Entertainment

The ‘RHOBH’ Midseason Trailer Is Here & It Shows LOTS Of Drama Beyond Puppygate

by Kristie Rohwedder
Isabella Vosmikova/Bravo

Fasten your floppy felt wide-brimmed hat, because the second half of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season Puppygate is upon us. People released the RHOBH Season 9 midseason trailer on Tuesday, April 16, and not unlike one of Erika Jayne's vacation lookbooks, there is a lot to take in. There's Lisa Rinna wielding a pickaxe, Rinna pouring two bottles of rosé into one glass, Brandi Glanville, Denise Richards getting into it with Camille Grammer, Kyle Richards stumbling on a paddle boarding, costumes, tears, archery, and… barely any Puppygate? Has RHOBH Season 9 moved on from Puppygate? I know Puppygate is not over, and I know I am not over Puppygate. There is still so much of the Puppygate mystery left to unpack, you know?

The midseason trailer makes, like, two quick allusions to all of the drama that was sparked by a dog adoption gone wrong, but that is about it. For the first time in what feels like a century, we've been offered a preview for RHOBH Season 9 where the show's stars are not arguing with each other about a rescue puppy. The name “Lucy Lucy Apple Juice” crosses nary a Real Housewife’s lips. The Johns Blizzard and Sessa are nowhere to be found. No, I did not expect this trailer to be 90 seconds of Beverly Hills Housewives screaming the phrase "Lucy Lucy Apple Juice" over and over... but I also did not not expect it.

Is this trailer just keeping its Puppygate storyline cards close to its vest for the time being? Or does this mean the Puppygate will not rule the second half of RHOBH Season 9 with an iron paw like it did the first half? Because wow, does this trailer make it look like the show has chucked that saga on over to the back burner. Forgive me for assuming the Puppygate debacle would continue to be the backbone of the season whether Lisa Vanderpump filmed with the rest of the cast or not.

Well, we know she filmed with at least one of her RHOBH colleagues at least once while the latter half of Season 9 was in production. In one piece of the new preview, we see RHOBH newcomer Denise Richards trying her darndest to patch things up between LVP and the rest of the cast. Denise tells her that the other Beverly Hills Housewives still love her, to which LVP replies, “You don’t treat people you love like that.” That is the first and last time we see LVP with any of her fellow Beverly Hills Housewives in the Season 9 midseason trailer.

Just as all those reports and whispers about LVP taking a step back from RHOBH suggest, Puppygate really did a number on LVP's friendships with Kyle, Dorit Kemsley, Teddi Mellencamp, Rinna, and Erika while filming Season 9. And all these months later, they are still Lucy Lucy Apple Feuding. Oof, if LVP does go to the Season 9 reunion, it will almost certainly be messier than a grocery store aisle where someone accidentally knocked over an entire display of apple juice.