'RHOC' Goes to Bali with an Extra Housewife

Vacations are an important part of every Real Housewives franchise. For a few days, the ladies switch from body con to maxi dresses, tell their hairstylists to give them beachy waves, and use it as an excuse to go completely insane at the local bars. This year of Real Housewives of Orange County is already heating up in preparation for a big reunion fight, but has saved its trip to Bali for the tail end of the season, so presumably it goes out with a big impact.

From the glimpses the ladies posted back in February when they took the trip, they flew first class all the way to Bali and Hong Kong, stayed in beautiful resorts, and did plenty of drinking: the perfect recipe for a Housewives vacation, and none of it shocking. Show me a tasteful, neutral-colored deck chair with a bottle of rosé chilling next to it, and my first thought would be "oh, which franchise of Real Housewives are staying in this four-star hotel/camping tent right now?"

The real surprise is that there was a sixth cast member, Danielle Gregorio, who came along for the trip. Danielle was cast alongside friends Lizzie Rovsek and Heather Dubrow as a full-time housewife, but was almost completely cut from the season, even though her friendship with Tamra disintegrated in front of the cameras. But despite the potential for yet another Tamra fight and a juicy freshman storyline, Danielle didn't make the final cut. It's too bad; she would have added one more brunette in a sea of blondes (she's on the right, obviously).

Danielle's not in the opening credits and barely even even shows up to the parties. Bravo credits her as a "friend of," but it's just a formality to get us used to the idea of her suddenly popping up on this vacation out of nowhere. Weirdly enough, she seems to think she's an actual Housewife. She posts Tweets with the rest of the cast tagged as her "girls," and her Twitter bio credits her as a Real Housewife of Orange County.

It should be easy to feel bad for Danielle — she clearly really, really wanted to be on this show, and might not have realized yet that she isn't actually one of the cast members. But every time she has gotten camera time, it's by doing something really rude, like asking Shannon if she has a drinking problem. So she was sliced right out of the show, just like fame-seekers past.

Even after a season of her deceit, we still have reason to thank Tamra. She always manages to do this. There's a reason that she's thrown down for so many years. As a practiced liar, Tamra can tell when someone is playing to the camera crew and plays them right back, but twice as big and twice as smart. As she says, it's her job!

We don't get to see much of the trip yet, since none of the ladies spoiled the Hong Kong or Bali views, but since it sounds like most of the trip will be taken up with fighting, hopefully their surroundings aren't too isolated. Vicki needs to be within a five mile radius of a bar with tables you can dance on or she'll get antsy.

Images: heatherdubrow, tamrajudge, shannonbeador/Instagram