED TO SEE K. MICHELLE AND PORSHA SMOOTH THINGS OVER AGAIN? DO YOU THINK SHAMEA AND ANGELA CAN GET OVER THEIR ISSUES?
