When the trailer for the Season 11 reunion of Vanderpump Rules was released, fans saw Andy Cohen do something that has never been done before: He had the entire cast sit down to watch the last few minutes of the finale episode together. Well, that finale aired on Tuesday night, and the shocked faces and flowing tears that fans saw among the cast in that reunion trailer were warranted.
During Tuesday night’s finale, tensions that had been brewing among cast members throughout the season finally boiled over. In a tumultuous and chaotic final 10 minutes, Ariana Madix, Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, and Tom Sandoval broke the fourth wall and addressed the elephant in the room — that is, the fact that the group is actually filming a TV show. And immediately, viewers were left with the same question that production is currently facing: Where does Vanderpump Rules go from here?
When the episode begins, cast members including Ariana’s boyfriend Dan are galavanting around San Francisco, where they are visiting to attend friend Kyle Chan’s launch party for his new whiskey brand. Brock and Scheana have a heart-to-heart as husband and wife about Scheana’s emotional conversation with Sandoval the night prior, in which she and her former friend cried, hugged, and agreed to work on their friendship. As fans know, Scheana has been torn between rebuilding her friendship with Tom and being loyal to Ariana. While Scheana says she wants to stand by Ariana, Brock takes Sandoval’s side — as he’s done all season, much to the dismay of his wife — and urges her to let him back in.
Scheana later mentions her emotional conversation with Sandoval to Ariana and Katie Maloney, who, shockingly, don’t take kindly to it. “How many times are we going to keep believing this man’s genuine tears?” Katie says. Brock doesn’t hesitate to jump in, saying, “You had a fucking friendship with him that you guys keep dismissing.”
“When a guy fucks over your friend, fuck the guy,” Katie says in her confessional.
As per usual on the show, it doesn’t take long for the rest of the cast to get involved in the conversation. Tom Schwartz insists that Sandoval “did a trash thing but isn’t a trash person.” But Ariana quickly counters, challenging Schwartz to acknowledge that Sandoval wasn’t guilty of one single mistake when he cheated on her with Raquel Leviss but that he constantly lied and betrayed her and others.
In Lala’s confessional, she shares that she thinks Ariana is doing anything she can to hide her emotions and instead act like “a cool girl.”
“When she gets out of this ‘Sandoval’s the monster and Ariana’s the victim’ [mentality], she’ll have to go through a mourning process, and I just don’t think she wants to deal with that,” Lala says.
Unsatisfied with how the conversation with Ariana went and clearly still torn about what to do, Scheana FaceTimes Lisa Vanderpump for her advice. (For some reason, Lisa wasn’t at the final filming day for Season 11.) “Let me ask you a question: Do you still love him?” Lisa asks.
“Yeah,” Scheana replies.
“Well, there’s your answer.”
In a separate scene, Lala attempts to back Scheana up, explaining to Katie just how much pressure Ariana is putting on her friend to not forgive Sandoval. Katie stands firmly in the same position she’s been in all season, insisting that Sandoval has not shown Scheana redeemable qualities worthy of a friendship.
“Scheana really feels that she should be this exception to this boundary Ariana has created for herself of not wanting to have mutual friends with Tom,” Katie says in her confessional. “But Tom did not make a mistake, he made choices every day over and over for months and has done nothing but double down on those choices again that he made over and over and over and over.”
Finally, the launch party rolls around — and it doesn’t take long for things to go wrong. Sandoval approaches Ariana and Dan and awkwardly introduces himself to his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. Ariana refuses to make eye contact with Sandoval but Dan engages as Sandoval attempts to exchange pleasantries.
“I heard you’re a great guy. I just wanted to say what’s up, and I wish you guys the best of luck,” Sandoval offers.
Short, kind, and to the point, Dan responds, “I appreciate that.”
Noticing the interaction, James Kennedy’s girlfriend, Ally Lewber, tells Ariana, “I feel like it had to happen.”
Ariana disagrees, commenting, “It didn’t have to happen at all. He’s not in my life.”
“I’m here as, like, a cog in the machine of Tom Sandoval’s redemption arc,” Ariana says in her confessional. “So you guys can do that without me.”
There is a brief moment of joy — or at least a reprieve — when the group cheers Scheana as she performs with her band at the party. Afterward, Sandoval joins her backstage to hug her and the band, congratulating and encouraging them.
But it’s in the show’s last 10 minutes that the curtain falls, the fourth wall breaks, and everything explodes, starting with Ariana going over to chat with Scheana after her performance. While the two of them are alone, Scheana continues to sing Sandoval’s praises and explains she thinks she’s seeing a more genuine version of him. “I hope he’s changing and becoming better,” she says.
“It’s just the same thing over and over with Scheana,” Ariana says in a confessional. “I don’t know why she thinks that somehow she knows this man better than I do, but alright, girl. Happy for ya.”
Scheana pushes ahead, saying she wants to “continue to see if he’s on a path of growth,” but Ariana interrupts, and, for the first time all season, bluntly addresses her longtime friend.
“Can I ask you a favor? Don’t talk to me about that ‘path of growth,’” Ariana says. “He’s an ex-boyfriend of mine who does not deserve to be in my presence and breathe the same air as me, and that will not change.”
“I just don’t want to ever lose you or compromise our friendship,” Scheana says through tears. “I will always have your back. I just feel like I can’t just completely write him off forever.”
