Once torture is over, we start right where we left off, with Mimi/Joseline/Stevie on stage. Once again, Stevie is asked if he is with Joseline. He tries to circumvent the question, but Mona and Mimi apply the pressure and he finally says no. Joseline says she doesn’t want the headache, just what’s in his wallet and boxers.
When asked to explain that stupid “I Am God” shirt, Stevie says, “It’s a nice shirt. I am God-like.” Mimi and Joseline both roll their eyes. Mimi explains that she went to therapy for the sake of their daughter, to reach a point of understanding so they could have a five-minute conversation without yelling at each other. Understandable. Stevie just wanted to put the whole thing on the table, so he could stop lying.
Now he’s going to explain that wonderful bus analogy of his. He says he’s been in the game for a minute and has a lot of miles on his “Italian loafers”. He thinks the women wouldn’t want him if he were “Joe the Plumber”. Just when his insecurities were becoming blatantly clear, he slips those glasses on. It’s like the glasses give him the confidence to push on in jerkdom. Intriguing.
Mimi is offended. She’s been with him since the rough beginning, and while Joseline may claim to have wanted him for his cash, Mimi isn’t as superficial. In fact, Stevie was broke when he met Joseline, too. He even had to borrow Joseline’s car. Which makes sense. I didn’t want to say anything, but his Wikipedia discography has been looking a little skimpy in recent years.
Joseline says she intends to stay on the bus, because she hopped on it six months ago, and she’s pretty happy with where she is today. Marta is smarter.
Mona then brings up the therapy session, asking Stevie if he hates women. He claims he loves women but how he “deals with” women is something altogether different. My mama always says a man can love what he can do with women, and not even like women. Let that Southern wisdom marinate.
The root of Stevie, Joseline and Mimi’s varied intimacy issues stems from their broken relationships with their mothers. Joseline has been pushing Stevie to repair his bond with his mom, but he refuses.
Mimi says the lack of a relationship with her mother, made her cling to any relationship she had, and desperately struggle to keep her family together for the sake of her daughter.
There is a clip of Joseline with her family – yet another thing that should’ve been on the show to add background and help us understand a character’s behavior. She blames her mother for her problems. When a teenaged Joseline returned home after running away to the strip club, her mother would gladly take the money Joseline offered without any questions.
Her mother seems more offended that Joseline thought they needed her money, calling it “pocket change”. Joseline’s father tells Joseline she needs to accept some of the responsibility, and Joseline kicks them out of her place.
At the reunion, Joseline starts to cry. She loves her parents, but she doesn’t feel like she did anything wrong. She was a child, and her mother accepted this money from her, not bothering to ask where it came from, and let her back out on the street.
However, Joseline doesn’t blame her completely. Her mother didn’t have a mom, either. Which explains her relationship with Stevie. In Joseline’s eyes, he is the only person that ever took care of her. She says she considers him more of friend than anything, unlike Mimi who takes him seriously. Mimi shoots back that she has a child with him, and Joseline says that’s exactly why she chose not to give birth to Stevie’s baby.
Joseline says Mimi doesn’t respect Stevie, despite all he’s done for her. Mimi says he made Joseline a superstar, but what exactly has he done for Mimi. Even though she claims to have respect for Mimi, Joseline responds, “It’s not my fault you ain’t no superstar.” Why are they fighting amongst themselves like this? Stevie is the poison. Figuring this out is the bezoar.
Finally, we’re going to address Stevie threatening to send Joseline back to the strip club. He says that was something he used to get under her skin in the beginning. Red flag, honey. Mona says the relationship seems “pimp-like” and Joseline tries to explain that if it’s not about her career, she makes her own decisions without Stevie.
He disagrees, denying her even the slightest bit of autonomy. Nothing has changed.
On to Erica, Scrappy and Shay. Shay’s hairdo might possibly – and I never thought I’d say this – look worse on the reunion than it did during the season. It’s this awful honey blonde, quick weave updo. Just dreadful.
Finally, Scrappy has to answer for his lies. As usual, he doesn’t take responsibility for anything. He claims he was running from being hurt again, blaming Erica for being mean.
Erica believes he did it all to get her attention. It hurts, but she knows where it came from. Their relationship felt forced, in the beginning. As friends and co-parents, she took him back in post-Diamond, which led to them getting back together. Scrappy claims he’s not a good judge of character, that’s when Shay chimes in, saying Erica is a prime example of that inability.
