Mob Wives: Recap “Mob Daughters” Ep 207

Little Louie steals the show! (for Mob Mistress, ugh!)

At the boxing studio, Drita shows up for more lessons. She tells the instructor she got into a fight at a birthday party. She is on a mission to control her anger and she also needs not to be around “douche bags.” She tells the story of how, when she was 5 years old, her parents sent her to school with a crew cut, blue dress and earrings and set her up to be abused. The instructor teaches Drita some boxing techniques and he thinks she is doing well. Drita blames her anger on Karen and Ramona.

Karen and Ramona meet for dinner and to discuss Ramona’s meeting with Carla. It went well. Ramona says that Drita told Carla things to turn Carla against Ramona. Ramona says she and Carla can build their own friendship. They both agree that Carla is loyal by sticking by Drita and they like that about her. They feel Drita is jealous and is poisoning Carla’s mind against them. Ramona says, “No Drita, no Drama.”

Drita's not happy Carla met with and made up with Ramona!

Vesuvio restaurant, Carla meets with Drita to tell her about her meeting with Ramona. Carla wants Drita to eat first so as not to get upset, but then she tells her about the meeting and Drita is shocked. Carla says Drita is her best friend and she was honest with Ramona. Carla told her she thought she was a troublemaker based on what she heard. Ramona told her she thought that Drita was molding her mind. Ramona says everyone in Staten Island knows the truth, only Carla doesn’t know the history because she came from Brooklyn and wasn’t around to see it. She is the only one Drita can tell her lies to. Drita says Ramona is a manipulator and she thinks it’s sick that she is interfering with her friendship with Carla.

At the pup Hollywood store, Big Ang enters with her 5 month old puppy, Louie, a Pomeranian. She wants to buy him a nice coat. The wise guys used to buy her everything. She couldn’t even get the last guy she dated, a real weirdo, to buy her a f*ckin’ puppy, she had to buy him herself. Little Louie is very spoiled.

Karen gets good advice about how to handle difficult questions.

Karen goes to see Patricia Stark to prepare for her media interviews about her book. Patricia mentions “hot button” topics, things she doesn’t want to answer. Karen says her father was involved with 19 murders and there are some things that are sensitive subjects. In one interview Karen recalls the interviewer called her father a “snitch” and that caused a defensive reaction in Karen. Patricia tells her that she can’t be defensive, but has to learn how to deflect questions she doesn’t want to answer, steer them away from them. Karen is very open about what is in her book because it’s all true.

Renee gets upset with Junior's take on their marriage.

Renee and Junior go to their first couples session in therapy. They talk about how they met, they were young, 23, he had just gotten out of jail. Junior did a lot of lying and cheating. Whatever Junior said about things moving too fast, gets Renee upset. She doesn’t remember their relationship that way. The therapist wants to know what she heard. She remembers they were in love and now she feels it wasn’t what she thought it was. He says they fought a lot about her mood swings. She says maybe she had mood swings because he didn’t come home at night and because he told her to get liposuction making her believe she was fat and unattractive. She says, he just told her he looks at her now because she is thin. She always felt she wasn’t skinny enough and he made her feel insecure and paranoid by going out with other women. Junior is uncomfortable with the session. The therapist wants to know why they are getting together now and Junior shuts down and won‘t speak.

Big Ang and Drita go to the dog park so Louie can have a little play time while they talk. Big Ang tells Drita she went on a date with a “mental case.”  Drita tells her that Carla made up with Ramona. Big Ang says she hopes she knows what she is doing. Big Ang says get over it, it’s all nonsense.  Big Ang tells Drita they (Ramona and Karen) must have a diary to keep bringing up the past. Drita tells her she took up boxing to relieve the stress.

Renee is in the park waiting for Ramona to come out of court and decides to call Junior to apologize. Junior is not receptive to Renee and hangs up on her. Ramona comes over, they are both having a bad day. Ramona just saw her boyfriend in court for a few seconds before they took him away. She feels shot and drained by the whole situation. Renee understands what she is going through, she has done it many times before. She tells Ramona that she is there as the support system. Renee says prepare for the worst and don’t expect him to come home anytime soon.

