Fans and viewers knew that Season 11 of RHONJ would include one giant fight.

It was no surprise that the season premiere kicked off with a bang.

But no one expected how deeply vicious things would get.

You don’t go after somebody’s kid. That’s something we can all agree on – we would think – and in the aftermath of last night, begs the question:

How can Teresa and Jackie come back from this?

Let’s start from the beginning: Jackie Goldschneider’s husband, Evan, had a birthday party, and Teresa Giudice was in attendance.

There, she asked Melissa Gorga, Dolores Catania, Margaret Josephs, and Jennifer Aydin if they’d heard a rumor.

According to Tre, she herself had heard a rumor that Evan “screws around” with other women when he goes tot he gym.

Naturally, word of this on-camera gossiping reached Jackie eventually. She asked Tre to talk.

The two of them met up at Margaret’s house, on the grounds that it was “neutral territory.”

There, Jackie ardently defended her husband, her marriage, and her family.

“Evan is the best guy in the world,” Jackie priased.

“My marriage is beautiful,” she affirmed.

“My family is beautiful.”

Jackie accused Tre: “This weekend, you took his name and what’s most important to him in the world — being a great husband and father — and you s–t all over it.”

“And,” Jackie continued, “you did it to all of our friends at his birthday party.”

“I don’t know if you made it up, or if someone really told you,” she admitted.

“But,” Jackie warned, “you need to admit that whoever told you this doesn’t know me and Evan.”

Jackie of course added that Teresa’s alleged informant “gave you no evidence of anything.”

“Like, you have to admit this was a lie,” she pressured Tre.

Jackie emphasized: “You have to do the right thing.”

“Listen, Jackie,” Teresa responded. “I don’t want you to be upset.”

“This is a rumor that I heard,” she added. (Notably, at least some of the cast fully believes that Tre really did hear it, though they don’t believe that it’s true)

“From who?” Jackie demanded, though of course she meant “from whom.”

Teresa replied that she “can’t say the person’s name.”

She did acknowledge that she had “no idea” whether or not this gossiper actually knows Jackie and Evan.

“Obviously they do,” Tre then added after some thought, “because they said it, but I didn’t get into details.”

“Woman to woman, if I heard this, you wouldn’t want me to tell you?” Teresa asked Jackie.

This is when Margaret joined the fray, noting that Evan’s birthday party was just not the proper venue.

“Sorry,” Teresa apologized. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said it at the party, but I was drinking.”

Bringing the heat, Jackie told Teresa: “I need you to admit, whoever told you this had no evidence.”

Jackie insisted that the person was lying “and was just saying words that you took and ran with.

“I never asked for evidence,” Teresa clarified. “I’m just letting you know somebody put this out there.”

“I need you to admit that this is a lie!” Jackie declared with a scream.

“Clear my husband’s name!” she demanded, unaware that whatever argument she was making was not landing well.

Jackie continued furiously: “I need you to admit you were spreading a baseless rumor with absolutely no evidence.”

Teresa insisted that she “did not spread a rumor” but merely “heard a rumor.” (Anyone watching knows it was one and the same.)

This is when Jackie lost her moral high ground and fabricated a baseless rumor on the spot about Teresa’s 20-year-old daughter, Gia.

“Okay well you know what? I heard that Gia snorts coke in the bathroom at parties,” Jackie threatened Tre nastily.

Mocking Teresa, Jackie continued: “I’ve heard it. I don’t know where I heard it, but I heard it from somebody.”

“But it’s the same thing!” she insisted insincerely. “How is that not the same thing.”

“Now you’re a f–king c–t,” Teresa replied angrily.

“Go f–k yourself.”

“I’m living the life that you want to live. I win!” Jackie announced.

“F–k her. She’s a c–t. She brought up my daughter, she’s a f–king c–t. She’s disgusting, ” Teresa ranted to Margaret before leaving.

While that was disgusting, many of the Housewives felt similarly about Teresa “repeating” a rumor, which she clearly did.

Melissa wished that it could be erased. It won’t be that easy. We all saw what we saw, and the damage was done.

On Watch What Happens Live after the show, Andy Cohen remarked that he’d never seen Teresa so messy.

Given who we’re talking about, that’s a bold claim.

Jackie went on to share how hurt she felt, confessing that telling Evan about the rumor “was one of the worst days of my entire life.”

She lamented that she felt “sick to her stomach.”

What hurt most of all, in the end, was that it came from a friend of hers whom she had invited to her husband’s birthday party.

Yeah, that would sting.

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