“VPR”: Sandoval's Friends See a Hint of His 'Soul' but Demand Accountability — Even as 1 Starts 'Crossing a Line'
Sandoval was hoping to remind his friends that he wasn’t a "ruthless, heartless villain" on Tuesday’s 'Vanderpump Rules'
Tom Sandoval is taking the first step to redemption amid the fallout of Scandoval.
On Tuesday’s episode of Vanderpump Rules, the Schwartz & Sandy's co-owner, 41, saw the impact of his affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss during a group meditation session in Lake Tahoe.
After being paired with his former friend Scheana Shay, she revealed that she was not ready to forgive and forget Sandoval’s actions.
"This is the longest I've ever gone in 15 years of friendship with Sandoval and not speaking to him or seeing him," she said. "I'm still holding on to anger and resentment and hatred inside of me so I'm not ready to meditate and breathe together like no, no, no.”
Scheana then broke down in tears as the instructor told them to ask their partner for what they needed. At first, she said she was “fine” but the instructor encouraged them not to hold back. She then said, “So, I'm not okay. I just need a minute,” before leaving the session.
Following a conversation with her husband Brock Davies, during which he encouraged her to tell Sandoval how she felt, the “Good as Gold” singer attempted to keep her emotions in check but broke down again when asked to imagine it was the last day she would see Sandoval.
“When thinking about the last day seeing you — like this would be the last day — I got very sad,” Sandoval told her. “Then, I took a moment to think about all the beautiful and amazing times that we've had together and just took a moment to take it in to sort of like, celebrate it.”
She then responded, "I thought about the last day I saw you so much during this because I was genuinely worried you were gonna do something to yourself and I don't want to keep hating you,” referring to his mental health struggles amid the scandal.
“I need to let go of that because it doesn't feel good. But, you did this," she added.
After their conversation, Sandoval hoped to get back in Scheana’s good graces, saying, “I'm hoping that Scheana is reminded I'm not this ruthless, heartless villain, that I'm a friend. I miss her.”
The Scheanangians host admitted the conversation helped her see Scandoval in a different light, explaining, “The mask finally fell and I saw that there is still a soul inside. I'm like, ‘Oh s---, that's my friend Tom. He misses me and our friendship and he knows how bad he f---ed up.’”
Following the meditation session, Scheana broke down in tears as she told Lala Kent she texted Sandoval's ex Ariana Madix to remind that she had her “back no matter what” despite the breakthrough with Sandoval.
Later in the episode, Scheana called Ariana and Katie Maloney to discuss how it was “a really heavy loss” to cut Sandoval out of her life after he gave her “a very genuine apology” during their trip to Tahoe. She added, “I felt like for the first time I got genuine tears from him and not performative. I just feel like I needed to let go of the hatred I had for him because I can't keep hating him for you. I'm mad that he did all of this because I miss him. I miss my friend.”
Katie then weighed on the situation, saying, “Scheana is definitely getting close to crossing a line with Ariana. That was her life partner of a decade, like the other wrong audience, chick.”
The conversation left Scheana upset that Ariana was not willing to hear side of the story. She began to cry and told Lala, “She either dismisses how I feel or tells me I shouldn't feel this way because he's a bad person.”
Despite their differences, Scheana insisted she was still thrilled for Ariana’s recent successes, saying, “I'm so happy for her. Even her getting Dancing with the Stars. She knew how bad I wanted that. And I told her. I'm so genuinely happy for you… I’m just hurting still.”
She continued, “Why can I never have one moment where it can be about me? ... I'm hurt. I lost a very, very dear friend here. I am struggling with that. But I'm not allowed to feel anything because it's only about Ariana.”
“I understand where you're coming from,” Lala responded. “You can still have Ariana’s back, but she also has to acknowledge what you've been through. It's time for Ariana to pull her head out of her own ass. She needs to come back to reality and remember who her friends are and what they've done for her. Scheana has been ride or die since day one for Ariana. And now it's time for Ariana to return the favor.”
Despite moving forward with Scheana, Sandoval wasn’t ready to take full responsibility for his actions and continued to point the finger at his friends when he was later confronted by Brock. He explained their actions following the affair were “very intentionally” trying to hurt him and Rachel.
However, Brock insisted that it was time for Sandoval to take accountability, sharing in a confessional, “I'm looking at Tom right now, we have a percentage of accountability and then blame. It’s probably like a solid 10% accountability and 90% blaming everybody else for his issues.”
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Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
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