On this week’s episode of Bravo’s The Valley, the group ended their trip to Santa Barbara with unresolved issues after Nia fought with the group because they thought she was hiding her problems. The majority of the episode dealt with the outcome of their fight and trying to resolve the conflict. Meanwhile, Luke is making major moves in his relationship with Kristen, while Jesse and Michelle manage to be civil for their daughter.
“It looks that healing ceremony might have to happen again”, Zack jokes in a confessional before the group leaves Santa Barbara.
Co-existing
This week’s episode gave viewers a small break from Jesse and Michelle’s explosive drama. Jesse met with a life coach who seemed to give him clarity on his dynamic with Michelle.
“I think you get to a point where you can only be hostile and angry until you’re exhausted, and then you just have to either let it go or let it consume you,” Jesse said in a confessional.
Jesse continued, “I just don’t want to let it consume me because I have my relationship, I have my business, and I have my daughter.”
He finished, “I am just co-existing with Michelle at this point”.
First Comes Love…
Kristen and Luke are still thriving and on their baby-making journey. They’re renting a house in The Valley, and they aren’t sure where they want to set their roots just yet. Luke is sure that Kristen in is the one, and takes Danny ring shopping with him, and shares how he knew Kristen was the one.
Nia Shares her Story
The girls got together at the end of the episode to resolve the argument they had with Nia before leaving Santa Barbara. For the most part, it was a cordial conversation; they all accepted the other’s apologies and gave their own for the way things went down. Nia expresses how she wishes the girls would have come to her directly with their concerns.
“It was just really hurtful that my friends waited until I left the table to say something. We’re sitting here talking to each other if you were like ‘Nia come on I feel like Danny’s passed out because he had some wine’ say it to me”.
Jasmine explains that, due to her personal experiences with Danny’s drinking, she was upset by Nia seemingly trying to cover it up. Nia clarified that wasn’t her intention, and shared that due to past trauma, she was inclined to enjoy the positive things in her life rather than focus on the negative, showing a vulnerable side that hasn’t been seen on the show yet. If the group thought Nia kept everything a secret, they were proven wrong by her confession.
“The perception of how I am is just different because maybe you don’t know what I come from”, Nia responded to the girls.
“I was homeless with my mom when I was a kid. We were living in a shelter, we slept on couches, we pitched tents in people’s backyards, and we had to go to parks and get cans out of trash cans to pay rent”, Nia shared with the girls.
She revealed that her struggles continued in her adulthood.
“I’ve had times that I slept in my own car as an adult”, she said.
She continued in a confessional “How mortifying is that? To like, wake up to a security guard being like, ‘You need to leave the employee parking lot’ and like, having to go sleep in a rat house instead, or something”.
“Life has not been easy but that’s ok, because it’s made me strong, and if I can be that point of light, kindness, and positivity, I’d rather choose to bring that into people’s life”, she continued in a confessional.
“I remember getting in the front seat of my car from sleeping in the backseat and being like ‘thank you god that I at least have a car’ so like, I’ve always had to have that perspective”, Nia shared with the girls.
Nia concluded in a confessional, “I’m not going to be negative with people when I have so much to be grateful for, and if my friends want to say that I’m hiding things because I’m choosing to be intentional and positive then they can say whatever they want to say but I know my truth”.
Kristen, as usual, supported Nia and stood by her side.
“I had no idea that Nia had gone through so much. If I hear anyone say anything negative about Nia, they’re going to have to deal with me first.”
The rest of the girls expressed their sympathy for Nia, but they remained concerned about Danny’s drinking.
“I’m really grateful and happy to see that Nia’s opening up and being honest, and that they’ve been working through things. But, behavior didn’t stop. My husband has never once hid in a cupboard chugging tequila, making people uncomfortable”, Janet said in a confessional.
“If you ever are having concerns about his drinking, I don’t want you, because of how Santa Barbara went down, to feel like you don’t have friends that you could go to”, Janet said to Nia, assuring the girls will be there for.
Janet continued, “I was in a relationship for years where somebody had drug and alcohol problems”, and this was where the conversation took a hard left.
Nia responded, “I feel like that’s a really big statement for you to kind of make. I know you’re trying to be nice, but like, that’s kind of like, really a big thing to say. If you have a problem with Daniel’s drinking, we are good now”.
The girls made up before Nia left, but there are still unresolved issues.
Nia expressed in a confessional, “In this moment I feel like Janet is not being a friend. I just feel like what Daniel and I have experienced and gone through is being thrown back to me and even, like, weaponized”.
She finished, “I feel like she is assuming the worst of us and just, putting that out there, and it just doesn’t feel right”.
The girls continued to express their concern about Danny’s drinking after Nia left, particularly Jasmine, reflecting on her own experiences with his drinking.
“If you show up at Jax’s bar on Halloween, with a f***ing jacket on, no costume, and start grabbing people’s ass and telling me to call you daddy, you got a problem”, Jasmine said.
“In Danny’s mind, he thinks that everything is fine. You took the apology. But it’s-I don’t know if it’s trauma and just being a woman. I want to talk to Danny to, like, let him understand, ‘how would you feel if somebody grabbed Nia’s ass and said, “Get Daddy a drink”, in our friend group? Like, how would that make you feel?”, she finished, expressing her belief that Danny still hasn’t learned from his prior experiences with alcohol.
New episodes of The Valley air Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo and stream the next day on Peacock.