Katie Ginella is not faring well this season on Real Housewives of Orange County. Her costars and a lie detector test have all marked her as an unreliable narrator. Even still, it is not out of the equation that Katie might actually be telling the truth.
To recap, during Season 4, Tamra Judge encouraged Gretchen Rossi to drink copious amounts of booze. This plan quickly resulted in the infamous (and awful) naked wasted storyline. Now, in Season 19, Gretchen has rejoined this cast, and many of her scenes have involved Katie. However, their newly formed friendship is currently in a rocky place, and it all started after Tamra accused Katie of talking to a blogger about Gretchen.
Katie reportedly told this blogger, Kiki Monique, that Gretchen believed she had gotten roofied during that long ago incident. Tamra caught wind of this update, so she told Gretchen what Katie reportedly claimed. Gretchen, however, denied saying anything about roofies. But Katie doubled down, stressing that Jennifer Pedranti and their collective men all heard Gretchen make this dark declaration.
Nevertheless, Gretchen says she never said this, and Jennifer is not siding with Katie. Cue Emily Simpson surprising Katie with a lie detector test during RHOC Season 19 Episode 8. Nonetheless, fans cannot take the results of this test to heart. And I will explain why now.
Katie Ginella failed her lie detector test on The Real Housewives of Orange County
During Episode 7, Katie revealed her truth. “The night all this information came out about Kiki Monique and Gretchen, Slade [Smiley] called Matt [Ginella] and said, ‘Tell Katie to say that Gretchen never said it,’ and I have to, quote unquote, ‘hold the line and protect Gretchen.’” Katie sounded convincing here, and on air, Matt even admitted that he recalled this conversation. Yet, Emily remained doubtful.
So, she surprised everyone on her cast with a lie detector test on the most recent episode of RHOC. When Katie learned that this was happening, all she could say was, “Okey dokey.” But she did admit to her tester that she was feeling anxious.
During her time in the chair, the tester asked Katie whether Gretchen told her that she “was drugged.” Katie responded, “Yes.” After, in her confessional, Katie explained, “I told the truth, and that’s all I can do. I’m tired of being the fall person for all of Gretchen’s lies.”
After Katie walked out, the examiner said, “She’s so full of sh*t.” Way to stay professional, eh? We then learned that Katie had failed this test. Gretchen, however, passed.
Even still, Katie doubled down. “I didn’t lie,” she said. Yet, Emily still kicked her out of her house. But on the sidewalk, Katie broke the fourth wall with a producer, adamant that she never lied.
Looking back, Tamra now believes Katie. She thinks that Gretchen is so good at lying that it was easy for her to deceive this test.
The RHOC lie detector team have been called out on social media
On Reddit, many fans are crying foul on this lie detector team. As the OP noted, the administrators included John Grogran, otherwise known as the “Lie Detector Guy,” and Wendy Parkhurst of Veritas Polygraph Services. This Redditor researched John, citing that he “has pages dedicated to how much of an unqualified hack he is.” Additionally, viewers heard Gretchen say that she did go to the hospital, yet she passed her test with flying colors when she answered no, claiming that she never sought out help.
This test felt phony, they penned. Additionally, it felt like a trap to annihilate Katie, others stressed. And, so far, all of the commenters agree.
As for Wendy, one poster clocked that “the lady who took the test and read out the results for Katie, I’m sorry, like it felt like she had a personal vendetta against Katie or something.” Meanwhile, another Redditor wrote, “The fact that people think a lie detector test proves anything other than someone has a pulse is insane to me.”
And since John has appeared on several reality television series, from Bravo to MTV, people are now starting to question his true intentions for inserting his company into this mess on RHOC.
Katie didn’t do a trial test before her RHOC polygraph, and they aren’t admissable
This article details how accurate polygraph tests are. It also states that “Polygraph tests do not measure deception or lying directly, but rather possible signs that a person could be deceiving the interviewer.” The first step in collecting a valid test result includes “a fairly long pre-test interview that lasts for about an hour.” This is followed by a practice test, so that the test taker does not receive “surprise questions, because that in itself will trigger a response.”
On RHOC, we saw neither of these steps taking place. The article also mentioned that polygraph tests are beatable, as long as the test taker has done their research. However, if someone is the victim, their tests will often produce false results. This outcome is because they are emotional, which Katie clearly stated that she was before the start of her test.
Furthermore, in this legal article, we learned that the results of these tests are so murky that they are considered inadmissible in court. So, did Katie fail her polygraph because she was lying, or because of her nerves and an improper test? At this point, we remain unsure, but it is possible that Katie was telling the truth. And if so, then we have several additional questions for Gretchen and Jennifer.
The Real Housewives of Orange County is available to stream on Peacock. It streams on Hayu in the UK and Ireland.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THAT GRETCHEN IS LYING? OR, DID KATIE MAKE THIS ENTIRE STORYLINE UP? IS IT POSSIBLE WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH?
