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Candiace Dillard Bassett and Monique Samuels during RHOP Season 5

Source: Bravo / Getty

Last night fans tuned in for part two of the Real Housewives of Potomac Season 5 reunion, and some major discrepancies in the what was said happened and what actually occurred concerning the fight between Monique Samuels and Candiace Dillard Bassett were cleared up. Even though Bravo TV’s footage detailed what really played out in the altercation that has rocked Season 5, substantiating some of Monique’s story, everyone is still debating who’s to blame for the altercation.

There’s so many things to talk about with what happened on last night’s episode. Between footage of Ashley’s husband touching another producer in a seemingly inappropriate way, Karen talking about her marriage with Ray, and Monique attempting to give us more clarity on her claim that there’s been a “plot” to get her off the show, many of the things discussed in part two only left us with more questions about the validity of what the cast mates have been telling us.

Who provided much-needed answers though, was the RHOP’s production crew. They made sure to run the tape back any time they could when the topic switched over to the fight between Monique and Candiace.

First, we found out that it was Gizelle’s hand who nudged (some say pushed) Monique at the beginning of the altercation. After much speculation from viewers about whose hand initially touched Monique, Gizelle said, “It was definitely my hand. I didn’t push her.” She claims she was trying to stop Monique and the fight overall from escalating.

Throughout the season, Monique kept saying she “blacked out” during the fight. When Andy asked her about what her “emotional response was” after seeing the footage of the altercation, Monique stated, “I’ve said from the beginning I was triggered,” and that what triggered her was when Candiace “reached her hand across” and motioned it underneath her chin.

While Gizelle, Robyn, Wendy, and even Andy are heard saying “that didn’t happen” to Monique, production footage showed that Candiace did motion her hand underneath Monique’s chin.

Another thing Monique claimed was that she continued to hold onto Candiace’s hair because she had broken glasses in her hand and was “tossing them left and right” as the chaos ensued. Bravo’s production footage showed that Candiace was holding onto a broken wine glass, but not throwing it. Monique said her lip was cut from broken glass during the fight, but to say Candiace was throwing glasses at her came off as an exaggeration considering that Candiace’s head was bent down towards the table. Because of this, she wouldn’t have even been able to see and aim glasses to throw at Monique during that time.

Finally, when Andy mentioned that Monique “went back out to get her again,” discussing when viewers saw Monique running from outside to go continue fighting Candiace, Monique defended herself saying it was “because she was in there yelling ‘hoodrat B, you’re fired, you’re fired’ this that and the other,” which footage then confirmed. Candiace was yelling those things, among other comments, from outside of the stairwell Monique was restricted in.

“I said, ‘well okay if I’m fired let me go finish her off,'” Monique added.

Now that that’s been cleared up, I have thoughts. While Candiace is unliked by many, I think it’s really wrong for her to continue being bullied off-screen. Yes, the video footage replayed by Bravo last night made it look like Candiace had more responsibility in the fight than she would care to admit, at the same time, countless tweets have been written about her and sent her way that blame her for allegedly initiating the fight with her words, and shame her for feeling traumatized after the altercation happened. While she hasn’t held herself accountable to Monique, it feels like the world is holding her accountable and that seems harsh considering she is the one that got dragged. Also, her emotions aren’t completely out of nowhere, because at the heart of the matter, it was a fight between two people who used to be friends.

As an aside, all of the mess and aftermath of the whole situation is very reminiscent of the fight that happened between Porsha Williams and Kenya Moore in their first season of RHOA at the Season 5 reunion. People criticized, blamed and humiliated Kenya, too, saying she was the cause of her own attack.

With everything we’ve seen being taken into consideration involving this incident on this particular franchise, Monique was villainized unfairly, especially during the reunion, which many pointed out. Twitter had a lot to say about her stoic explanations in comparison to Candiace’s more emotional responses, but Monique was definitely “gaslighted” a lot by the cast and Andy.

However, to say that she is the victim of this whole mess doesn’t seem right either.

At the end of the day, even if an individual is seen as the “antagonist,” that doesn’t mean they deserve to get hands put on them. Candiace and Monique are both grown women who shouldn’t have escalated things to that level verbally and never should have let the argument between them get so deep that physical violence was deemed necessary. They both have blame to carry and they both have things they can learn from the situation. One major lesson including, how to control their hands.

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