RHOSLC, Season 2, Episode 10–Highway to Vail: Jen Shah’s Arrest

The women are at Beauty Lab, packed into the Sprinter van and ready to head to Vail. Jen has taken off, claiming there is a medical emergency.

Unfortunately for Jen, about five seconds after she leaves, the NYPD and FBI show up looking for her.

The women have absolutely no idea what to do.

Heather feels like she should call Jen and warn her. Lisa wants nothing to do with any of this and immediately gets on the phone with her lawyer, because apparently this is the point where you start consulting legal counsel.

Whitney calls her husband and says she doesn’t believe there was ever a family emergency. She thinks Jen got a tip that the authorities were coming and is now on the run.

Heather calls Jen, but Jen doesn’t answer. So Heather texts her to let her know that the cops are looking for her.

Nothing says “fun girls’ trip to Vail” quite like sitting in a Sprinter van while the FBI hunts for one of your friends.

The women are all freaking out and desperately trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Heather is understandably mortified that federal law enforcement has shown up at her business, which is not exactly the kind of Beauty Lab publicity she was hoping for.

They start wondering whether they should still go on the trip. Could they somehow be considered guilty by association for whatever Jen is in trouble for? Because nothing says “innocent bystander” like immediately wondering whether you might also be implicated.

Since Jen is clearly not coming back, the women eventually make the only reasonable decision: they eat her snacks and head to Vail.

As one does.

It’s barely 10 a.m. and there is already a lot going on in the SLC.

Meredith arrives at the Vail rental house ahead of the other ladies and takes a tour of the gorgeous place. It comes with champagne and an “experience coordinator,” which is exactly the kind of unnecessary luxury I want in my life.

By 11 a.m., the other women are still in the van and still talking about Jen. They are now afraid to even contact her because they don’t know if her texts are being tracked. They start wondering how the FBI knew where to find Jen and whether one of the women tipped them off.

Lisa gets on the phone with her husband and quietly says, “I think Meredith might know something.”

These women never remember that they are wearing microphones.

They start theorizing about why the NYPD was there in the first place. Since Jen’s business is headquartered in New York, they figure it must have something to do with that.

Whitney, meanwhile, seems to know an awful lot about what is going on.

Just saying.

The ladies all admit they have no idea what Jen actually does for a living, except for Whitney, who launches into an explanation of online marketing and lead generation.

Even Whitney doesn’t understand how that business is funding Jen’s lavish lifestyle. She says their friend is in a lot of trouble, and, well, she is very much correct.

It’s 11:35 a.m., and they still have five more hours in the car.

Yikes.

The women are now turning their attention to Lisa, who they all agree is behaving oddly and acting guilty.

At 12:05 p.m., the van has gone completely silent, and the women look exhausted. Lisa finally breaks the silence and asks whether they think Jen will actually show up for the trip.

Heather hopes she will. Whitney looks doubtful.

Then an article comes through on Whitney’s phone: Jen has been charged with fraud and money laundering.

The women are stunned. They are watching this unfold in real time, sitting in a Sprinter van on the way to Vail, and honestly, so am I.

This is Housewives gold.

They find out that Jen’s assistant has also been arrested, and Heather and Lisa are crying. Whitney, meanwhile, is sitting there smirking.

The women hug and wonder whether they should still go on the trip.

We know they will.

They start scrolling through the breaking news articles and learn that Jen is facing up to 30 years in prison. The women are understandably freaking out as more details come pouring in.

Then they learn that Jen and her assistant allegedly targeted elderly and vulnerable people.

Once again, Whitney seems to know an awful lot about all of this. She is explaining the details like she has been conducting her own investigation into Jen and her business for months.

It’s strange.

And she is still smirking.

Meanwhile, a little after 12 p.m., we cut to Park City, where squad cars and a helicopter converge on Jen’s house.

A full SWAT team moves in with guns drawn and takes everyone out of the house at gunpoint.

