Yvonne and Nick’s disastrous wedding dinner is the day the cast went from nobodies to practitioners of the reality-television arts and sciences.
Photo: Bravo
Remember Trump’s first term? (I don’t say that with sarcasm, like how Eoin asked Amanda if she remembered COVID.) For months after he got elected, pundits kept saying, “This is the day he became president.” That day, like a frustrated patron in the Champagne room, never came. I don’t want to get too political, but that is what I kept thinking while watching this episode of In the City: This is the day they became reality stars. Yvonne and Nick’s disastrous wedding dinner is the day the cast went from nobodies to actual practitioners of the reality-television arts and sciences.
Sure, we have masters of the craft like Lindsay Dale Hubbard and Kyle Cooke leading the way, but tonight we saw Kenny, Gavin, Georgina, and certainly Nick and Yvonne emerge from the drab confines of obscurity into the bright sunshine of televised flimflammery. As countless fights roared around her at an absolutely gorgeous dinner, you could almost see the realization landing on Yvonne’s face, like storm clouds swooping in on a bright summer day, that this event was not about her, it was not about her wedding, it was not about celebrating her relationship — it was about making good television. Boy, did she let it happen, even if it was almost against her will.
Before we can get to that miraculous dinner, the episode starts with Lindsay meeting Kyle, Gavin, and Kenny at Gavin’s bar above a Five Guys. They’re talking about how Eoin didn’t have the necessary answers about his first marriage and divorce. Lindsay says, “I only deal in facts,” pulls out her phone, and has Eoin’s full name, baptism record, Junior Cycle score, LinkedIn profile, bitcoin wallet, green-card application, all of his losing bets on Kalshi, and obviously, his divorce records. All the guys are like, “Oooohhhh,” as if they are in Plato’s cave and just saw the first shadows on the wall. Have they never met a woman before?
Kenny also tells Lindsay about finding his father, and Lindsay tells Kenny her villain origin story: that she is estranged from her mother and hasn’t talked to her in a decade. He says they should meet up and talk about it. When they sit down at a bar together, Kenny tells Lindsay it was Whitney who tracked his father down. “Whitney did?” Lindsay squeals with excitement. She knows a fellow sleuth, and she is storing away this information to either collaborate with Whitney or avoid her at all costs. It’s a touching scene where they talk about how being estranged from a parent has impacted their relationships and the fact that they’re choosing people who will eventually abandon them. Lindsay knows her patterns — that she tests people in relationships to see if they’ll stay, that she always expects pairings not to work out, that she has unrealistic expectations for emotional connections — and she’s finally trying to stop them. Hardest to hear is she loves her daughter, Gemma, so much that she can’t imagine leaving her and that makes her feel even worse about how her mother essentially abandoned her and her brother. (Lindsay has a brother? How have we met Aunt Rhonda and never Lindsay’s brother, who I just found on Insta like I’m Lindsay?)
It’s nice to see Lindsay and Kenny come together and realize they have more in common than they thought. I also love the two of them busting each other’s chops, like Kenny saying she “has a good head on her shoulders, more than I thought.” We see it again at the end of the dinner when they announce their joint trip and Kenny says, “I didn’t know she was capable of crying human tears,” and Lindsay replies with a quick “F you.” I would love for these two to spar and make up, to respect each other’s game but also keep distance. It’s giving Karen Huger and Gizelle Bryant from The Real Housewives of Potomac, and I can think of no greater compliment.
However, it’s Yvonne’s dinner that is the centerpiece of the episode, particularly when our favorite CEO and founder, Danielle, shows up wearing what is essentially a white dress. In Danielle’s defense, she sent Yvonne a picture of it, and it looked far more pink in the picture than it did under the steady glare of the television lights. I think Danielle warned her, but I agree: If you’re sending a picture, you know it’s the wrong dress. In Danielle’s defense, this isn’t, like, an actual wedding, though. They had a huge ceremony and their day at the courthouse. This is just a work meeting that is themed around Yvonne’s wedding, and Danielle figured the usual codes of etiquette may be suspended.
The fight starts thanks to Gavin, who starts poking into Kyle and Amanda’s dynamic like he did with Kenny and Whitney’s a few episodes back. He’s like Jesse Solomon (always both names), someone who is so natural to mess without being too mean about it that he’s good in every situation. The question becomes whether Kyle’s drinking or Amanda’s smoking has caused their relationship to deteriorate more. Amanda says it’s his drinking because she’s never cheated on him, betrayed his trust, or had an article written about her after smoking weed. That doesn’t mean she’s guilt-free, as Kyle points out, saying that when she’s stoned every night, he can’t have a conversation with her and she doesn’t want to have sex. It sounds like both their issues with substances are contributing equally.
