Vanderpump Rules Finale Recap: The One Where Everybody Finds Out (About Tom and Raquel's Affair)

You’ve heard about it for months, Vanderpump Rules fans, and now we get to see how the #Scandoval actually went down in real time.

Last week’s episode was supposed to serve as the Season 10 finale, but then Tom had to go and cheat on Ariana with Raquel, and so Bravo naturally fired up the cameras to capture all of the fallout. Wednesday’s season premiere opens with a flashback to March 1, when Raquel appeared on Watch What Happens Live and declared Sandoval the sexier Tom. (Foreshadowing!) That same night, Tom was performing and his phone fell out of his pocket, so Ariana held onto it for him. She looked at it and found an intimate FaceTime screen recording of Raquel, and “my stomach dropped into my f–king ass.” Tom protests that “I know what I did was really f–ked up,” but he and Ariana weren’t happy. What did Ariana learn? “There are evil, evil people in this world, and sometimes they’re the closest people to you.”

We jump ahead to March 3, the day the scandal broke, as Ariana cries on a friend’s shoulder and complains that Tom now “gives me the ick.” (She also swigs from a bottle of wine Tom bought on their first trip together.) Tom enters, and the two have it out, with him insisting he didn’t want to hurt her, but she’s inconsolable. She remembers when they first met over a decade ago: “I loved you then, when you had nothing.” Now he has money and his own bar, and Raquel is giving him the adulation he needs. He admits that “I was seeking something I wasn’t getting here.” Ariana explodes on him, telling him his friendship with Raquel “is bulls–t!” Tom defends Raquel (of course): “She treats me with respect, something I haven’t gotten from you in a long time,” adding that he felt like he “lost all my mojo.” (“Once I turned 40, I was like, ‘This can’t be the rest of my life.'”) She says they could have gone to therapy or just broken up: “Don’t be a f–king coward.” Tom is planning to see Raquel the next day, which just makes Ariana angrier. She unloads on him: “You’re worth nothing, and I want you to feel that deep in your soul… I regret ever loving you.” She tears up telling him how much in love with him she once was… but that’s over now.

Sandoval retreats to see Schwartz, sobbing and apologizing profusely to his BFF. (Hmmm, why can’t he apologize like this to Ariana?) Angry fans are now review-bombing their new bar Schwartz & Sandy’s, and Schwartz wonders why he didn’t tell Ariana earlier. Sandoval’s explanation: “I just got this vibe that she did not want to know.” Oh! OK! He reveals that he and Raquel kissed on that infamous night at The Abbey, and “I felt something… that I hadn’t felt in a long time.” He complains again about the lack of intimacy with Ariana, revealing that he could only find satisfaction when he would “unload to porn in the bathroom.” (Yeah, we probably didn’t need to know that, dude.) Meanwhile, Scheana and Katie visit Ariana, with those two even putting their grudge aside to console their friend. When Ariana confronted Raquel, she recalls, Raquel spilled that Tom had sex with Raquel in the car right after Ariana’s beloved dog died. Classy! Scheana admits that when she heard about Raquel, “I shoved her so f–king hard” — a decision that led to a restraining order. They get revenge on Tom, though, by breaking his cherished penis flute. He’s lucky that’s all they broke.

When James hears the news, he’s actually more mad at Sandoval than he is with his ex Raquel. He even tears up mourning their lost friendship. Lala and Katie drop by to dish, and Lala takes a victory lap after her suspicions about Tom and Raquel proved to be true. She’s not done yet, either. “I think that Tom has been hooking up with a lot of people,” she says, revealing that she heard rumors in the past about Tom hooking up with Billie Lee (!!). James calls Raquel, who claims she and Sandoval are not an item. (Huh?) James teases her and gets vicious, and Ally urges him to hang up — but he needed that, OK?

Tom Sandoval then visits Raquel (boo, hiss!), and they do a shot together to “being in hell, where we belong.” Tom remembers when he was encouraging Schwartz to hook up with Raquel, but Raquel stops him to correct him: “You just called me Ariana.” Oops! They talk about their families, and Tom says, “They love you,” and she mishears and says, “I love you, too.” Well, he loves her, too. They can’t kiss because “there’s cameras,” but they sure do look like an item. Raquel says in an interview she hooked up with Tom because she loved him as a friend and she’s never had sex with someone she’s loved before. Well, congrats! She almost has a moment of clarity when she worries that she’s giving her heart to a guy who would betray someone he loved so much, but Tom reassures her: “I’d never do this if there wasn’t something here.” They chalk it all up to a “learning experience” — but a title card tells us that after this scene was filmed, Raquel “was not seen or heard from for weeks.”

Lisa gives Ariana a shoulder to cry on, and Ariana reveals Schwartz texted her to apologize but said: “I don’t want to kick my guy when he’s down.” (Lisa: “He could use a good kicking.”) Lisa also comforts Ariana and assures her that there’s “something beautiful in her future.” Katie, meanwhile, grills Schwartz about what he knew and when he knew it. Schwartz stammers his way through excuses, as usual, but admits he knew about “the one-night stand,” which was in September, he says. Sandoval tried to break up with Ariana, he insists. He tried! Then he complains more about his reputation and his bar, and Katie just calls him Sandoval’s “bitch boy.” Schwartz laments: “I’m just a dude trying to get by in life.” Woe is you, dude.

Who should walk back into this mess? Kristen Doute! Yes, she smelled chaos and came running. She’s pals with Ariana now, weirdly, even though Tom cheated on Kristen with Ariana. (Time heals all wounds, we guess!) She brings some healing crystals, and they have a ritual burning to cleanse the air. Tom goes to see Lisa with his tail between his legs, where he claims he was going to tell Ariana before the reunion. Well, you didn’t get the chance, didja? He sobs violently as he hopes he gets a chance to talk to Ariana again. Lisa also hopes they can find some form of peace: “At some point, maybe, the pain will ease.” That night, all the girls go out for a drink together (minus Raquel, duh), with Ariana wearing a shimmery revenge dress. Hell yeah! Scheana tells them all about Raquel’s restraining order — and then Schwartz drops by to spoil the party. He pulls Ariana aside and complains again about his bar tanking, and she points out that Sandoval betrayed him, too. She notes that if Schwartz insists on continuing to be friends with Sandoval, “I’m not your friend anymore.”

Sandoval’s apology tour continues with Scheana, who recalls that they’ve been friends since 2009. (The olden days!) He says when he hit 40, he had a “spiritual awakening,” and he again claims he was going to break up with Ariana. But ya didn’t! Did he ever cheat on Ariana before, Scheana asks? “There was one other time,” he confesses, and it wasn’t some random person — but he won’t get into details. He says he and Ariana haven’t been good for four or five years, but when he tried to end things with her, “emotionally, it was like climbing Mount Everest.” Well, you gave up well short of the summit, my dude.

Next week: the reunion! Well, the first part of a three-part reunion. You know how this works. (Get a sneak peek at the reunion right here.)

Got thoughts on this week’s #PumpRules finale? Predictions for the reunion? Grab a Pumptini and join us in the comments below.