'Real Housewives:' Are Siblings Gorga, Giudice Done?

This week on “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” screaming and finger-pointing gave way to quiet, sad resignation. And sometimes, that’s harder to watch.

The episode starts with a montage of different housewives talking to their husbands about the explosive, near-physical . Gorga is upset with Giudice for calling her a gold-digger; Teresa is upset that her brother Joe told his wife about the comment in the first place.

"He broke our confidence and I’ll never tell him anything ever again,” Giudice said. “Zip, zip, zip.”

Most interesting about this scene is the weighing in of the husbands, especially the less-than-present Albert, Caroline’s husband.

“I have the luxury of saying I’m done,” Caroline Manzo said. “Melissa doesn’t have that luxury and I guarantee Teresa’s not going to be happy until she sees divorce papers between those two.”

Less interesting is Joe Giudice’s reaction, who seems to care less about what his wife is actually saying than he does about displaying his rampant sexism, insulting Joe Gorga by calling him “Josephine.” He even manages to get in yet another gay slur, calling Kathy’s sister Rosie “a butchy boy.”

Kathy Wakile, Teresa and Joe Gorga’s cousin, is less ready to give up on Teresa than Caroline is. She tells her husband, Rich, she wants to invite the Giudices to her end-of-the-year party, despite his cautioning against the idea.

“Maybe I’m holding on to something that doesn’t exist anymore,” Kathy admits, but says she still needs to make an effort with her cousin.

At her house, Jacqueline Laurita confronts Teresa about putting her on the spot last week by asking if she’d had a conversation with Melissa and Caroline about the gold-digger comment. When Teresa says Jacqueline should have loyalty to her as a friend, Laurita points out that she also has loyalty to her own sister-in-law, Caroline.

“If your sister-in-law said something, I’d tell you,” Teresa says.

“Oh, really?” Jacqueline says, pointing out that Teresa was friends with both her and former housewife Dina Manzo, also Jacqueline’s sister-in-law, when they were feuding.

“Dina and I aren’t even speaking, but…I don’t ask my friends to choose sides,” Laurita says.

There is then a very awkward scene with Laurita’s personal trainer, Jolene, who appears to be stealing sips of alcohol while Jacqueline and Teresa work out.

“I’m surrounded by crazy people!” Laurita says.

At least the Ashlee drama is now relegated to a brief Skype conversation between Laurita and her daughter, talking about whether Ashlee is getting up on time and her upcoming trip to Texas to spend time with her father and brothers.

The Manzo storyline this week is actually genuinely beautiful. The Manzo children, who have become adept at playing the cameras for all they’re worth, lead the audience and their mother to believe that they are looking into buying a Jaguar. Caroline thinks it’s absolutely ridiculous, until it’s revealed that the Jag is actually an anniversary gift for her. She’s more than willing to drive it off the lot after that.

“I will always appreciate things around me,” she says. “Yes, material things, of course, I’m not going to lie, but look at my kids, look at my life. I’m so blessed.”

She and Albert celebrate their anniversary by revisiting their first apartment, which is above their business, The Brownstone.

“We keep it because there are certain nights we like to get away, you know what I mean?” she says. “But I don’t like to discuss my sex life. I have grown children. I’m with this man 30 years; I’m doing something right.”

As they bicker about whether strawberries are “too cliché” and get into tickle fights, the two reminisce about their first years, living in that apartment at first alone, and then with Albie.

“You and me, kid, right back where we started,” Caroline says, “except I drive a Jaguar now.”

Unfortunately, but predictably, the episode is dominated by more Giudice-Gorga drama. Rich agrees to having the Giudices at the barbeque, but, not wanting his kids to be embarrassed in front of their friends, tells them not to invite too many of them, despite this being their end-of-school party.

As a result, Victoria only has one friend in attendance while Joey seems to have two. No one told Kathy the new plan, though, and she is very disappointed by the lack of turnout. She seems even more irked when both Caroline and Jacqueline cancel. Victoria’s onto the game.

“Maybe this was their plan,” she says. “Look who’s here: the Giudices, the Gorgas, and the Wakiles. Just like old times!”

While things seem all right at first, with the cousins all playing around, it is clear that no one feels comfortable in the situation. Rich, for once dropping his wisecracks, suggests to Joe Gorga that he and Teresa go to counseling.

“Therapy will not make my parents happy,” Gorga says. “They’re old school. Old school Italians don’t go to therapy. They don’t believe in therapy. They just don’t speak to each other for the rest of their lives.”

But it is clear from the conversation he and his sister eventually have that nothing is going to change any time soon. While they for once do not start shouting, it is almost eerie to hear their hushed, sad tones instead. Teresa even starts crying, a look that is foreign on her.

“I’m overwhelmed,” she says. “I don’t want to say the wrong thing. I feel like our trust is gone.”

Gorga says she also tells her husband everything, but she disagrees.

After awhile, Joe seems to give up.

“I want you to go home and please put your head on my pillow and think about whether you ever want a relationship with me,” he says. “If not, I’d rather you just call me and tell me…I swear I’ll move on and never bother you again.”

Wow.

She says repeatedly that she feels like she lost her brother. Gorga asks what he should do to be the old “Joey.” Teresa says he should come over to her house more often, but Gorga insists that even before he got married, he didn’t come over as much because Joe Giudice hated him.

As usual, the topic of kids comes up. Neither sibling feels the other has been a good aunt or uncle to their children.

“All’s I want is my kids to be loved by their aunt,” Joe says.

“When you were having your first child I was having my third,” Teresa says. “I didn’t have a nanny; my mother wasn’t my nanny.”

Eventually, Teresa hits a nerve by telling Joe, “you’re just the meanest brother.”

“Don’t say that, Teresa, ‘cause I’m an angel from God,” he says.

The talk quickly dissolves and both siblings storm off, furious.

“It’s so normal for siblings to have an argument, to disagree,” says Melissa, who along with Kathy, has been trying to keep track of Teresa’s children as all of this is going on. “This is so normal. But for Teresa and Joe, I don’t think there’s a remedy.”

To her husband, she says “Babe, it’s time to give up on this.”

The show airs Sundays at 10 on Bravo.

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