‘RHONY’ RECAP: Sonya Goes On A Blind Date, Eboni’s Black Shabbat Dinner Goes Left!

This week on The Real Housewives of New York City, let’s hope we finally have an idea about what Eboni K. Williams thinks Black Shabbat is all about. Ramona Singer is mentored in real estate by Michael Lorber. Is Ramona too unfiltered to sell real estate? Is anyone hoping to see Ramona and Kelly Killoren Bensimon at the negotiation table? That would be some good television! Maybe Sonja Morgan will have her “serious date” this episode instead of her typical fling (or embellished fling). This episode should probably be titled, “Don’t say that!”

Leah McSweeney is learning Hebrew for her conversion. Leah wants to try to lead some of the prayers during Eboni’s Black Shabbot celebration. 

Ramona seems distracted and unfocused when meeting Michael at a $17.9 million apartment showing. He’s trying to explain that knowing the north, south, east, west directions of the apartment is important to each individual showing. Ramona shushes Michael while she explains how she got a little confused about which way she was looking in the bedroom. This would be a really good place for an inappropriate joke. One of Michael’s clients arrives, and Ramona is starting off well, but Michael adds to what she’s saying, and she slugs his arm. Ramona seems to know a lot of details about the apartment, but she’s still quirky Ramona, so will someone trust her to help with their $17.9 million decision?

Eboni is meeting with Linda Doyle, a genetic investigator, to redirect her search for her biological father. Eboni is filling in Linda on her DNA testing close matches. Linda is explaining the process of finding Eboni’s father through cluster analysis, a technique of looking at Eboni’s matches, seeing who the matches share, and clustering those shared matches into four family lines—Eboni’s four grandparents. Then the genetic genealogist will look for the marriage or union that connects those paternal groups to identify her birth father. [full disclosure: your friendly reality tv writer is also a professional genetic genealogist.]

Sonja has a date, Brad, from Eboni’s matchmaker, Devyn. They bond over food and then start off right away talking about how she rarely goes downtown and he rarely goes uptown. That’s always an interesting thing about New Yorkers. Remember when Ramona complained about going “all the way to Brooklyn” to see Alex McCord and Simon Van Kempen? Wouldn’t we all love to see Alex and Simon at Black Shabbat? Maybe we would just love to see the shopping trip and Simon choosing her outfit.

It’s hard to tell with editing how long it took for Brad to start talking about how his business has gone south and his current health problems, but their food hasn’t yet arrived. Sonja was excited to hear that Brad had a house in the South of France, but he just sold it a few weeks prior. She did seem to have a good time. 

As the women prepare for Eboni’s Black Shabbat, the usual internal debates happen as they try to determine what to wear. Luann de Lesseps says that Sonja calls it “Black sabbath dinner.” Ramona is hoping that it’s not preachy. Leah calls Eboni to tell her that she’s been exposed to Covid. Leah still wants to do the prayers, so they agree that Leah will Zoom in to the dinner. 

Eboni has a bus for all of the women to travel together to her friend Archie’s house. Champagne and snacks are probably not the best things before a dinner party with this group. They arrive in Summit, New Jersey, and immediately Luann makes a snowball and throws it at Sonja. Eboni introduces the women to Dionne, Brian, and Linara. Sonja immediately pulls Archie aside to tell her that, “my best friend, Michael Lorber, is Jewish, so I know a little bit but not a lot. Or course, every shiksa’s had a Jewish boyfriend once or twice.” Oy Vey!

Archie Gottesman has an organization called JewBelong. On LinkedIn, Archie calls herself a “Co-Chief-Rebrander-of-Judaism.” As Archie is trying to welcome everyone, Ramona discusses the table decorations and takes a napkin off the table, and tells the host that the napkins really are too large. Ramona says they are placemats. Then Ramona “tries it on” to configure a halter top. Ramona wants the napkins to match. This is only the beginning of inappropriate outbursts from Ramona, so Archie had better brace herself. 

Sonja is talking about her matchmaker-made date. She doesn’t want to talk about her date in front of Luann and Ramona. Sonja tells the rest of the dinner group that she has a couple of girlfriends with her who like to “recycle.” Then Eboni classes it up by saying, “They do like some recycled D.” 

As they head to the dinner table, Luann says, “Shabbat Shalom” in that same way she used to overuse, “ya Habibi.” Archie introduces the dinner by saying she wants to create a “beautiful sacred space.” At one point, they raise their hands if they are not Jewish. Then Ramona claims to be a “Jew by association.” And Eboni says Leah is a half-Jew. Archie keeps drawing them back to why they are there, but Leah, Zoom, the phone calls, and interruptions are distracting everyone. They all take a “Shabbat shot.” Ramona is increasingly annoyed with Leah on Zoom. 

They try to read about the significance of Shabbat. Eboni’s going to light the candles as Leah does the blessing. Leah sings the beautiful prayer. Sonja thought it was beautiful and emotional. Archie tries to capitalize on the prayerful moment to bring up how she’s worried about the conflict between the black and Jewish communities. Ramona derails the conversation by bringing up her college experience where she was ostracized by the Jews for being Christian. And Eboni takes the moment to lecture, “When you are an oppressed people, it’s very easy to join with other forms of oppression for your own perceived survival. The only person that wins when those communities are at odds is white supremacy.” Ramona tries to make her points, and Leah starts yelling from the Zoom call. Ramona walks away from the table. 

Eboni tells Leah that Ramona left. Then Leah says, “Ramona left?” And Ramona storms out of the bathroom to announce that, “I went to pee.” Then Leah and Ramona have a crazy conversation about who pees more. Leah tells Ramona that she looks like a psycho while also looking like a psycho. Everyone looks so uncomfortable at this hot mess of a Housewives dinner. Then Sonja says that the Jews didn’t oppress or shun Ramona. She had sex with Jewish men. Doesn’t everyone what to know what Dionne, Brian, and Linara are thinking right now? So. Much. Shouting. Then Sonja shouts, “Can we please listen to the blacks and Jews?” Then Ramona wants “the first course” and she wanders to the kitchen to search for “the real food.”

Next time, Black Shabbat continues with more drama. Eboni’s genetic investigator is hot on the trail of her biological father. Leah and Keir’s dad, Rob Cristofaro, discuss the high cost of high school tuition in the city. Eboni confronts Sonja for peeing in Archie’s driveway. And Ramona and Luann are increasingly worried about Sonja.

Stay Connected With All About The Tea: Twitter Ι Instagram Ι YouTube Ι Facebook Ι Send Us Tips