The return of Vanderpump Rules is most notable for who's missing

Vanderpump Rules returned last night for its first outing since the Scandoval affair took its cast from the confines of Bravo and onto the pages of The New York Times. It was a mostly normal return to form, even if the Big, Bad Thing hung over the heads of the cast: Tom Schwartz explained that he’s still on the outs with Ariana Madix after their intense conversation in the finale; Lala Kent has grown closer to her family in the wake of her own scandalous divorce; Schenea Shay reveals that she has begun taking Zoloft after the national attention understandably triggered flareups of OCD and anxiety.

That’s not to mention the restraining order Raquel Leviss filed against Scheana after their confrontation in New York, the one that kept them at least 30 feet away from each other while filming last season’s reunion. Scheana correctly notes that filing a temporary restraining order against a one-time friend “changes everything” and is looking for a bit of acknowledgment that she was also a victim, if not as much as some other people in the cast, of Raquel and Tom Sandoval’s antics.

But Scheana, nor anyone else, was going to get that acknowledgment in the season 11 premiere, at least not from Sandoval and Raquel. There was a Scandoval-shaped hole in the episode, with Raquel in Arizona (her return for the season seems off the table) and Tom “in New Zealand, shooting some sort of competition show” in the words of Ariana. (Presumably Special Forces, not The Masked Singer.) While the episode does close on the image of Sandoval’s car pulling up to the house that he still shares with Ariana, both he and Raquel are absent, leaving a gaping wound that the rest of the cast has no choice but to talk around and about.

As much as these characters may not want to be defined by the actions of Tom and Raquel, the pain is clearly too fresh for them to move beyond, at least this quickly. Ariana is obviously the most hurt, continuing to ice Schwartz out after a Watch What Happens Live segment where he encouraged people to give Sandoval a hug if they saw him because he could use one (come on, man). Toward the end of the episode, Lala, having apparently taken a maturity potion off-screen or something, decides that she doesn’t want the mistake of Scandoval to define the rest of Raquel’s life and attempts to reach out to clear the air. Ariana doesn’t love hearing this when she finds out, but it mostly prompts a conversation about how both of them are actually sensitive. (Katie Maloney is also there and is in much of this episode, but doesn’t do much of note. Sorry Katie!)

Given how much frustration has built up in the couple months between when the news of the affair broke and Pump Rules starting to film its 11th season, this all tracks. It would be weird for them to not talk about it. But Sandoval now has his apology tour cut out for him, even if it will more likely be a righteous indignation tour based on his performance in the reunions and everything about his personality. As a fellow person, woof, but as a consumer of reality television, thank god for that.