Seeing Jen’s young son, Omar, caught up in this is genuinely upsetting. Whatever anyone thinks of Jen, watching her child experience this is difficult.

The FBI and Homeland Security have warrants to raid the house, and the situation has suddenly become very, very real.

They continue on to Vail, because of course they do, and Lisa calls Meredith.

It’s now 2:36 p.m., and Meredith is waiting for the women to arrive. She hasn’t been checking the news or her texts, so the women fill her in on their extremely eventful morning.

Meredith says she isn’t surprised that Jen has been arrested.

The women are shocked by her reaction and immediately start wondering if she knows something.

Meredith says she had a lot of question marks surrounding Jen, and the arrest validates her suspicions.

Now the women think Meredith knows more than the rest of them because she is remarkably unfazed by the whole thing.

Later that afternoon, we see the press going after Jen as she is released on bail.

Meanwhile, the other women are still in the car.

I hate a long car ride, and Jen has somehow managed to flee, get arrested, get arraigned, and get released on bail while these broads are still chugging along the highway.

I feel for them.

Whitney is still playing Nancy Drew and acting like an expert on all things fraud. Lisa thinks she is making a lot of assumptions.

At this point, they have been in that van so long they could probably file for residency.

At 4:13 p.m., Mary arrives at the rental house in Vail. Meredith is in her favorite place: the tub.

She looks completely relaxed and happy.

And nude.

She does not seem remotely concerned or upset about the Jen situation. Mary has just heard what happened and is completely shocked, so they hash everything out while Meredith continues soaking like this is a perfectly normal afternoon.

Mary is speechless, which seldom happens.

She can’t believe she had no idea what Jen was involved in, while Meredith says she isn’t surprised by any of it.

At 4:56 p.m., Meredith finally stops playing Tony Montana and gets out of the tub.

That water must be cold as hell by now. I don’t get it.

Back in the van, we find out that Mary is mad at Whitney for ignoring her phone call. Jennie Tran says she finds Mary bossy and rude.

So their friend was just busted for fraud, and somehow that isn’t even going to be the biggest drama of this trip.

The women FINALLY arrive at the house and are ready to gossip with Meredith and Mary.

Holy shit. Meredith is back in the tub.

Or did she never get out?

She greets all of the women from the bath, because apparently this is just where she lives now.

They all choose their rooms, and by 6:11 p.m., Lisa is back on the phone with her husband while Mary is on the phone with hers.

They are both discussing Jen, of course.

The “experience coordinator” shows up to present their chef-made dinner, which looks great. These women have remarkably good appetites considering the day they’ve had.

At dinner, Meredith wants to know what everyone thinks about Jen’s arrest. It’s 8:41 p.m., and this is the moment we’ve been waiting for: all the women are finally together, ready to dish.

They all agree the whole thing has been surreal. Whitney says she heard Jen was arrested on the side of the road while fleeing. The women agree there has to be more to the story than what they currently know.

Mary says Jen is reaping what she sowed. She says she never saw anything good in Jen, which is certainly one way to describe a friendship.

Meredith then reveals that months earlier, she got a call from Jen, who was trying to get into Meredith’s store while it was closed. Later, Meredith’s manager called and told her that a green clutch was missing from the store. One of Jen’s assistants eventually returned the bag, but there’s more: Jen apparently did not fire the assistant who stole it, despite the theft being caught on video.

Meredith has also heard that Jen is red-flagged at Louis Vuitton for paying in cash.

It all sounds suspicious, but Meredith sure does have a LOT of information about Jen, which is also suspicious.

Heather tells a story about getting an Uber for Jen and discovering that Jen got out at a completely different destination than the one she had selected. It was around 11 p.m., and the women find the whole thing suspicious.

Lisa seems to know something too, and she implies that Jen may have met up with a man.

Naturally, the women immediately pressure Lisa to spill whatever she knows, pointing out that Jen has potentially put all of them in danger.

And with that, their first day in Vail comes to an end.

It’s been one hell of a ride.

Literally.