Yvonne puts this strained topic of conversation to rest, trying to make it all about herself again. “I’m sick of everyone fighting around this dinner table, especially people who show up in a white dress,” she says. Okay, now, this is a friend of Lindsay’s. This is what I have been waiting for. Thanks for coming, Yvonne.
Danielle replies, “Are you talking about me, bitch?” and Yvonne says “yes,” and then we have a whole debate about the dress, which, honestly, is the low-stakes drama I really want and just the sort of distraction from the dissolution of Kymanda the show is looking for. But after a little back-and-forth about whether it’s pink, Gavin goes back into Kyle and Amanda’s problems. Are you dumb, dude? Thank you for your service, but are you stupid? There is no way this conversation ends well, and Yvonne already asked you to make her the focus of everything. How does he think this ends?
Thanks to Gavin, we then have a deadening conversation at a wedding dinner about how these two are no longer in love because things have gotten so contentious in their relationship. Gavin says you can still be “in love” during the hard times. As Danielle says, respectfully, shut the hell up, Gavin. When you are in a successful long-term relationship, then you can have something to say. This seems like a vegan telling someone how to run a barbecue. Georgina pipes in and talks about the time she moved out of an ex-boyfriend’s to try to work it out and always wished he had begged her to stay. Not the contributions everyone else is making, but Georgina is emerging from her shell.
It’s Lindsay who brings the real theatrics, standing up and shouting at Kyle and Amanda about ruining their relationship. Though she’s as activated as when someone asked her to make a sandwich, she’s talking a lot of sense, and as Kyle and Amanda both try to interrupt her, she keeps shutting them down so they’ll maybe finally listen. She tells them they both want to be loved, respected, and supported by the other person, but neither of them are doing it. Instead, they both are trying to change the other, and that’s never going to happen. Then Lindsay speaks for all of us and says they need to figure it out before ruining the lives of everyone around them. “Figure it out. Or don’t. Stop!”
Nick stands up for his wife and tells everyone she’s crying in the bathroom and wants to make things about her for just a little bit. Danielle, however, decides that it is time to come at Lindsay for looking up information about Eoin. Agree with the entire table in this debate. Danielle brought up the post about her being a home-wrecker, how much it hurt her, and how she didn’t like people talking about it. Well, if she’s going to bring that up, then she and Eoin need to explain exactly what is going on with his marriage and whether these rumors are true. Amanda says she tried to get Eoin to talk about it and he asked her if she remembered COVID, as I asked you if you remembered Trump’s first term, and I think we would all rather forget everything to do with both of those topics if they weren’t literally deadly.
Eoin hasn’t answered these questions, and Danielle’s criticism that no one knows him is valid, but he doesn’t seem like he’s really getting to know anyone. Yes, he may be quieter than the rest, but he needs to be willing to share to make this here show go around. Even Lexi, who has as much flavor as a stale rice cake, is trying. Eoin is just glowering at the end of the table, which is to his detriment. When he answers that they got married in 2021 and had a wedding in 2023 after COVID was over, it makes total sense and puts everyone at ease. But that it took this long and involved several fights just makes them look worse.
When Yvonne asks if they can make this about them at all, Nick bangs on the table and comes in with a bit of levity. “I want to clear a few things up. We had a wedding a year and a half ago. We got married last week. It feels like one long, perfect day,” he says, making fun of this entire conversation. Welcome to work, Nick. Thanks for punching in and bringing a little bit of fun to this downer of a dinner.
He can’t keep them on topic, however, and Eoin and his reticence come up again. This is what makes Lindsay yell at Danielle, “What is he doing on a reality show?” Danielle says she introduced him. Lindsay screams, “Then why are you on the fucking show?” We all had the same thought as Danielle in that moment: Oh, there it is. That is the real reason Lindsay is upset. All fights on the show are about the show. Lindsay isn’t mad about all the mean things Danielle said about her or how she doesn’t think Danielle has her back — she doesn’t want Danielle to say mean things about her or not have her back on the show. Danielle says in her confessional that Lindsay only likes her when Danielle supports her unconditionally and, now that she’s more critical, Lindsay wants her nowhere near her, particularly if there are cameras.
This is when Lindsay says, “The girl in white should leave.” Without missing a beat, Danielle turns and says, “It’s fucking pink, you bitch.” Solid work. Excellent job all around. As Danielle walks out onto the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, her pinkish-whiteish dress blowing in the breeze, she feels a sudden chill in the air. It’s something coming off the river, whipping along the streets, sweeping up the avenues. It’s not the autumn, not yet, but it’s a shift that feels less like a chill and more like a melting.
