Nora waves Pia's hair around like a flag!
The fight between Pia and Christina continues. Renee is embarrassed. Christina feels that Pia got up in her face and says, “no one disrespects me.” Nora finds some of Pia’s hair on the table and waves it around. Christina feels she has the upper hand. All the women get kicked out of the classy restaurant. Pia is offended at being kicked out because it was Christina who started the fight. A feisty Pia tells the security guard she isn’t afraid of him. Christina is upset because Pia went crying to her about what Nora said and then makes her look like an ass by telling her to stay out of it. Pia leaves with Nora and Nora tells her she never liked Christina, she is a “nitwit.” Christina and Renee leave together in the other limo. Pia is upset because she is the one who brought Christina into the group.
At Renee’s house, Nora and Renee discuss what happened at girl’s night out. Renee thinks it was disgusting. Nora feels bad because she was the one who put the gathering together and there was a terrible fight. Nora blames Christina’s behavior on too much alcohol. Renee says a friend should never put a hand on a friend. Renee says that Pia confided in Christina and brought her into her issues with Nora. Nora wants to talk to Pia and Renee calls Pia to invite her over to talk and have coffee. Renee also wants to tell Pia what she thinks of her.
Pia is feeling ambushed, what kind of invitation is this?
Pia arrives at Renee’s house to meet with Nora and Renee. She says she was shocked by Christina’s behavior, but before she can say any more, Renee warns her to be on her good behavior, she doesn’t want trouble like there was at the restaurant. Then Renee tells her that she isn’t used to being around people like Pia; she has never associated with a stripper/dancer “whatever you are” before. They have no class. Pia feels ambushed. This was supposed to be a meeting to discuss the fight. Renee tells Pia that she got up at the restaurant and that made Christina go on the attack. Renee thinks Pia should apologize to Christina. Pia says, No, Christina physically attacked her. Nora says it was embarrassing, she should nip it in the bud, and cut her ties with Christina. Pia doesn’t want anyone telling her what to do.
Christina is torn about the fight; part of her is embarrassed and the other part is glad she stood up for herself. Christina meets Leah and tells her all about the drama, about how Pia chose to address her issues with Nora at the restaurant. She tells Leah that Nora told her to stay out of the discussion. Pia was “flappin’ her gums,” and then Pia got up in her face. Christina says, that’s when she grabbed her. Leah is not happy. She says she wishes she had been there, she would have put that b!tch in her place. Christina doesn’t know what to do, stay friends and work it out or cut ties with Pia. Christina wants an apology.
Nora and Renee are driving to the cemetery. Nora wants answers regarding her father’s burial. She says the government took her father’s body from the funeral home the day he was supposed to be buried. The government says they returned the body and it was buried, but Nora never saw it. Nora and Renee go way back, they were friends for many years when Nora’s Dad and Renee’s uncle had business dealings. They get to the cemetery and it’s closed. Nora needs closure and she wants to exhume the body and find out who is in the casket. Renee supports Nora, who needs to find out what happened.
Christina never imagined she would be going through all this in her life; living with her ex-husband because of finances and lying to her nine year old daughter about their divorce to protect her. She sees a therapist. She tells her she feels like a bad mother living a lie and that in the end everyone is going to get hurt anyway. Then she tells the therapist about her physical fight with Pia. The therapist says she doesn’t have to apologize to Pia in order to bring it up, she just has to say she wants to clear the air. Christina says the trust she had with Pia is tainted now.
"So what if they deleted you on facebook? Throw a party!" Leah's good advice!
Christina and Leah meet up for lunch. Christina tells her she went to the therapist and cried about her daughter. Then she says Pia deleted her from Facebook and Nora deleted her too. Leah tells her so what if they deleted you, have a big party. Christina says she is confused because she didn’t do anything to Nora. Leah then tells her about an incident where Nora was very disrespectful to her. It happened at a gathering with family and Leah put her arm around her, in a friendly way, when Nora turn to her and said, in a nasty tone, “take your arm off me.” Leah says she would have beaten her within an inch of her life right there, if there weren’t other people present. Leah tells Christina that Pia is not a friend.
