RHOBH: “Are those real? Sei reale?”

Last night’s episode of real Housewives of Beverly Hills was fairly boring in the way that real Housewives tends to get boring every few weeks: the season’s initial round of conflicts has been much more or less resolved, cast members who are good at stirring the pot were mostly absent and Carlton’s attempt at an Eyes broad Shut-style pool party turned out mostly to be a regular pool party with a couple of naked ladies in liquor-logo body paint. But, but, there were Hustler gift bags! It was spicy, you guys. Spicy and offensive and wild, because that is how Carlton is, or at least how she so desperately wants to be perceived, and she would like to remind you of it constantly.

1. Can we just relocation Carlton into the Playboy Mansion? All she wants to do is gawk at conventionally attractive women (presumably to emphasize to all of us that she thinks she is also conventionally attractive and for that reason is worthy of to be in their midst) and throw what she is very much trying to imply is a swinger pool party, so why not just ship her off to a different sort of reality show entirely? She can be the Bunny Wrangler in a “Girls next Door” reboot or something. She will be happier and so will I because she will be off of my television.

2. Kim has fans. Middle-aged men come to conventions to tell Kim that they loved her when she was on television, and…actually, nah, that’s a pretty good way to make a couple bucks off of being a former child star. She has certainly aged better than the former teen Idol who came over to hit on her and get some of that sweet, sweet reality TV video camera time and rehash the time that he grabbed her butt literally decades ago.

3. Do metal stripper poles not get hot to the touch in direct sunlight? truthful question.

4. Carlton and Kyle are very upset at each other. This season of real Housewives only has two emotions: drunk and offended. When Kyle saw Carlton’s (hideous) pentagram on the back of her neck, it was partly obscured by the tie to her bikini top, and Kyle asked if it was a star of David. Carlton whirled around all GOD NO, and Kyle, who is Jewish, got upset that Carlton was upset that she miscounted the points of the dumb star. everyone is a victim here.

5. WOMBAT BABY. holy hell what was that thing? Doesn’t Bravo know that I view this show by myself, at night?

6. It was eight degrees outside this morning. I’m going to fantasize about Yolanda’s hillside ocean view until at least April. This is torture. California, and any pointer that it exists, is torture.

7. Lisa is kind of sick of showing up at dumb Housewives things. She punked out on Kim’s kid’s high school graduation, and now she canceled last-minute for some poorly explained get-together to paint pictures for Yolanda’s daughter, who is going off to school. Lisa has her own show and is sick of being a Housewife – I think that’s beyond argument. We shall henceforth call this Nene Syndrome, but because Lisa was rich before she started this Bravo circus, there won’t necessarily be a moment when Lisa comes crawling back after her show gets canceled.

8. Carlton gets mad about things people do in her dreams. ever have a sex dream about someone you know in a non-sexual way and then feel awkward around them for the next week? That happened to Carlton and Kyle, except instead of sex it was Kyle saying nasty things about Wicca. In Carlton’s head. While she was asleep. but Kyle is in trouble for it, despite the fact that it actually happened, because people aren’t sufficiently interested in Wicca to allow her to create drama about things that, you know, occurred in objective reality. Non importa; Carlton is perfectly capable of starting a fight about something which she acknowledges is completely imagined.

9. Carlton put a hex on Joyce and gave her spouse food poisoning. Or maybe, you know, he just ate some bad sushi. You decide which one is much more likely! Either way, Joyce went from smugly dismissing Carlton’s risks to seeming as though she is terrified by them, and next week, it appears as though Carlton will deny that those risks happened whatsoever and then become upset by the implication that she would ever threaten Joyce or la sua famiglia. Which is all funny when you consider that Carlton cannot, in fact, cast spells.

Handbag count: another of Brandi’s Stella McCartney Falabellas plus Joyce’s black version, one blue Chanel classic Flap Bag, one Valentino Rockstud Tote, and whatever fringey thing Joyce brought to the pool party.