Shade of the Week: Monique Samuels

PHOTO: Bravo

It may have taken five seasons but a Potomac Housewife is finally my Shade of the Week - and no Michael Darby doesn't count.

This week The Real Housewives of Potomac gave us the most violent physical altercation in Housewives History and we have Monique Samuels to thank for that. Yes, violence is never the answer and yes, Mo was definitely in the wrong for throwing hands, however, we can't be outraged if we were entertained.

If you're going to get fired for beating a bitch up on camera, you better make it worth it. Porsha Williams got demoted for pulling Kenya Moore's hair across the reunion stage, so at least Mo can go out knowing she caused some damage when she gets the boot. Ever since Monique and her four homes stepped on the scene I've always ridden hard for her. She's fun, witty, easy going but above all else, real, however, this season she has become more unlikeable than Gizelle Bryant's fashion choices.

Monique began this season with a vengeance towards her now sworn enemy Candiace Dillard after the cast had allegedly conspired off-camera to spread a rumor that Monique's husband was not the father of her latest child. Monique spilled this glorious tea in an Instagram Live at the beginning of the season and thank fuck she did, because without this morsel of information I would be even more confused about why she has such a strong hatred for Candiace.

On the show, the only thing we've seen the two fight about that has any substance is Candiace inviting Charrisse to her anniversary party which pissed off Monique because the ex-Housewife had been spreading rumors around Potomac that Mo was fucking her trainer. If the bird enthusiast had actually addressed the rumors head on at the beginning of the season, I really don't think this entire situation would've ended in a physical altercation. Monique just seems off this season. She's angry, aggressive, confrontational and is ready to explode at any given time, hence her punch on with Candiace.

This entire feud is a classic example of how reality television ruins friendships. Monique's main issue with Candiace was that she didn't trust her after she invited Charrisse but because she didn't want the rumors about her fucking her trainer to become a storyline, she couldn't talk about the actual issue with Candiace and had to find weird things to fight about that didn't make any sense. Almost every episode we saw Mo instigating a fight and then we saw Candiace running away from it. There was no way of resolving their issues because Monique wouldn't address the trainer sized elephant in the room but wasn't prepared to let her beef with Candiace go.

Whether the trainer tea is true or just a nasty rumor, it definitely caused a strain in Monique's marriage which was the root of her anger this season. Her anger coupled with the frustration of not wanting to bring up the situation on camera while being paranoid that another Housewife might, is why Monique was in a restless state for the eight episodes leading up to this brawl. Monique couldn't get her emotions out because she didn't want the rumor on TV, so she instead took all her anger from the situation and directed it towards Candiace, which is the most confusing part.

Yes, Candiace is more annoying than a hang nail and yes, she invited Charrisse to her event, however, Gizelle is the one who is legitimately friends with Cha Cha and the one who brought up the trainer rumor in her confessionals, so wouldn't Gizelle and her bootleg Bratz home be the logical person for Mo to take her anger out on? Also, if she claims the rumors aren't true then why didn't she just squash them and keep it moving? Maybe she was banging the trainer between lunges?

Mo doesn't seem like the type of girl who would play around on her husband, especially one that could kick her into another dimension, but Big Chris seems super distant and weird towards his wife this season. Monique is obviously going through some kind of internal turmoil and I don't know if it's the trainer rumors, her potential marriage problems, her $200,000 money pit of a podcast or her hatred of Candiace, but what I do know is that the bird is a cry for help. Every time I see that bird fly across the screen I want to take a cold shower and rock back and forth on the wet tiles because it freaks me the fuck out. Birds are the rats of the sky and the fact that she touches that thing actually makes me want to throw up. No shade to T'Challa but ew.

I couldn't even defend Monique if I wanted to. It's not as if she snapped in the heat of the moment and was over it the next second. Monique not only yanked Candiace by the hair with her gorilla grip and punched her in the head several times but she also had to be locked in a stairwell with a producer, then ran around the abandoned farm trying to hit Dorothy's daughter again and said she was going to kill her ten minutes after the fight was over. Monique may have been able to be forgiven for the initial beat down but her subsequent rampage is definitely what got her ostracised from the group.

Of course, Candiace isn't innocent in any of this and I'm sure she enjoyed bringing Monique to that point, however, the bird lover was the aggressor in this fight and even though she was being provoked, when she put her hands on her cast member all the accountability landed on her lap. Monique has essentially become the Porsha of Potomac because she gave all the women the opportunity to pretend like they're "scared" of her as a way to finally get her off the show for good. Gizelle has been jealous of Monique since day one and as soon as she saw Mo tossing Candiace's hair she would've had an orgasm the size of Texas thinking about Monique getting fired.

Although this fight solidified Potomac as a franchise and is already an iconic moment in the Bravo canon it could also be the very thing that stops this show from excelling just as it was reaching it's peak. All season we have been building up to this inevitable fist fight and now we'll have to spend the next ten or so episodes watching the group be divided. After this fight Monique and Candiace will never be able to be in the same room again which hurts us, the viewers, because T'Challa's mama and Little Miss Butterknife were both integral parts of making this show a success.

Once a Housewives cast becomes segregated it's hard for the show to go forward because it becomes unbalanced. From the next episode, Gizelle, Candiace and maybe Robyn all refuse to film with Monique who spends the rest of the season stuck on her own island, isolated from group events and the cast trip. Think about season nine of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills when Lisa Vanderpump quit the show in the middle of the season. As soon as the drama started to climax, LVP dipped and it left the other ladies scrambling to be entertaining, which is my biggest fear for Potomac.