The Real World Austin Reunion: Everybody Hates Everybody

Susie, one of the hosts of TRL (I had to look her up), welcomes us to the Real World Austin reunion special. Buckle up, kids, it’s an hour long. Hail, hail, the gang’s all here. They all look exactly the same, too, though Lacey’s hair is a little longer. Susie notes that when we last saw the roommates, they weren’t exactly best friends. We see clips of the big showdown from last week. Susie asks Rachel if it’s weird to be sitting here with everyone. Rachel says that watching the fight makes her want to cry because it was hurtful. Susie notes that Wren seemed to know what was going on already. Wes admits that he told Rachel about sleeping with Wren in the shower when there were no mics or cameras around. Rachel apologizes for being loud. Wes felt betrayed, especially after Rachel said he was her brother. If he wanted people to know, he would have said it on camera. Um, he did.

Johanna says that Rachel didn’t do anything deliberately. Lacey doesn’t see the big deal – Wren works at Hooters, so “it’s not like she’s Amish.” The audience boos. Susie notes that Nehemiah was a huge part of the fight, though it didn’t even involve him originally. Apparently he got involved randomly when Rachel started baiting him. He started saying things that he knew would push her buttons. Rachel admits that she doesn’t remember everything that happened. Melinda fills her in a little. Rachel notes the same thing I did, that getting kicked out on the last night wouldn’t have made a different. Melinda was scared that the guys would hurt Rachel. Rachel says that getting that close to someone’s face is almost as aggressive as hitting someone.

Lacey doesn’t think that Nehemiah would have hit Rachel because he’s more about fighting with words. The audience doesn’t seem to like Lacey. Susie asks Nehemiah why he was always going after Rachel. He points out that she’s an easy target. Where he comes from, pushing buttons is how they show love. Rachel says that now that it’s all over, relationships are sometimes better in small doses. She knows that she should have learned to laugh things off, but things in the house were so intense that it was hard to do that. Susie asks Rachel if she forgives Nehemiah and Wes. She thinks she does, though she doesn’t like watching the fight again. She admits that she did a lot of bad stuff in the house, too.

Danny speaks out that these are seven very different people in the same house and everything just blew up. Nehemiah says that it was fitting for them to say goodbye honestly. Rachel knows that there’s nothing unsaid among everyone. Wes asks Rachel how much she likes him on a scale of 1 to 10; she says 8. He can live with that.

Susie introduces clips of the “honorary eighth roommate” - the police. Hee. We see Johanna getting arrested, then the now famous scene of Danny getting his face bashed in. We see Wes getting the call from Nehemiah in jail. Susie asks about Nehemiah’s legal troubles. He says he’s glad that things happened the way they did. The charges were dropped, though he’ll probably have to do community service. He admits that he messed up and seems willing to pay the price.

Susie reminds Johanna of how drunk she was the night of her arrest. Johanna corrects that she stole a rose from a vendor, not a homeless person. Susie asks if she learned anything. “Don’t steal from bums?” Johanna asks. She thinks that the police look dumb for arresting her for grand theft carnation; she thinks the cameras played a part. She says she didn’t learn anything. That’s our Jo! Susie asks if Danny pressed charges against his assailant. He did and will be in court soon. He says that his face has healed, though by the end of the experience, the roommates had the cops and the hospital on speed dial. Hee.

Susie says that no matter what, everything the roommates do will be caught on tape. Cue the montage of Lacey talking smack about people. My favorite part is when she says, “Not that my roommates are super stupid, but they’re definitely not at the prime of their intelligence.” Lacey tells us that she says the same things to people’s faces as she says behind their backs, so she doesn’t think it’s shady. She never told people she liked them, then insulted them behind their backs. Nehemiah admits that he didn’t like Lacey until later, when he realized that they were similar. Susie notes that everyone else thinks Lacey’s a backstabber. Lacey thinks that’s obvious - it’s The Real World. Everyone gets sensitive and no one likes to hear the truth about themselves. She was just saying what she thought.

Danny calls Lacey out on her comment that he didn’t know what it was like to have a real job. He’s especially upset because he claims he never said anything bad about her. Lacey calls bull on this, since we just saw clips of him talking about her. They start bickering. Danny says he was just wondering what she was saying about him behind his back. He says that she talked badly about everyone and is still doing it. Lacey notes that she’s friends with everyone else except him and Melinda. He tells her it’s because she talked badly about him and Melinda. Johanna looks like she’d rather be anywhere but here, even jail.