The Real Housewives of New Jersey Recap: Finally, a Finale!

With all the Danielle drama on The Real Housewives of New Jersey this season, it feels like it has lasted years. Remember when Dina was still on the show? Seems like a really long time ago, doesn’t it? Like it or not, the season has finally come to an end, but not without one last very heated discussion at a restaurant.

The episode opened with Teresa Giudice hosting a dinner party for Caroline and Jacqueline’s families. Teresa called her friends “one big, happy family”, and almost immediately Caroline began talking about Danielle. Caroline talked about how Danielle is “driven” to hurt all of them, and “hell-bent” on pressing the charges against Ashley. She then proposes a “solution” for peace, to which Danielle accepts her dinner invitation and vows to talk to Caroline “matriarch to matriarch.”

Before Caroline and Danielle Staub get ready to rumble, Chris and Jacqueline try explaining to Ashley that if Caroline is, miraculously, successful in making peace with Danielle, it would mean Ashley Holmes wouldn’t ever be able to communicate with her. Next, we get Danielle venting about the meeting to Danny, who, if Danielle has actually been fired from the show, I will thankfully never have to see on my television ever again. She says that she’s “not the one who started anything”, and embraces her moments of insanity. Before they head off to the meeting, Caroline makes it clear that she’s not going to sink to Danielle’s level. As she puts it, she “has never started a fight,” but “won’t back down from one.”

After a quick call to her energist, we are treated to a Rocky-esque montage of Danielle and Caroline getting ready for their big fight by heading to their cars and driving away. The rest of the cast anxiously awaits Caroline’s entrance at the obligatory end-of-season-dinner, where Ashley and Jacqueline surprise no one by getting into a fight. After leaving the table, Caroline’s daughter Lauren persuades Ashley to join the family, where Derek (a.k.a. the voice of reason) tells her to be respectful of her mother and to “know your place.”

Now on to Caroline Manzo’s attempt for peace with Danielle, who shows up with a driver and bodyguard. Shockingly, the two start off courteous of each other, exchanging pleasantries. Caroline tells Danielle that she’s tried hard to stay out of her life, but that they live in a town where “everyone in trying to be a winner in a losing game.” After bringing up Danielle’s basis for pressing charges, and how she should be sympathetic to Ashley, a girl who was just like her, Danielle got defensive, and quickly the conversation got out of hand.

Danielle accused Caroline of attacking her, but when Caroline asked for a specific incident, Danielle changed the subject. Caroline tells her that she’s 47 and “needs to take responsibility,” then hammers her point home when she gives Danielle the “bottom line,” which is that Danielle is not fooling her. After telling her to “get over herself,” and that she’s a clown, Danielle responded by telling Caroline she must be the clown, because she has red hair. The dinner ended after Caroline said “when I called you garbage, I meant that you were garbage.” End of conversation. Danielle leaves, right after saying the word “matriarch” for the tenth time, then waits with her bodyguard for her driver to bring the car around, thus bringing an end to one of the most intense seasons in the history of the Real Housewives franchise.