Erica wants Scrappy to rein Shay in, and he wants them to calm down. There’s a little back and forth, and Mona finally makes Shay shut up, telling her to stay in her seat. Shay wasn’t about to throw a single punch, anyway.
Oh no, here comes Momma Dee. I feel like she’s pretending to be insane, for the sake of the cameras. Her whole persona feels forced. She pulls out this Dollar Store crown and dubs Scrappy the “Prince of the South”. “I feel like a little boy in school, and my mama just brought me my lunch,” says Scrappy.
Then we talk about Momma Dee’s only real gripe with Erica: not staying with Scrappy during his asthma attack. Erica says she underestimated the attack, and he says that sealed his decision to leave. Momma Dee feels Shay was more affectionate and nurturing, giving him the same type of “smotherly love” – Mona’s words, not mine – his mom gives.
Now to clear up the Erica/Shay beef. Apparently, Erica had been attacking Shay on Twitter, and Shay didn’t like it. Erica’s problem with Shay was that she seemed to enjoy sleeping with Scrappy right under Erica’s nose. Shay claims she thought Erica was just the baby mama, and Scrappy keeps pointedly calling Shay his “friend”. Shay wants Scrappy to be the one to be blamed, not her. Surprisingly, Scrappy accepts the blame.
Moral of Shay’s story: Don’t listen to him bad mouth his ex, and then expect for him to respect you. There’s more talk, which ends with Shay storming off the stage.
Scrappy tells Erica she’s been there for him when he was beaten to a pulp, when Diamond left him, etc. And he wants to prove to her that he loves her, pulling a ring box from his pocket. He says he wants to be a man, have his family and be faithful. “If it don’t work, it’s cool. But you ain’t tryna marry a [expletive]?” he says. It is all simultaneously sweet and ratchet. Erica tearfully accepts.
After showing a heartbreaking (not really) shot of Shay seeing the news from the monitors backstage, VH1 tosses the rest of the cast, minus Ariane, on stage to discuss their filler storylines.
Because the title of this show is “Love & Hip-Hop” they discuss whether their relationships have helped or hurt their respective careers. Karlie advises viewers to find a man who understands how important your career is, then let him in.
Rasheeda feels it helped and hurt her because she knows she has that support, but the business side was draining. K. Michelle’s business/love relationship made her career take a detour, but she says at the end of the day, all she has is her voice.
There’s an anticlimactic standoff between Karlie and Benzino that is as manufactured as their entire relationship. Karlie claims she went to his “house” on the night he “proposed” and she found a naked woman there, claiming to live with him. Then she pops out this corny shirt that says something about him being polygamous. Who really cares?
On to Rasheeda and Kirk. I don’t care about them either, but at least, I kind of believe they’re together. They hid their relationship to keep Rasheeda’s image, and she’s happy she chose love over her career.
K. Michelle, forever awesome, says Rasheeda made the right decision. Love is what life is all about, and it is good that Rasheeda/Kirk and Erica/Scrappy have that.
This last round of viewer questions is so awesome it has to be included.
When asked about his “haters” Stevie says, “They hated on God, so who am I?”
He is also asked if he thinks those rat faces he makes are cute. He never really answers, but there’s a great montage of Stevie’s most awkward facial expressions.
Then on to Momma Dee, who is so excited to be asked about her pole dancing video (Google at your own discretion), she doesn’t know what to do. She feels good about herself that she can swing on a pole, fully clothed and still make money.
K. Michelle is asked how many “receipts” a person has to have to get her respect. “Just more than Karlie had to be talking to me,” says K. She just wanted her to have a Wikipedia page, at least.
Mimi is asked why she only dropped off three boxes when she kicked Stevie out. They’ve been together 15 years — surely he had more stuff at her house than that.
She claims had she dropped off everything, she would’ve had to call the movers. Sounds suspicious to me.
We end things on a happier note, with Erica and Scrappy excited about their upcoming nuptials. I’m just happy Scrappy finally got some sense. Momma Dee pulls them both into a hug saying, “What’s good for the prince, is good for the queen. Welcome to the palace.” Run it to the ground, why don’t you.
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