It’s almost like the RHONY reboot cast sensed we were so bored with their season full of pregnancy pranks and pretentious foodie husbands that they decided to do something so chaotic it would change the trajectory of our lives forever. When I begrudgingly tuned in to the final episode of season 15, I was pretty much already tuned out. I still have love for the ladies, but the chemistry they’d been brewing in their first reboot run seemed to suddenly fall way to the pressures of the camera.

By the time they landed in Puerto Rico, I was already bored of the self-produced “pigeon” storyline that simply wouldn’t die. The women sandwiched their semantic chirping about who said what between elaborate “comedy” scenes that read as more forced than fun (like, if I have to watch Brynn and Abe pretend to flirt one more time, I’m going to lose it).

But I can now say for sure, no one is bored anymore. The final Real Housewives of New York episode of the year had my heart racing… but at what cost?? I’m explaining what happened with Brynn and Ubah in the RHONY finale because how else am I going to process this mega mess?

The RHONY Season Finale Explained

What happened between Brynn and Ubah on RHONY?

RHONY Brynn

Buckle up, because this shit is complicated, but the short version is Brynn accused Ubah of making insensitive remarks about Brynn trading favors for sex, even though Ubah knew Brynn had been sexually assaulted. Obviously, this was an extremely loaded accusation and one that sent the already tense group into a spiral so frightening it made Scary Island look like a walk in the park.

RHONY Season 15 Finale Recap

RHONY reunion ubah erin

Let’s back it up a little. The whole trip to PR was a mess to begin with. Ubah and Brynn were already in a toxic cycle of breakups and makeups before they got there. But Ubah’s hissy fit about getting the smallest room gave Brynn the push she needed to stay on Ubah’s neck (metaphorically) all week long. To be fair, Ubah gave Brynn plenty of material: shitting on the beach and refusing to acknowledge that was rude, overreacting to what Erin says and does to her husband, and just generally speaking without thinking — like her comment about cancer.

But Brynn had been a busy bee in the drama department herself. She was fighting with Erin for not fighting enough with Ubah, Jessel for her fixation with glam, and Rebecca for being a snoozefest. From a viewer’s standpoint, it was clear as the water at the beach that Brynn was at the eye of the storm of this group. Usually, stirring the pot is acceptable behavior by Housewives, but Brynn’s instigating came off as strategic and malicious to fans, not just shady fun.

The thing about a bear is you know what happens when you poke it. So why Brynn pivoted from critiquing Jessel’s wardrobe to questioning why Ubah was “here” at dinner, if Ubah was just going to “be on her phone,” is a mystery to me. Still, that didn’t justify what happened next. Ubah clapped back that she was here because she was hired to be here, and Brynn should understand that “unless maybe she slept with someone to get this job, that’s a different story.”

The implication that Brynn, or any woman, slept their way to the top is an archaic stereotype that (to quote RHONY gold) doesn’t support other women. Brynn was upset about the suggestion she’s faced her entire career. After several hours of insults slung to and fro, Erin and Sai took Ubah aside to convince her to apologize.

Brynn And Ubah’s Controversial RHONY Fight

sai erin ubah

But after Ubah left the room, Brynn was still deeply upset. She told Jenna, Jessel, and Racquel that she couldn’t get over Ubah’s comments because of what she told Ubah “before BravoCon” about being in support groups for sexual assault. “I fucking called Ubah, and I was like, you know I was fucking raped, and Ubah knows this shit,” Brynn tearfully told her friends. The group was horrified that Ubah would be so insensitive about the subject of sex, knowing Brynn’s trauma.

However, the question quickly became: did Ubah know? Ubah had a volcanic reaction to Jessel revealing what Brynn shared and denied knowing so vehemently that she had to be moved to a different hotel. When pressed by Sai on when exactly Brynn had told Ubah, Brynn said she told Ubah on a phone call. But since the call was primarily venting about a friend’s suicide attempt, “maybe Ubah didn’t clock it.” This change in Brynn’s memory convinced the group that Brynn wasn’t being totally honest and was even possibly leveraging the situation to make Ubah look worse.

Brynn’s Interview With Rolling Stone: What did she say about Ubah?

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Brynn’s opinion that she handled the situation the best she could didn’t seem to change, nor did the article include any outright apologies to Ubah or her castmates for how the trip ended. She did call Ubah a “great person with a heart of gold” but wished that she had been “met with grace” after sharing her sexual assault experience, even if Ubah didn’t remember being told. She also wished the other women had reached out to her to “calmly sit down and listen to what [she] had to say” since “it was never her intention to have to share it with the girls” the way she ultimately did.

Brynn was “irritated” watching her castmates question how she could act like “everything was fine” when she left the island the next morning. Brynn explained she had “way too many scenarios in [her] life” where she didn’t have “the luxury of being able to process something” in real-time, so she’s used to hiding her real feelings under a protective mask. She was also hurt they went to a concert without her after the show wrapped and didn’t include her.

After the article was shared on social media, Erin Lichy entered the chat. In a long comment under Queens of Bravo’s post, Erin corrected Brynn for saying they were still like “sisters” because Erin feels they have barely spoken since the finale. Erin was disappointed Brynn’s interview was “doubling down instead of saying, hey, I messed up.” Erin wanted to “watch [Brynn] shine” and “break free” from all this “childhood trauma” Brynn was carrying but was sad when that didn’t happen.

Erin also called out the few “non-supportive” fans who said she should’ve done more for her friend, Ubah, as a white woman. Erin doesn’t feel it’s fair to “put her in some sort of bucket” because of “the color of her skin.” Erin wrote that she was the first one to say that “Ubah wouldn’t forget that” (after Racquel, Jenna, and Jessel appeared to believe Brynn’s accusation about Ubah knowing). In the episode, Erin says “How would Ubah know? I didn’t even know.”

Welp. It’s going to be an intense reunion, that’s for sure.