When did it start? How brazen were their PDAs? Did they really think they could get away with it?
These were the questions on the minds of Vanderpump Rules fans when they first learned of the affair between Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss.
And now, after weeks of hearsay and speculation, we’re finally getting an objective account of the scandal through the eyes of a Bravo camera crew.
Yes, last night’s episode of VPR offered the series’ first hints at the emergence of the Scandoval.
The episode was filmed back in late August, a time when Raquel had recently hooked up with Tom Schwartz, and no one on the cast suspected that she would soon wrap her long limbs around Tom Sandoval.
No one, that is, except for James Kennedy’s girlfriend Ally Lewber, who spied Leviss and Raquel on the dance floor late at night and had the good sense to suspect that something might be up.
“I saw Sandoval and Raquel dancing together at The Abbey,” she recalled in a confessional.
“I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with it, I guess, to have my boyfriend out at 1 a.m. with girls. But everyone’s different,” Lewber continued.
“I thought it was kind of weird,” Ally told James, adding, “It was like 1 a.m. and we were like, ‘Where is Ariana?'”
Folks, this is the reality TV equivalent of the moment in history when someone said, Hey, what are those guys snooping around the Watergate Hotel so late at night?
James was dismissive, figuring — as everyone did in those days — that Leviss had her eye on Schwartz.
“I’ve noticed how much Raquel’s been hanging out with the Toms, both of them,” he said, adding, “I wouldn’t put too much to it.”
Adding to the smokescreen was the fact that Raquel was about to go on her first real date with Oliver Beauvais.
That turned into a mini-scandal of its own, as Oliver was accused of lying to Raquel when he claimed that he was separated from his wife.
But it’s a tough reason for any other Vanderpump subplot (sorry, Scheana’s wedding!) because viewers really only care about the Scandoval.
Fortunately, this thing is so big that just about every cast member is involved in one way or another.
Later in the episode, Raquel took a seat between Tom and Tom during her shift at SUR.
“Why do you like it so much?” Lisa Vanderpump asked Sandoval. “You’ve got a smile on your face.”
Little did she know!
The episode ended on a foreshadowing note, as things got tense in a conversation between Sandoval and Katie Maloney.
“You get a lot of joy out of Raquel as well,” Katie said to Sandoval at Lala’ birthday party. “You go to The Abbey together at one o’clock in the morning.”
“Dude, what the f—k are you even saying? Get the f—k out of here, man,” Tom shot back.
Folks, those are the words of a man who knows he’s been busted big time.
Tom Sandoval & Raquel Leviss: We Now Know the Exact Moment That Their Affair Was … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.