Jax & Brittany’s Relationship Took A Shocking But Necessary Turn On ‘Vanderpump’

Spoilers for the April 16 episode. Well, Vanderpump Rules fans — that shoe, the one that we’ve been waiting to drop all season? It’s finally happened. Jax and Brittany split. The Vanderpump Rules development isn't much of a surprise, considering that the season started with revelations that Jax cheated on Brittany with former SURver Faith. What is surprising, though, is that Jax was the one to pull the plug on the whole thing. Yes, Jax broke up with Brittany. I understand if you’re in a state of shock.

Jax has been trying to fix whatever he thinks is broken inside him for, oh, about three whole weeks now, and he’s not happy with himself. This is the correct way to feel, by the way — Jax tells Brittany that he’s caused so much trouble over the course of one summer (really, over the course of… his whole life) that he has to figure out why he does the things he does. To do that, he can’t be with Brittany. He can’t be in a relationship, and so, he tells Brittany as much. She’s stuck by her man, much to the chagrin of… everyone she’s ever met in her entire life, so Brittany isn’t happy. She’s furious, and she’s right. “How could you do this to me,” she wails at him before slamming the door of their shared apartment. Then, she sets off in an Uber to go… well, we don’t know where.

The most stunning part of it all is not that every fan assumed that Brittany would have been the one to pull the ripcord and eject herself from the relationship, but that Jax apparently had no idea that this breakup would not go over well. He keeps saying, “This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen,” as if his intentions of not breaking this woman’s heart would keep her heart from being broken. First, Jax wants to know why Brittany thinks this is all about her, and then he dumps her, and then he wonders why she’s sad. (Probably because she’s been through the wringer over the past few months and then you leave her on the street?) Jax’s lack of self-awareness has always been astounding. Many viewers probably hoped that Brittany would have come to this conclusion herself, but perhaps this way is the only way to truly effect change in her life.

But Brittany isn’t the only Vanderpump Rules star with a questionable manfriend. Stassi and Patrick have had a tumultuous relationship since its inception, and she speaks on the April 16 episode of how Patrick is a mansplainer and how he talks down to her (then, we see it in action). Ariana is waiting for Tom Sandoval, her beau, to talk shop about her cocktail book, but he’s too busy building Tom Tom to care (even though he cried and complained to be a part of it when it was first announced a few seasons ago). As Lisa says, why do these strong, beautiful, capable women surround themselves with men who don’t live up to their standards? It could be the benefit of time, confidence, and a bank account like Lisa’s, but as Lisa has said to each of these women that they do not need this nonsense. They should all listen to Lisa.

Though Jax’s “make myself feel better breakup” is a close second, the most interesting conversation of the night is between Stassi and Brittany, speaking frankly about how they’re worried about wasting “the best years of their lives” with men who don’t appreciate them. As a longtime viewer, I’m not sure if this conversation would have happened in this manner in Seasons 1 or 2 of Vanderpump Rules — Season 6 has been on a steady arc, as has the rest of popular culture, of women coming into their own and ridding themselves of the things they don’t need in their lives. The women of Vanderpump Rules have stood up repeatedly for themselves, for Brittany, for women in general this season. Each woman on the show is standing on the precipice of the unknown — Stassi and Brittany in their relationships, Lala and Ariana in their careers, Katie with finally being comfortable in her own skin — and to backtrack, to fall into old ways and bad relationships, would mean the end of the slow progress gained all season.