James Kennedy Returns To 'Vanderpump Rules' And He's Still A Hot Mess
James Kennedy is a jerk, and Raquel needs to get out of that relationship, STAT
Finally! We’ve reached the Gay Pride episode this season on Vanderpump Rules. In short, it did not disappoint — and we have DJ James “the White Kanye West”/”It’s not about the pasta!” Kennedy to thank for that. Too bad he’s such a jerk to his girlfriend. We’ll get to that later.
To kick things off, TomTom co-owners Tom Schwartz and Tom Sandoval prepare for the bar’s first Gay Pride celebration; and lucky for us viewers, they surprisingly decide to hire James as their DJ.
We also watch Scheana Shay who, with her eyes welling up, attempts to convince Lisa Vanderpump that she’s not — she repeats, not — jealous of Dayna Kathan, a fellow SURver who happens to be “dating” TomTom General Manager and Scheana’s former fling, Max Boyens.
Are we taking this whole Scheana-Dayna-Max love triangle storyline seriously? Of course not! Especially considering we now know Scheana is currently dating an Australian rugby player by the name of Brock Davies.
“[Brock] treats me right,” Scheana told Us Weekly recently. “I’ve never been with someone who made me feel so loved and not insecure. We are a good fit for each other. We are both loud outspoken personalities, so we butt heads at times; but any issue we’ve ever had has been resolved in less than 30 minutes.” But Rob Valletta hung a TV on the wall in less than seven minutes, so…
Bravo
James doesn’t waste time bringing up #FoftyGate this episode, either. For those who somehow aren’t aware, 50 Cent had a short-lived, yet explosive feud early last year with Vanderpump Rules cast member Lala Kent and her “man,” Randall Emmett. In short, 50 Cent threatened Randall (with whom he had been friends for years leading up to the feud and even co-produced Starz drama Power with him) with physical violence for not paying him the alleged $1 million he owed him. And in the midst of it all, James posted a tweet about the whole ordeal.
“We were so brand new in our rekindling of our friendship,” James said in a talking head during the episode. “I found it hilarious, and it landed me in a bad place with Lala. I was just making a joke!”
We then see James “apologize” to Lala for the tweet, to which Lala says in a talking head: “I think James has a lot of issues; I think he has an addiction problem. I think he has a bunch of bobbleheads around him, including his girlfriend, who don’t care what his future may hold, which could get very ugly and sad.”
This is when it starts to get dark.
James then yells at his girlfriend Raquel Leviss over the phone for missing his entire set at TomTom. And after getting distracted by his admittedly funny quips, one-liners, and his “White Kanye” robe…
… it’s in this moment that we’re quickly reminded of just how toxic James really is, especially toward women.
“I love you,” he later tells Raquel, “I was just upset because you missed my set.” And the worst part? Apparently Raquel is cool with it. Raquel! You can’t hear us, but we’re all collectively screaming at our respective television sets for you to get the hell out of that relationship, stat!
How does that saying go? Oh, that’s right: What goes around comes around, James. Because, as many viewers have pointed out, Raquel is doing to James what James did to fellow cast member Kristen Doute in a past season: use him to get on the show.
Look, the bottom line is this: Yes, James is still problematic as hell; he hasn’t changed one bit. But is he more entertaining than the rest of the cast this season? Yes. Does that excuse his behavior? No; absolutely not. And this is precisely why viewers are so split on how they feel about James.
What viewers aren’t opposed to, however, are the refreshingly honest segments showing Ariana Madix opening up about her depression and her efforts to normalize mental health (something we absolutely plan to cover in more detail in the near future). Oh, and Bravo, don’t think we haven’t noticed your seemingly last-minute scrubbing of Max and Brett Caprioni from the season, following the resurfacing of their racist tweets. We thank you.
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