The Real Housewives Of New Jersey go to therapy (and play ball)

The cast of The Real Housewives Of New Jersey have never shied away from delving into the discomfort of televised therapy over the years, from the family counseling of the Gorga-Giudice clan to former housewife Jackie Goldschneider’s frank recovery from an eating disorder last year. But season 13, in particular, has been suffused with therapy speak, a byproduct of the increased screentime and calming influence of Teresa Giudice’s fiance Louie Ruelas—the couple’s new home boasts a private meditation room and more Buddha statues than all of Thailand—as well as the group’s overall need to, you know, grow the fuck up.

In this week’s episode, we get thoughtful analysis from both licensed—like Jennifer and Bill Aydin’s couples therapist, Dr. Judy—and layman parties, including Dolores Catania’s septuagenarian father Lawrence, who adorably offers up constructive guidance about her changing relationship with ex-husband Frank (“There’s gotta be boundaries!”) as well as some loving support for her current partnership with boyfriend Paulie (“Youse make a good couple!”)

We begin and end episode six on the therapy couch, the first with Teresa who, despite that endless passive-aggressive feud with Joe and Melissa Gorga, actually seems to be benefitting—and behavior-shifting—from the counseling.

“I’ve been in therapy six months; I was always against it,” Giudice confesses, adding that it was her vicious behavior towards Margaret Josephs in the RHONJ season 12 reunion that finally prompted her to seek help. “My delivery is not always the way it should be.” (Cue a montage of Teresa’s most iconically hot-headed moments, shattered wine glasses and flipped four-tops included.) It’s exactly that table-flipping temper—a family heirloom, Teresa acknowledges, passed down from her “stubborn” Italian father to her and her brother—that Giudice wants to break free from. “All of this toxicity hurts,” she tells her therapist of her estrangement from her only sibling.

And it seems like the Gorgas might also finally be tip-toeing towards peace negotiations, as Dolores’ annual charity baseball game gets both feuding households under one roof and gifts us a surprisingly heartwarming scene of young cousins reuniting after several months apart and the adult siblings sharing a rare laugh over Joe’s greased-up photoshoot for the Househusbands calendar. It’s a small step, sure, but it’s one in the right direction.

Less successful in terms of behavioral rehabilitation is Jennifer Fessler’s lunchtime intervention with Margaret to discuss the low-blow verbal lashing Marge gave Jen Aydin last episode. “That display was not you; you’re screaming these 16-year-old shit things to her,” Fessler assesses Josephs. “She brought up your kids; it’s inexcusable, but she’s not my concern. You are my concern.”

However, Margaret isn’t willing to do the work to repair her relationship with Aydin. “I know I said awful things but you know what? She asked for it,” she says, prompting Jenn F.’s very succinct analysis: “Margaret Josephs, not nice.” Later at the baseball stadium, Marge—who is benched from playing due to her recent arm surgery—relishes in talking smack about Jen A. to the other women in the locker room, but makes a speedy run of things when the Aydin clan arrives.

More open to some bullpen soul-searching is Frank Catania, who is increasingly reflective about his failed marriage to Dolores upon her newfound relationship with Paulie. “I wasn’t a good husband, and still one of my biggest regrets in life is what happened with Dolores,” he reveals. “So when Paulie comes around and Dolores and I are probably the furthest we’ve been in years, yes, I’m sad.” That sadness materializes as some mid-game tears during a sideline discussion with his RHONJ teammates about his and his former wife’s now-distanced dynamic. Dolores’ perspective? “Frank doesn’t like change and not one thing in our life when we got divorced changed…but you can’t make me feel guilty for being in a relationship that I now deserve.” You know what that sounds like? Growth.

And for the final therapy consultation of the week: the Aydins’ couples counseling with Dr. Judy, a brutal, five-minute sequence jammed with enough marital discord, unhealthy coping strategies (“attack” from her, “avoid” from him), and parental shame—in one heartbreaking moment, Jennifer reveals that their nine-year-old daughter Olivia discovered Bill’s prior infidelity via TikTok—to fill several hour-long sessions. It’s 20 years of resentment, distrust, and grief split open for cable television, as uncomfortable for viewers to watch as it clearly was for Bill to passively sit through, alternating between pointed silence and sarcastic smiles.

“This is, unfortunately, reality,” Bill offers from his side of the therapy couch. No, this is reality TV, and it may just be getting too uncomfortably real.

Stray observations

• In terms of the RHONJ cast’s overall baseball-playing skills against their competitors, the hospital staff of Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center, Joe Gorga sums it up best: “We definitely suck; these doctors are going to kick the shit out of us.” Thank the sports gods, then, for the athleticism of the RHONJ kids and for new housewife Danielle Cabral, who has secretly been a gum-smacking slugger since youth and helps the Bravo team to a win with her outfield prowess. “Don’t let the nails and the hair fool you, I can get down!”
• May we all adopt the unchecked self-confidence of Margaret Josephs at least once in our lives: “My prized possession: my forearms. I mean, did you ever see such hairless, beautiful forearms in your life?”