Renee and Giana meet and Renee apologizes for the argument they had over Giana visiting her father in jail. Renee has been under a lot of stress because her ex-husband is suing for custody of their 10 year old daughter, Isabella. He wants Isabella to live with him. Renee can’t bear the thought of that happening. Giana says he is just trying to make her life hell. Renee hopes the justice system protects Isabella from her father. Giana says there is no way any judge will rule in his favor. Giana comforts her mother and tells her to be strong.
It's all a facebook "glitch," says Nora. But is it?
Christina meets Nora to discuss being deleted from facebook. She wants to know what the problem is between them. Nora doesn’t know why Christina wants to talk to her, but when Christina tells her about the facebook issue, Nora says it must be a glitch, she hasn’t even been on facebook. Christina is skeptical and says, “since when does facebook have a glitch?” Nora says she has more important things to worry about than facebook. Nora has an issue with Christina. She tells her she is sick of hearing people call her father a “hit man.” Christina did it at the restaurant. Christina says she was just repeating what she heard other people saying. They discuss the fight. Christina says she was just defending herself. Nora says it was more that that, she had Pia in a headlock. Nora tells Christina that she is not a friend of hers, she is just an acquaintance. Christina is offended by her remark.
Pia goes to Nora’s apartment. They have made plans to go to the funeral home to get some answers. Nora wants to know where her father is buried. She hasn’t spoken to her family since his burial. She is now looking for a paper trail, who signed and authorized his burial. She is feeling anxious and wants the truth. Nora then tells Pia she talked to Christina and that she will not apologize to Pia because she feels justified in defending herself. Pia is now pissed because Christina went to Nora to talk about the fight before coming to see her.
Leah goes to Christina’s house. Christina tells Leah about meeting Nora to discuss the facebook issue. Nora denies deleting her. Leah says Nora is nuts and likes to cause trouble. Christina says she will meets up with Pia and ask her why she went after her at the restaurant. Christina says if she goes after her again she will defend herself.
Nora moved to Chicago for answers and she goes to the funeral home to get some. She introduces herself and is handed a large, manila envelope. Someone in the family called the funeral home and told them to just bury her father and they couldn’t be bothered to be at the burial. Nora looks at the paperwork and her sister’s signature is there. Nora is furious and feels betrayed by her sister.
Renee is getting ready for her court date for the custody battle for Isabella. She is scared. She calls Nora for support. Nora says everything will be fine. Renee says she has to fight for her baby.
Christina and Pia resolve nothing!
Christina says she will make the first move to meet Pia. Pia says she is meeting Christina just to stop her mouth from running. They meet. It’s awkward. Pia tells her she is upset because she met with Nora before coming to her. She feels stabbed in the back. Christina says that makes no sense. Christina tells her she was trying to encourage Pia to stand up for herself at the restaurant, she had her back and then, Christina says, all of a sudden she had to watch her own back. Nothing is settled. They can’t agree.
Nora is headed to Renee’s house to ask about the custody hearing. Renee tells her it’s not looking good, nothing is making sense. She thinks they will take her daughter away from her. She gets hysterical crying. Renee screams it’s about money and power. Nora wants to get her a good lawyer to help her fight. Nora promises to always be there for her.
MY TWO CENTS
Still trying to get used to the Chicago accents, but I’ve had a chance to watch episode one again and now, episode two. Something does not sit well with me about this “fight” and I feel my old skepticism about “scripting” rearing it’s head again. The facts are that Nora insulted Pia at least three separate times in episode one. The first time is when Pia comes to visit her with a gift to welcome her back to Chicago and Nora is very judgmental about her “pole dancing.” The next time Pia hears from her cousin, who isn’t likely to lie to her, that Nora referred to her as a “whore.” The third (and fourth) time was at the restaurant when she sees the silver shoes and Nora says something like how could she wear those and look like a “whore” like Pia. When Pia confronts her about what her cousin told her, Nora denies it and says let’s forget about it. Then Nora adds that she always tells the truth when she drinks! BUT, instead of the fight being between Pia and Nora, as I would expect, the fight ends up being between Pia and her good friend, Christina, who was there to support and defend her against Nora’s insults. On top of that, Renee, Nora’s other good friend, also insults Pia, unprovoked, by saying “a rat is a rat is a rat” for no reason. I think that is why Christina, who went to the dinner angry at Nora, ends up saying, “I keep hearing from people that your father was a hit man.” She wanted to get her own dig in there, at Nora, for Pia. Why Pia suddenly dropped her issue with Nora and decided Christina was the “bad guy” I don’t know. Maybe Nora didn’t want to get into a physical altercation so the producers turned it around to have the fight between Pia and Christina instead? Pia and Christina can always make up, they have a history. So let’s create some early drama and then patch things up later when we get some new drama. I just can’t buy this fight no matter how you package it. I’ll just blame it on the alcohol for now. They made sure we saw them all take several “shots” when they first got there.
