This week on “Growing up Jersey,” "RHONJ" OG Teressa Guidice and family fly down to Puerto Rico - without her husband (who remains in prison). Siggy Flicker still harbors hurt feelings but there seems to be a medical issue at play. Dolores Catania runs interference between her friends. Joe Gorga and Teresa learn they need to rethink their parenting styles.
A grieving getaway
Teresa Guidice packs up for her daughters and father, Giacinto Gorga, and the clan heads to Puerto Rico. The whole family is still deep in mourning for their dearly departed matriarch, Antonia.
A Jersey shore trip would be more prudent financially but TMZ reported back in February of 2017 that Guidice's tax debt has been satisfied so why not Puerto Rico, at the El Conquistador resort? After what seems like an afternoon of failing to smear sunscreen on her undisciplined children and a half successful all-in-white vacation photoshoot, Teresa has a heart to heart with big papa in the moonlight (or is that the bright filming cameras?). She tells him she blames her husband for missing the last 11 months of her mother’s life. It’s a mic drop moment. There is no coming back from that.
The only Danielle Staub sighting this week was her call to Teresa while in Puerto Rico all the while the cameraman shows off Grandpa Giacinto Gorga’s raging sunburn.
He packed his Italian speedo but was covered up when we saw him. Darn. Teresa does finally admit Melissa Gorga was right, her daughters do need discipline. For heaven’s sake her oldest daughter, Gia asked her to be stricter with her sisters just a few episodes ago.
Siggy really does have a problem
Siggy Flicker is in a hormonal wasteland (not unlike Shannon Beador’s was on Monday night’s episode (Nov.
6) of "RHOC"), the cast of women are menopausal so it’s not unheard of to have this as part of their storyline but it’s not exactly compelling. Her hormones or lack thereof are making her an emotional basket case and alienating people around her. Perhaps this is seed planting that she will blame her outrageous behavior on? Time will tell.
Meanwhile, Siggy got a shot in her tail end to stabilize her and we had to watch.
Still on the outs with some of the "RHONJ" women and this week Siggy’s target is her relationship with Margaret Josephs. Viewers may have thought, and certainly, Margaret did, that meeting in the diner was the Jersey Geneva Convention but oh no we’d be wrong. Siggy even said last week she is a holder of grudges.
Old fashioned values
Caveman Joe and wife "RHONJ" Melissa Gorga are cooking at home when he does a proud papa high five to his seven-year-old son for having three girlfriends but his daughter can’t date until she is 57. After Melissa tells him 12-year-old (and very beautiful) Antonia is afraid to open up to him he takes her for some father-daughter bonding time at the Urban Air jump gym.
He warns her about dating and standing her ground with boys. He also holds the option to administer the Italian chastity belt known as “lock her up in the house” if she doesn’t date responsibly. Meanwhile, his son will get a Christmas stocking and Easter basket full of condoms.
Wine glasses full of everything but wine
Sweet, beautiful and sometimes blindly loyal Dolores Catania and Margaret Josephs (neither of them drinks alcohol) meet to discuss Siggy’s over the top ridiculous antics at the Gorga's restaurant last week. Once again Dolores is on Siggy’s “passionate and animated” side and sees only good in her "RHONJ" friend. Siggy has done Dolores many solids, as revealed in the interview portion, in the past and she would rather cut off her arm than betray Siggy.
We learn more about Margaret Josephs’ first marriage and her love of her currently estranged stepchildren. This revelation softens Dolores and she later shares this with Siggy at a couples dinner with Siggy’s current husband Michael Campanella and Dolores’s ex-husband and current roommate, Frank Catania. Did you get that "RHONJ" musical chairs of husbands?
Margaret Josephs is not just another blonde in Jersey
Breaking from her sassy signature 'do, new cast member of "RHONJ" Margaret Josephs has a voluminous updo during dinner with Dolores. Earlier viewers enjoyed a fabulous pigtail doubleheader in the garden with mother Marge. Marge and her dimples are single and ready to mingle by the way. She revealed on “Watch What Happens Live” that she is 71 and likes a man 55 or older.
She added that, while he doesn't have to be handsome he does have to be smart and share her politics (Siggy Flicker is a matchmaker, Marge!). Margaret’s hair collection could rival Wendy Williams. She said during an interview that Joan Rivers encouraged her to rock the pigtails until the end of time so she wouldn’t be just another blonde in the room.
"The Real Housewives of New Jersey" airs on Bravo on Wednesdays.
