Growing Up Gotti, Episode 2: Happy Mother’s Day?

It’s Friday and Victoria is at work, getting ready to go home. The phone rings and it’s the boys, asking her if they can get something to eat. She asks what they want (I think my mom would’ve hung up on me), and whichever son it is yells, “I don’t know. We’re starving.” Someone needs to introduce these boys to their hands, because they apparently are unaware of what they are capable of. Of course, Victoria might not be helping the situation, as we see a quick clip of her cutting 17-year-old John’s steak for him. For some reason, this absolutely cracks me up.

Anyway, Victoria gets home with friend Lynn and has flowers – red roses – waiting for her. She thinks they’re from brother, but they’re actually from her ex-husband. Why does she have roses from her ex-husband? Why, because he bought 14-year-old Frankie an ATV for his birthday and he KNOWS how Victoria will feel about the gift. She calls it a “death machine.” She hates the fact that her ex-husband puts her in these kinds of situations, where she’s the monster and Daddy’s the hero. She tells us, “I want to know where Daddy was when tuition was due.” Nice. Someone mentions what the ATV will do to the grass and she answers, “I’m not worried about the grass, I’m worried about him killing himself.” Then we find out that 20 years ago, her little brother was hit by a car and killed. Oh, that’s horrible. I read about this when I was doing research for my preview article, and that is heartbreaking. I also read that the neighbor who hit her brother disappeared and was never heard from again. Anyway, Victoria tells us that “divorce is all spite work, about one-upping the other.” Yup, and because she is the one actually raising the boys and trying to teach them about responsibility, she is at a disadvantage. She tells Frankie not to ride on the street. We’ll see how long that lasts.

We leave Frankie and his “death machine” for a while and meet Luigi, who Victoria is hiring to fix the pool. If you recall, the pool is disgusting, and if Victoria wants to sell her house, she’s going to have to fix up the pool. Anyway, Luigi starts off by giving an estimate of $13,000 to fix the pool and heads out back to start fishing the chairs and trash out of it. I wonder why he doesn’t try to drain it first. Oh well. Anyway, he asks the boys for help and they refuse. He calls them lazy, which I’m pretty sure they’re used to hearing, so it doesn’t really phase them. Uh oh, here comes Frankie on that damn ATV. Shouldn’t he wear a helmet or something? He’s tearing all over the place – yes, including the street.

Luigi is getting more and more disgusted by the pool and tells John that now it’s gong to be $15,000. I don’t know why he’s telling John. I mean, the kid isn’t the one paying him. Anyway, he talks to Victoria in the kitchen and she disagrees with him over the price. Then she asks him if he would give that price to her brother John? Whoa. That would be the John who headed the Gambino family after his Dad went to prison. John Jr. is in prison now, too. Anyway, Luigi asks what she means, but he totally falters and gives himself away. He would definitely give John more of a break on the price (duh) and after some negotiating, they come to an agreement.

Now it’s time for Carmine’s prom, and he doesn’t want to go because he and his girlfriend broke up. But Carmine wants to go to the after-party, which, according to Victoria, is in the Hamptons and lasts two days. Wow, our after party was at Cecilia’s house and we slept in her basement. Anyway, Victoria tells him that if he doesn’t go to the prom, he’s not going to the party. She’s also upset because she ordered him a limo but he wants to take his own car. WHY??? Carmine, let her pay for the limo! Anyway, Victoria calls Peter, who she says is the only person the boys listen to sometimes. Peter agrees with Victoria, but when she hands the phone to Carmine, he starts talking about a mile a minute and I’ll be honest, I have no idea what he said. But apparently it was disrespectful because Victoria grabs the phone, tells him he’s not going, and takes something out of his car (keys, maybe) that I’m guessing renders the BMW useless. Victoria is on the phone saying that when Carmine learns respect, he’ll go to his party. Uh-oh. It sounds like that is her equivalent to when pigs fly.

Victoria’s upset because what should’ve been a happy night, Carmine’s prom, has turned into a fight. She wants him to go to the prom. John is getting into the middle of it and sticking up for Carmine, taking his side, basically because he is 17 and wants to do whatever he wants when it’s time for his Hamptons party. John tells her that for these parties, they’ll cook and go for a stroll. Big eye roll from me here – and Victoria I’m pretty sure does the same in her head. She tells him to shut up, basically, before he’s punished. He mumbles incomprehensibly (they’re all good at that) and walks out. Victoria is upset, crying to her friend that Carmine isn’t going to his prom but also because the boys disrespect her, something that didn’t fly in her house under the Dapper Don – he was strict and respected. I’ll bet!

She goes up to talk to Carmine. She knocks and tells him to open the door about six or seven times. She goes in the room and shuts the door and he screams at her. Wow, I’ve never screamed at my mom. But she doesn’t back down and slams out of the room, leaving Carmine to sulk. Good for her!

And now it’s Mother’s Day. Frankie has a brunch delivered for his mom and is trying to sneak it in with the catering lady. Okay, this is sweet and I totally didn’t expect it. I’m pretty impressed with Frankie, who’s only 14. Anyway, the boys are all downstairs (along with some other kids that I’m thinking are their friends) when Victoria comes down in her robe. The boys say “Happy Mother’s Day” and sound like they just rolled out of bed, but she seems really touched. She knows Frankie probably planned it. She calls him her “gentle giant” (he’s very tall). Of course, she leaves the room for about two minutes and the boys go at each other, all while the woman who delivered the breakfast looks on. Lovely. It starts when John and Frank ask Carmine what he got Victoria, and he says nothing, to which the other two take what seems to be offense, upset that he got “mommy” nothing, and apparently this isn’t the first time. She’s in the kitchen, saying that this is the best gift, to wake up, not have to prepare breakfast and not hear any fighting. This is when the boys start pushing each other and Frankie throws something that knocks over a picture on the mantel. Well, that was fun.

That night, probably still touched by the brunch and maybe a little tired of all the fighting, Victoria gamely gets in the ATV with Frankie and gives it a try, even telling him, “Now I want to drive it.”

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site!. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about reality TV, be sure to check out SirLinksALot!