The good news is that no one is really happy the fight took place. The rest of the episode consists of several meetings between pairs of women to discuss the fiasco. Nora blames Christina and alcohol. But Renee seems to think Pia is to blame for bringing Christina into her issues with Nora and for getting up at the table and making Christina feel threatened. No one blames Nora for insulting Pia.
When Pia gets invited to Renee’s house to talk to her and Nora, she goes right over. There is a huge “What The Hell” moment, as Renee immediately insults her as she walks into her house! She tells Pia she doesn’t want any trouble. Who invites someone for coffee and then “ambushes” them? Pia and I were both stunned by that greeting. Renee wants Pia to apologize to Christina. Nora wants her to cut her ties with Christina. Pia can’t believe what she is hearing and neither can I. This time they can’t blame the alcohol!
Leah is a good friend of Christina’s and is always there to advise and listen. Leah is a firecracker. She has a strong personality and is very passionate. She also has some bad blood with Nora and I wonder what will happen if those two are ever in the same room. Nora has a habit of blurting out insults and Leah is more than ready to take her on.
Now I have to get into the whole Facebook issue before I die laughing. Christina is upset because Nora and Pia deleted her from facebook. I don’t know how Leah listened to that with a straight face, but I busted out laughing. I know plenty about facebook and unfriending people and it’s not that earth shattering. How are we going to take these women seriously if they get upset about facebook? Anyway, Christina seems to think it’s okay for Pia to unfriend her because they had a fight, but she had no issue with Nora, or so she thinks. She forgets that she called her father a “hit man” and Nora is sensitive to that, but whatever. Nora tells her maybe it’s a glitch because she hasn’t even been on facebook. Christina doesn’t believe in facebook glitches. That tells me that Christina doesn’t use her facebook much either. Facebook is famous for glitches. However, the timing of Nora’s “unfriending” is suspicious. I agree with Leah, that Christina should throw herself a party. She doesn’t even like Nora, so what if she deleted her from facebook, she did her a huge favor. Later, Christina decides to meet with Pia to try to resolve their differences, but because things got physical, neither one of the ladies are ready to makeup.
The other two storylines need to develop more. Nora’s quest for answers about her father’s body and burial seems to get resolved at some point because we now know she was able to get a court order to exhume his body. We will just watch as this all plays out over the season. She should finally get her closure.
The other storyline is Renee’s custody battle for her younger daughter, Isabella, age 10. I am finding it hard to swallow than a court would consider granting full or partial custody to an ex-felon who spent time in prison for God knows what. I think her ex-husband would be lucky to get supervised visitation, if that. On top of that, we are supposed to believe that a judge would allow the child to be removed from a stable and loving mother and home and placed with a father who has a criminal past? Is it me or does this seem a little too outrageous? The father has no job, but he does have money. Doesn’t that make him a bit of a flight risk? He could take his daughter anywhere if given custody. We don’t exactly know all the facts about the case, but based on what Renee has said, it seems very unlikely that she has anything to worry about.
I am getting a better understanding of who is friends with who, but the loyalty, trust and respect between friends is on some shaky ground. The solid friendship I see so far is Leah and Christina. Pia and Nora are supposed to be long time friends, but Nora says too many things that a friend wouldn’t say. Renee and Nora are supposed to be good friends, but we saw a preview where Nora says to her “I hope you lose your daughter!” Ouch! Pia and Christina…even after the physical altercation, I think they will patch things up. Why? Because I am not buying the fight and I think it was for our (the viewers) benefit.
What do you think? Have anything to add? I’d love to know!
