The Unbearable Whiteness of Brynn

RHONY Recap

The Real Housewives of New York

Season 15, Episode 4: “Match Point of No Return”

Grade: C

Maybe the Real Housewives of New York should do away with Shabbat dinners. During this episode, I couldn’t help but think of season 13’s infamous episode where Ramona Singer torpedoed the proceedings by managing to offend Black and Jewish attendees in one fell swoop. She ranted about how Jewish people hated her in college. Ramona also attempted to challenge the notion that Black people suffer discrimination at the hands of the American medical system with an anecdotal story about how, when she was in labor, a Black nurse refused to give her pain medication.

Unfortunately, this episode devolved into another uncomfortable fight about race that probably has no place being on Bravo. But unlike most of this season, it’s actually the most fascinating and revealing conversation two women have had on this franchise since the reboot. I’ve spoken at length about how extraordinarily self-aware RHONY is now. Every move these women make is predicated on how they’ll come off on camera. Whether or not the show they’re making is good. Or they’re making reality television on their own terms, rather than adhering to Bravo’s. Maybe that works when you’re Kyle Richards and you’ve offered up your alcoholic sister as a sacrificial lamb in the first season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills — we’ll never forget where we were when Kim Richards shouted, “You stole my goddamn house!” in the back of a limousine — but these women are not Kyle Richards.

Ubah Hassan’s boyfriend Oliver Daschel, a German investment banker, has not appeared on the series. Her conflict with Brynn Whitfield this season, and at the center of this episode, stems from the fact that Brynn outed details of her relationship with Daschel on camera last season. As if I’d said, I understand Ubah’s reason for being pissed at Brynn. But I also don’t care. This is reality television! Unfortunately, Ubah’s tactic for dealing with Brynn has been random outbursts this season, accusing Brynn of being a liar, a snake, and slamming her constantly cutting her off during conversations. Ubah, a model and businesswoman, is Somalian. English isn’t her first language. When she’s angry with her castmates, sometimes her words don’t always come out as she intends them to, but she’s always extremely passionate about getting her point across (like when castmate Erin Lichy hid Ubah’s phone last season).

Brynn is a biracial woman. Last season, she shared a personal story about how she grew up without her Black father in her life, and her only connection to Blackness was via the salon her white grandmother took her to. Brynn is one of the most aware of the cameras on this show (outside of aspiring TikTok star Sai de Silva). Most of her Betty Boop-esque, flirty behavior seems like a put-on. She also throws out threats like, “I’ll put you in a funeral home,” but when she’s actually challenged by another castmate, she recoils. She’s not only afraid of confrontation, she’s afraid of confrontation on camera. And this episode, we learn that she’s particularly concerned with how Ubah is coming across on camera. And in her words, Ubah is coming across as “an angry Black woman” and it’s Brynn’s duty as a fellow Black woman to help Ubah keep up appearances. Whew. Chile.

The episode begins with the ladies in a sprinter van en route to a Hamptons tennis lesson. Usually, a sprinter van hates to see a group of Real Housewives coming.