All Our Unanswered Questions About RHOSLC and Monica Garcia

August 12, 2024

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 4 finale of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City

Few first-time housewives have rocked their franchises as seismically as Monica Garcia—the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City newcomer who became a standout character and the show's main villain in her rookie season as a cast member—after the season 4 finale revealed that she allegedly spread rumors about her castmates on an Instagram gossip account.

The bombshell dropped in the finale episode that aired Jan. 2, when OG Salt Lake City housewife Heather Gay pieced together that Garcia had been involved with the Instagram account, called "Reality Von Tease." The episode revealed that Gay figured it out after a conversation with her longtime hairdresser, Tenesha, a friend of Garcia's, who "had a crisis of conscience and came clean" to Gay and sent her screenshots, text messages, audio recordings, videos, and DMs that allegedly showed that Garcia was involved with the account.

The "Reality Von Tease" Instagram account was created three years ago and posted content that was, according to Gay, "dedicated to annihilating and exposing" former Salt Lake City housewife, Jen Shah. Later, the account began trolling and disparaging other cast members, including Gay, Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, and Whitney Rose.

"These were character assassinations,” Gay said in the episode. "But we never knew who it was."

While Garcia initially denied being Reality Von Tease, she later confessed that she had posted videos of Shah to the account; she also alleged that there were multiple people behind the account, including Tenesha. The finale ended with Garcia leaving the cast trip to Bermuda early, after Gay told her to go.

The Salt Lake City season 4 reunion will air next week and in the seating chart released ahead of the episode, Garcia is shown sitting in the top spot, to the right of Bravo head Andy Cohen—an appropriate placement considering the chaos she brought to the season. While the finale gave us a buzzworthy reveal, there's still lots of questions we'd like answered about season 4.

Ahead of the reunion, here are the top queries we have about everything that went down in season 4 of Salt Lake City.

Did production know about the account when they cast Monica?

While Bravo has not commented on whether or not they knew about the "Reality Von Tease" account or Garcia's involvement with it, Garcia was cast on the show because of her connection with Jen Shah. Ahead of Shah's arrest for wire fraud, Garcia worked for her and claimed that during this time, Shah told Garcia about her telemarketing scheme. Garcia later became a federal government witness in Shah's trial.

What really was Monica’s role in "Reality Von Tease"?

In the finale, Gay confronts Garcia about her involvement with an Instagram account called "Reality Von Tease," going so far as to question who "the real Monica is."

"The mystery for me with Monica is, 'Who is the real Monica?' When I met you, we kind of bonded over being single moms, moms of daughters, and we really had a great time—lots of fun, charming, funny, witty," Gay said. "But, I don't feel like that's who the real Monica is. The real Monica is someone who really doesn't want to be our friend, but wants to profit from our lives and our pain. I know who you really are, and who you really are is the cyberbully, internet troll Reality Von Tease."

In the episode, Garcia responded by saying that Gay's allegation was "not true, entirely," then confessing that "Von Tease was never just one person."

In addition to admitting that the account was run by multiple people, Garcia also copped to posting videos that she recorded of Jen Shah while she worked for her. In a confessional, she also defended her actions, saying that she didn't see her involvement with the account as a "bad thing."

"I think that's just telling the truth," she said.

Will Monica come back next season?

Garcia took to Instagram live following the finale to confirm that she has not been asked back yet for next season. While it remains to be seen if Garcia will be back for another season, some of her cast mates have been vocal about not filming with her again. In an interview withVariety, Gay said that she didn't think she would ever appear alongside her on television again.

“I don’t think I ever will. Ever," she said. “It’s pretty definitive for myself. I can’t speak for my other cast members, but for me, it’s pretty clear.”

If Monica can't get booked for a second season as a housewife, might we suggest Traitors? Not only is it another Peacock show with an affinity for casting housewives, but her cast mates will have infinitely more admiration for her scheming ways.

