Vanderpump Rules Reunion Scandal: the Best Big Reveal Theories
Season 10 of "Vanderpump Rules" has been the Season of the Witch, aka, Scandoval, aka The Most Important Cheating Story of Our Time.
There have been laughs, tears, so much white nail polish, and the coining of the delicious phrase "worm with a moustache." It all comes to a close on Wednesday night, when part three of the reunion airs.
Tonight is supposedly going to deliver a surprise the likes of which no one can imagine. According to "Vanderpump" producer Alex Baskin, the last five minutes of the reunion promise "revelations and developments that left even our heads spinning,"
"We wind down the day of [filming the reunion] and then a few days later, there's yet another development. It isn't something the group witnessed at the time. So I think they're going to have to respond to it when they see it," he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Baskin's been teasing this "revelation" for a couple months now. In a interview with Variety earlier this year, he said "the reunion is not just a recap of what you know, and it's not just an intense version of the emotions. There is new information."
"I will put it this way," he continued. "There are revelations, and they are revelations that not all of them know now. So we need a little space."
So what could that new information be? There's an entire cottage industry that's popped up on TikTok to figure that out. Let's take a look at the theories.
In the Lifetime movie version of this story, Raquel Leviss is now knocked up with Tom Sandoval's love child and that's why she's been out of the public eye at a mental health facility (or her grandmother's house) in Arizona.
About a zillion TikTokers and social media sleuths attempted to put the timeline together and some even believed they'd spotted a knocked-up Leviss at the airport.
But! Baskin told THR that this rumor is definitively not true, and I guess he would know.
"What I would say is, by any reunion standpoint, it is a super-explosive event and it is a big twist. Raquel is not pregnant. There's no story that involves aliens or dragons! But what I had said was that it's a twist at the end of reunion that, if we were in production, the cast would have responded to," he said.
Probability: Low.
What did he know and when did he know it? A question the Senate Watergate Committee asked about President Richard Nixon, and also a question I am asking about Tom Schwartz.
We now know Tom Schwartz, the human equivalent of an inflatable car dealership air dancer, covered a lot for Tom Sandoval and Raquel.
We also know that Tom Sandoval apparently loves to create a script for people to "control the narrative" (Ariana's words, not mine).
But what if someone else also knew about the cheating and has chosen to be Taylor Swift-style "excluded from the narrative?" What if another person in the world's most dysfunctional friend group definitively knew but opted not to say anything?
Get detective Ally on the case!
Probability: Low
Since the "Scandoval" news broke in March, "Vanderpump Rules" producers and Andy Cohen have insisted that they knew nothing about the affair and were finding out along with Ariana Madix and the rest of us.
But podcaster and TikToker Gossiping with B doesn't believe that. B believes that producers must have known, based on the trailers for the final reunion episode.
According to B, Raquel's confessional dress spilled the secret. In the trailer, producers ask her, "Are you ready to tell the truth?" She's wearing a blue bodycon dress — the same dress she wears throughout the season in interviews. B hypothesizes that the "Are you ready to tell the truth" question was actually asked much earlier in filming, and therefore, producers have known for much longer than they've let on.
However, reality shows often ask cast members to repeat outfits for confessionals in order to create a feeling of continuity across scenes and more easily edit footage after the fact. What's more, she may be wearing the same dress, but the background is situated differently, which makes me think this was filmed at a later point.
Phew!
Probability: Medium
On a May appearance on "Watch What Happens Live" with Andy Cohen, Ariana Madix admitted that she knew Tom Sandoval had cheated on her early in their relationship with a woman dubbed "Miami Girl."
"They slept together. It was before [Tom] and I were exclusive," she told Cohen. At the time, Madix had denied knowing anything. "I didn't want people to think the absolute worst of the man I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with, so I defended him," she explained.
Madix said that in addition to Miami Girl and the affair with Leviss, she was aware of one other time that Sandoval had cheated. She told Cohen she didn't know who it was but that she "had a guess" and that it wasn't someone they regularly filmed with.
Sandoval, too, admitted in a teary confession to his longtime friend Scheana Shay that he had strayed from his nine-year relationship another time. And while he told Shay that it wasn't with a mutual friend, it's clear he's not someone who tells the truth.
(For the record, Ariana says she doesn't believe Sandoval hooked up with onetime "Vanderpump" castmember Billie Lee.)
Probability: Medium
Tom Sandoval, Raquel Leviss, and their human smokescreen Tom Schwartz have half-heartedly insisted the affair began "after the girls trip" in August. But these people are all inveterate liars, and lazy about getting their stories straight. At one point during the first part of the reunion, Lala Kent even called them out for not properly sticking to one narrative after Tom Schwartz said Sandoval confessed to him in August and Tom Sandoval said he told Schwartz in January.
"Oh, did you guys not put your timelines together to match?" she asked.
That's left many people wondering if a glitch in the timeline might be at the center of the big reveal. And because there were rumors that Sandoval and Leviss maybe possibly hooked up at Coachella in April 2022, who's to say how far back their affair actually goes?
Is it possible that Sandoval's affair with Leviss stretches as far back as the curséd Rachella? It's hard to think why a man might pay for another man's engagement, unless he felt wildly guilty, or wanted to make sure that his mistress was fully off his hands.
On this, Baskin wouldn't give specifics. "I would say that the timeline evolves."
Probability: High. Very, very high.
Read next
Probability: Probability: Probability: Probability: Probability: