Sergio Bribed to Leave Stanbury, Caroline Brooks Angry with Friends Over Parenting Critique

Chanel Ayan, Caroline Brooks., and her 9-year-old son Adam meet to go furniture shopping. Caroline tells Ayan that she’s throwing a pool party and that some of her childhood friends from Boston will be joining. These two seem to have made up and are getting along well. In her confessional Caroline says, “Ayan is very annoying, we fight every single day. We’re having dinner tonight and we fought this morning. At the end of dinner, I’m going to want to rip her head off, by the morning we’ll make-up and we’ll make dinner plans tomorrow. We’re sisters for life.” The topic of children comes up and Ayan advises Caroline to have more than one while she’s still young. Caroline admits that if she gets married it could be possible. Ayan says, “Now we just need to find you a husband.” Caroline responds, “Not so fast honey. I want to have a little bit of fun first, don’t put me in prison immediately.”

It’s 7 days till the wedding and Caroline Stanbury’s parents arrive in Dubai. Caroline S. says, “My family has all arrived and suddenly, s**t just got real. I’m getting remarried. It’s happening and it’s happening now.” Caroline says that since moving to Dubai she only sees her parents once a year. Caroline declares that the relationship with her mom has gotten much better as a flashback of Caroline with her mother shows them as they sit in awkward silence. Once Caroline gets her parents settled in, Sergio hints at having sex but Caroline doesn’t want to because her parents are in the house. The house is super large by the way, but Caroline says this is normal for Sergio because he is so young and wants sex all the time.

Caroline S., Ayan and Lesa meet Nina on the rooftop of her apartment building for high-noon tea. Nina says, “There is a lot of tension between Caroline Stanbury and Lesa. So, I thought let me do something very nice, relaxing, and chill so I invited everyone over for high tea. Cause I’m tired of these b***hes fighting.” Caroline says she doesn’t quite know what she’s walking into because she keeps getting different versions of Lesa. Lesa claims in her confessional, there is no tension between her and Stanbury because she gives her energy to people that are important, basically implying Caroline S. is not of importance. 

As an icebreaker, Nina starts by asking Caroline S. how the wedding plans are going. Caroline says she just wants this wedding to be about them and not everyone else unlike her first wedding. Ayan says, “I was supposed to marry my cousin. It’s very normal in my culture but then when I met my husband we got married in Brazil in a small wedding.” As lunch arrives at the table, Ayan tells Stanbury that she doesn’t need to group her and Lesa together because they do not control who each other talks to. Caroline S. says she felt attacked and this sort of aggressive energy from Lesa which Lesa denies. Lesa feels that the comment Stanbury made of “sucking d**k” was trashy. Caroline doesn’t remember saying that but acknowledges that if she did, she was being sarcastic. She also acknowledges that she hadn’t eaten and drink too much that day and could have misread the entire situation. Lesa says she’s happy to move forward and put it all behind them. Nina suggests no more inappropriate words when Caroline admits to having a naughty mouth. However, Ayan welcomes the naughtiness because without it she said life would be boring. 

Sara is the host of the Global Citizen Forum. Ayan and her husband Chris come to support the gala. Ayan meets up with Sara to catch up before the event begins. Ayan tells Sara that she got a therapist and her therapist told her she needs to imagine having a garden. He told her water plants but because she lives in an apartment, she only has three fake plants. Ayan said, “Every morning I wake up, I fake water the s**t out of those plants.” Sara is so confused by this and says, “What kind of therapy are you doing?” Ayan responds, “I think my therapist is from LA.” Sara still recommends hypnotherapy because she feels like Ayan needs to tap into the issues plaguing her from her childhood. Sara says, “it’s never too late to become someone like me. I was not born like this.” A stunned Ayan recognizes that Sara is a special person but says that the preaching has to stop because it is too much. 

The day of Caroline B.’s pool party has arrived, and we are introduced to her childhood friends Brian and Adam. Caroline says that when her ex-husband couldn’t be there for the birth of their son, it was Brian who was there to cut the umbilical cord. Nina is the first to arrive and orders a pina colada, “Nice and thick please. I like it thick.” Caroline’s friend Adam cosigns “who doesn’t” as they all laugh. Caroline B. talks about how nervous her friends were to come to Dubai because of what they heard regarding the treatment of gay men. All the ladies confess that they have plenty of gay friends in Dubai but that there aren’t much public displays of affection.

Nina tells Caroline S. and Sergio that she had a rough night because her dad is on the other side of the world and has been in the hospital due to Covid. Everyone at the pool party goes around mingling with one another. Ayan tells Nina that she had so much fun at her children’s birthday and Nina jokingly says, “You were like big bird in a cage.” Due to the language barrier, Ayan is not sure what Nina means by this. When she looks up “big bird” in her confessional she says, “Is it this yellow thing? To be honest, I’m black and I would look great in yellow.” Back over to Caroline B., Caroline S., Adam, and Brain as they are all sitting poolside when Caroline B. brings up the topic of her son potentially going to boarding school. Caroline S. informs Caroline B. that her experience in going to boarding school was not a good one. Caroline S. says, “The trouble with people who are newly rich, they do what they think is the best thing that money can buy. Boarding school changes your complete life. You build such a wall through that, that when you come home, you’re so angry and you kind of hate your parents. But who am I to tell someone how to parent their child?” 

Ayan addresses Nina by telling her that she doesn’t feel like Nina was there for her when she was dealing with her issues with Stanbury. In her confessional, Nina says, “Let it go. I stand by you and see where you’re coming from, but I cannot accommodate your feelings each and every time.” Ayan tells Nina she feels a weird energy between them, and Nina informs her that her energy has nothing to do with her and everything to do with her father who’s sick. Ayan apologizes for what Nina is going through and Lesa comforts her as well. Nina says she feels so much pressure from her family right now because they always want her to take care of everything. 

Caroline meets her father for dinner with her daughter. They all discuss being a bit nervous meeting Sergio’s parents. Caroline says that Sergio’s father offered him money to leave her and that his mother cried four times and they weren’t happy tears. Caroline admits it was harder for her to tell her children that Sergio was going to become her husband because that cemented the chapter with their father being officially closed. She also says people would tell her that because Sergio is so young that he’s going to leave her and run off with a younger model. She feels that if he was going to leave, he would have by now and her father advises her that only her and Sergio know what really works for their relationship.

Caroline B. has invited her friends Adam and Brian over for dinner and they get to meet Sara because she wasn’t in attendance at the pool party.  Caroline’s son Adam joins them at the dinner table and once everyone starts to eat, Caroline starts to “nitpick” at the way her son is eating which in my opinion was very normal, but she did mention that she’s a very “militant” mother. After her son Adam is dismissed from dinner, Caroline asks Sara’s opinion on boarding school. Sara responds, “Boarding school is for people who don’t have time for their kids. 70% of them are emotionally closed because they feel like their parents just left them.” Sara further elaborates that she feels Caroline needs to be closer to her son. Caroline responds, “My child putting his fingers into his plate is never going to f**king happen in front of me. How I grew up, children should be poised.” Her friend Brian speaks up and says, “I feel like when you grew up your parents were embracing.” Caroline cuts him off with a sharp “no!” and says that her mother was the opposite of that in the home. Sara asks, “Why don’t you break that generational cycle?” and Caroline says she likes the way she grew up. Sara responds, “You’re bleeding on the people that didn’t cut you.” Caroline’s friends and Sara agree that Caroline will come to her senses once she’s older and realizes that she doesn’t need to be so harsh on something so trivial as to how a 9-year-old cuts his chicken. Caroline is pissed! She says, “Brian shut the f**k up. You’re getting on my nerves at this point. You’re being stupid. He thinks he’s being funny and he’s not! Obviously, Caroline is triggered because she begins to shout, “Don’t f**king talk about me and my kid. It’s not f**king cute and it’s not f**king funny. There is a line you don’t f**king cross. You’re not a parent! I raised that child. My kid that came out my vagina. All of what you see, I achieved that s**t on my own. You know how hard I’ve f**king worked. Don’t come into my house and talk about my parenting!” Sara speaks up and says, “Caroline. You got triggered. It’s okay. Relax.” Caroline is still heated and isn’t listening to what anyone is saying. Sara is trying to diffuse the conversation and Brian is asking to be treated with respect while Caroline is angry that her friend from childhood would cross that line. Caroline ends the dinner by pointing at everyone telling them “No one is going to tell me how to raise my kid” as the episode comes to an end.

Be sure to catch new episodes of The Real Housewives of Dubai every Wednesday on Bravo at 9/8C.