Reunited And It Feels So Good

The cast of Real World: San Diego reunited tonight for one last hurrah — before the next last hurrah next week. Apparently we do get to see some of that footage of the cast in Mexico while the police investigated an alleged rape at the ole homestead. Nevertheless, neither Lala nor Sujin Pak nor even Sway were around to host this emotionally charged event, so instead we got a girl who did a nice job of provoking the roomies and then clearing out of the way when chaos broke out.For the most part, the reunion went along as expected. Robin, Cameran, and Frankie did most of the meaningless yapping, with Brad and Randy chiming in fairly frequently. Quick witted and sharp tongued Jacquese stole the show with his humorous observations mixed with honest candor and confrontation. And amazingly, I’m not being sarcastic. Ja has been a standup guy this entire season, and tonight, he proved himself to be fairly articulate and self-assured in the frenzied environment. Only Jamie and Charlie stayed off to the sidelines – surprise surprise – but they too had their moments. Charlie had about two minutes of airtime in which he distanced himself from his ex-girlfriend and reminded Cameran that she still owes him $800. Jamie meanwhile opened her mouth for the first time about twenty minutes into the program to bash Frankie and that’s pretty much all she did for the rest of the show, until the scandal spotlight finally, after seven months, shone brightly on her. Apparently, our little sweetheart wanted to jump Brad’s bones. Jamie’s jaw dropped, as it did nearly ever week this season, when she realized she had been, as the Real Worlders say, put on blast. That’s okay Jamie. You’re allowed to be a little naughty. You gotta have a story for all your friends in Riverside.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about Frankie. Oh Frankie. Where to begin? If I were Steven Cojocuru, I might say something dumb like “She wanted to look like Eliza Doolittle, but she was more like Elize Don’tlittle.” Luckily, I’m not Steven Cojocuru, so I’ll simply say that if Mary Poppins had a lovechild with a skunk, it would be Frankie. Frankie put on a brave front and tried to act like everything was water under the bridge. Actually, everyone tried to do that. Until, of course, they remembered that they were reality stars and no petty drama should ever go un-retreaded. The problems first unsurprisingly arose when the hostess asked what was going on in Greece. Frankie was first to admit she was a Debbie Downer. Oh wait, scratch that. Frankie was first to admit that she had a great time on the trip. Whaaa? Everyone said yeah right, but Frankie insisted she was having a ball. Good to see her revisionist history problems have been fixed. Actually, Frankie stirred up one of the biggest arguments of the season. Of course she had a blast!

The discussion moved from Greece to a general anti-Frankie intervention. Ja accused Frankie for putting up a wall and not exchanging digits, and then the rest of the cast pretty much piped up too, saying that they all really like her, but she doesn’t love them back. It really was an amusing display of “We really love you, and by love, we mean hate.” Frankie of course devolved into tears and offered up a million reasons why she acted the way she did, often pinning her behaviors on one thing or another. She eventually said that it was her own problems, not the roommates, that caused her to leave, but even that admission had a whiff of rhetoric about it. In a lame attempt to add a silver lining, Frankie noted that if she hadn’t left, they wouldn’t have been best buds with Charlie. Yes, she took credit for Charlie.

The reunion also covered less interesting areas such as Brad and Cameran’s flirtations, the night everyone went to jail, and other minor house drama. The banter didn’t necessarily shed light on anything, but this group is affable enough that I begrudgingly found myself smiling and enjoying their little lovefest. Oh well. I guess I’m losing my snarky edge. I’ll just have to bone up on a few episodes of Road Rules to get my general contempt for Bunim/Murray productions back on sure footing.