Bling, Humor, Conflict, and Heartfelt Emotion

Welcome back, viewers! I hope you enjoyed tonight's episode, which includes some of the best elements of these shows -- bling, humor, conflict, and heartfelt emotion. As always, I'll answer questions from last week, as well as comment on other things I've seen in the blogosphere.

First up, the engagement of Lisa and Ken's daughter, Pandora. We shoot a lot of tense and dramatic things as part of our show (ahem, Game Night!), so it’s always nice when we get to see the nicer moments of the ladies lives and this engagement was definitely one of them.

However, the best moment of Lisa's story for me was earlier. Lisa was cooking in the kitchen and her son Max ended a phone call with a girl and said, "Love you, too." Both Lisa and Ken were shocked to hear their teenage son declare that. We like to call those moments "reality gems." Meaning, Lisa had told us she was going to cook for Jason's parents and they were all going to eat together, so that's what we planned to film. And since we had filmed Jason asking Ken for Pandora's hand in marriage, we thought there was a good chance that this dinner might involve some kind of proposal. So the reveal that Jason had already asked Pandora to marry him was a small surprise to us, but not totally unexpected. But Max's declaration of love? That caught everyone by surprise, and that's one of those things that make reality TV special.

Now, as for Game Night. Seemed like a pretty innocuous idea. When I first moved to LA, my friends and I used to regularly gather for game nights, so I was pretty excited for what we thought would be a fun and active night. Well, it did become active!

I've seen several comments out there that our show is scripted, which as the person who knows our show inside and out -- it kind of cracks me up. Because simply put, it isn't. I'm a pretty good writer, but in my wildest dreams, I would never have imagined the following things:

• Kim calling Dana "Pam" and after being corrected, shooting back, "Well, you look like a Pam." Funny stuff. Because that's the quirky way Kim's mind works.
• Adrienne canceling at the last minute. Adrienne has always described herself to be very competitive, so we were eager to see her in a competitive situation. However, this was the time frame where Adrienne and her family were in intense negotiations with the NBA about possibly moving the team, so Adrienne really did miss this event with a legitimate excuse.
• Brandi thinking Winston Churchill was a great black leader. I felt for Brandi in that moment. We've all made silly mistakes in our lives, but most people don't have them broadcast on national television. To her credit, in Brandi's blog, she owned up to the mistake. What more could a person do?
• Kyle tasting Kim's coffee, knowing what that implies. In Kyle's defense, I've seen her in agony over worrying about her sister.
• Kim hiding Brandi's crutches. You could've picked my jaw up off the ground from shock when I watched that happen.

Now, as for the argument, that didn't surprise me. With Kyle and Kim not welcoming Brandi as part of their team and Brandi questioning what was up with Kim's repeated trips to the bathroom, a clash seemed imminent.

Until next week, please send your questions and comments my way. And please let me know –- what was your water cooler moment for this week’s episode?