At Drita’s house, Aleeya asks her mother if she ever got into a fight. Drita changes the subject because she doesn’t know what to say. Then the phone rings, and it’s Lee. He says, “Remember me?” She thinks he wants to contest the divorced, but in the end what he did was apologize and admit to his cheating. He wants to talk and for things not to get ugly between them because he intends to be part of the girl’s lives. She wants him to be involved with the girls too. Drita was shocked, she wasn’t expecting Lee to own his mistakes and say he was sorry.

Ramona tells her kids the truth about what happened to her boyfriend.

Ramona is at the park with her four kids. They are sitting in the grass and she tells them she has something they need to know. They are close to her boyfriend and she tells them that he is in jail and she doesn’t know how long he will be away. He says he loves them all. She tells them they can pray, miracles do happen. Then she tells them that she had to spend a couple of hours in jail, but she did nothing wrong. She tells them that she always wants to tell them the truth.

Karen calls David in Arizona to tell them about her Mob Candy photo shoot the next day, but Dave sounds angry. He is upset that she has been gone so long and that he is a single dad. Karen is understandably upset. Dave was in prison for 10 years while she was single mom. On top of that she is in New York working and trying to support her family. She tells him not to worry, she will be bringing her daughter to New York to live with her. He wants her back in Arizona, she tells him he can’t tell her what to do. Karen is doing what she needs to do.

Karen is at her Mob Candy photo shoot, getting her makeup on for the pictures. Writing the book has helped her close some of the chapters of her life and understand who she is. She has no idea how the book will be received when it comes out. She has had some hard questions to answer. She is asked, more than once, about her father “ratting” on the mob. Karen seems to get a little choked up, but handles herself well.

At Drita’s house, Renee and Carla meet so Drita can tell them about Lee’s phone call; he confessed about his cheating and apologized. He wants to be friends and be part of the girls’ lives. Drita feels better because he stopped lying and denying what he did. Renee says these men work and cheat all the time and have no time left for their wives and children. Drita says Lee is a good dad. Renee says, “Hmmm, “good dad”? How good a dad is he when he abuses the mother of his children? Renee realizes she could be saying the very same things to herself and her own situation. Renee gets very emotional.

Carla is worried about Renee having a breakdown or getting sick with all the things she has on her shoulders. Renee is very sad as she realizes things are not going to work out with junior. After everything he has done to her, she can’t trust him. Then she reveals, that while they were married, he got another woman pregnant and had a baby with her.

MY TWO CENTS:

Drita blames her anger on Karen and Ramona? They are the douche bag-jerk offs that are getting her riled up? Excuse me, but I have been paying close attention for two and a half seasons and Drita doesn’t need much of an excuse to strike out at anyone. She brags about her “good old days at Nocturnal” when she would fight and send people to the hospital; she brags about her good old school days when she had a more than a few run ins with other students; she even likes to think she gave Ramona a bloody lip when it was her own eye that was on fire; and she claims she hurt Karen’s ribs and sent her to the hospital…never happened. Drita has a propensity for violence and she needs anger management, not boxing lessons!

A lot of this episode deals with Ramona and Carla’s meeting to iron things out. They both say they have heard that the other one was talking about them. They seem to get past their issues and agree that if they hear anything being said in the future they will call each other to ask about it. I don’t see a blooming friendship coming out of this imperfect union. Why? My opinion is that Ramona is real, genuine and up front about what she has to say and doesn’t hide anything. Carla is the opposite. She is fake, superficial and insincere. She loves gossip. She doesn’t tell the truth, even about her own age, let alone things that matter. In this case, opposites don’t attract. If these two continue to have anything to do with each other, in Carla’s own words…“it won’t end good, trust me.”