How did Jen Shah release an Instagram statement from prison?

Of all the drama that unfolded online after the finale aired, no moment may have been as thrilling as Shah responding to Gay's allegation that she gave her the infamous black eye that dominated storylines in season 3. "Bravo, if I punched Heather in her eye, you guys would have the footage to prove it," she wrote in an Instagram story following the airing of the finale. "It's clear the show can't live without me since I was brought up at the beginning, middle, and end of season 4. Andy is still butt hurt that I turned down his 1:1 interview. Why would you sit down with someone who gave another cast member a black eye? Next story."

While Gay's revelation was shocking, many online were far more curious about how Shah was able to post on social media from prison. It's unclear how Shah got her message out, but here's hoping she composed the statement with her new friend Elizabeth Holmes.

What is Heather's relationship with Tenesha?

Now known as the all-important informant who confirmed Garcia’s role as “Reality Von Tease,” Tenesha was first introduced to the RHOSLC world through Gay, as her hairdresser who gave her extensions. In the finale, Tenesha is the person on the other end of the line who confirms to Gay that Monica was behind the gossip Instagram account, later sending her “screenshots, text messages, audio recordings, videos, photos, and DMs…volumes of evidence exposing Monica.”

After Garcia was confronted by Gay, she attempted to deflect the accusation by claiming that Tenesha had started the gossip account and that she was responsible for it. After the finale aired, Tenesha took to her Instagram story to defend herself, saying that Garcia “didn’t ‘partially’ run that account, she ran that account.”

In the footage, Tenesha admits that she was involved with “Reality Von Tease,” but that she later distanced herself from both the account and the people involved with it, including Garcia, who she likened to Shah.

“Monica, she hated Jen and now she is Jen 2.0.,” Tenesha said in her Instagram story. “She is a liar and a deceiver. Comfortable sitting there lying. That’s okay. I’ve got a receipt to back up everything I’ve ever dealt with for this woman. Ever.”

What happened at Meredith's store?

When Garcia’s deception was revealed in the finale, her cast mate Meredith Marks confronted her about another time she had been dishonest—lying about visiting Mark’s Park City store. Earlier in the season, while visiting Marks at her store, Garcia claimed that it was the first time that she had been there; however, a review of the store’s security footage proved otherwise. In S2, a major storyline centered around Marks alleging that someone in Shah’s circle had stolen a purse from her store during an after-hours visit by Shah and her entourage. In reviewing the footage from that visit, a then-blonde Garcia appears with the group.

Did Heather ever pay Monica back for the shopping trip in Bermuda?

Ahead of the big reveal, the women went on a shopping spree in Bermuda, where Garcia, Gay, and Angie Katsanevas visited a perfumery. When Gay and Katsanevas discovered they forgot their credit cards, Garcia offered to front the bill. Following the discovery of Garcia’s deception, however, some fans were doubtful that Garcia would get reimbursed—which, like Garcia’s confession, was “not entirely true.” In an Instagram live, Garcia shared that Gay had not paid her back, while Katsanevas had paid her back immediately.

Were Heather and Monica’s lawsuits with each other before or after this revelation?

In the finale, one of the situations that leads Gay to conclude that Garcia may not be who she presents herself as, is when she discovers that Garcia had unpaid bills at Gay’s med spa, Beauty Lab + Laser. Ahead of their trip to Bermuda, Gay visits Beauty Lab to get Garcia a gift card as a birthday present, but finds out that Garcia had three different accounts under different last names with unpaid balances. While filming wrapped in May of this year, Gay still had business to finish with Garcia. She filed a lawsuit against Garcia for the alleged non-payment in August; Garcia then sued Gay for alleged “botched” nose and lip injections.

Did they all fly home from Bermuda together?

On an Instagram live after the finale aired, Garcia shared that she was “kicked out at 2 a.m.” and booked on a separate flight to leave Bermuda.

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