After last week’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey incident where Luis Ruelas had a hot mic moment, he threw caution to the wind.
Now that the cameras caught how he really talks about Melissa and Joe Gorga, he had a choice to make: pretend like it was unusual, or double down.
On this week’s episode, Luis doubled down.
Luis called Joe “an animal,” insisting that he would not “lower himself” to the level of “f–king trash” like his brother-in-law.
During this episode, Teresa Giudice was in the midst of wedding planning.
Sitting outside just minutes before rain began, she chatted with Luis Ruelas about the finer points of seating arrangements.
Already, Joe and Melissa were coming up in conversation — and not in a fun way.
At first, Luis referred to Joe and Melissa as having started “hoopla” regarding the wedding.
That’s some pretty mild language. Maybe the most famous instance of the word’s use is on Spongebob Squarepants.
But that jab was only the first. And it understated the strong feelings of resentment at play.
Teresa spoke to the confessional camera about how, unlike so many brides-to-be, she did not feel stressed about wedding planning.
(Often, wedding day stress relates to money and to it being a new experience. Teresa has married before, and she’s rich. That at least partially explains why the planning was so chill)
However, she noted that there were other things on her mind. Specifically, ongoing tensions with her brother and her sister-in-law.
During the planning, they made a phone call to Luis’ mother. She was very accommodating, insisting that she was fine with whatever plans they had.
Teresa marveled at the contrast between her interactions with Luis’ family and what things have been like with hers.
As the rain began to fall, they made their way into the house. Quickly, the conversation shifted from nuptials to feuds.
As Luis tried to take stock of things, he asked how things had been going.
He asked, specifically, about how things went with Melissa.
Not well is almost a given. But Teresa had specific remarks about her sister-in-law’s reactions to things.
In her mind, Melissa is not reacting in proportion to events as she sees them.
(We have all watched both women become increasingly irate after every slight, every conflict)
Oh, and Teresa shared that Melissa was really dragging her heels about RSVPing.
Luis chimed in, saying that Melissa “wants us to chase” her for an answer.
In other words, he believes that it was some sort of power play on Melissa’s part.
Meanwhile, Teresa pulled out her texts with Melissa. Specifically regarding the rehearsal dinner.
Within the texts, Melissa says that she didn’t know the person who texted her about the rehearsal dinner.
(Millions of Americans receive dozens of unwanted scam and spam texts and calls every week. The deluge makes it difficult to see important calls and texts from anyone who is not already a contact)
But Teresa and Luis weren’t buying Melissa’s story.
As Teresa reasoned, this is a wedding.
Melissa is a grownup. A married grownup. She knows how weddings work.
There is pretty much always a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.
Luis had read enough.
He very dramatically dropped Teresa’s phone onto the table.
(We know that it has a phone case, like they all have to have these days, but still, we winced)
Teresa is blaming Melissa for keeping Joe from all of this.
She complained that her sister-in-law should “let him have his family.”
Meanwhile, Luis said that he tired of Joe blaming him for every single thing.
Teresa’s ex-husband, Joe Giudice, had apparently reached out to Luis (after Gia brought him up to speed on the drama).
He advised Luis that, no matter what, Joe will find some way to blame him for everything.
This is like hearing about someone else’s game of telephone. We’re hearing Luis’ account of what he talked about with Joe Giudice, whose info came from Gia, whose version of events came from Teresa and Luis. Messy.
Teresa emphasized how humiliated she feels that her family is causing problems.
On the one hand, we can all relate. We often feel like our relatives, our friends, are somehow our responsibility.
At the same time … some fans are already remarking that Teresa’s apparent need to apologize to Luis feels unhealthy. That could just be Luis’ unsavory reputation at work, however.
This is when the gloves came off with Luis.
He hyped up his own self-restraint after remaining “calm in the last three months around an animal like that.”
Teresa did not bat an eye at what he said. Or at what followed.
Luis declared that he was “not gonna lower myself to f–king trash” that behaves as Joe has.
Meanwhile, Teresa’s response to this was to feel sorry for Luis for having put up with so much.
This is such an ugly, bitter situation.