Reassuring her friend in a moving and emotional moment, Ariana hugs Scheana and tells her that they’re family: “I love you so much. You’ll never lose me.”
But just as the words leave Ariana’s mouth, Sandoval walks up to them and tries to insert himself into the conversation by again congratulating Scheana on her performance. Ariana doesn’t miss a beat and walks away, even though Sandoval attempts to call her back.
“I just wanted to tell her I’m sorry,” Sandoval says to Scheana, to which she replies, “I already tried. She doesn’t want to talk to you.”
The camera then pans to Ariana having a contentious conversation with VPR producer Jeremiah Smith, telling him that a conversation between herself and Sandoval is “not happening.” In 11 seasons, it’s one of the few times the show has broken the fourth wall.
“Ariana, seriously, don’t do this,” Smith says.
Gathering her boyfriend and friends to leave the party, Ariana tells Smith, “[Sandoval] fucking walking up on me talking to Scheana, he doesn’t give a fucking shit if I fucking die in a ditch or get a fucking deadly fucking STD the way he was fucking around behind my back. That is non-informed consent, and he does not deserve to speak to me. He does not get access to me.”
Meanwhile, Scheana is still chatting with Sandoval away from everyone else. Rolling her eyes, she tells him that Ariana thinks he’s being performative and that she’s being an idiot. In an act of desperation at the height of an emotionally charged moment, Scheana asks Sandoval, “What do I mean to you?”
“You mean a lot,” he says.
Scheana challenges him, “Because we’re filming or because of life?”
When he insists he does care about her, Scheana asks him not to make her look like “a fucking idiot” as she, too, walks away.
As the camera pans back to Ariana and the VPR producer, Ariana says she’s calling a car and ultimately leaves the party without a final conversation with the rest of her cast mates. “It’s about a performance with the audience,” she says to Smith on her way out. “He wants 30 seconds with the audience. Whatever it is that Tom [Sandoval]’s trying to get from me is not for me. It’s for him. I am the final boss in his video game of redemption, and because he can’t get to the final boss, he’s fucking pissed.”
Angry after learning that Ariana called him performative, Sandoval turns to his friend Billie Lee to accuse Ariana of only being on the show to “collect a check.”
“If you don’t want to film with your ex, then don’t be on the show. Seriously. Don’t sit back on your fucking lazy ass and collect a fucking check for doing nothing.” He then storms over to Smith, Schwartz, Scheana, and Lala and screams, “Dude, I’m fucking pissed. Not at you, but I’m pissed that she’s saying that shit because, Ariana, she doesn’t fuck with you guys. She fucking talks shit about all of you guys.”
Emotions are running high as more yelling continues. “When push comes to shove, I’m fucking there,” Sandoval says.
Naturally, Scheana thinks his outburst is mostly about her. “I know you have been there for me,” she cries. “You have been a friend, but [Ariana] convinced me that you’re not.”
Lala also decides to get in on the action — and doesn’t hold back as she breaks the fourth wall herself. Speaking about Ariana and Sandoval, Lala opines, “This happened to her; the world rallied around her, and she now thinks she’s Beyoncé. It’s bullshit that she can’t film with someone that she stays under the same roof [with].”
“It’s a lot. It’s a lot that she’s saying, ‘Don’t fuck with Tom Sandoval, don’t fuck with Tom Sandoval, but I’m gonna sleep down the hall from Tom Sandoval.’ I get it, he fucking cheated. You did a really fucking shitty thing,” Lala screams, now directing her comments to Sandoval. “It was weird how you looked us all in the eye and said a lot of shit. But he did not kill somebody.”
Supporting her friend, Scheana reassures Lala by saying, “I know and I‘m gonna back you up… It is unfair. I want you to know you’re not alone in saying that.”
In her confessional, Lala continues to vent her frustrations with Ariana, saying, “There’s a responsibility that comes with living your life on camera. You have to be truthful even when it’s extremely uncomfortable.” Lala also admits that she’s under the impression Sandoval and Ariana always lied about their relationship on camera until he was caught cheating. “And you think that you get to be honest for one moment, and you get to pack it all away, and all is good?” she says. “Fuck that.”
In her own confessional interview, Ariana claims that while she understands that it’s her job to live her life on camera, Sandoval never attempted to apologize to her off-camera, so she feels like his motives are disingenuous.
“He’s never tried to talk to me off camera. He could’ve written something in a fucking letter and left it on the kitchen counter, and I could’ve read it at my leisure,” she says. “But if he would only do it on camera, to me, you just showed your true colors.”
As the episode wraps and the credits roll, closed captioning highlights the voices we hear in the background. A producer says, “That’s the end.” Schwartz replies, “That was a plot twist.”
To cap a season where Sandoval constantly tried to convince his cast members, former friends, and the general public that he’s an evolved person growing into a better version of himself, he says, “I love it. It’s good for me.”
While it might be “good” for Sandoval, it’s not good for the show. Earlier this month, it was revealed that filming for Season 12 was delayed by Bravo in an effort to give the cast members some time to cool off and live their lives off-camera for a bit following the drama. With the reunion still to go and Ariana and Sandoval seemingly making no progress toward being civil with each other, it remains unclear how they can remain on a show together where they are forced to interact. If Season 11 taught fans (and Bravo) anything, it’s that the current formula just isn’t sustainable. Something — or someone — will have to give.
