This is the way the show ends, not with a bang but with a whimper. That whimper was Jackie Goldschneider as she tottered to her car, waiting to turn a corner because the opposite side of the epic battle of New Jersey was waiting around the corner and would curse her out for her behavior. Yes, this is the epic finale that has been hyped since the first trailer dropped for the season, but it didn’t seem epic.
It seemed ...
the same. The same grinding of gears, the same talking in circles, the same hatred from the same people in the same direction. I mean, it was great reality television, but it is absolutely the end of the road for these women.
After the episode, I kept thinking about this quote from Jackie about why she met with Luis’s ex back in 2021, way before Margaret ever did. At the time, she and Teresa were attacking each other like ants on a gummy bear dropped on a playground floor. “So if Teresa was to say to me, ‘Your husband did this,’ I could say to her, ‘Well, your husband did this.
’ That’s the game. That is the game we were playing.” Yes, that is the low-down, dirty game that has become The Real Housewives of New Jersey .
I don’t know when it started. Was it when Teresa and Melissa finally decided to stop pretending they liked each other? Was it when Teresa couldn’t understand Jackie’s analogy? Was it when Marge threw Danielle Staub’s husband in the pool? Was it when Danielle pulled Marge’s ponytail? Was it when Siggy flickered? Was it.