The Real Housewives of Atlanta recap: 'Model Behavior'

We usually go from one fight to the next in the ATL, but there’s a little more breathing room this week — especially after all the bomb talk of the past few episodes. Sure, we get into that big-time tonight, but only in figuring out who perpetuated the rumors. This week it’s all about reconnecting with old friendships, beginning new romances, and looking for salvation amid turmoil. Somehow Phaedra fits into most of those categories, so let’s kick off things in her household.

Being the single mother and business woman she is, Phaedra occasionally needs helps getting both sides of life done well. Thankfully, she has the help of her trusted buddy, Porsha, to help with the kids, so Porsha heads over to the house to babysit. Aiden pulls that same joke on Porsha, pretending to be a ghost opening the front door. Sure, he’s a little kid, but the material is getting stale, buddy. While Phaedra goes to her work event, Porsha gets the privilege of watching the two little boys, who she quickly learns are much more intelligent than she expected for their age. Negotiations, bribery, and even some sass are thrown around to get the little dudes in check, but thankfully she manages to get them through their nighttime routine.

Shereé’s fine son, Kairo, takes on a modeling gig for her, giving all kinds of man glamour to the camera. During the photo shoot, Shereé’s ex-man and perpetual suitor, Bob, pops in to see his son showing a bit more than he would like. Throwing his shirt over Kairo, Bob asks Shereé why she would let their son take off his shirt in front of all those people. Of course, this is all in jest, and Bob eventually sees how great his son is in front of the camera. “Remember how I looked when I met you?” Bob asks Shereé, who responds with a perfectly timed “You didn’t look like that.”

Meanwhile, on another family front, Kenya calls her dad to chat about possibly meeting with her boyfriend, Matt. Despite their rocky relationship so far — including Matt kicking in Kenya’s garage doors — the duo is trying to stick it out together. Kenya’s dad is reluctant but agrees to meet with them to see how he feels about Matt in person. No shock here, but the meeting they plan gets wonky when Matt decides it’s a setup to make him look like the villain. Granted, Kenya does have a history of causing trouble and pretending like she’s been a saint, but still, his violent outbursts are too much for anyone to handle.

Eventually, Matt shows up to the meeting and Kenya’s dad is surprisingly friendly, perhaps because he knows his daughter has her own issues to deal with. He turns the time into a therapy session, asking each of them to voice their grievances and look for common ground. Kenya brings up his violence, but Matt stresses how Kenya continually plays the victim in every fight, even the little disagreements. In the end, Kenya’s dad tells Matt he can either accept Kenya for who she is now, or he can walk out of the door and not look back. I guess we’ll get more of that story later.

Attempting to forge some kind of reconciliation, Phaedra kills two birds with one stone when she meets with Drama’s mom and sets up a dinner with Kandi. Obviously, Kandi has nothing to do with Drama’s alleged bomb threat, but Phaedra does feel Joyce’s comments at the tasting were unwarranted and decides talking to her daughter would be good. Meanwhile, when Drama’s mom shows up to the office, she looks horrified about how her son has been painted as a psycho. Phaedra agrees, but there’s still an air of mystery surrounding her true feelings on the situation. It’s like Kandi points out: If Phaedra really thought it was a misunderstanding, then why does she have a full-time bodyguard now? Why so much fanfare over a mistake?

Taking a break from that “drama” for a bit, Porsha still has her family radar on, looking for every opportunity to make it happen. She’s been dating her old flame, Todd — who has two older kids of his own — but he seems smitten with her and agrees to make things more official by meeting with her family for dinner. Todd and Porsha show up to Porsha’s mom’s house, where her sister and brother also join to meet the new man. Everything is going smoothly, but Porsha notices Todd is extra quiet during dinner, which she chocks up to his nerves and shyness getting the best of him. But when Porsha’s sister notices the same thing and calls him out, Todd starts giggling and realizes he needs to step up his game if the family is going to accept him.

They all grill him on his intentions — if he feels comfortable having more kids down the line and how truly feels for Porsha. Eventually the man decides to give a speech, confessing his devotion to Porsha and his desire to possibly have kids again… But most importantly, he admits he loves her. Porsha is in awe over this, not just because he said it first in front of her family, but also because she’s always used to having to say it first in her relationships. Good work, Porsha! You’re growing!

Growing in a different way, new model Kairo wants to step up his modeling clout by meeting with his mom and Cynthia. As she is the queen of fashion in Atlanta, Shereé feels getting advice from Cynthia would be the best route for Kairo to not only get industry tips, but also an “in” to the business. Cynthia is more than happy to help and even agrees Kairo has it “all going on,” but she warns Shereé he needs to take modeling courses — especially runway-walk classes — if he’s going to be taken seriously on legit campaigns. Shereé immediately asks about him walking in New York Fashion Week and Cynthia is shocked: Most people work years, if not their whole lives, to be a part of NYFW, and Kairo just started two months ago. Cynthia humors them, but again, reiterates he needs to learn more before jumping right in.

Kandi and Phaedra finally have their epic sit-down, but it looks like Phaedra is even more upset than she originally let on about Mama Joyce’s comments last week. Walking into the restaurant, Kandi sits down at Phaedra’s table but gets nothing more than a “hello” from Phaedra. Let the awkward fight begin! Beginning with her distaste for Joyce’s comments about the supposed hand grenade, Phaedra then escalates the fight into her overall friendship with Kandi.

These two used to be besties and this fight has already happened before, but not to this extent. After Apollo was convicted and sent to jail, all Kandi remembers was Phaedra complaining about how long it was taking for him to leave — but then, to other people, she would cry and pretend it was so hard to have him gone. Kandi calls BS on this, but Phaedra snaps back that maybe she loved Kandi more than her husband. This sends Kandi over the edge, and she realizes Phaedra will say anything or spin the story any way she can to make it seem like she’s the sweetest thing since Skittles.

Thanking her for the invitation and wishing her family well, Kandi gets up from the table to let her frenemy fester in the mess she’s been creating for years. Phaedra takes one last sip of her cocktail, and meanwhile, we’re left with questions about how these two will go forward — if at all. It seems the entire group gets pulled into the mix next week, taking sides and throwing their own shade.