‘Southern Hospitality’ Star Leva Bonaparte On Firing Mia Alario In The Season 2 Premiere: “Stay In Your God Damn Lane”

Have you recovered from the Southern Hospitality Season 2 premiere? We still haven’t! The sophomore season delivered one of the series’ most iconic moments to date with owner/boss Leva Bonaparte‘s shocking firing of Season 1 stand-out Mia Alario from Republic Garden & Lounge in a heated confrontation. Mia left Leva without a choice after she admitted she committed the cardinal sin of drinking on the job—the very same rule violation that got her friend and former VIP server Lucía Peña fired.

Let’s set the scene, shall we? The Season 2 premiere starts off during a night at Republic Garden & Lounge with the VIP hosts/servers grumbling about Lucía Pena’s being fired by new Republic CEO Lea Aylor’s for breaking company policy by drinking on the job. Since every single employee (except sober VIP manager Maddi Reese) has been guilty of breaking that same rule, the staff is on pins and needles. Lea is known as “The Hammer” around the breakroom and strikes fear in their hearts. Troubled by her good friend’s termination, Mia was already heated before the night even starts. When Maddi tells Mia that Leva would like an apology from Lucía for breaking the rules, Mia gets even more incensed.

As Leva walks out of her office and sees Maddi and Mia talking (and not working), she asks them: “why do you look so emo?” Mia boldly asks why she’s looking for an apology from Lucía. “If I were in her position, if somebody’s employed me, brought me back, brought me opportunities…” Lea begins. “Brought her back after having a baby?” Mia asks pointedly. She adds, “Allowing someone to return after maternity leave is what normal companies do for women.” Annoyed, Leva asks her point blank, “what are you doing, Mia?”

Not backing down, Mia answers: “I’m upset…about the hypocrisy you’re showing as a boss.” “The hypocrisy?” Leva repeats in shock. “If you are back of the house and you’re drinking, that’s an immediate fire. That’s the rule,” says Leva incredulously. As Mia looks at Leva defiantly, Maddi leans over and whispers to Mia, “This is your boss” and motions Mia to calm down. “I just don’t understand, I don’t get it,” Mia continues undeterred. “I don’t need you to get it,” Leva snaps.

“Employees have drunk here so many times,” Mia starts. “Okay, so who did I keep here who is drinking back there?” Leva asks. Mia looks at Leva dead in the face and says, “me.” “Then you should be gone too, Mia,” retorts Leva. “You are fired,” exclaims Leva. “Get the fuck out. You’re done!” Shocked, Mia replies, “You are being hypocritical as a boss.” “You said you drink on shift, so you’re done,” Leva says firmly, “If somebody else comes up to me and tells they have been drinking, they will also be fired.” “You’re not going to fuck with me,” Mia snaps. “You’re fired and you don’t need to be in the back of building,” says Leva as Mia storms off in a huff.

During a press day, DECIDER spoke to Leva and Mia about the shocking event. “This is why I have Lea,” said Leva with a laugh. She continued: “I am a zero to a hundred girl. I try to give people a lot of grace, but then there comes a point where if I feel that I’m being pushed, it’s almost like I just see red.” Though Leva noted that her business management “gets a little gray” because she is friendly with her employees outside of work, she insists “there’s a time and place to talk about things” if they “have questions and need clarity.” Mia did not set herself up with the proper parameters to speak to Leva as her boss or speak to her in a respectful tone, resulting in Leva having to tell her to “stay in your God damn lane” and firing her.

Mia admits she went about the whole confrontation in the wrong way. “I was on the clock, I was working,” Mia began. However, when she saw Leva in the back, she was immediately “triggered.” “She asked me what I had stapled over my face or something like, ‘what’s wrong’?” Mia remembered. “How are you fucking going to ask me what’s wrong when you fired my friend for a reason that you could fire every single one of us for.” When asked why she stuck up for Lucía, Mia said: “As easily as it was her, it could have been me. It could have been anybody. She’d been working there for seven years, and it was hard to watch almost nobody stick up for her.”

So will Mia or Lucía manage to convince Leva to hire them back after their rule violations? Or are they moving beyond Republic? You’ll have to tune in to the rest of the season to find out!