Today starts with Deborah packing again. Josie calls Rhonda to report this. Deborah has decided that she is not there to be confronted, so she’s going home. Rhonda is shown as though at home, with her robe on, hair up and, glasses on. It’s an early morning drama scene to the max. Everyone’s anxiety level at orange. Josie pays off the cab and gets him to leave. Deborah is mad at Rhonda, among others. She did not want a life coach teaching her patience. She wanted to lose weight, not be told to be quiet and treated with such indifference. It’s a meltdown and an eruption. If Rhonda’s not there by 9 AM, she’s calling another cab. Kim and Towanda sit with her on the porch and try to get her to wait.

Rhonda arrives with her hair up, wearing glasses and some really tight jeans. Deborah is so confused and confounded she doesn’t know why she’s there. They sit and talk about roles that have been portrayed and she feels that she got the bitch role. Deborah agrees to stay, but some housemates wonder if this is just another ploy for attention…and whoooaaaa!!! Deborah goes for a short drive and the next scene is the interior of the van and captions of Deborah’s phone conversation that reveal that Deborah is pregnant after “celebrating getting on the show, drinking some champagne, and the condom broke” and is trying to arrange for 2 days in San Diego to ”take care of this!”

Next scene is everyone out front along with the fire department and the housemate’s remarks about the fire and what may or may not have happened. It turns out it was an outdoor fire started by a homeless person down the hill from the house. Lots of drama for little reason.

Next are Deborah and Kim in the kitchen discussing Deborah’s upcoming story that is going to be revealed today. Deborah insists she isn’t there for anyone to get to know her; she is there to lose weight. Kim reacts that she is hurt by Deborah’s attitude after she defended her.

Iyanla meets with Towanda and discusses the hurts in her life. Towanda has lots of painful secrets in her life, including that she knew about her father’s affair long before anyone else did. Iyanla tells us that all this is about to change for Towanda. They discuss the roots of family secrecy and suppression of feelings. They discuss forgiveness and what it means to the forgiver and the forgiven.

Finally, it’s meeting time and it’s Deborah’s turn. Rhonda goes to the plasma for family photos and memories. They show her husband, the love of her life, Cardinal. A drunk driver killed him. She describes her life with him and his death. She was married for 3 years and had a really nice life. Her story is really sad and moves everyone to (what else) tears, tears, and tears. Deborah’s story is about so much more than losing some weight, yet we knew none of these things. Next is her brother, who comforted her after her husband died. Her brother died three years ago. She has lost the three most important men in her life, her husband, her father, and her brother.

Rhonda tells us that weight gain is just a symptom of Deborah’s problem. Deborah meets with a trainer to help her lose weight. She is once again a bit defiant about how much she is going change her diet in order to conform.

Towanda calls her husband and goes over her steps. She discusses forgiving her father and her husband seems as unsure of the process as her.

A later group meeting finds Deborah missing. She barely arrives in time. Everyone is suspicious of her missing time. She’s actually carrying on an affair mid-show and claiming that she has been celibate. I’m not sure who is more confused, Deborah or I. Is she only there to be on TV? She seems to think she can scam by all the psychology stuff and do her thing with losing a little weight and getting some airtime. There’s a storm brewing. Think Ivan or Frances.

Finally, we meet their version of a Man on Starting Over, Dr. Stan Katz. The housemates aren’t sure if they are going to like having a man in the house. He makes a big issue of it, and says in fact that most of the women have had negative experiences with men. Everyone has a different story, but in most of the cases, it involves something bad related to their relationship with their fathers.

Lastly, we see Deborah committing child abuse. I can’t think of anything else to call it. She forces her daughter to make a mysterious deceptive phone call for her. The way she talks to her daughter is abusive harassment, plain and simple. She uses guilt and threats in a manner most people would not use for their worst enemy. What is Deborah’s secret life? It appears as though she decided to portray a reality on Starting Over that might be totally unrelated to her real life. Previews look like it’s going to get much darker before the dawn in Deborah’s world. This is one strange group this time.