Little Louie steals the scenes he is in, but don’t be fooled by that cute face! I have a Pomeranian and he gets me up at 5:30 AM every morning and barks for every little thing. After a while, cute wears off. If you are thinking about getting your own little Louie, please do the research and choose wisely. That’s all I’m sayin’. Of course, the fact that little Louie peed a couple of times here and there, while he was in the store, should give you a hint! Tip for Big Ang, avoid weirdos and murderers, stick with dogs.

Karen has a couple of major things going on in this episode. She got some great advice on how to handle tough questions about sensitive topics in her book. I’ve seen almost all her interviews and she handled them extremely well. However, I can also see times when she had to take a momentary pause to gather her thoughts, when interviewers want to provoke with questions about her father and call him a “snitch” or a “rat.” Obviously, her first impulse is to defend her father, but she always managed to keep it under control. Kudos to her for that!  

Karen’s other issue is with David, her daughter’s father, who is whining about being a single father the past year or so. Meanwhile Karen has been working herself to death, writing a book, doing media tours, appearances promoting the show, a book signing tour and doing Mob Wives, a show that turned into an overnight sensation, all the while flying back and forth from Arizona as much as possible! I almost had a stroke myself. Karen was a single mom for all the years he spent in prison, I think it was 9 or 10 years. I’m sure Karen didn’t call whining to him. Besides, I was also under the impression that Karen’s mother was doing quite a bit to help Dave raise his daughter. What the hell is he thinking? Obviously he wasn’t thinking at that moment. I’m happy to hear that Karen will be bringing her daughter to New York permanently and we will see what develops after that happens.

Drita is proud of her fighting record, but not enough to tell her daughter, Aleeya, about it so she changes the subject. Here is where you see the difference between her and Ramona. Ramona sits her kids down and tell them the truth about her boyfriend and herself and going to jail. That’s the smart thing to do because first of all that’s the way to build trust and set the right example for your children. Second, if they have a problem of their own they won’t be tempted to lie about it. Now in Drita’s case, she has been keeping things from Aleeya all along. First it was the divorce, because she didn’t want to hurt her. Now she asks her mother about fighting and Drita plays dodge the question. Maybe if you are embarrassed by your behavior, too embarrassed to tell your children, it’s time to correct it? In any case I cannot believe that Aleeya doesn’t hear about the show in school? Even if none of her classmates watch it, which I doubt, all of Staten Island has to be talking about it, according to Drita. I would not want my child finding out anything about me on the street. So far the show has shown Drita’s violence, discussed her divorce, her husband cheating and her history of fighting. If Aleeya doesn’t know about it all, she soon will.

It’s amazing that Lee called to confess and apologize. it’s even more amazing that we didn’t hear either of those two things happen. At least I didn’t. He said he wanted them to be friends and he “f*cked up?” Well, you know I don’t trust Lee as far as I can spit anyway. He may be trying to worm his way back into Drita’s good graces so he has a place to land when he gets out of prison, now that she is making the big bucks legally.

Last, but not least, Renee and Junior’s therapy session and relationship. Renee has been so damaged by the past that she was kidding herself if she thought she could rebuild a relationship with Junior. For once Carla is right to worry about Renee. It’s like trying to build a house of cards on sand, it’s just not going to stand up. The fundamental ingredient necessary for any relationship, trust, is missing. Trust can take a lifetime to build and a second to shatter. Junior has shattered Renee’s trust time and time again. The bombshell that he not only cheated, but had a baby with another woman, while they were married, is something Renee can never get over. When she told the story, it was like it had happened yesterday. I think Renee is in love with the man she wants Junior to be, not the man he is. Renee needs a good man, who treats her the way she deserves to be treated, once she has healed emotionally from the scars Junior has left.

Renee sums up her breakthrough moment with "the finger."

Renee has a breakthrough moment when she tells Drita that a good father doesn’t abuse the mother of his children. Suddenly she realizes that her words apply to herself as well. Maybe Renee will take stock of her relationship with Junior and see it for what it really is.